New Orleans Times-Picayune's Scores

  • Movies
For 1,128 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 55% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.4 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 Gleason
Lowest review score: 0 Double Dragon
Score distribution:
1128 movie reviews
  1. Grant and Parker's talents are wasted on a boring, made-for-TV story punctuated by a contrived, throwaway third act.
  2. The really annoying thing about Jack Black's Gulliver's Travels is not so much that it's a bad movie -- it is bad, but only run-of-the-mill bad, not epic-misfire bad -- but that the movie sullies a piece of literature that has endured for nearly 300 years for the sake of a cheap kiddie flick that'll be forgotten in a month.
  3. But Jack and Jill? Oh, Al.
  4. Dumont's fans might find this latest exercise enjoyable, but his style of filmmaking is an acquired taste. I doubt those without that taste are going to acquire it here.
  5. Rather than a moving story of sisterly love, we get little more than a grandly appointed disappointment.
  6. Beautifully shot, but terribly dull.
  7. It feels more like a poor man's "Poltergeist, " minus the static-filled TV.
  8. Even if The Bounty Hunter is more plot-driven than your standard romantic comedy, it's never quite as funny as it should be.
  9. The school freak, played by Mary-Kate Olsen, misses a chance to really have some fun as this story's wicked witch.
  10. Little more than a glorified situation comedy. The problem is, it's all situation and no comedy.
  11. It is fluffy, yes, but it also is ugly and annoying and something you neither want nor need.
  12. Almodovar lets his movie become boring, and insufferably so.
  13. You can't just cast an appealing actress in the lead role -- in this case Queen Latifah ("Valentine's Day, " "The Secret Life of Bees") -- and expect her to do all the heavy lifting.
  14. Right off the bat, things start falling apart for Wiesen's film. While Highmore is more than capable of playing smart and tender, he has yet to figure out how to believably portray so much as a shred of the danger or rebelliousness required for this role.
  15. A message movie that struggles mightily to make an impact but never comes close to capturing the gritty realism on which any blues singer builds his career.
  16. Clever story? Pass. Originality? Nah. A smidgen of real humor to keep parents entertained along with the kiddies? Smurf you.
  17. Anthony Hopkins still does elegant menace better than anyone.
  18. For movie-goers who like a little cleverness with their comedy, however, one word: N-opa.
  19. In the end, Carpenter offers a reasonably nice payoff to this whole misfire.
  20. Every narrative twist is telegraphed, every dramatic choice is expected, every character is one-dimensional, and every scene of heightened emotion is built around tin-ear dialogue.
  21. The sheer abundance of bare bosoms and coyly choreographed hanky-panky is exceeded only by the syrupy swell of violins at every climax. [06 Mar 1998, p.L31]
    • New Orleans Times-Picayune
  22. Director Rob Reiner hits a career low at the helm of "North," a charmless comedy-fantasy starring Elijah Wood as a disgruntled 11-year-old. [22 Jul 1994, p.L29]
    • New Orleans Times-Picayune
  23. It has been directed with no discernible style by Robert Harmon, who did far more imaginative work on "The Hitcher." It is acted in a near-narcoleptic stupor by Van Damme, whose only aesthetic contribution to the movie is a series of beefcake scenes featuring partial nudity. [19 Jan 1993, p.D7]
    • New Orleans Times-Picayune
  24. Rash's movie is forgettable, the smarmy Shore being just as hard to take as the sophomoric one. So if you're not a fan, consider waiting for Son-In-Law to slouch its way into a dollar house. [2 July 1993, p.L22]
    • New Orleans Times-Picayune
  25. While it has its moments of passable action -- ends up feeling every bit as toothless as its dinosaurs are toothy.
  26. The United States vs. Billie Holiday presents Holiday as a victim and little more. Ignored is the fact that the self-destructive Holiday bears at least some culpability for the slow-motion tragedy that was her life — and for her all-too-early death at 44 years old. Daniels, who seems to have made the classic mistake of falling in love with his subject, apparently doesn’t have time for such nuance.
  27. Street Fighter's cartoon plot has no purpose other than to provide butts for our hero to kick. Van Damme does so with martial arts efficiency, but zero charm, and this weary assessment pretty well sums up why I'm praying his fifteen minutes of fame are about over. [06 Jan 1995, p.L29]
    • New Orleans Times-Picayune
  28. I guess I can't call the movie sexist as it was largely produced, directed and written by women. So I'll settle for calling it dull, corny and amateurish instead.
  29. Most of the time, however, Post Grad just coasts along, flat as a mortar board, and as forgettable as a ... oh, I forgot already.
  30. Early on in The Slammin' Salmon, a customer sends back a plate of undercooked fish. I can't imagine a better metaphor for a movie that is named after a fish and that is as half-baked as this one is.

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