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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  1. Saints and Soldiers
    In his feature film debut, Little uses washed-out color and a you-are-there immediacy to tell a powerful wartime tale of survival, morality and honor.
  2. Erin Brockovich
    Roberts carries the film in the best sense, by taking us on a human journey of genuine discovery and growth.
  3. Speaking in Strings
    If it doesn't shed much light on the violinist's personal life, it certainly conveys how personally she relates to her work.
  4. Brothers of the Head
    This is a very tender portrayal of young people caught up in a blisteringly fast and cynical world, and though their music is hideous, they are a compelling act.
  5. 8 Women
    The movie doesn't remind me so much of the movies of Minnelli or Sirk as it does a lavish parody of "Upstairs, Downstairs," with musical interludes (the divas sing, whether they can or not) that are often as painful to watch as they are audaciously performed.
  6. Molière
    The actors elevate what might have been fluff into a genuinely moving tale, and the action is so much fun that it doesn't even matter if you've seen Molière's plays before.
  7. Since Otar Left
    This sensitive drama will appeal to anyone who has strained against the confines of family - or basked happily in its comforts.
  8. Trolösa
    Hits so hard because it feels so real.
    • New York Daily News
  9. Akeelah and the Bee
    I'm not sure how tolerable this would be without Palmer's charm, because this is a formulated script where everything is tied up in perfect bows, just like life isn't.
  10. La Vie en Rose
    The song for which Piaf is best-known - "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" ("No Regrets") - leads to a killer finale with Cotillard perfectly lip-synching Piaf's recording of it. Trust me; you'll want to own it.
  11. Mayor of the Sunset Strip
    Hickenlooper does a nice job blending Bingenheimer's flashy past with his somewhat pathetic present, creating a genuinely compelling study in diminishing returns.
  12. The Descent
    This is one of the scariest movies featuring female heroines since the "Alien" series, and what makes it uniquely scary is where these women are -- in tunnels two miles under ground -- when they realize they are not alone.
  13. The Interpreter
    An intelligent, old-fashioned nail-biter.
  14. Stephanie Daley
    This is first-rate stuff.
  15. Little Otik
    Must be the smartest -- and most disturbing -- movie about parenthood in ages.
    • New York Daily News
  16. Brothers
    Tapping into the basest fears of war while subverting all expectations, director Susanne Bier deftly reads between the headlines.
  17. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
    A small movie that plays like a Western epic.
  18. The Astronaut Farmer
    It's hard not to like a movie so determined to make you feel the love of a family, to make you feel that every dream can become a reality and that every mortgage - no matter how close to foreclosure - can be rescued by the sudden death of a family member and his inheritance.
  19. Oswald's Ghost
    Though we had just heard the name Lee Harvey Oswald, I believed he had done it alone. I still do, even more so after watching Robert Stone's meticulously researched, seemingly unbiased summary of the killing and the major conspiracy theories.
  20. The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
    The film's greatest strength is its inadvertent timeliness. Parallels between LBJ's Vietnam policy and George W. Bush's Iraq policy go off in your head like flares.
  21. The Girl Next Door
    Once in a very long while, a truly memorable romantic teen comedy comes along. The Girl Next Door is one.
  22. Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land
    Showing the movie would be a great way to open a debate. I would love to hear its charges answered as clearly as they're stated.
  23. The Taste of Others
    A charming little valentine to the mysteries of attraction.
  24. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
    It's a must for those who like thrills laced with a sense of humor.
  25. An Unreasonable Man
    Naive or wicked, idealist or egomaniac: Nothing in Ralph Nader's character is agreed upon by everyone in this fascinating biography - with one exception. And the title says it all.
  26. The Seagull's Laughter
    It's no easy trick to invite viewers into an utterly bleak setting populated by the dissatisfied and small-minded. But a droll script and generally deft direction make the Icelandic chill surprisingly inviting.
  27. March of the Penguins
    When it comes to cute, this baby is off the charts.
  28. Innocence
    A visually lush and eerily enigmatic parable of female sexuality, Lucile Hadzihalilovic's ominous fairy tale raises questions you'll be wondering about for days.
  29. The Syrian Bride
    The result is both tragic and darkly comic - in this complex environment, blame and sorrow are locked in a partnership of absurdity.
  30. The Devil Wears Prada
    Though there is enough haute couture on display for a season of "Sex and the City" envy, it has definite off-the-rack appeal to regular moviegoers. In fact, it may be the one film this year where you'll see Manolo Blahniks and Doc Martens on women sitting in the same row.
  31. End of the Century
    A thorough, gutsy and appropriately scuzzy-looking documentary.
  32. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
    Ya-Ya Sisterhood is so divine. It offers a world where friendship is forever, the half-empty glass is refilled and the men are perfect.
    • New York Daily News
  33. Paris, je t'aime
    Bittersweet, funny, sad and invariably romantic.
  34. Shanghai Knights
    The unlikely cowboys play off each other's strengths like the best doubles team in tennis. The exquisiteness of this match is that Chan and Wilson are both reactive comedy actors.
  35. Steal a Pencil for Me
    If Michele Ohayon's absorbing documentary didn't provide the proof, you'd never believe the story she tells about Holocaust survivors Jack Polak and Ina Soep.
  36. The Hammer
    The Hammer benefits from Carolla's low-energy, low-impact style. He doesn't so much deliver quips as let them dribble out the side of his mouth.
  37. Let's Get Frank
    There's nothing new here, but Frank provides a genial reminder that politics doesn't always have to take the low road.
  38. Three... Extremes
    Blood, grotesquerie and humor mix equally in the first two, but the full combo makes a savory witches' brew for Asian-cinema cultists (or Halloween lovers in need of a gore fix).
  39. Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times
    With Chomsky as its star, this documentary cannot go far wrong, even though filmmaker John Junkerman intersperses Chomsky footage with some really bad Japanese pop music.
  40. Chuck & Buck
    A reverse male-bonding tale unlike anything you've ever seen. And it's not the easiest good movie to sit through.
  41. The Grace Lee Project
    A funny and insightful exploration into identity issues we all can recognize.
  42. Off the Black
    As good as Nolte is, the relatively unknown Morgan matches him scene for scene. And he's not the only impressive newcomer. Remarkably, this confident indie is the first feature from writer-director Ponsoldt, who shuns any slickness to embrace the rough edges of his low-budget, bare-bones story.
  43. Shanghai Ghetto
    This is a vital history lesson that many of us have missed but few are likely to forget.
  44. The Lady and the Duke
    The result is a galvanizing mix of intellectual discourse and guillotined heads.
    • New York Daily News
  45. Man on the Moon
    Carrey gives an otherworldly, possessed performance as Kaufman.
  46. Rocket Science
    A quirky comedy-drama that gets the bulk of its humor from the well-placed non sequitur. It never seems to be going where you think it is, and that includes its oddly endearing dialogue.
  47. Galaxy Quest
    No masterpiece, but in a season dominated by films as heavy -- and about as time-consuming -- as brain surgery, a little brain candy is sweet.
  48. The Statement
    There's a sensational, highly original performance by Swinton.
  49. Petits frères
    Crushingly realistic.
  50. Last Dance
    The real highlight is watching the dancers as they progress from their first, tentative improvisations to the final, complex performance.
  51. Meet the Parents
    What makes it work so well is superb chemistry and a light touch. The spray-painted cat scene doesn't hurt, either.
  52. Zoolander
    The humor is simple but far from dumb. The dueling "walk-off" between rival male mannequins is inspired, as are the sly juxtapositions of the male model's faux physicality with such real-world demands as coal mining.
  53. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
    This kind of parody is hard to sustain for an hour and a half, and "Walk Hard" does gets wearying at times. But the humor is so outrageous, the original music so much fun and Reilly so good - both while hamming it up in the role and in singing the songs - that it's irresistible.
  54. A League of Ordinary Gentlemen
    If ever a movie could convince the masses to don communal shoes, this is the one.
  55. Howl's Moving Castle
    A richly inventive, slightly eerie animated movie from Japan.
  56. Impostor
    It's a pleasure to watch a thinking-man's actor like Sinise adapt so easily to this challenge; he even keeps his dignity when forced to participate in the inevitable martial arts-inflected showdown.
  57. Wordplay
    In this documentary, I learn there are people who can solve a Monday New York Times puzzle in less than three minutes - without looking words up! I don't necessarily want to know these people, but they put on a good show at the annual crossword championship in Stamford, Ct., which is the centerpiece of this affectionate, smartly-done promo for puzzling.
  58. Ice Age
    Its story, characters, dialogue, humor and voice performances are first-rate.
    • New York Daily News
  59. Criminal
    The movie is fast and fun. Best of all are the actors, who likewise seem to know they've lucked into a rare good gig.
  60. Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!
    It's the next best thing to being front and center.
  61. Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos
    Once in a Lifetime performs a belated autopsy on the Cosmos and the North American Soccer League and basically concludes that they died of impatience.
  62. Horton Hears a Who!
    Listen closely: It's the sound of a million Who fans cheering.
  63. All the Pretty Horses
    Thornton, directing his first film since the minimalist "Sling Blade" (1996), has a much better grip on the material when he's focused on the scruffy desert landscape and the adventures of the two Texans.
  64. The Hunting of the President
    I'm not sure the filmmakers - one, Harry Thomason, is a long-time Friend of Bill - have connected enough dots to prove a "vast" conspiracy. But that many people devoted much of their lives and resources to destroying Clinton is indisputable.
  65. Dogtown and Z-Boys
    In keeping with the unrefined spirit of the '70s, the movie is deliberately haphazard and proudly retains all its mistakes, including narrator Sean Penn going up on his lines.
    • New York Daily News
  66. Dead or Alive
    Takashi is a master of the jagged quick cut and the shocker finish, and his head-spinning story is pumped up with almost more bravado than a single screen can handle.
  67. Tycoon: A New Russian
    With more than a passing nod to the Hollywood mob movie, Pavel Lounguine ("Luna Park") crafts this superb post-Soviet "Godfather" movie loosely based on the exploits of bad boy billionaire Boris Berezovsky.
  68. Tadpole
    Armed with a witty script, Winick and the actors so confidently ply the Oedipal waters that the comedy seems sweetly chaste.
  69. Pieces of April
    As pat as some of its conclusions may seem, this low-budget effort has charm, fine acting and one of the few realistic screen depictions of the awkward dynamics of a family trying to circle its wagons.
  70. Hitch
    Smith turns it on with co-star Eva Mendes in a manner that will have George Clooney taking notes.
  71. My Summer of Love
    Travels so deeply into the confusions of female adolescence that you'd never know this deceptively languid British film was directed by a Polish-born man.
  72. Young@Heart
    One of the most delightful movies to come along this year.
  73. Valley of Tears
    The town's entrenched racism is impossible to ignore, but the efforts toward change make a compelling history.
  74. The World Is Not Enough
    That's what Bond is all about -- dazzle, some really bad puns and the kind of sexy fun that satisfies high-school urges while masquerading in tux and tails.
  75. Lantana
    In addition to the strong script, the ensemble performances are topnotch, with no one hogging the limelight.
  76. Capote
    What "Capote" fails to reveal to the audience is the sense of a homoerotic attraction between the author and Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.). It is more than implied that one exists, but there isn't a scene between them that supports it or even makes it believable.
  77. Two for the Money
    Too long by about 20 minutes, and takes itself too seriously near the end. But if you're looking for a movie for a boys' night out, it's a winner.
  78. The Visit
    The actors seem exhilarated.
  79. Signs & Wonders
    The best performance is by Rampling. (The) camera hangs on her, knowing that nothing escapes those wise, sad-lidded eyes.
  80. Barbershop
    Best of all, and worth the price of admission, is Cedric the Entertainer.
  81. War Dance
    Overly polished, but deeply affecting, documentary.
  82. Running with Scissors
    A reasonable facsimile of a perversely funny book whose odd characters are given life by a terrific cast.
  83. Bang Rajan
    Unapologetically graphic and slightly marred by an artistic awkwardness, this is a rare and worthwhile glimpse into another nation's historical legend.
  84. The Bone Collector
    Slick entertainment.
  85. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
    A thoroughly entertaining animated comedy that's sweet enough for the youngest moviegoers, and smart enough for the most cynical chaperone.
  86. The Emperor's New Clothes
    In a hilarious bit of actorly sleight-of-hand, Holm (who is not new to the role of Napoleon, having it played it twice before) slips effortlessly from emperor to impostor.
    • New York Daily News
  87. Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi
    Deftly composed of many small moments, this gentle Israeli film skirts politics to portray a family that is blessedly normal in its internal chaos.
  88. Four Brothers
    If you can overcome the graphic nature of its casual violence, it is a lot of fun. The banter among the brothers is well-written and has a genuine fraternal feel to it. And the chases and shootouts have a fresh malevolence to them.
  89. Alone with Her
    Made for $1 million, its production values are raw and Nicholas makes at least one too many obvious choices himself. But its very rawness adds to its creepiness and keeps us in suspense in ways most studio movies don't.
  90. The Family Man
    Cage is a wonderful light comedian; were someone to remake "It's a Wonderful Life," he'd be on the short list for the role of George Bailey. And Leoni is Donna Reed, reborn.
  91. The Aura
    The tension and intrigue between the pretender and his would-be associates is as dense as the woods surrounding their hiding place.
  92. Secretary
    The daring, funny and quirkily erotic Secretary examines power exchanges between consenting adults in a way that other movies have not managed without turning off swaths of the squeamish.
  93. American History X
    Unflinching in its depiction of racism, anti-Semitism, violence and jailhouse politics.
  94. Concert for George
    Of them all, only McCartney looks out of place, perhaps mistaking the venue for Vegas. There in a nutshell could be the answer to why the Beatles broke up.
  95. Ultimate X: The Movie
    In a feat of truly impressive cinematic finesse, Hendricks manages to capture every possible angle, from below a soaring motorcycle to atop a speeding luger's helmet.
    • New York Daily News
  96. Cashback
    It's no small trick to blend fantasy, slapstick and genuine emotion, but Ellis pulls it off with whimsy to spare.
  97. Millennium Actress
    Although we never feel any true connection to the enigmatic actress, there's no denying the inventiveness of Kon's homage to the possibilities of cinema.
  98. Lemming
    By the end, you may not know whether you've seen a ghost story or a story of delusional obsession, but you'll have had a great time.
  99. A Very Long Engagement
    There are many ways to say that war is hell, but few filmmakers have said it with as much imagination, humor, intrigue and humanity as Jean-Pierre Jeunet in A Very Long Engagement.
  100. Dogma
    A raunchy, irreverent, generally hilarious sendup of ritual and papal decree.
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