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. Pearl Jam Twenty
    Kurt Cobain, TicketMaster and the tragic concert in Roskilde, Denmark, are addressed through plentiful backstage footage. If only it was about something other than rockers almost irked they got famous.
  2. Savages
    Stone relies on his leads to guide us into this hyper-charged inferno, and they fit his juiced-up approach like James Woods and Woody Harrelson did in Stone's equally hopped-up "Salvador" and "Natural Born Killers." He gets us high on what they're selling before it goes south.
  3. Roll Bounce
    Whether today's tweens will go for such wholesomely retro entertainment is questionable, but their parents - at least the ones who once donned rainbow knee socks and too-tight Calvins - will love to love it, baby.
  4. 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.
  5. The Lie
    It doesn't try too hard, but what The Lie is working at, in its unassuming, amusing way, is a mini-portrait of growing pains in a time of extended adolescence. The truth is, that kind of thing is never easy, no matter what age.
  6. Mission: Impossible
    The movie comes alive in bursts such as a train-top fight hampered by gale-force winds. Cruise's star wattage may hog the show, but it insures that Mission: Impossible won't self-destruct easily.
  7. The Sticky Fingers of Time
    Nothing if not original.
  8. Confidence
    As pulp entertainment, Confidence is great fun and Foley's first good movie since the very different "Glengarry Glen Ross."
  9. American Pimp
    Genuinely entertaining and, thanks to a well of self-deluded quotes from the men, shockingly funny.
  10. 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.
  11. Dawn of the Dead
    There was no burning need for a remake, but this one is respectful of its predecessor. It incorporates the technology and acquisitiveness of the intervening quarter century since Romero's vision. It even features a metrosexual, something unheard of in 1978.
  12. Mendy
    Vardy draws the moral conflicts in broad strokes, but as a portrait of a man torn between his faith and the urges of his liberated hormones, it has honest depth.
  13. Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
    Though we see the same man throughout the bumpy tour captured here -- always calm, steady, faithful -- it's bound to prove an enlightening portrait for those who know him only as the guy who once worked with Peter Gabriel.
  14. Two in the Wave
    For the uninitiated, this fun French documentary detailing the camaraderie and division between filmmakers François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard reveals a time when "the cinema" was something to get excited about and literally fight over.
  15. Ip Man
    The highlights, of course, are the competitions and duels, choreographed by Sammo Hung.
  16. Surviving Progress
    The cumulative power of so many great minds envisioning our potential self-destruction is undeniable. You may start planning your move off the grid before the movie even ends.
  17. 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.
  18. Hava Nagila: The Movie
    While the filmmakers never quite make the case that their chosen melody deserves its own full-length film, they do ensure that you’ll leave the theater happily humming it.
  19. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
    You can't look away, not only because the carnage is so masterfully photographed, but because the director sucks you into his bleak, poetic, even sensible vision of cosmic brutality. Not for the faint-hearted!
  20. Moonlight
    A wild dream that spins into a nightmare, Moonlight isn't quite as provocative as it aims to be. But it will stick in your mind, and may even disturb your sleep.
  21. Limitless
    The movie looks great, never lags, and keeps us intrigued throughout. It's not until the high wears off that we realize we've just been had.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jurassic World
    For much of its running time, Jurassic World plays like a great theme park ride. In an age of blockbusters that lumber like herbivores, it’s refreshing to see a movie as lean and mean as a velociraptor.
  23. On the Ice
    If "Ice" never really solidifies, it's nonetheless the work of a filmmaker whose seriousness is worth watching out for.
  24. Day Watch
    Putting an entertainingly outlandish spin on "Matrix"-style action, Bekmambetov leans toward flamboyant special effects and operatic overacting.
  25. 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.
  26. The Children of the Century
    Inexplicable human bondage is a literary staple of film as well as literature, but Kurys ("Entre Nous"), usually so sure-handed with her actors, has trouble making this bond compelling.
  27. The Shape of Things
    Besides repeating his premise that only fools fall in love and deserve whatever circle of hell they enter for it, he seems to really believe that morality has no place in art. Certainly, he's keeping it out of his.
  28. Naqoyqatsi
    Images wash over you like wind-blown rain, fierce and beautiful at the same time, largely shaped into themes by the haunting music of Philip Glass, who is here joined by cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
  29. Madame Satã
    The movie covers only the early years of his (Joao Francisco dos Santos) rise to fame and apparently enduring legend, but the camera never pulls back to provide a social or historical context.
  30. Barbershop 2: Back in Business
    Queen Latifah, as the proprietor of the ­lady's salon next door to Calvin's, brightens things up in the brief appearances that serve as symbiotic promotion for the producers' coming spin-off movie, "Beauty­ Shop."
  31. I, Robot
    The perfect sci-fi movie for a post-9/11 world, in that it tells us we're afraid of threats hiding in plain sight.
  32. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
    Among an excellent cast, Douglas truly is the nexus; he and Stone make this sequel pay off big-time.
  33. Heights
    Heights is stage-bound throughout, and the secrets it would like to keep are very predictable. But its heart is in the right place, and the performances are first-rate.
  34. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert
    Note: We're giving this one 4 stars if you're under 12; 2-1/2 stars if you're not...That unwieldy name should give you some sense of Disney's intentions: this is, plain and simple, a consolation prize for all the frustrated fans who couldn't get tickets to Cyrus' sold-out stadium tour last year.
  35. The Whistleblower
    Director Larysa Kondracki's fictionalized account of a true story is underserved by a melodramatic script; the result is like a film of a "60 Minutes" segment. Still, Weisz is strong and smart. And David Strathairn shows up in is-he-good-or-evil? mode.
  36. More Than a Game
    The result would make an excellent inspirational video for aspiring players, but it's not quite ready for the pros.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Outrageous Sophie Tucker
    This gossipy, affectionate movie about the daughter of Jewish Ukranian immigrants’ rags-to-riches story and her survival as a star into the mid-1960s is a lot of fun. But it doesn’t get under her skin.
  38. Learning to Drive
    Hungry for some grownup entertainment? Take Learning to Drive for a spin.
  39. Paranormal Activity 3
    A few really weird things happen during Paranormal Activity 3, though unfortunately, they have nothing to do with being frightened.
  40. If You Build It
    This honest and engrossing film shows how ingenuity and spark can restore excitement in education. That goal needs every helping hand it can get.
  41. 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.
  42. Definitely, Maybe
    It's a decent Valentine's date-night flick, and should earn Reynolds the attention he'll need to snare stronger leading roles.
  43. The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
    Gentle, funny and full of the lessons one expects from the scions of the late Jim Henson.
  44. Les amants criminels
    "Grimm's Fairy Tales" were pretty grim, but Criminal Lovers crosses the line and sexualizes your worst fears.
  45. Bang Rajan
    Unapologetically graphic and slightly marred by an artistic awkwardness, this is a rare and worthwhile glimpse into another nation's historical legend.
  46. Magic Trip
    The title's accurate; there are lots of minor but magical moments, like witnessing the accidental invention of tie-dye.
  47. Little Lili
    Miller takes Chekhov's themes and checks them off, but he never gets under his egocentric characters' thin skins.
  48. Handsome Harry
    Though there's too much movie-style self-deception, Sheridan is excellent, and his scenes with the consistently engaging, criminally underemployed Campbell Scott are subtle and serene.
  49. What If
    Anyone looking for a date-night flick will be inclined to fall for Michael Dowse’s aggressively adorable What If. Just be warned: The single-minded determination to win you over may wind up pushing you away.
  50. Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story
    Fanning and Russell are a perfect, sweet-and-sour pair. And, of course, the horse is absolutely beautiful - which, in the end, is what this all comes down to, anyway.
  51. Music and Lyrics
    As a premise, this is thinner than a strand of cotton candy, but fairy tales have been hung from less, and what keeps this one together is the surprisingly easy chemistry between Grant and Barrymore.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Unfriended
    Unfortunately, the engine underneath that gloss is woefully familiar, offering the same jump scares we’ve seen a thousand times before.
  53. American Swing
    Directors Jon Hart and Matthew Kaufman don’t delve deeply enough into the psyche of club founder Larry Levenson or the culture he exploited. But they do present an entertaining snapshot of his brief reign as New York’s self-appointed King of Swing.
  54. 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.
  55. Nanny McPhee
    There's magic afoot, even if the movie is more serviceable than magical.
  56. Onegin
    Makes you appreciate opera, or NoDoz.
  57. Come te nessuno mai
    Charming, funny and poignant. But it's also a reminder that if we want an intelligent teen romance, we have to import it.
  58. Wimbledon
    As a love story, Wimbledon is a washout. As a meditation on sports psychology, it might help improve your game.
  59. The Ant Bully
    While "Cars" may have the most elaborate CGI effects of the season, and "Monster House?" the most original character (the house), The Ant Bully can lay claim to the most entertaining story and most rewarding ending.
  60. The Look
    This well-made, elegant doc follows the British actress as she travels and discusses life, art, fashion, sex and death with various friends and collaborators, including novelist Paul Auster and photographer Peter Lindbergh.
  61. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
    The cast gives it all a good go, and pip-pip and all that for noticeable intelligence and a bit of the old British satire. Yet Salmon Fishing takes patience and rewards with no bite.
  62. Deepsea Challenge 3D
    Seeing unexplored parts of our natural world in state-of-the-art 3-D is great. Listening to James Cameron explain how wonderful he is, while we see all that, is not.
  63. Viva
    Viva needed to be shaved down to about 70 minutes, the better to really let loose and jettison some over-the-top jokiness.
  64. Night Watch: Nochnoi Dozor
    Frankly, after watching writer-director Timur Bekmambetov's grim fantasy - the first leg of a trilogy adapted from the sci-fi novels of Sergei Lukyanenko - I'm still a little confused.
  65. Where Soldiers Come From
    To see these children of waitresses, salon workers and fathers on disability burdened because they stepped up is humanizing and heartbreaking.
  66. 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.
  67. Jimmy Carter Man from Plains
    There is no doubting Jonathan Demme's admiration for our 39th President: It's apparent from the opening scenes.
  68. The Triumph of Love
    The always reliable Kingsley and Shaw are hilarious, and if the movie isn't quite a triumph, it's still far better than the junk food currently cluttering movie screens.
    • New York Daily News
  69. Pipe Dream
    Stocked with an impressively high-quality collection of New York actors. Unfortunately, in asking them all to play such unlikable characters, Walsh flushes too much of that talent down the drain.
  70. NASCAR: The IMAX Experience
    If you're at all curious about what it feels like to be inside a race car going 200 miles per hour at Daytona International Speedway, I don't think there's a better, quicker or safer way to find out than Simon Wincer's documentary.
  71. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
    With its video game upgrade, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle manages to match the silly fun of its predecessor — even without Williams — and that’s no small achievement unlocked.
  72. The Fast and the Furious
    Unless you live and breathe exhaust fumes, there isn't much to sustain a viewer through a lame story and dialogue so pathetic.
  73. Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise
    Feels like a VH1 slice-of-life with all the toppings. Yet it benefits from the fact that even a slice of it's title subject is a full meal.
  74. Norwegian Wood
    Fans of the book may resist the efforts of director Tran Anh Hung ("The Scent of Green Papaya"), simply because it would be impossible to capture the essence of Murakami's prose. But this exquisitely filmed, often haunting tragedy is worth taking on its own terms.
  75. To the Wonder
    It feels like a high-end perfume ad.
  76. Steep
    The skiers' explanations, on the order of "no risk, no adventure," won't wash with people born without the daredevil gene and watching them fly down these vertical blankets of snow, often out of control, is a little like watching a train wreck
  77. Hitch
    Smith turns it on with co-star Eva Mendes in a manner that will have George Clooney taking notes.
  78. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
    The actress' [Julianne Moore's] goodwill, alone, holds this schizophrenic story together - if just barely.
  79. Before I Fall
    A collision of sci-fi, drama and horror, Before I Fall earns points for ambition.
  80. Life in a Day
    There are dull spots, as with any other day, yet "Life" aims to be, and occasionally is, like a YouTube-y "Our Town," giving a sense of what it is to be alive on planet Earth.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dolphin Tale 2
    No one over age 10 will flip for this sequel to the 2011 hit “Dolphin Tale.” But that doesn’t mean only kids will enjoy this gentle, moving family drama.
  82. 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.
  83. The Wisdom of Crocodiles
    With all the brooding, stylized closeups of blood, crosses and cigarettes, the overall effect is fashion-mag chic -- not, as intended, intellectual thriller.
  84. Hats Off
    Though Weddell's accomplishments are inspiring, we would have been better served by a more impartial portrait. With its reverent tone, the movie often feels more like it was made by a doting granddaughter than a pro filmmaker.
  85. Troubadours
    So maybe this movie should serve as his introduction to a larger series, in which each artist gets the individual portrait Neville so clearly wants them all to have.
  86. The Mist
    The brutally ironic ending, I might add, won't make anybody very happy about having chosen The Mist for their evening's entertainment.
  87. X-Men: The Last Stand
    Ratner is unable to maintain the emotional intensity that has made this series so deeply epic. But he sure knows how to put on a show.
  88. Lads & Jockeys
    Racing enthusiasts will appreciate historical footage, while a thread about a new student overwhelmed by his responsibilities has promise. But after a decent start, Marquet stumbles, never making it across the finish line.
  89. Jarhead
    The movie has some of the washed-out look of David O. Russell's excellent "Three Kings," but none of the edge. That's part of the point - that nothing leads to anything, at least not in this particular war.
  90. Cosmopolis
    There are plenty of ideas to gnaw on, given that Cronenberg has adapted Don DeLillo's intense novel of a New York on the verge of dystopian breakdown. But frustratingly bland work from lead Robert Pattinson results in an awfully watery stew.
  91. Acts of Worship
    Reeder makes a compelling lost soul, so that even the most soddenly moralistic moments are worth watching.
  92. Footloose
    Oddly, Craig Brewer has softened the tone for his remake. But nearly everything else remains intact, and -- surprisingly -- that's just enough to win us over.
  93. Jason Bourne
    Once the story drags Bourne out of retirement, it's just a bunch of fights and chase scenes, only occasionally interrupted by a few lines of dialogue.
  94. Love Liza
    It's a great performance that's a horror to watch. Of all the bleak year-end movies, Love Liza is the bleakest; of all the sad characters you've seen lately, Hoffman's Wilson Joel is the saddest. And he goes home with you.
  95. Swimming Upstream
    Rush has never played anyone this starkly unsympathetic, and he proves to be very good at playing very bad.
  96. Kansas City
    Jazz is a good metaphor for Robert Altman's movies they're often improvisational, free-form and full of unexpected dissonance. Unfortunately, his movies also fall prey to the hazards of jazz they can be boring, screechy and endless. Thus, Kansas City. [16 Aug 1996, p.49]
    • New York Daily News
  97. Tuvalu
    It may take a half-hour to get one's bearings, but there's a payoff in the subsequent charm of this nearly wordless, surreal comedy set in a decrepit bathhouse in Bulgaria.
    • New York Daily News
  98. Pirate Radio
    Tries to capture that moment -- complete with air guitar-playing deejays -- and unapologetically rides a wave of nostalgia, but ultimately sinks due to a bloated, watery script.
  99. 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.
  100. Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus
    A movie about identity that can't quite pinpoint its own, Andrew Douglas' road-trip documentary about the Deep South does eventually meander toward audience enlightenment.
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