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. A/k/a Tommy Chong
    Gilbert blatantly takes Chong's side, so your level of empathy will rise or fall depending on how strongly you connect with his subject's hazy, if enthusiastic, dedication to "the pursuit of righteous happiness."
  2. Cars
    Whether the movie will make you believe a shocking-orange stock car has a future with a lavender Carrera, it's more fun to follow than a televised freeway chase.
  3. A Prairie Home Companion
    People unfamiliar with either man may think Altman is mocking Keillor and his 32-year-old radio program here. But, it is pure affection, and the movie is as much up-tempo, irresistible fun to watch as the show is to hear.
  4. Agnes and His Brothers
    Roehler aims scattershot barbs at so many targets, from political hypocrisy to suburban entitlement, that he often misses. But whenever he takes the time to line up his toxic arrows, usually with the help of a compellingly squirmy Bleibtreu, he hits the bull's-eye.
  5. Autumn
    It's in French with French actors, but its film noir sensibilities have a filtered Hollywood vibe about them. In other words, it's pretty much a mess.
  6. Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul
    It's hard to imagine what Akin left unexplored - but here's hoping he'll share his discoveries if he ever returns.
  7. The Heart of the Game
    Genuinely touching and unquestionably sincere, the movie certainly has heart - but it could have used a little more game.
  8. The Omen
    Rent the original. It tells exactly the same story, with a better cast and with special effects that are as good or better.
  9. The Break-Up
    Newly minted celebrity couple Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston don't have many opportunities to demonstrate their romantic chemistry in Peyton Reed's funny, heart-wrenching The Break-Up, but they still give what may be the best performances of their careers.
  10. The Cult of the Suicide Bomber
    Given that fundamentalist faith and sober logic are irreconcilable enemies, though, Baer's analysis inevitably leads to a grim roadblock, at which he can do little more than tally the toll.
  11. District B13
    Besson takes a few clumsy stabs at political relevance, but it's clear that grand themes are not his priority. That's okay: His charismatic leads are martial-arts masters, and their breathtaking stunts smoothly lift the movie every time it stumbles.
  12. The War Tapes
    A gripping, sometimes dramatic, sometimes annoying collection of jerky images and subjective impressions.
  13. Typhoon
    An exhausting combination of generic thriller, political tract and sentimental weepie.
  14. Coastlines
    Nunez's fans will appreciate his ability to evoke a palpable atmosphere. But there's just not enough spark in his scorched setting.
  15. 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.
  16. Shem
    A muddle of good intentions and bad direction, this amateurish road movie follows a young Brit across Europe as he reconnects with his Jewish roots.
  17. Cavite
    The hand-held camera work gives the film an effective documentary pulse, but it adds up to only half a movie.
  18. La Moustache
    Have Marc's friends tricked him with a conspiracy of silence, or was that mustache a growth only in his mind? The filmmaker has said there is no intended meaning to any of this, so search for it for your own amusement.
  19. Stagedoor
    The problem is, Shiva found so many inspirational moments that she wasn't able to edit them into proper focus. As a result, the movie jumps from scene to scene, too scattered to make a strong connection with anything, or anyone, in particular.
  20. The Da Vinci Code
    The movie is so nervous about offending anyone that it's hardly any fun. Hanks delivers a few solemn speeches meant to deflect criticism. Meanwhile, he and Tautou barely hit it off. At least Mr. and Mrs. Smith got hot while doing their jobs.
  21. Over the Hedge
    The computer-animation is terrific, most of the slapstick gags are fun, and Wanda Sykes' voice performance as feisty Stella the Skunk is one that will be remembered - and not because it stinks.
  22. See No Evil
    Grim, bloody and relentless, without even a spark of fun or intelligence, Evil is barely good enough for late-night cable.
  23. The King
    Surely among the darkest-themed movies ever made.
  24. 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.
  25. Mouth to Mouth
    Like the homeless kids at its center, Alison Murray's feature debut is passionate, angry and suffering from a serious lack of discipline.
  26. Twelve and Holding
    A movie with better parts than a whole. But where it's right, it's really right.
  27. Poseidon
    The new cast is no match for the star-clustered original, but Lucas, who looks much like a young Paul Newman (you may think you're watching "The Towering Inferno"), has a strong, matinee-idol presence, and Russell is a reliable old hand at this sort of thing.
  28. Just My Luck
    Lohan's good work in movies like "Mean Girls" and the "Freaky Friday" remake is a faint memory as she struggles through antics, unfunny pratfalls and squirmingly bad set pieces.
  29. Goal! The Dream Begins
    A sports movie for people who may not care about sports but can't resist a heart-tugging underdog story.
  30. Dead Man's Shoes
    This is no simplistic vigilante movie. Like Park Chan-wook's "Vengeance" trilogy, it explores the nature of the beast of revenge, leaving the audience in a sweat of dread.
  31. Keeping Up with the Steins
    Mazel tov to Scott Marshall for creating an endearing portrayal of familial lunacy that ought to charm as many Smiths as it will Steins.
  32. Saving Shiloh
    Based on the last book in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's award-winning trilogy, this third installment in the family-friendly "Shiloh" series is perfect for anyone who wishes "The Waltons" was still around.
  33. Wah-Wah
    Thanks to Grant's script and direction, the exotic Swaziland location (a film first) and an engaging cast, this smartly crafted drama radiates a gently comic pulse.
  34. Sketches of Frank Gehry
    Providing a tart balance to such enthusiastic admiration, Gehry's own blunt musings on his motivations, revelations and desires prove especially interesting.
  35. 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.
  36. Russian Dolls
    Meandering, overlong digital soap opera.
  37. Mission: Impossible III
    The supporting cast, including Ving Rhames, Laurence Fishburne and gorgeous Maggie Q, is underused, but the movie delivers the goods.
  38. Art School Confidential
    There are two movies vying to occupy the same space here: a teen comedy about artistic pretension and academic double standards, and a darker, nastier movie about a serial killer. They share Zwigoff's trademark misanthropy, but it doesn't delight as it did in the perversely sweet "Bad Santa." Now it just feels mean.
  39. An American Haunting
    There are jolts galore in a movie stuffed with the basic tricks of the evil-spirit trade - banging noises in the attic, slamming doors and windows, spinning clocks, shaking beds, rabid beasts, disappearing children and the occasional moment of eyeball-rolling possession.
  40. Hoot
    What's subversive about the movie is that it comes off as squeaky-clean, when in fact it's irresponsible. Worse, it's not that interesting.
  41. Down in the Valley
    The movie turns into something strange and annoying, an attempted blend of a suburban thriller with an Old West shoot-'em-up.
  42. The Proposition
    Despite all the violence that ensues, The Proposition is a psychological Western more in the mold of Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" than the John Ford films its stark cinematography resembles. It's about a good man, Stanley, who does bad things, and a bad man, Charlie, fighting his conscience.
  43. Stick It
    Peregrym's performance as fiery, troubled teen Haley Graham is a triumph of charisma over technique.
  44. United 93
    I wouldn't recommend the movie to anyone, but if the families of the victims take something positive from it, as their cooperation with Greengrass suggests they do, that's justification enough.
  45. 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.
  46. RV
    The funny thing about RV - no, it's not the jokes, which mostly bomb - is that the characters are actually pretty likable. It's an odd achievement for a road-trip comedy that wants desperately to be loved for its potty jokes, not its humanity.
  47. Guys and Balls
    There are moments of genuine emotion between the wacky tryouts and the nail-biter finale, and it seems churlish to complain. But there's little room for laziness around superior players like "Shaolin Soccer" and "Bend It Like Beckham."
  48. The Lost City
    When an intensely emotional scene calls for the voice to break, call in Andy Garcia. He does the best voice-breaking, half-choked sob of anguish in the business, and he does it a lot in Lost City, his well-meaning directorial debut.
  49. Water
    As a sign of how stubborn some irrational religious traditions can be, Hindu protesters forced Mehta to close down her Indian location and finish the film in neighboring Sri Lanka.
  50. The Whore's Son
    Austrian director Michael Sturminger's debut feature creates a visually evocative environment in which to explore some significant themes, from religious repression to Freudian guilt.
  51. Revoloution
    Less a movie than an 80-minute promo for a self-help program for the seriously desperate.
  52. Lady Vengeance
    Less bloody than its predecessors, Lady Vengeance wraps up with a killer (literally) finale that calls into question the killer instinct. It's one of the reasons Park's brutal films are so emotionally rewarding.
  53. Army of Shadows
    It's a white-knuckler all the way, with most of that tension coming from the smallest facial expressions exchanged in uneasy silence between compatriots who knew what they were getting into, but were nevertheless unprepared for the moral and emotional fallout of their patriotic actions.
  54. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
    If Lazarescu's experience is typical in the former Soviet bloc, democracy hasn't done much to humanize the bureaucracy.
  55. Three Times
    A lyrical, subtle, chaste and nearly wordless romance.
  56. American Dreamz
    Where good satire is drawn with a surgeon's scalpel, this comedy is done with a brush broad enough to paint - or, at least, hit - the side of a barn. But in the softer realm of parody, it has a good premise, a couple of funny performances and enough giggles for a reasonably good time at the movies.
  57. The Sentinel
    Implausible yet enjoyably diverting thriller.
  58. Silent Hill
    The worst kind of horror movie: trash that takes itself seriously.
  59. Somersault
    Shortland's script takes some unnecessary turns, mostly with Joe's drinking and sexual insecurities. But as long as it's focused on Heidi's predicament, it is riveting drama.
  60. Standing Still
    The drama never gets too deep or the comedy too funny in this L.A.-centric story that feels more like a pilot for a "Friends"-style series.
  61. Stolen
    It's like racing through a detective novel, only to find the last page has been torn out.
  62. Scary Movie 4
    There are plenty of chuckles at the expense of Dr. Phil, Shaquille O'Neal, Carmen Electra, Charlie Sheen and series stalwart Leslie Nielsen. But with no comic carryover from one skit to the next, true belly laughs are few and far between.
  63. The Wild
    The voice performances are terrific, particularly those of Belushi and Garofalo, as the amorous squirrel and the giraffe he would like to have as his wife.
  64. Kinky Boots
    Julian Jarrold's cheerful, utterly predictable crowd-pleaser affirms that, according to many recent films out of Britain, there's a quirky interest to cure whatever ails you.
  65. Hard Candy
    A psychosexual thriller that treads a thin line between art and exploitation. The mere fact that it manages this queasy high-wire act is what sets debut director David Slade's slick mind game apart from the drooling pack.
  66. The Notorious Bettie Page
    The playfulness evident in the hundreds of bondage photos that made a pious young Tennessee model semi-famous in the 1950s and an 82-year-old legend today is also the driving force of Mary Harron's superb The Notorious Bettie Page.
  67. Look Both Ways
    Best of all is newcomer Justine Clarke playing a dour illustrator. Clarke's fascinating features register emotions at war, but always governed by a sense of self-deprecating humor.
  68. La Mujer de Mi Hermano
    Mexican soap opera star Bárbara Mori may be the most beautiful woman to grace an American screen this year, and female viewers may feel similarly about her male co-stars Christian Meier and Manolo Cardona. But a telenovela with three gorgeous actors is still a telenovela.
  69. The Sisters
    Family gatherings in the movies are shorthand for brutal trips down mine-strewn memory lanes. The Sisters doesn't disappoint in that regard.
  70. Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story
    Overlong at just 91 minutes, Brant Sersen's sardonic sports mockumentary would have made a hilarious short film. Instead, it's a mildly amusing feature that takes a few too many potshots at some very broad targets.
  71. Sisters in Law
    Because the film focuses entirely on the women's work, we learn too little about their personal histories. How did they even rise to such prominence in what appears to be an extremely patriarchal society?
  72. Lucky Number Slevin
    Lucky Number Slevin would be too clever for its own good if it weren't so ... darn clever. This violent flick is not in the same league as "The Sting," which has my vote for the cleverest winding road toward a happy ending in screenwriting history, but it contains nearly as deft a con job as that 1973 film.
  73. The Benchwarmers
    The humor is infantile at best (projectile vomiting and bathroom jokes) and meanspirited at worst (midgets and gays, look out).
  74. Phat Girlz
    The plus-size personality of comic actress Mo'Nique fills the screen in Phat Girlz, a sweet, if thinly plotted tale.
  75. Take the Lead
    Take the Lead hits all the marks you'd expect of a movie like this, but it's done vibrantly and with warm-blooded characters.
  76. Friends with Money
    The four ladies of Friends With Money are people I wouldn't want to ride the bus with (not that some of them would be caught dead on public transportation). They're whiners with little self-knowledge. Perhaps that's what holds them together, but it's not pretty.
  77. 95 Miles to Go
    If you've had a hole in your heart since "Everybody Loves Raymond" ended, Tom Caltabiano's low-key documentary about star Ray Romano ought to fill the gap nicely.
  78. On a Clear Day
    Just as surely as the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, this domestic comedy follows a direct path through every crisis, every resolution and every sentimental heartbeat laid out in the script.
  79. Free Zone
    The movie works best as a car's-eye travelogue of Jordan. And the three women might be good company on another, less stressful trip. Say to the Caribbean.
  80. Sir! No Sir!
    This is powerful stuff, offering us not only a new look at the past, but to the unavoidably relevant insights into the present.
  81. 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.
  82. I Am a Sex Addict
    The way he presents his romantic history is both clever and entertaining, but after a while the story becomes tediously familiar.
  83. Basic Instinct 2
    BI2 is packed with as much lust, nudity and sexual depravity as the first. So, why isn't it as much fun? What's lost in any sequel is the freshness of the first film, and was "BI1" ever fresh!
  84. ATL
    Fresh and unexpected. It feels like a real window on the lives of disenfranchised youths - these are in South Atlanta - as they make their way in a society that doesn't cut them any breaks.
  85. Ice Age: The Meltdown
    A good-natured, gag-filled sequel.
  86. Slither
    Slither is neither repetitive nor reverent. It is a dark and hilarious spoof of those movies, one in which both the characters and the audience seem to be in on the jokes.
  87. Brick
    Johnson combines the elements of classic 1940s film noir and "Rebel Without a Cause"-style teen angst in a movie that is as phony as it is ambitious. It's an A+ film school exercise with zero emotional or social impact.
  88. Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!
    It's the next best thing to being front and center.
  89. Adam & Steve
    Co-stars Parker Posey and Chris Kattan offer minor diversions, but the humor never rises to the quality any New Yorker, regardless of sexual orientation, would expect.
  90. The Devil and Daniel Johnston
    Feuerzeig's film - everything a good documentary should be - is a story of family, friendship, art and fame, as seen through the prisms of exceptional beauty and deepest pain.
  91. Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
    The movie delivers the promised ballroom action, but not the charm. And if you think the title is endless, wait till you see Goodman's death scene.
  92. Iowa
    A story of miserable people leading miserable lives, Iowa is a sour vanity project: trash posing as a socially relevant "cautionary tale."
  93. Inside Man
    It's got style and charisma to spare, with all the characters acting from fiery reserves of self-interest, including Christopher Plummer as a bank president with a secret in his safe-deposit box.
  94. Stay Alive
    There's a fascinating and terrifying story to be told about Elizabeth Bathory, the dramatically depraved 17th century sadist known as the Blood Countess.....This ain't it.
  95. The Beauty Academy of Kabul
    As they talk between classes about oppressive husbands, abusive brothers and arranged marriages, it becomes clear that the frivolities Americans take for granted can be their lifeline. In this tentatively hopeful setting, a single lipstick becomes leverage.
  96. Lonesome Jim
    Buscemi's latest, Lonesome Jim, written by James C. Strouse, asks you to spend 91 minutes with a 30-year-old slacker and would-be writer who has the DNA of a sloth. "Slowsome Jim" is more like it.
  97. Mardi Gras: Made in China
    Redmon has captured some compelling footage, but his lack of resolution feels like both a copout and a luxury.
  98. L'Enfant (The Child)
    Powerfully uplifting precisely because it's so horrifying.
  99. The Lady in Question Is Charles Busch
    Busch lovingly and meticulously channels such grand dames as Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck and Norma Shearer in a way that surpasses imitation, camp and drag show. He captures their essence, and therefore the essence of cinema itself.
  100. Stoned
    The good news here is that Woolley and his writers have taken the mystery surrounding Jones' tragic 1969 death as their main interest, and have adopted as fact the long-cherished rumor that the blond rocker's drowning was a case of murder. It may be speculative history, but at least it's a story.
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