McClatchy-Tribune News Service's Scores

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For 601 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 61% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 37% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 56 Up
Lowest review score: 25 Blended
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 363 out of 601
  2. Mixed: 133 out of 601
  3. Negative: 105 out of 601
601 movie reviews
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  1. Identity Thief
    While the filmmakers might have shot for "Midnight Run," but settled for "Due Date," they wound up only achieving "Guilt Trip." Identity Thief is sputtering long before that mid-movie moment when it turns all sentimental and goes off the rails.
  2. Radio Free Albemuth
    Just stumbles on and on, introducing new theories and facts and then explaining, explaining explaining them, right up to the closing credits.
  3. The Expendables 3
    Antonio Banderas pretty much steals The Expendables 3. But at this stage in that winded franchise, that amounts to petty theft.
  4. The Last Exorcism Part II
    Part II is every bit as cheap and far more generic, nothing more than a run of the mill ghost story masquerading as The Devil Made Her Do It.
  5. Lullaby
    This terminal illness tale rises above the form, mainly thanks to a stellar cast and a refusal to drift into maudlin, a film that saves its big emotions for a wrenching finale that it earns.
  6. Escape from Planet Earth
    Unlike say, “Doogal” or “Hoodwinked 2,” at least you won’t want to gouge your eyes out after this one.
  7. Diana
    Watts masters Diana’s look — the way she carried her head and used those wide, coyly expressive eyes — but is only passable at impersonating the voice.
  8. A Long Way Down
    "Way Down” veers towards cute and settles on “twee” far more often than it should.
  9. Twice Born
    Twice Born fails to tug at the heartstrings or wring tears from us. Hirsch plays exuberant and callow well, Cruz is tragic and earthy as ever. But the two of them never really click — sex scenes included.
  10. A Farewell to Fools
    It’s good to see Depardieu in an English-speaking role again, but he can only carry A Farewell to Fools so far by himself, especially when he never commits to “simple” heart and soul.
  11. Take Care
    Take Care manages, more often than not, to rise to the level of pleasant time killer, a rom-com with just enough surprises to justify getting those New York filming permits.
  12. The Longest Week
    The considerable charms of Jason Bateman and Olivia Wilde get a considered workout in the lightly charming New York romance The Longest Week. It’s a droll comedy, with a droll narration.
  13. The Smurfs 2
    Filled with Smurf wholesomeness, Smurf puns and posi-Smurf messages about never giving up “on family,” The Smurfs 2 still sucks Smurfberries.
  14. The Wait
    The payoff isn’t nearly as interesting as the cryptic set-up and disquieting performances and scenes that precede it in The Wait.
  15. The Possession of Michael King
    As “found footage” horror movies go, The Possession of Michael King is more unpleasant than scary.
  16. Devil's Due
    The dialogue is dull, the performances perfunctory and while it is novel to leave out “the explainer” character — that slim hope that a priest, an expert on the Occult or whoever, can give the characters answers — common to this genre, leaving that character out robs the film of pathos and urgency.
  17. 21 and Over
    The bottom-line on this bottom-baring/bottom-branding farce is “Is it funny, on top of all the shocks?” And yes, it is. On a number of few occasions, all of them involving Jeff Chang.
  18. Safe Haven
    Hallestrom and his screenwriters may be stuck with Sparks’ formula, but they take advantage of the geography, the leads and a couple of homespun supporting players – Robin Mullens is a wonderfully folksy owner of the seaside seafood shack.
  19. The Hero of Color City
    Color City is thin gruel, even by recent, weaker Pixar standards.
  20. Annie
    Even with all this sparkle, the film staggers through its third act. By then, the script has rubbed the rough edges off the villains and made whatever point it was going to make several times over.
  21. After Earth
    An undemanding, childish adventure picture.
  22. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
    If you love exposition and shapely if bland young actors in leather, skinny jeans, knee boots, Goth cocktail dresses and heavy eye makeup, this may be the movie for you.
  23. Transformers: Age Of Extinction
    Age of Extinction runs on and on, popcorn piffle without end.
  24. Paranoia
    It is as slow, slick and superficial as the director of “21″ and “Killers” can make it.
  25. The Scribbler
    Scribbler is just daring and interesting enough that you can see why a fairly accomplished cast — from Cassidy to Dushku, Gershon to Campbell — was drawn to it, even if the execution underwhelms.
  26. Girl on a Bicycle
    With this “Girl” and her bicycle, the cute bits, rare laugh out loud moments, occasionally zippy lines and limply obvious farcical predicaments are never more than instantly forgettable.
  27. The Human Race
    It’s not art. But The Human Race does manage to take a worn out formula and nonsense story and finds a few novel touches, a little humor and hints of pathos in between the exploding heads.
  28. Charlie Countryman
    The bad guys really stand out, with Mikkelsen pulling off something he never managed as a Bond villain. He’s genuinely frightening.
  29. Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club
    Perry has made better movies, and perhaps worse ones. But never one as dull as this.
  30. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    The action beats are bigger and better than they’ve ever been in a Ninja Turtle film — brawls, shootouts, a snowy car-and-truck chase with big explosions and what not. But in between those scenes is an awful lot of chatter and exposition. For a film that aims younger (save for the die-hards who grew up with this franchise), that’s deadly dull.
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