Empire's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
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:
6818 movie reviews
  1. While it won’t be remembered as one of the great Christmas films, Last Christmas delivers enough moments of heart and humour to keep the festive spirit alive.
  2. An enjoyable if routine period crime picture with good performances from Jason Sudeikis and Lee Pace, but it lacks a personality and style of its own.
  3. While it’s a shame that Luce loses sight of the very topics that it brings up in service of cheap thrills, it’s a fascinating, entertaining puzzle all the same.
  4. Herzog and Singer have assembled a riveting and moving portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet president and arguably the greatest living politician, guided by Herzog's mellifluous voice and gently probing interview style.
  5. The title might sound like something from Marvel Phase Six, but The Aeronauts is an exhilarating period flight of fancy, occasionally weighed down by backstory, but buoyed by Redmayne and especially Jones.
  6. Working off source material that is very different from its predecessor, anyone expecting a straightforward Shining sequel will be disappointed. This isn’t a gruelling exercise in pure horror. It’s odder and more contemplative, but worth checking in.
  7. Less Tales Of The Unexpected, more Tales Of The Unconvincing, this uneven comedy horror fails to handle its ambitious structure, or deliver on its promising premise.
  8. Though its themes are overly familiar, this is a fun and charming introduction for newbies to the Addams Family. Once again, it’s cool to be weird.
  9. An uneven but essentially likeable story about the joys of setting yourself improbable goals and the tribes you can find as a result, with a strong, committed performance from Bell at its heart.
  10. Though relentless at times, this is a crucial, empathetic rally cry of a film that holds a mirror up to the swelling crisis of the gig economy with admirable intention.
  11. The topical nightmare has potential to get under your skin, but relies too much on familiar jump scares and easy violence to achieve anything long-lasting or truly groundbreaking.
  12. Though the central performance is impressively raw Farming’s uncompromising bleakness drowns out the fascinating story, making it a far tougher watch than it needs to be.
  13. Easily the third-best Terminator film, which is more of a compliment than it sounds. It’s great to have Hamilton back in this role, but she’s ably matched by Reyes and Davis.
  14. If it’s a hard film to like, Monos is ridiculously impressive filmmaking, savage and surreal, immediate but timeless. If Hollywood wanted to do a darker, grittier take on The Goonies, Landes is their man.
  15. Half mood-piece, half character study, The Last Black Man In San Francisco is a deeply moving lament on the effect of gentrification on the people on the Bay Area’s margins.
  16. Not even the considerable talents of the ever watchable Naomie Harris can elevate Black And Blue above the broad and generic. The result is sadly aggressively formulaic.
  17. By The Grace Of God lives in the present, a fast-paced, exciting, beautifully played film that matches Spotlight as a searing portrait of modern heroes who stood up.
  18. Western Stars is not only a concert film presenting 13 Springsteen bangers, plus one great cover. Showcasing his charisma, wit, thoughtfulness and vulnerability, it emerges as a telling portrait of one of music’s modern greats.
  19. It’s often enjoyable, occasionally very funny, and has an energy and verve sorely lacking from Fleischer’s last few films. So, while it’s simply, plainly, not as good as the first movie, Zombieland is no longer the odd one out on Fleischer’s CV.
  20. All modern life is here — the good, the bad, the insufferable — and it’s glorious. Non-Fiction is Olivier Assayas in a lighter register and he wears it well.
  21. An improvement on the first film, in the end, and an encouraging rallying cry against fear and intolerance, but it’s still far too busy and baroque to match its leading lady’s elegance.
  22. This is LaBeouf at his best, stripped down to his bare elements and bookended by two luminous performances from Gottsagen and Johnson. A lightly flawed script may lack Huckleberry Finn epicness, but warms the heart with its parental tenderness.
  23. Official Secrets is a timely, ambitious if broad take on a complex subject, but remains engaging and entertaining. anchored by Keira Knightley on great form.
  24. Of course, Scorsese delivers a stunning, gangster flick but The Irishman is so much more, a melancholy eulogy for growing old and losing your humanity. Savour every one of its 209 minutes, you won’t regret it.
  25. Starting the moment Breaking Bad ended, this is very much a ‘what happened next’ double-episode. Which means, short of resurrecting Walter White, El Camino does precisely what you want it do.
  26. It comes on like an Unsolved Disappearance Movie but American Woman morphs into something more interesting, a portrait of a woman gradually finding her place in the world. And Sienna Miller is stellar.
  27. A hilarious, unexpectedly heartbreaking farce that proves that Chris Morris is still a hugely important voice in telling the stories that we find hardest to hear.
  28. It gives you two Will Smiths for the price of one, but you still might feel ripped off by its clunky dialogue, thin characters and underwhelming action. Encourage your younger clone to avoid it.
  29. If you like E.T. and Bumblebee, chance are you’ll have a good time with this slightly homogenous but sweet-natured kids’ adventure.
  30. Despite strong performances and a witty script, Sometimes Always Never lays on the homage a little too thick for its own good, shortchanging itself by imitating a particularly idiosyncratic style.

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