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. Watching TV with the Red Chinese
    This quirky indie has an off-kilter, shaggy appeal and a filling story.
  2. Conviction
    Based on a true story, the movie's best scenes involve its heroine breaking down barriers by force of will as much as by legal wrangling.
  3. Hannah Montana: The Movie
    Like 2003's "Lizzie McGuire" movie, "Hannah" breaks little new ground but makes the big screen shift with liveliness and sense of humor impressively intact.
  4. Tusk
    Tusk is alternately amusing, appalling and frustrating. It’s also unique.
  5. The LEGO Movie
    As full-length toy advertisements go, you really couldn’t ask for more.
  6. Chéri
    The movie’s shallow amusements do make for an ideal guilty pleasure, especially since the actors seem to be having so much fun. Bates, marching around like an overstuffed pigeon, is a reliable scene-stealer, while the two leads make an entirely convincing couple.
  7. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
    It's tasty at times, but feels like a very special episode of "30 Rock." Halfway in, you're still expecting Kenneth the Page to show up.
  8. The Monuments Men
    There’s great repartee between its cast of this “based on a true [but forgotten] story” of World War II. Yet the film overall isn’t colorful enough.
  9. 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.
  10. The Pretty One
    This eerily unsettling indie takes a few pleasantly unexpected turns before winding up in a traditional place. But if you think it isn’t worth the time, you have another think coming.
  11. Empire of Silver
    The most interesting threads aren't political but personal, with a melodramatic romance providing some well-earned tears. Your final thoughts, however, are likely to concern Jennifer Tilly, who's so bizarrely miscast as a severe missionary that her presence becomes its own distraction.
  12. 7 Chinese Brothers
    Jason Schwartzman does the full Bill Murray in 7 Chinese Brothers.
  13. Doctor Strange
    It's fun to have new version of an old Marvel favorite, and a storyline which adds some genuine mysticism to this ever-expanding franchise. But "Strange" is too often only odd when it needs to be truly magical, and Hollywood-safe when it needs to be brave.
  14. The Gatekeepers
    A fascinating and informative, if sometimes stodgy, documentary about the most secret wing of Israel's anti-espionage unit.
  15. On My Way
    Predictable as the adventure may be, the company — and the countryside — make it worthwhile.
  16. The First Beautiful Thing
    A streak of "Cinema Paradiso" runs through this Italian dramedy - and while it lacks that film's overflowing emotion, it's filled with its own artfulness and warmth.
  17. The Zero Theorem
    This all feels like an homage to Gilliam’s “Brazil,” though Zero Theorem also has shadows of “12 Monkeys” and other films in the onetime Monty Python animator’s cinematic carnival.
  18. The Last of the Unjust
    Though it’s more testimonial exhibit than movie, “Unjust” remains a crucial document.
  19. 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.
  20. Every Last Child
    Mostly, though, there’s hopefulness here, and determination to win a fight worth fighting.
  21. Famous Nathan
    Some segments are too long, but Famous Nathan contains a unique flavor that history-loving New Yorkers should relish.
  22. Casting By
    A look into one of the most invisible, and crucial, of cinematic disciplines. Using the seminal casting director Marion Dougherty as a subject, the film walks us through the intricacies of casting, with insight from Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Robert Redford and others.
  23. Frontrunners
    Frontrunners is a lot rougher than Nanette Burstein's recent, similar documentary, "American Teen," and its comparable lack of gloss is both an asset and a flaw.
  24. Footprints
    Sometimes a bit of befuddlement is exactly what you need. That's the driving idea behind writer-director Steven Peros' off-kilter, off-the-beaten path comedy, which owes a lot to 1980s indie cinema.
  25. Rejoice and Shout
    Its straightforward approach is notably lacking the divine inspiration of its subject. But Don McGlynn's gospel documentary delivers so many moments of artistic ecstasy, we can forgive the plain wrapping.
  26. V/H/S
    Anthologies are risky. For every high point, there's often a misstep to match. But this indie compilation has enough inventive chills to interest any horror fan.
  27. Otelo Burning
    This crisp, involving South African drama comes at you in waves, changing course and tone expertly.
  28. Piku
    While the movie has far more toilet humor than you might expect, the locations and overall sweetness of the performances make Piku a good winding-road pick.
    • 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.
  30. Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
    This impassioned documentary is well-intentioned and admirable in its aims, but overreaching and therefore lacking impact.
  31. Man of Tai Chi
    The fights are strong (though the 49-year-old director’s are slo-mo), and the surface is calm. Say “Whoa!” if you like, but it’s cool.
  32. 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.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Riot Club
    Don’t bother with The Riot Club unless you enjoy watching filthy rich young Englishmen conduct an orgy of violence while vilifying the poor.
  34. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
    Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials does pretty well. It finishes respectably on a scale between “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” (fizzle) and “The Empire Strikes Back” (aces!).
  35. Tracks
    The scenery is stunning and the story compelling, but some viewers will find it easier to admire Tracks than to engage with this meditative tale of Robyn Davidson (played beautifully by Mia Wasikowska).
  36. The House I Live In
    As is, the film is more likely to impress the choir than change many minds.
  37. The Theory of Everything
    Rather than go for big ideas, the movie cozies up to small wonders. Instead of an ah-ha moment, we get a sigh of familiarity. Still, in this biopic about Hawking, there’s one explosion that blows your mind: Eddie Redmayne’s performance. Redmayne as Hawking, if the stars align, should be an Oscar lock.
  38. Fighting
    As its defiantly bland title suggests, Fighting is a bare-bones effort that tries just hard enough to keep us watching. By making good use of its New York setting, Montiel does bring a certain indie grit to the generic story.
  39. Dough
    Dough should have been more easily digestible; the setup is sure to appeal to occasional stoners and Jewish foodies.
  40. Harry Brown
    Here's a rough-and-tumble British drama that, despite a strong spine, ought to be more like its title character: quiet and deadly -- and less showy.
  41. A Screaming Man
    Haroun is achingly conscious of day-to-day decisions that seem small when they're made but can suddenly loom large.
  42. Kites
    Melodrama, romance and action are cheerfully jumbled together, so as long as you're ready to embrace the excess of swoony sentimentality, you'll get more than your money's worth.
  43. Decoding Deepak
    Like its subject, the movie is not as calculating as it seems.
  44. Vampire Academy
    The supernatural fight scenes are cheesy and cheap, but this movie is less about epic brawls and more about a headmistress in fabulous dresses, secret meetings with brooding boys in the library, sexualized fang pokes and making wisenheimer comments during prophetic visions.
  45. Olympus Has Fallen
    Perhaps every generation gets the movie stars it deserves. “Olympus” has quite a bit to say about the current state of our country. Intentions aside, not all of it is entirely flattering.
  46. Don McKay
    He definitely needs more experience, but writer/director Jake Goldberger displays an appealingly skewed sense of humor in his noir debut.
  47. We Are Your Friends
    The big finish doesn’t quite land, but in fairness, it’s hard to make standing at a laptop mixing tunes look like a triumph. Still, for teens who can’t wait to be 20, this will get ’em on their feet.
  48. Eden
    This domestic drama from the producers of "Once" could be about the pair from that gentle romance - a decade later.
  49. Robin Hood
    The problem with Russell Crowe's new take on the legend is that it has one muddy boot in history and the other in fantasy. The middling result is far from a bull's-eye.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Late Bloomer
    While The Late Bloomer comes to a bit too wrapped-up-in-a-bow resolution, it's still a refreshing reminder of just how pervasive sex is and how much it plays a role in everyone's lives.
  51. Frozen
    What’s crucially missing, however, is a hissable villain. Nor are there any memorable tunes, which is too bad given that Broadway star Menzel is playing Elsa.
  52. Demi-Soeur
    Broad comedy and a little slapstick ensue. In the end, you’ve got to have a heart harder than a tortoise shell not get a little misty.
  53. My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
    If someone else had made "My Son," it would be just another crime thriller based on a true story. But with Werner Herzog behind the camera, it's a head-scratcher from start to finish.
  54. The Gambler
    Understatement is one of Mark Wahlberg’s greatest assets. But that admirable trait winds up working against him in The Gambler, Rupert Wyatt’s otherwise intriguing dramatic thriller.
  55. Angels & Demons
    Despite the overlong running time, the action moves smoothly and swiftly.
  56. Queen of Earth
    It’s rare when a psychological drama gets us into a character’s head without tricks or a voiceover. This drama from Alex Ross Perry burrows so deep that it’s scary.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Nas: Time Is Illmatic
    The album lives as a touchstone, and a turning point, in New York hip hop. The film may be far less significant, but it does bear witness to the music’s greatness.
  58. Wanted
    There's barely a frame that doesn't look stretched, smashed or otherwise harassed. Imagine "The Matrix" on speed, and you're halfway there.
  59. Berlin
    Intermittent shots of actress Emmanuelle Seigner embodying the lyrics are surplus.
  60. The Summit
    Interviews with survivors fill us in on the personalities of the lost, but the background of K2, with archival footage from 1954, is equally gripping.
  61. The Dog
    And always there’s Wojtowicz himself, who died in 2006. His patter and persona must be seen to be believed. This guy was a piece of work, and so is The Dog.
  62. The Accountant
    The problem is that endings matter. I was thrilled at watching more than an hour of Ben Affleck playing Christian Wolff as a socially awkward, arithmetically gifted, martial arts expert sharpshooter. But then the plot devolved into nonsense for the final stretch, leaving me wanting to garnish the filmmakers' wages.
  63. Knuckle
    While the film becomes slightly redundant, the anger and strife its characters cannot overcome is awful, poetic and, frankly, astonishing.
  64. The Adjustment Bureau
    Unfortunately, the fantasy-thriller they're in eventually falls apart, becoming a much sillier, less substantial movie than its lead actors deserve.
  65. The Man Who Invented Christmas
    In the end, The Man Who Invented Christmas is an enjoyable enough diversion. It’s no humbug. Just pleasantly ho-hum.
  66. The Wind Rises
    The movie’s spell is solid, even if it doesn’t soar to the heights it could.
  67. The Princess and the Frog
    Part of the problem with "P&F" is that Tiana and Naveen's connection feels superficial.
  68. We Live in Public
    A snapshot of several New York eras that coincide with the Internet's growing pains, We Live in Public focuses on entrepreneur, party-thrower and dot.com bubble participant Josh Harris.
  69. The Good Son: The Life of Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini
    The film winds up as a chronicle of uneasy forgiveness.
  70. Bellflower
    Like its antiheroes, this slacker tragedy has moments of calm and originality that are sadly obliterated by a tendency toward the extreme. Still, in a kind of reverse apocalypse, the movie's toughest stretch is its first two-thirds, a navel-gazing, semi-romantic nothing-a-thon that falls away in time for the movie to emerge from the ashes.
  71. The Hundred-Foot Journey
    Any movie with food as a motif runs the risk of pouring on the metaphor, and that happens here, too.
  72. Parkland
    Perhaps it’s inevitable that the movie works best not while we’re watching fictional recreations, but when we see real footage or hear actual broadcasts.
  73. Wah Do Dem
    Though the mumblecore esthetic is familiar and the movie's ultimate impact slight, the filmmakers do find a fresh and modestly amusing twist by tossing their hipster out of his natural habitat.
  74. Harmontown
    We never do find out what really went on behind the scenes of “Community.” But the delightful success of a charismatic loner like Crittenden could be considered one of Harmon’s greatest accomplishments.
  75. We Are What We Are
    While ultimately gory — and a little dopey — this is no rowdy, exploitation-y, gross-out picture. This is a film where ambience, glossy imagery and performance are more effective than the splatter.
  76. Like Someone in Love
    Newcomers may be disappointed by such a slender effort, but fans of revered Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami will find plenty to appreciate in his observant followup to 2010’s acclaimed “Certified Copy.”
  77. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
    Among the lessons learned: marriages need tending and distance can make people closer. Not earth-shaking, but harmless. Like this sequel.
  78. The Pact
    For her part, Lotz carries the load with such briskly efficient confidence, it's no surprise to learn that she's already got several more movies on the way.
  79. Last Love
    Not much happens in Sandra Nettelbeck’s intimate family drama, but its well-drawn connections between lonely souls make an impact nonetheless.
  80. 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.
  81. City Island
    The performances are absurdly broad, and each story line is more outlandish than the last. But De Felitta’s approach is so easygoing, and the waterside setting so irresistibly charming, you’re bound to walk out in a great mood. How many movies can do that for you?
  82. Joe
    Joe and director David Gordon Green find a middle ground between the old, vulnerable Cage and the one that seemed to eat that other guy. Good to have him back.
  83. Snow White and the Huntsman
    It's Theron who owns this film, imbuing her deliciously depraved Queen with furious pain and deep-seated fear.
  84. Gun Hill Road
    Without pushing too heavily, Green makes the parallels between Enrique and Michael's situations genuine.
  85. Surfwise
    Pray unfolds the family's story with patience and skill, making it both a compliment and a complaint to say that he leaves us wanting to know much more.
  86. Shake Hands with the Devil
    Spottiswoode relays this tragic story with respect and sadness. But Michael Donovan's script is stuffed with clichés, and Dupuis is unable to convey the depth of Dallaire's emotions.
  87. Biutiful
    Here, it's all Bardem, and this great actor's careworn face and sensitive presence counts for a lot. He ultimately can't save the soul of Biutiful, but he makes the journey easier.
  88. Blue Ruin
    Saulnier accomplishes something rare here. He has an ability to convey depth of feeling and ominousness without tricks or even musical cues.
  89. Magic Trip
    The title's accurate; there are lots of minor but magical moments, like witnessing the accidental invention of tie-dye.
  90. August: Osage County
    If you embrace the overkill, you’ll enjoy it. But if extravagance isn’t your thing, move swiftly on to something lighter and more digestible.
  91. The Seven Five
    Director Tiller Russell sometimes get sidetracked — a dangerous thing in a story that already has a lot of twists, turns and off-ramps. But it’s a story you have to hear, from the guys who lived it and may never live it down.
  92. Protektor
    Though it remains a little too enigmatic, Marek Najbrt's Holocaust drama is atmospheric enough to keep us edgy on its heroine's behalf.
  93. Fright Night
    You'll need a taste for nostalgia to really appreciate Fright Night, which knowingly blends Eighties cheese with Nineties snark - a combination that works better than it sounds.
  94. Our Nixon
    Pieced together, these behind-the-scenes moments are a thrill for history buffs. From the moon landing to the resignations, this is raw Nixon.
  95. Pitch Perfect
    How you respond to Pitch Perfect will depend primarily on how you feel about its obvious inspirations: "Glee," "Bring It On" and the food-poisoning scene from "Bridesmaids."
  96. The Three Stooges
    There's just some great imitations of what remains an acquired taste.
  97. Rio 2
    Most impressive: the striking vibrancy of the animation. This is the rare movie that earns the extra cost of 3-D glasses.
  98. 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.
  99. Chef
    Scenes of Favreau at the grill bantering with Leguizamo and Cannavale could almost sustain an entire movie.
  100. Aftermath
    What keeps the film so fascinating is how even its protagonists are greatly flawed. While certainly upsetting, Aftermath takes a look at the dangers inherent in an abundance of truth.
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