New York Daily News' Scores

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For 6,911 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 42% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 55% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 8.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 57
Highest review score: 100 Fruitvale Station
Lowest review score: 0 The Fourth Kind
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,885 out of 6911
  2. Mixed: 2,801 out of 6911
  3. Negative: 1,225 out of 6911
6911 movie reviews
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    • 61 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    FrackNation
    With many of McAleer's facts coming from casual Internet searches (backed by boring shots of the computer screen), the accuracy of this crowd-sourced documentary - funded by small donations on Kickstarter - seems as reliable as a Wikipedia entry.
  2. Let My People Go!
    It would appear that for his first feature, Mikael Buch wanted to leave nothing to chance. So he threw in enough action for five movies, amped the comedy up to frenetic levels and encouraged his cast to play to the rafters.
  3. Clandestine Childhood
    Avila has a tough task, visualizing violent and complicated events through a child's eyes. The calmer scenes are staged in staid and somewhat clunky fashion, but the graphic animation depicting the worst moments is starkly effective.
  4. My Best Enemy
    The script relies on too many unlikely twists, but Bleibtreu manages to sell them all.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Uprising (2013)
    This important, moving event was, as we know, documented in real time, but in Uprising gets put into a crucial context.
  6. Fairhaven
    Movies like this, from "Diner" to "Beautiful Girls" to "Garden State," have a standard trajectory, and this film's no different. But it has a nuance and a rumpled comfort with itself, which turns Fairhaven into an inviting place to visit.
  7. Quartet
    Music lovers will appreciate both the score and the nostalgic end credits, which revisit the early years of the aged supporting cast (many of whom were actual musicians).
  8. The Baytown Outlaws
    Okay, y'all, the never-ending appeal of the Southern-fried crime caper for filmmakers hungry for flavor is back with The Baytown Outlaws. Only here, the drawling accents, screeching tires and sawed-off blasts that rise again don't amount to much.
  9. Gangster Squad
    Instead of expanding their sights, Fleischer and Beall narrow them, into a repetitive and increasingly exhausting series of shootouts. By the end, those guns might as well be held by extras, rather than some of the most talented actors of our time.
  10. Struck by Lightning
    One can't blame Colfer for wanting to expand his range, but he's created a character who is neither hero nor villain, in a black comedy that is neither dark nor funny enough.
  11. My Brooklyn
    When Anderson allows the experts - or simply those most deeply impacted by the changes - to speak, the film has a powerful urgency.
  12. 56 Up
    It shows that life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. And how, in case we forget, every age can predict the next.
  13. A Bottle in the Gaza Sea (Une bouteille à la mer)
    There are no villains here, no attempts to sway opinions or even stake out political ground. Some will find that a disappointment. But the truth is that this effort is both more evenhanded than most dramas with similar themes, and more open-hearted.
  14. Texas Chainsaw 3D
    Texas Chainsaw 3D sees itself as over-the-top and knowing, but what we ultimately get is simply eyes without a face.
  15. Promised Land
    Krasinki's soft-sell script, lets the movie's ideas get absorbed without grandstanding or pretension. Its issues go down with a smile and common sense, which turns out to be exactly the right formula.
  16. West of Memphis
    Certainly, the West Memphis 3 deserve more chances to detail how the justice system went nightmarishly awry. But take this as ultimately more personal journal than investigation.
  17. Parental Guidance
    Crystal and Midler are such confident pros that their crack timing elevates even substandard material.
  18. The Impossible
    The most memorable turn, however, comes from young Holland. There is not a moment in which Lucas' fear, or unexpected courage, feels less than real.
  19. This Is 40
    There's a funny movie scratching at the edges of This is 40. Unfortunately, writer-director Judd Apatow sees himself as the John Cassavetes of Comedy, so every time that funny movie starts to emerge, Apatow tramples it with scenes of domestic irritation.
  20. Not Fade Away
    Mood is more important to Not Fade Away than anything, but writer-director David Chase, who turned mood into masterpiece with every season of "The Sopranos," allows nostalgic feeling to be the sole reason for this, his first feature film.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away
    The real stunner of Worlds Away is how it could afford to use so many Beatles songs.
  22. Les Miserables
    Fortunately, this sprawling epic is well-anchored. There cannot be a better big-screen showman than Jackman.
  23. On the Road
    Salles has made an admirable effort, which - while no roman candle - can be appreciated for its honest ambitions.
  24. Django Unchained
    Just when we thought Quentin Tarantino had shown us all the cojones he has, in rides Django Unchained.
  25. Jack Reacher
    Cruise's tightly controlled performance holds our attention all the way through to the tense finale. Still, McQuarrie's script never gets at the heart of a character who's already inspired such a passionate fan base.
  26. The Guilt Trip
    While the actors are appealing, their weirdly co-dependent characters aren't. And they don't learn enough to balance out the bland, intermittently irritating nature of their adventures.
  27. Amour
    Small victories that turn into defeats, long walks to gain little ground, little wounds that get deeper every day - growing old is a war, and movies rarely go there. Michael Haneke's amazing, dignified Amour is the exception.
  28. Zero Dark Thirty
    What finally sticks in the mind about "ZDT" is its precision. What the film says about getting information from terrorism suspects in an era of high-tech surveillance depends on your point of view. What is unquestionable is how powerful its full scope is.
  29. Stand Up Guys
    The script is undernourished, the supporting characters - including a horribly miscast Lucy Punch - ill-conceived, and Val increasingly hard to take. But when the movie ended, I wanted to watch Walken all over again.
  30. Trashed
    Crucial viewing for realists and alarmists both.
  31. The Girl
    Writer-director David Riker's film is tough going, but worth it.
  32. Any Day Now
    Director Travis Fine gives his period details flourish and lets Cumming and Dillahunt create well-rounded characters, but Any Day Now winds up treacly.
  33. Let Fury Have the Hour
    The result is undoubtedly impassioned. But it's also so blinkered and self-congratulatory that it feels like an undergraduate thesis project. Even if you relate to the cause, you may find yourself frustrated by the effort.
  34. Save the Date
    Mohan should have made a little more effort for us. Another pass at the screenplay probably would have done it. But one gets the sense he's already moved on to the next thing.
  35. Yelling to the Sky
    Yelling is a prosaic look at a hard life. Like Sweetness, the movie finds its way by instinct.
  36. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
    It's one thing to sit on your couch watching football in HD. It's another to view one of literature's most enduring fantasies in the same manner. The experience that felt so breathtakingly cinematic in Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" series now seems frustratingly fake.
  37. The Rabbi's Cat
    Though we wander a bit, the trip is a delight, thanks to the witty company.
  38. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding
    With costumes taking precedence over character, the movie ultimately seems more concerned with atmosphere than action.
  39. Playing for Keeps
    Perhaps, if this movie fails, studios will finally accept that we all deserve better. Biel knows it already, and Butler keeps up in their scenes together.
  40. Hyde Park on Hudson
    Some of Hyde Park on Hudson feels like lost scenes from "The King's Speech," the 2010 Oscar-winner about King George. It doesn't help that "Hyde's" own rhythms, appealing as they are, are often soporific.
  41. Waiting for Lightning
    Colorful folks and cool stunts abound, but casual viewers may still utter a big "Why?"
  42. In Our Nature
    A mopey indie family drama like In Our Nature can't quash "Mad Men" star John Slattery's charm no matter how badly it tries.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Delhi Safari
    Except for a few scenes with some flamboyant vaudeville pink flamingos (giddily voiced by Jane Lynch and Jason Alexander), the film is without wit and, sadly, entirely forgettable.
  44. The Fitzgerald Family Christmas
    Burns has assembled such a fine cast that we leave feeling satisfied, as if we didn't get the iPad mini we wanted, but a pretty good novel instead.
  45. Lay the Favorite
    One of those factors must have settled upon the unlucky shoulders of Stephen Frears, who certainly has the pedigree to go all the way. And yet, he stumbles so badly with Lay the Favorite, his comic adaptation of Beth Raymer's memoir, that one is left wondering what could possibly have gone wrong.
  46. Deadfall
    If Deadfall had more life, it might have been about more than just its wannabe edge. Ruzowitzky, whose 2007 film "The Counterfeiters" won a Best Foreign Film Oscar, understands the movie's simple plan. But it nonetheless puts us into a big sleep.
  47. Love, Marilyn
    This well-intentioned but clumsy attempt to get into the head of one of the 20th century's most famous women remains full of hot air.
  48. Dragon
    Yen, who also choreographed the fights, is a natural hero, and the large canvas and pseudo-superhero tactics work for a bit, but then the action gets sidetracked in place of myth-building.
  49. Otelo Burning
    This crisp, involving South African drama comes at you in waves, changing course and tone expertly.
  50. The Gatekeepers
    A fascinating and informative, if sometimes stodgy, documentary about the most secret wing of Israel's anti-espionage unit.
  51. Ex-Girlfriends
    Even taken on its own, this story of Graham (Poe), a single New Yorker feeling his way toward adulthood, feels like a promising college project that wasn't ready for the real world.
  52. California Solo
    Fans can be forgiven for offering this predictable indie some excess generosity, simply because writer-director Marshall Lewy had the good sense to build a movie around such a versatile lead.
  53. Beware of Mr. Baker
    Miserable individuals do tend to make for interesting subject matter, and this would be far more of a dry biography without its willfully eccentric lead. Plus, if the crankiness gets to you, tune it out and focus on the music. That's what Clapton did.
  54. Killing Them Softly
    While McNairy and Mendelsohn are solid but almost too showy, Liotta, Jenkins, Sam Shepard and a chewy supporting cast beautifully fill in the blanks. Killing Them Softly adds each of its characters to a punchy, prosaic tale that believes in America, one way or another.
  55. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning
    It's up to you to decide if his oddly artsy vision, which pulls in first-person perspectives, surreal memories and highbrow cinematic references, suggests interesting ambition or misplaced pretension.
  56. Rust and Bone
    Though Rust and Bone aims for a blasé attitude toward disabled drama - in a far more artificial way than another French film, "The Intouchables," did earlier this year - it's underwritten characters and hoary approach plunk it into mediocrity. As wheelchair-bound Stephanie practices her whale-training motions to Katy Perry's "Firework," it's eye-rollingly obvious.
  57. Hitchcock
    Despite its definitive title, you won't actually learn much about Alfred Hitchcock from Sacha Gervasi's briskly superficial biopic. But you'll enjoy the experience anyway.
  58. Rise of the Guardians
    Dour animated adventure that aspires to holiday joy, but is as enjoyable as a sock full of coal.
  59. Red Dawn
    In this group, only Hemsworth stands out.
  60. Life of Pi
    Though the film's setup trudges and its closing is too pat, that hour or so on the raft is something special, and few would dive into the story's soul as Lee does.
  61. Hitler's Children
    It's always dispiriting to see an ideal subject given shallow treatment, and one spends most of this documentary wishing a more experienced director had made it.
  62. Who Bombed Judi Bari?
    There is no satisfactory answer to the titular question posed by this no-frills environmental documentary. But first-time feature director Mary Liz Thomson does answer another one at least as important, by showing us who Judi Bari was.
  63. The Comedy
    The movie may critique its antihero, but it also offers just one more venue in which he's allowed to wallow - while we pay his way.
  64. 28 Hotel Rooms
    While Messina and Ireland are fine company, writer-director Matt Ross' conceit tires you out.
  65. Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God
    Fearless nonfiction filmmaker Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side," "Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer") details a history of horrific abuse by Catholic clergy in this tough-to-watch documentary.
  66. 16 Acres
    It's been a long, not always linear path to the opening of the new tower, planned for 2014. Yet, as one observer says here, the project has helped heal New York in a very New York way - acrimonious, messy and loud.
  67. Barrymore
    Barrymore is a delicious opportunity to watch the great Christopher Plummer perform the role that won him a second Tony Award. But it's also a lesson in the pitfalls of personality-based minimalism. While Plummer acts his heart out, the script becomes one punchline after another.
  68. Anna Karenina
    The film's structure is so boldly conceived it seems unfair to focus on flaws. But the central problem is undeniable: There is no chemistry whatsoever between the leads.
  69. Silver Linings Playbook
    Cooper and Lawrence could so easily have stumbled over the logistical bumps and clichés strewn across Russell's defiantly dark script. Instead, they glide right over them, creating an edgy romantic dramedy that suits our anxious times.
  70. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2
    And now, just as Bella Swan (Stewart) embraces her own eternal power, Breaking Dawn, Part 2 expands with a full intensity of force, stronger and more epic than the films that led to this impactful finale.
  71. Lunch
    There's not much to the movie, in which we watch the participants crack jokes and complain about their in-laws over corned beef. But when the diners include Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, director Arthur Hiller ("Love Story"), "Animal House" producer Matty Simmons, and anachronistic announcer Gary Owens, it's worth pulling up a chair.
  72. Coming Up Roses
    Director Lisa Albright has less success balancing the tones of two eras: the movie is more successful when replicating matter-of-fact '70s grit than the independent miserabilism of the '90s.
  73. A Liar's Autobiography - The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman
    John Cleese, Michael Palin and Chapman himself (courtesy of interviews, skits and various recordings he made before his death from cancer in 1989) chime in. It's an odd little trip, but if it weren't, one would have to ask, "Well what's all this, then?"
  74. Chasing Ice
    This amazingly beautiful, and amazingly frightening, documentary captures the immediacy of what climate change is doing to the Arctic landscape.
  75. Nature Calls
    Surely Patton Oswalt could have leveraged all those accolades from last year's "Young Adult" into a better project than this instantly forgettable comedy.
  76. A Royal Affair
    Mikkelsen's unconventional features and intense talent lend a compelling edge to this expansive period piece.
  77. Lincoln
    The history lesson in Steven Spielberg's austere, engrossing Lincoln is less about the revered President himself but his method for justice.
  78. The Man with the Iron Fists
    The movie plays things relatively straight, acknowledging clichés without the winking irony in which modern homages usually indulge. As such, it's giddy fun - a well-made genre picture that sends up its influences even as it clearly reveres them.
  79. Sleep Tight
    A great many New Yorkers are rightfully indebted to doormen, but Jaume Balagueró's nasty little thriller offers a decidedly darker perspective.
  80. Pusher (2012)
    Refn's version was successful enough to inspire two sequels; at its best, this effort will push Coyle's career a little further along in the U.S.
  81. Orchestra of Exiles
    Toscanini plays a role in the tale, as does Einstein and a young Zubin Mehta. If director Josh Aronson tries to follow a few too many strands of the story, it's only because there's so many tantalizing ones.
  82. The Other Son
    This beautifully photographed drama is well-played throughout with great conscience without becoming heavy-handed.
  83. The Loneliest Planet
    Writer-director Julia Loktev sustains the tension for long, Antonioni-esque passages that portend something momentous. The film delivers in unexpected ways, and then ponders what it means.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fun Size
    By the end of this romp, Fun Size actually accomplished something charming: sentimentality without normality.
  85. Chasing Mavericks
    As it turns out, the only truly interesting element about this clichéd surfer flick is that it was made by celebrated directors Michael Apted and Curtis Hanson.
  86. Cloud Atlas
    For all its strengths, the film is cursed by an ADD-style structure and a flashy but inevitably ineffective casting stunt.
  87. Skyfall
    Though a notch below "Royale," Skyfall follows that reboot's lead, making a now 50-year-old icon as cool as when he began.
  88. Bad 25
    Michael Jackson fans will love Spike Lee's look back at the making of a classic, even if the extensive collection of clips and contemporary interviews - which could have used a firm edit - feels more suited to DVD.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Holy Motors
    Each episode of director Leos Carax's film perfectly masters the exact tone of a different genre, finding precisely the saddest moment in each of its vignettes.
  90. All Together
    Amiable but ambling.
  91. Brooklyn Castle
    A sweet testament to the power of intelligence to win over adversity - even in a Brooklyn middle school where the majority of students live below the poverty level.
  92. Nobody Walks
    It's a naive example of the transformative powers of a 23-year-old let loose amongst the dullards. Whoa.
  93. Just 45 Minutes from Broadway
    Though Jaglom intends for us to be charmed by show folk, the amateurish performances and perennially misjudged direction wind up portraying them instead as boundlessly needy narcissists.
  94. The Flat
    Ultimately, this is not a film about one specific event but about human nature - most notably, the instincts toward denial and delusion, acceptance and forgiveness. From start to finish, revelations abound.
  95. The Sessions
    It's strange to call a film with so much nudity and simulated sex "old-fashioned," but The Sessions nicely bridges that gulf.
  96. Paranormal Activity 4
    PA 4's best idea, besides reintroducing the slow-walking, statuesque Katie, is a strange video trick involving lots of little lights filling a darkened room. It's tough to describe, but the cameras, of course, capture a figure the characters can't.
  97. Alex Cross
    Though they lack chemistry as a team, it's gratifying to see both Perry and Burns stretching in ways they haven't before.
  98. Smashed
    Winstead and director James Ponsoldt add something gripping and modern to the cinema of recovery, a well-mined genre that can still, it seems, yield thoughtful surprises.
  99. Excuse Me for Living
    Atrocious dreck that feels sitcomish, only without the polish or panache.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sinister
    Ridiculous, and never scary, and with the worst ghost makeup in the history of the horror genre, Sinister is enjoyable, even funny at times. Most amusing might be watching Hawke play a character willing to do anything to regain his fame.
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