Empire's Scores

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For 6,818 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 54% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 43% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.9 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 Oppenheimer
Lowest review score: 20 Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,006 out of 6818
  2. Mixed: 3,654 out of 6818
  3. Negative: 158 out of 6818
6818 movie reviews
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  1. Eden
    There’s trouble in this paradise: bleak without much of a point to make and bloody without any particular reason, this is an odd attempt at satire that takes a fascinating slice of real-life stranger-than-fiction history and somehow makes it less interesting.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shelby Oaks
    A promising debut that stumbles in its final act, but its pseudo-documentary and found-footage sequences make Shelby Oaks a suitably creepy calling card.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Relay
    With Ahmed and James’ connection holding it together, this is a tight, tense throwback to the paranoid thrillers of yesteryear that just about sticks the landing.
  4. Bugonia
    Riveting, unhinged, and sardonic to its honey-soaked core, this is another Lanthimos-Stone winner. (With a great opening-title typeface, to boot.)
  5. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
    A genuine disappointment from an intriguing, potentially even subversive premise. It’s another commanding performance to add to Monroe’s oeuvre, but this Cradle is more frustrating and forgettable than it is thrilling.
  6. Regretting You
    Solid performances can’t keep this from being a tonally erratic disappointment. Here’s hoping the next Hoover adaptation is a little less regrettable.
  7. The Mastermind
    A crime thriller with no interest in thrills and not much in crime, this is an at times frustrating character study of a guy who can’t get out of his own way.
  8. Hedda
    Tessa Thompson has never been better as the titular not-so-desperate housewife in Nia DaCosta’s bold, stylish reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s timeless play.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
    Driven by a boss Jeremy Allen White performance, Scott Cooper’s Bruce Springsteen biopic — just like its subject — finds its true voice once it stops trying to play the hits.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ebony & Ivory
    Certainly not your standard music flick, Ebony & Ivory is challenging, abrasive and utterly, utterly odd. But if you’re on Jim Hosking’s weirdo wavelength, it’s a demented delight.
  11. Plainclothes
    Carmen Emmi compellingly mines thriller tropes to capture the fraught experience of suppressed sexuality, but it's Lucas and Andrew’s heart-rending, beautifully performed love story that endures.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ballad of a Small Player
    Though Farrell does great work and the film is a visual feast, Ballad Of A Small Player is an impenetrable story of redemption that’s both too obvious and too baffling.
  13. Black Phone 2
    It’s not as scary or as effective as the first film, but points for the performances, and for trying hard to do something different and fresh.
  14. Good Fortune
    An anti-capitalist fable that lets down its star power with an underdeveloped script. All of Good Fortune’s good intentions don’t make up for it being such a mediocre time at the movies.
  15. Anemone
    A powerful story about father and sons, told by a father and son. At once a showcase for a monumental talent, and the arrival of an exciting new one.
  16. After the Hunt
    A decidedly grown-up thriller that will surely be torn to pieces by teens on TikTok, this feels like a slight wobble for Guadagnino, but is still a sharply entertaining and intense watch.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Frankenstein
    Lightning, camera, action… Frankenstein is brought to life in glorious, Gothic fashion by Guillermo del Toro’s painstaking artistry and Mike Hill’s elegant creature design. A big film with a huge beating heart.
  18. Good Boy
    A highly effective indie horror that overcomes the familiarity of its scares with the brilliantly executed novelty of its canine conceit.
  19. TRON: Ares
    It has about as much depth as a floppy disk, but some lovely, shiny CGI and a stunningly ear-shattering score from Nine Inch Nails makes for a fun if forgettable bit of futuristic fluff. Bio-digital jazz, man!
  20. Play Dirty
    Not quite vintage Black, and Mark Wahlberg is no Robert Downey Jr, but this is fast and funny enough to be worth a couple of your hours. Squint hard enough and it almost feels like you’re back in the ’90s.
  21. A House of Dynamite
    Kathryn Bigelow is back with a bang. This is a bleak but adrenaline-pumping experience that’ll leave you shaken, and searching for the nearest bunker.
  22. The Smashing Machine
    As a newly solo director, Safdie summons a thoughtful and moving mood for this unconventional sports film; as a newly serious dramatic actor, Johnson is about to win some awards.
  23. Urchin
    In tackling homelessness with deep empathy, one of our most exciting young actors proves himself to be a bold new voice in British filmmaking. Leave some talent for the rest of us, Dickinson.
  24. All of You
    All Of You might only work for some of you, but the easy, insatiable fire between Goldstein and Poots is undeniable. 
    • 28 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Strangers: Chapter 2
    At once explaining too much and not enough, this middle segment of the trilogy fails to amp up the stranger danger. Perhaps the scariest thing is the end title: To be continued…
  26. Him
    A trippy mix of horror, thriller and sports movie, Him is a very wild ride. A launching pad for its director and lead, and a shining moment for Wayans.
  27. Roofman
    Derek Cianfrance delivers a hugely empathetic, very entertaining depiction of an extraordinary life, featuring one of Channing Tatum’s best performances. Expect laughs, tears, and noughties nostalgia.
  28. The Lost Bus
    The fire scenes are terrifying and may well sear themselves into your brain, but however well-intentioned, the human element is less involving than the disaster they must endure.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Steve
    Making full use of Cillian Murphy’s emotional range, Steve is a rallying, railing portrayal of a broken education system — and contemporary cinema’s worthy answer to Dead Poets Society.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Man in My Basement
    Though The Man In My Basement juggles a few too many ideas, Nadia Latif has crafted an unnerving thriller with dynamite performances from leads Willem Dafoe and Corey Hawkins. 
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