Entertainment Weekly's Scores

For 7,797 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 68% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 30% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.2 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 13th
Lowest review score: 0 Wide Awake
Score distribution:
7797 movie reviews
  1. It's a testament to Neeson's startling charisma as an action star that for all its storytelling flaws, large swaths of Taken 3 remain wildly entertaining.
  2. Director Liv Ullmann's PBS-pretty adaptation of the 1888 August Strindberg play lacks brio but is compelling thanks to its three tough performers.
  3. Like Welles' butchered cut of "The Magnificent Ambersons," it's fascinating but leaves you hungry for more.
  4. As in the Coen brothers' great "A Serious Man," the Book of Job looms large here — which is likely how director Andrey Zvyagintsev secured support from his country's censorship-happy Ministry of Culture.
  5. Writer-director Angus MacLachlan also penned the acclaimed 2005 indie "Junebug," and he aims for the same kind of gentle absurdity here.
  6. With her wide, sad eyes and quiet air of embarrassment tinged with pride, Cotillard's Sandra is asking a question not only of her colleagues but of the audience, too: Are we willing to put aside our own self-interest for the sake of empathy? Are we cowardly or brave? Cotillard's exquisite performance makes you feel every ounce of the weight of that dilemma.
  7. J.M.W. Turner was a master of light and image, but what stands out most about him in Mike Leigh's captivating biographical film is a sound. Playing the renowned Victorian-era English painter, Timothy Spall grunts and expectorates his way through his scenes, chugging along with the phlegmy belch of an old jalopy or, as the film suggests more than once, a snuffling pig.
  8. A Most Violent Year isn't an explosive film. It builds slowly, simmering toward an inevitable day of reckoning. It's the kind of uncompromising movie we don't see much of anymore. And it makes you nostalgic for a time when the world was worse and the movies were better.
  9. Any tension created during its key moments completely evaporates once the lights come back on. The Woman may be back for another fright, but Angel of Death doesn't haunt like it should.
  10. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb has one thing going for it that even many of this season's prestige films don't: It's kind of fun, unembarrassingly, and not least of all because the people who made it look like they had a good time doing so.
  11. Clint Eastwood's American Sniper is a film that evokes complicated emotions. A month after seeing it, you might still be wrestling with whether it's powerful, profound, or propaganda.
  12. The one bit of good news is that the first Gambler is currently streaming on Netflix. Do yourself a favor and watch that one instead.
  13. Despite its sharp feminist sting, Big Eyes never loses its light touch. Maybe the lesson here is that Burton should venture out of his dark, creepy comfort zone more often.
  14. It's a pity that the film is bereft of satiric zing, bludgeoning the laughs with a nonstop sledgehammer of bro humor.
  15. The first two-thirds of the film, which are like the Brothers Grimm's Greatest Hits on laughing gas, have a fizzy, fairy-dust energy. But as soon as the baker couple's scavenger hunt is over and a rampaging giant appears, Woods loses its magic and momentum and sags like an airless balloon.
  16. DuVernay has done a great service with Selma. Not only has she made one of the most powerful films of the year, she's given us a necessary reminder of what King did for this country...and how much is left to be done.
  17. It's moving, admirable, and occasionally exhilarating. What it's missing is the one thing that could always be counted on with Jolie as a star: the spark of danger.
  18. Like everything else in Jackson's Tolkienland, the buildup to the climactic melee stretches on too long. But when it comes, it's a doozy.
  19. Aside from an unintentional homage to "Zoolander" that is so tone-deaf it'll make you guffaw, Annie goes out of its way to make viewing it a hard-knock life...for us.
  20. Anderson's film is something to be experienced, like a psychedelic drug trip where the journey trumps the destination. Unfortunately, his journey just didn't do it for me.
  21. Is it possible to sit through a movie, mentally cataloging its absurdities, and still walk out dazzled? Because that pretty much sums up my experience watching Ridley Scott's eye-candy spectacle Exodus: Gods and Kings, an over-the-top Old Testament epic that's essentially Gladiator with God.
  22. As brilliantly funny as Chris Rock is, he's never been able to replicate the high-voltage danger and electricity of his stand-up act on the big screen. But in his latest film, the sharply satirical Top Five, he not only makes a case for why he should be a bona fide movie star, he also proves he's a writer-director to be reckoned with.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Vallée has taken a contemplative book where, frankly, very little happens and transformed it into a gut-punching drama.
  23. If you're looking for cheap scares and have 90 minutes to kill, you could do worse than The Pyramid. But not a lot worse.
  24. The fairy-tale tableau lifts from Hans Christian Andersen but is shot through with bits of burlesque sci-fi, including a giant robot with an orchestra in its chest.
  25. Directors Zeke and Simon Hawkins add air-quote references to Jim Thompson, Steven Soderbergh, and the Coen brothers but are too proud of the movie's twists to make them truly snap. Call it "Blood Simple-ton."
  26. The setup has mysterious promise, but the film cheaps out on a satisfying payoff.
  27. In an age when horror movies have mostly become lazy and toothless, here's one with ambition and bite.
  28. The film is anchored by yet another hypnotically complex Cumberbatch performance. He's turning greatness into a habit.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Aims primarily for the kiddies, racing from one frenetic action sequence to another like some haywire Walter Lantz cartoon.

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