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. Brideshead Revisited
    May feel especially like a statue covered in drapery. Unfortunately, the movie's attempts to steam things up feel about as exciting as an after-dinner mint.
  2. Fifty-Fifty
    With a cast of mostly non-actors, the film seems rough-hewn, like something you'd find rusted along a road. But it's actually a sophisticated blend of crime thriller, coming-of-age story and social realism.
  3. I am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth
    A fascinating capsule of an era long past.
  4. Comedy of Power
    Draggy for long stretches, and never funny, Comedy of Power is a showcase - as if she needed another - for Huppert's chameleon qualities. She's an actress who can make a phone-book reading interesting, and that is pretty much the challenge she meets here.
  5. Infinitely Polar Bear
    Saldana has a harder lift, as Maggie is striving for something better yet has to often be reactive. In scenes with the adorable Wolodarsky and Aufderheide, she listens and acts intently. But there are too many times when she’s forced to just look worried. Still, Saldana, like so many things in Forbes’ likable but tricky film, does her best in a tough situation.
  6. Cloverfield
    Manhattan has always been a fat target for apocalypse filmmakers, but with its 9/11-inspired imagery, Matt Reeves' breathlessly fast-paced Cloverfield is going to resonate with New York audiences in a way no other horror film has.
  7. Miles Ahead
    Directed by, and starring, Don Cheadle, it's more about truth than facts. Did this all happen just the way it's laid out? Definitely not. But if the notes are wrong, the themes are right.
  8. Fury
    Fury excels in showing the ground-level, guttural intensity and claustrophobia of battle.
  9. Tamara Drewe
    The book itself is an easy read -- conveniently enough, it shouldn't take you more than two hours. So you might want to skip the discordant copy, and use that time to discover the real thing.
  10. The Reception
    Well-acted but otherwise lackluster drama.
  11. Nadja
    The film is a celebration of youthful romanticism and youthful nihilism, two philosophies that are often indistinguishable from each other where Nadja is set: Manhattan's East Village, with its tiny, secretive bars and tumultuous street life.
    • New York Daily News
  12. The Young Victoria
    The film does look beautiful, and there's enough intrigue to inspire anyone to learn more about such a complex, fascinating life. It just would have been nice to see a little more of that complexity onscreen.
  13. The Road
    Intense and, yes, depressing - and earns every minute that it rattles inside your head.
  14. Surf's Up
    The voice performances are great, particularly those from LaBeouf and Bridges, who's in a "Big Lebowski" mood. But a moratorium on penguin movies may be in order.
  15. Miss Sloane
    Jessica Chastain plays Sloane, and she's the kind of Washington power-player who'd scare off half the cast of "Scandal" — towering heels, pulled-back hair and a taste for the kill.
  16. The Luzhin Defence
    Turturro's Luzhin is a cinematic soulmate of Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man and Geoffrey Rush's David Helfgott.
  17. The Dancer Upstairs
    Has many of the qualities that made the actor such a great target for self-parody in Spike Jonze's "Being John Malkovich" - it's sober, deliberate, self-consciously mysterious and no fun at all.
  18. The Princess and the Warrior
    Princess is far more contemplative than "Run Lola Run," far less energized, and the little tricks of fate that made his last film so unique seem like sophomoric affectations here.
  19. Inside Deep Throat
    Beautifully assembled and edited by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato ("The Eyes of Tammy Faye") and is often very funny.
  20. The Road to Guantanamo
    The movie, shot digitally, begins as a not very compelling or particularly convincing road movie, and turns into a riveting prison drama.
  21. Conan O'Brien Can't Stop
    Full of unenlightening snippets and blithe but banal asides, what the movie is missing is edge.
  22. The Last Rites of Joe May
    Unfortunately, director Joe Maggio's film, despite showing real promise and an ear for threats delivered with a smile, runs out of gas.
  23. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
    Every generation deserves its ultimate high school romance, and Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist clearly aims to take the slot currently open. Despite a valiant attempt, though, it doesn't quite make the grade.
  24. Ant-Man
    Because of his easygoing comedy persona, Rudd is a perfect choice — and another example of Marvel’s savvy casting. He never takes anything too seriously, but he seems invested in the emotional side of the story.
  25. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
    There is a serious lack of action here, which might be overlooked if the script were as smart as in the previous films. What passes for parable here is merely overplotting.
  26. Where to Invade Next
    This benign big-screen button-pusher is about do-gooding, not destruction. It’s Moore at his likable best — and, consequently, most low-impact.
  27. The U.S. vs. John Lennon
    While there is nothing particularly new in the film, it is a stirring celebration of a man of enormous talent, humor and humanity, laid waste by an assassin in New York in 1980.
  28. Nothing But the Truth
    A fairly gripping cautionary tale.
  29. The Outsider
    As is often the case with Toback's films, even as you're shaking your head at his shameless self-indulgence, you can't help but keep on watching.
  30. Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner
    Freida Lee Mock's adulatory portrait makes for pleasant viewing - but should it?
  31. Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
    Murphy also reveals one more gem when she interviews the New York couple who gave their friend Nell Harper Lee a financial gift in the '50s that allowed her to quit her job and finish the book, an act of generosity that is also one more kindness surrounding this most humane of artworks.
  32. If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle
    A steady thrum of anger pervades this Romanian film even in its quietest moments, but the ending and captured-lost-boys setting ultimately fail to surprise.
  33. Giant
    Though it takes time to find its courage and heart, Gigante, like its oversized hero, merely has a slow, shy way of doing things.
  34. Chocolat
    A charming trifle, beautifully filmed in a Currier & Ives setting, with buttery-smooth performances from Binoche and Depp, and enough good tidings in its nougat center to get you through the holidays.
  35. Blades of Glory
    The casting of Ferrell and Heder turns out to be inspired. The direction, by a pair of NYU grads who've only made TV commercials and two short films, is pitch-perfect. And - miraculously - the skating sequences are passably realistic.
  36. One Bright Shining Moment
    Instructive but aggressively biased liberal history lesson.
  37. The Hedgehog
    Writer/director Mona Achache adapts Muriel Barbery's novel, "The Elegance of the Hedgehog," loosely but skillfully, creating an intimate portrait that resounds with empathy. Comedy and tragedy are given equal respect, and even the quietest souls are valued.
  38. State of Play
    The result is a paper-thin alliance between the old-school Cal and the new-media Della. Crowe, husky and whisky-voiced, is warm amidst all the plot mechanics, and McAdams, perky and efficient, is a smart foil for him.
  39. Guest of Cindy Sherman
    It's amazing that in an era of oversharing and reality TV, a doc consisting mostly of cable TV clips and personal reminiscences can be so resonant.
  40. We Have a Pope
    Meticulous staging and Piccoli's world-weary presence balance any silliness, making the issues here feel relevant and real. The method is not pointed political satire but gentle enlightenment.
  41. Pineapple Express
    When "Pineapple" goes from ganja to genre, it sours.
  42. St. Vincent
    Murray is always a delight, but his films with kids (“Meatballs,” “Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums”) give his unencumbered playfulness even more room to roam.
  43. Cradle Will Rock
    A missed opportunity to shed light on one of America's most turbulent times.
  44. Appaloosa
    Though the leads do fine work, their efforts often feel slightly futile. Despite a few flashes of the darker tone percolating under the surface, the movie remains too well-mannered to truly pull us in.
  45. Arctic Tale
    The flat narration by Queen Latifah doesn't help, but Adam Ravetch and his wife Sarah Robertson's nature film, Arctic Tale, fails to inspire the kind of rapturous response we felt for "March of the Penguins" for other reasons.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Everest
    Like the mountain for which it’s named, Everest is rock solid. It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s terrifying, and it’s merciless to both its characters and the audience.
  47. Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes
    A relatively straightforward portrait of Holmes, using interviews with family members, friends, wives, X-film producers and his former co-stars.
  48. X-Men
    A solid action story with inventive battles (one on the Statue of Liberty) and satisfyingly gooey special effects.
  49. Stealing the Fire
    Enlightening and rather unsettling documentary.
  50. Bright Young Things
    This is a wickedly funny skewering of a prewar London society gone mad with frivolity.
  51. Stage Beauty
    It's not as clever, or as consistently funny, or as well-cast as "Shakespeare in Love," but Richard Eyre's Stage Beauty is the most fun I've had with the Bard since that 1998 Oscar winner.
  52. Wedding Crashers
    Good, indecent fun starring two of the most amiable comedy actors around.
  53. Changing Times
    There isn't a flicker of chemistry between these old pros in Andre Techine's peculiar melodrama.
  54. Blood Diamond
    Blood Diamond is, in the vernacular of Old Hollywood, a rip-roaring adventure, the kind made in the '30s with Clark Gable and the handiest leading lady on contract at MGM.
  55. Freedom Writers
    I say bring 'em on, if the stories can be told as well, as convincingly and as inspirationally as Richard LaGravenese's Freedom Writers, an educational fantasy that happens to be mostly true.
  56. The Other Guys
    Wahlberg is surprisingly committed to the ridiculousness.
  57. Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
    Friends of Shep discuss his often unorthodox business sense, especially in the music biz, as well as his general decency. The guy’s tale is full of funny anecdotes and celeb privilege, but short on pretension.
  58. Kelly & Cal
    This uneven directorial debut from Jen McGowan is notable mostly for a nicely understated turn from Juliette Lewis.
  59. Call Me Lucky
    Angry, quixotic, tragic, heroic — Crimmins’ life is stunning. Catch this portrait and you can definitely call yourself lucky.
  60. Something New
    A satisfying chick flick that follows all the usual rules of the modern romantic comedy except one - it's not stupid.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Finding Fela!
    There’s nothing like seeing Fela himself — blowing his sax, expressing his unbridled sexuality and living a life like no other.
  62. Bright Future
    Bright is pretty to look at, but it's a slow-moving, meandering work that isn't as complex or mysterious as it appears.
  63. Ready Player One
    The movie is crammed with excitement and good humor.
  64. Proof
    Who knew a drama about numbers could be so thrilling?
  65. Jack Goes Boating
    Hoffman has a nice eye for detail, painting an empathetic portrait of lost souls that recalls 1955's still-powerful romance "Marty."
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    In a Valley of Violence
    A film that's simultaneously heart-wrenching, hilarious and horrific.
  67. We Are X
    Whether or not the movie turns you into X-philes, Yoshiki is hard to shake.
  68. Café Society
    The rom-dram is wistful and wisecracking, boasts a polished ensemble and is such a period looker you wish you could time-travel to the Jazz Era.
  69. Peter Pan
    Both enchantingly old-fashioned and daringly modern.
  70. Nymphomaniac: Volume I
    Danish director Lars von Trier makes this tale of one woman’s banal sexual adventures into inadvertent comedy. The film makes an analogy between sex and fly-fishing — and fly-fishing comes off as more intriguing.
  71. Robots
    Visually, Robots is fun and imaginative. The wow factor is enhanced in the IMAX version, also opening today.
  72. Last Call at the Oasis
    Oasis also takes aim at the bottled-water industry, entertainingly calling in psychologists to break down our fears of what is - or isn't - contaminating what we drink.
  73. The Mystic Masseur
    There is a very sharp, funny critique of ambition and self-made gurus in The Mystic Masseur, but it is obscured by a softening bloat.
    • New York Daily News
  74. Vengo
    Characteristically lacking in narrative -- but what it misses in traditional plot devices, it more than makes up for in passion.
  75. Looney Tunes: Back in Action
    I've laughed harder during a single "Road Runner" cartoon than I did throughout Back in Action.
  76. Blood Work
    Connelly's better-than-routine potboiler has a high-concept premise built for the movies, and it's the first of the former L.A. Times reporter's 11 crime novels to make the journey from bookshelf to big screen.
  77. In Search of a Midnight Kiss
    By the end, Holdridge has captured the bittersweet complexities of romance with a wisdom that proves surprisingly seductive.
  78. Cupcakes
    If this Semitic “Strictly Ballroom” and its campy, colorful characters (including a hummus baron!) don’t win you over, you may want to check your pulse.
  79. Shortbus
    Some viewers will call the whole business pornography, though it doesn't really qualify. The sex is blunt and enthusiastic, but arousing it ain't. In fact, when Shortbus arrives on DVD, viewers may be fast-forwarding through the sex to get to the acting.
  80. The Grey
    The gristle inside this movie is one of the things that save it from being simply a series of challenges.
  81. Fast Food Nation
    Dispiriting, unsubtle and unpleasant.
  82. District 13: Ultimatum
    There's little difference between the first and second movies -- both written by Besson -- so the perfunctory story line will feel familiar to fans. But the action, and the head-spinning stunts of those agile lead actors, will never get old.
  83. Film Socialisme
    Designed as their own entity, the brief subtitles convey so little that to get the full experience you won't only need to understand Godard's language. You'll also have to speak French.
  84. Tokyo!
    Anyone looking for something original or unexpected should check out the trio of short films that comprise this entertaining ode to the titular city.
  85. Dancer in the Dark
    What is meant to be an innovative, cutting-edge musical melodrama is so jumbled, irrational and amateurish that it makes dinner theater look like the Old Vic.
  86. 16 Blocks
    The action sequences that follow are routine to the point of monotony, involving chases through crowded streets and store fronts, a commandeered bus, a woman in peril, and so on. But Donner wisely devotes long spells in between to the evolving relationship between Jack and Eddie.
  87. Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale
    A fascinating story.
    • New York Daily News
  88. Songcatcher
    For a film expressly about an underappreciated culture, there are some boulder-size cliches rolling down these hills.
  89. Unfaithful
    The movie doesn't stoop to cheap psychoanalysis and must be commended for a bravely ambiguous ending. But most of the credit goes to Lane, who is simply extraordinary as a woman whose body is at war with her conscience.
    • New York Daily News
  90. Yves Saint Laurent 5 avenue Marceau 75116 Paris
    So unfocused we never get to know the man behind the gowns.
  91. One True Thing
    A beautifully rich performance by Meryl Streep, [18 September 1998, p. 57]
    • New York Daily News
  92. Sex Is Comedy
    A strange creature, a narcissistic mock documentary.
  93. Good Kill
    Because it's so rooted in real life, the drama Good Kill is even more terrifying than “The Purge,” Ethan Hawke’s horror film from two years ago.
  94. Babies
    So after about an hour of watching four children eat, bathe and crawl, you might start to wonder why you've paid to see somebody else's home movies.
  95. Return
    Johnson's feel for the rhythms of reconnection are steady, and she and her fine actors make Return one of only a handful of films to honestly address what to many is heartbreaking reality.
  96. Lbs.
    That truthfulness, along with the movie's emotional honesty and narrative polish, help tag this NY-grown indie as one to seek out.
  97. Splinters
    A cool documentary that pivots adroitly between viewpoints and ambitions.
  98. Waydowntown
    Maybe you have to have experienced one of these anti-weather urban cocoons to appreciate the concept of the film, and the prickly people who populate it.
  99. 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.
  100. Chaos
    It's not giving too much away to note that we've seen a lot of this before, in classic noir and postnoir films, though to name those films would spoil things.
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