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. The Cake Eaters
    This is not, frankly, a movie you'll remember long after you see it. But it has just enough moments of genuine intimacy to indicate that Masterson ought to give directing another try.
  2. The Edge of Love
    The Edge of Love may be intended as a biopic of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, but it’s destined to be remembered as the movie that brought Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller into the same bathtub.
  3. Miss March
    It takes a really bad stupid comedy to make you appreciate well-done stupid comedies. And boy is Miss March a stupid comedy.
  4. Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America
    If a black-metal band ever made a 107-minute music video, this visually striking but otherwise ludicrous epic is probably what it would look like.
  5. Tokyo Sonata
    Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is better known for horror films; this is a movie where the horror is internalized, and hideously truthful.
  6. Watchmen
    The most pleasant surprise in the movie adaptation of "Watchmen" is the pop-art fusion set off by placing superheroes in a "real" world. The film's biggest challenge – and accomplishment – was making that plausible.
  7. Phoebe in Wonderland
    So much of this irritating film from first-time writer-director Daniel Barnz feels like a writing exercise it's amazing Elle Fanning, in the title role, comes off as well as she does.
  8. Everlasting Moments
    This unhurried, novelistic movie is worth looking into.
  9. Explicit Ills
    The lack of subtlety indicates that this is a first film, but the passion and insights are strong enough to make you wonder what he'll (Webber) do next.
  10. Reunion
    You know how sometimes you have to listen to the boring problems of acquaintances you don't really like? And all the while, you're silently wondering if you remembered to pay your rent? Well, writer/director Alan Hruska has very kindly recreated that experience for us all.
  11. Sherman's Way
    Unfortunately, this strained comedy relies entirely on clichés and contrivances to tell the story of Sherman.
  12. 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.
  13. Red Riding Trilogy
    These three films (adapted from David Peace's novels by different directors), each a singularly gripping work, together form a towering and emotionally complex achievement.
  14. Crossing Over
    Writer-director Wayne Kramer adds what could be called mainstream threads to his messy script, but the result is simplistic across the board.
  15. Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
    Director Bruce Hendricks makes little use of the 3D technology, though the gimmick does distract from the fact that we learn nothing new about the guys. It would have been interesting to hear something of their history, especially given their much-discussed Evangelical background.
  16. The Trouble with Romance
    Ever fast-forward through a late-night cable romance just to get to the good parts? This amateurish relationship dramedy features all the stuff you'd skip, and nothing else.
  17. An American Affair
    This is one of those films in which almost every element is done in such an embarrassingly amateurish way, you want to put it out of its misery.
  18. Fired Up!
    Tries waaay too hard, just like its motormouth jock-snark heroes.
  19. Madea Goes to Jail
    Though he plays two other roles, Perry only really cuts loose when he dons Madea's housecoat, turning her into a devilishly funny voice of reason. Likewise, the movie tenses up when she's offscreen, becoming the sort of moralistic soap opera we've seen from Perry before.
  20. Eleven Minutes
    If you watched "Project Runway's" first season and wondered what happened to winner Jay McCarroll, here's your chance to find out.
  21. Must Read After My Death
    Intensely compelling documentary.
  22. Katyn
    A pensive and searching drama that explores how deep into the national psyche these murders in the Katyn forest went.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Friday the 13th
    Purists will be – happy? Relieved? – to know that the "ch-ch-chhh" music survived, and the body count still totals 13.
  24. Two Lovers
    Director James Gray is best known for hard-edged dramas like "Little Odessa," so it's surprising to find he has such a well-developed romantic side. This isn't your average date-night flick, though.
  25. Coraline
    An extraordinary achievement that nevertheless falls short of its full potential, Coraline is absolutely worth seeing, for older children and adults alike. But the connection will be entirely through your eyes; if you want it to touch your heart, you'll have to go to the book on which it's based.
  26. He's Just Not That Into You
    Yes, that's an impressive collection of actors. And yes, it's deflating to watch them wandering in and out of half-written scenes with no discernable direction.
  27. The Pink Panther 2
    Martin starts at the outrageous accent and spins out from there, and that's fine for this. And there are a few snicker-worthy scenes.
  28. Push
    Fanning's watcher is watchable, yet the kid-actress extraordinaire is so polished it kind of makes your head explode.
  29. Confessions of a Shopaholic
    There are some mildly amusing turns from costars like Kristin Scott Thomas, playing an icy editor, and Robert Stanton, as her frustrated debt collector.
  30. The International
    The International almost seems like a Monty Python spoof on spy-game thrillers in which the phrase "secret agent" is constantly replaced by "banker," resulting in lines like, "...If I die, 100 other bankers take my place."
  31. The Uninvited
    Yeah, this is pretty much your classic been-there, done-that scenario: evil stepmother, clueless father, imperiled teen.
  32. Taken
    Neeson's better than this. You can't watch him here without thinking, Geez, every fight-choreography session could have funded "Love, Actually." This bash-the-door-down action scene likely took as long to film as "Kinsey." That gunfight required more stunts than all of "Schindler's List."
  33. New in Town
    A romantic comedy that's neither romantic nor funny.
  34. Service (Serbis)
    This isn't a family -- or a film -- you'll ­easily forget.
  35. Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
    A limited amount of original footage -- awkwardly enhanced with reenactments -- gives the film a somewhat narrow focus. But in a way, the dry tone fits.
  36. The Lodger
    Filled with second-rate Brian DePalma twists, noirishly blurred lights and usually solid actors mouthing potboiler brine, The Lodger resembles bottom-shelf '80s dreck.
  37. Inkheart
    A kids' adventure movie can be a lot of things -- wild and woolly, loosey-goosey, full of foolishness -- but they should never be shabby. And that's the best word for Inkheart.
  38. Chandni Chowk to China
    With musical numbers and fight scenes as big as its heart, director Nikhil Advani's action-comedy really does sample it all.
  39. Cherry Blossoms
    Refusing to be rushed, Doris Dörrie blends individual experiences with universal emotions to create a quietly moving study of self-discovery.
  40. Hotel for Dogs
    Even the youngest viewers, not to mention their parents, will appreciate the buffoonish villainy of the dogcatchers (still useful villains more than half a century after "Lady and the Tramp"), and the movie's nice anti-kill shelter message is as it should be.
  41. Notorious
    Layering his film with the songs that made his subject an icon, Tillman is aware that Biggie connected with his audience because he told stories others instantly understood. Notorious does that, too.
  42. Paul Blart: Mall Cop
    Perfectly inoffensive and almost entirely unfunny, Paul Blart: Mall Cop is more of a numbing experience than a painful one.
  43. Bride Wars
    Hudson has, if nothing else, traded up: last winter she was stuck in "Fool's Gold."
  44. The Unborn
    What "The Exorcist" might look like if Madonna rewrote it, this silly fright flick finds college student Casey (Odette Yustman) haunted by a Kabbalistic demon.
  45. Defiance
    Craig, far from James Bond but still swaggering, makes a leathery, craggy commander, and Schreiber - who'll show his full-on action chops this summer in the Hugh Jackman "Wolverine" movie - is tough but sullen. Yet all this old-style moviemaking doesn't always pay off.
  46. Good
    An uncharacteristically stiff Mortensen can't break free from the clichés that constrain his character, who feels more like a symbol than a real person.
  47. Revolutionary Road
    As a whole, Sam Mendes' film of Revolutionary Road comes close but falls short of capturing Richard Yates' terrific novel.
  48. The Spirit
    Miller clearly wanted to make an impression, and that he does. Maybe it's better to be remembered for one of the worst movies of the year than forgotten for a mediocre one.
  49. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    Benjamin never questions his fate and ­never actually gets to enjoy being a kid. At least there's a thoughtful middle part, where the enigmatic Blanchett comes alive and Benjamin seems haunted by life -- someone we recognize, and not just a vessel tossed about by time.
  50. Bedtime Stories
    Sandler's shambling Yogi Bear-ness will be the big appeal to holiday-vacation audiences.
  51. Last Chance Harvey
    This mundane romantic comedy is notable for one reason only: its leading couple.
  52. Marley & Me
    If characters talking to dogs and dog reaction shots are some of your favorite things, add some stars to this review.
  53. Valkyrie
    If there are Nazis fighting other Nazis in a movie and it's still boring, something's gone wrong. Valkyrie has a coterie of problems, and represents a whole new front in Tom Cruise's public relations war, but first and foremost there's the tedium.
  54. Waltz with Bashir
    This animated documentary, from former Israeli soldier Ari Folman, blends both tactics to devastating effect. Perhaps only animation could give us the distance that makes his subject bearable: the personal cost of his own participation in the 1982 Lebanon War.
  55. The Secret of the Grain
    Kechiche takes his time, allowing us to know the characters as if we live next door. But be warned: for those who come to feel like a member of the family, the unexpected end may seem strikingly unfair.
  56. Theater of War
    Passionate and ambitious, John Walter's chronicle of a Public Theater production is too scattered for broad appeal. But those who connect with his themes will find themselves quickly drawn in.
  57. Yes Man
    An appealing Deschanel does her best, but the pair is mismatched in every way, from age to attitude. The entire movie is hung on Carrey's shtick, so if you're a fan, you'll have a decent time.
  58. Seven Pounds
    Saintliness is a heavy burden to carry, and Smith can't help but buckle a bit. He's always interesting to watch, but crafting a real person out of his cardboard character proves an impossible task.
  59. Nothing But the Truth
    A fairly gripping cautionary tale.
  60. The Wrestler
    Both Rourke and Tomei bring a tender, lived-in honesty to their sad roles.
  61. The Day the Earth Stood Still
    The film's major action sequences are never exciting, and even the now-requisite destruction of New York feels lazy.
  62. Doubt
    Directing the film of Doubt, Shanley is able to put an even finer point on his Tony-and Pulitzer-winning play about suspicion and guilt at a Bronx Catholic grade school in 1964.
  63. Gran Torino
    Eastwood's performance is the movie's centerpiece, and as you might expect, it's just tough enough to hold everything together.
  64. Nothing Like the Holidays
    It's a formula, all right, but a strong cast goes a long way toward carrying it off. We get one, for the most part, in Alfredo De Villa's cheerfully familiar dramedy.
  65. The Reader
    Provocatively intentioned, The Reader is a movie worth seeing - the kind of film you'll think about for days afterward. But when all is said and done, you're likely to wonder why the impact wasn't greater still.
  66. Wendy and Lucy
    Like a worst-case-scenario, indie-movie cliché, Wendy and Lucy throws every bone it can at the screen.
  67. Cadillac Records
    There are certain films - let's call them Road Map Movies - that drive you directly from point A to point B to point C, with barely a stop for gas. Cadillac Records is such a film: You see all the major landmarks, but how enlightening can a road trip be if you never even get off the highway?
  68. Hunger
    An emotionally devastating drama that isn't for the squeamish.
  69. Punisher: War Zone
    No worse than the second. Still, it pales in comparison to the first, which starred Dolph Lundgren. And that, right there, should tell you everything you need to know.
  70. Transporter 3
    Statham could do these movies in his sleep by now, so he gets credit for offering up so much dry wit. In fact, while Rudakova makes a painful acting debut, Statham appears more engaged than he has in a while.
  71. Four Christmases
    Like the last gift buried under singing Billy Bass fish, dancing Coke cans, joke books and mounds of wrapping paper, there's a glimmer of fun in Four Christmases that almost gets vacuumed up with the tinsel.
  72. Milk
    The final result somehow undersells a man whose life and death were watershed moments in the gay rights movement.
  73. Bolt
    Though every frame is great to look at, Bolt's script - by the co-writers of "Mulan" and "Cars" - lacks the wit of its closest Pixar relative, "The Incredibles." Rhino and some goofy pigeons provide the few laughs once the tale goes cross-country.
  74. Twilight
    It's disappointing when a big-screen romance can't match up to the one in your imagination, at any age.
  75. Special
    The movie loses its way toward the end, shifting from wry black comedy to slightly overdone pathos. But there's plenty here to appreciate, making the title perfectly apt.
  76. Lake City
    Only natural spitfire Spacek, as the pickup-driving mom of the land, feels fresh. There's even a mouthy kid Garity is "taking care of" - guess whose son he is?
  77. Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
    Rafferty keeps the structure so blandly standard, the title is nearly the most intriguing element of the whole film.
  78. Australia
    With Australia, Luhrmann obviously intends to stage a grand romance against the epic backdrop of World War II. But what we get instead is an unwieldy mess that needed another six months in the editing room.
  79. Quantum of Solace
    The result isn't bland, but it's not exactly Bond either.
  80. A Christmas Tale
    Though overly self-conscious, this "Tale" is nonetheless wry, observant and frequently heartbreaking. It's also bound to make you feel better about your own holiday plans.
  81. The Dukes
    About the kinds of showbiz hangers-on seen in the background of a Scorsese movie, and it feels like those guys decided they were the real stars.
  82. Eden
    This domestic drama from the producers of "Once" could be about the pair from that gentle romance - a decade later.
  83. How About You ...
    Anthony Byrne's lazy drama is insulting to just about everyone, including Maeve Binchy, who wrote the short story on which it was based. But nobody fares well, especially cast members Vanessa Redgrave, Brenda Fricker and Imelda Staunton.
  84. We Are Wizards
    A fun project that doesn't quite reach its potential, Josh Koury's doc is still worthwhile for anyone who can't wait until 2009 to see Harry Potter back on the big screen.
  85. Slumdog Millionaire
    It's a stunner.
  86. Role Models
    Where on the evolutionary scale of wacky-dudes-learn-to-grow-up movies does Role Models fall? Certainly less evolved than "Meatballs," but head and hairy knuckles above "Daddy Day Care" or "The Benchwarmers."
  87. JCVD
    Who knew? Turns out, Jean-Claude Van Damme is a funny guy, and a pretty good actor, too. Fans may already be aware of this, but JCVD is likely to introduce a whole new Van Damme to everybody else.
  88. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
    Dilutes the idea some by giving every four-legged hero a story arc. And there's not enough of the first movie's super-erudite monkeys. Yet the sitcom-style silliness is still there, and it's nice to see that the old "grin or frown as you wave a hand across your face" joke still has cross-generational, and cross-species, appeal.
  89. Repo! The Genetic Opera
    Check out the trailer before you commit to this one; if it's for you, you'll know instantly. And if it's not, you'll know that, too.
  90. Soul Men
    The script is basically a retread of every other AARP comedy, from "Grumpy Old Men" to "Wild Hogs." The laughs, in other words, are of the Viagra and kidney stone variety.
  91. Splinter
    If "Saw V" offers an example of how little filmmakers can get away with, Splinter proves how much a director can do with next to nothing.
  92. Zack and Miri Make a Porno
    The moments when "Z&M" works are, almost without exception, the ones that are more sweet than shocking. All the rest, frankly, feel like Apatow Lite.
  93. My Name Is Bruce
    Willing as Campbell is to Shatner-ize himself, his movie will appeal only to true believers.
  94. Pride and Glory
    Overshoots the mark by spinning its implausible, hyperviolent tale around too tight a family circle.
  95. High School Musical 3: Senior Year
    It's hard to complain about a pop culture phenomenon built on unabashed innocence. And anyway, we might as well get used to it: Neither the movie nor the passionate tween squeals at a recent preview leave any doubt that "HSM 4" is on its way - or that the inevitable "College Musical" will be far behind.
  96. Saw V
    This year's installment is as disappointing as a Halloween bag filled with nothing but raisins.
  97. Changeling
    The script is compelling, the direction confident, the production values professional. But it does not, in the end, feel real.
  98. I've Loved You So Long
    Scott Thomas breathes more emotion into Juliette's affectless, haunted demeanor than most actors do with pages of dialogue.
  99. Let the Right One In
    Alfredson makes the most of every detail, carefully crafting an atmosphere of haunting alienation. These two lost souls may come together under unusual circumstances, but their connection feels universally human.
  100. Passengers
    A clunky, dead-on-arrival scary drama that proves that even people with good taste need a good script or direction.
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