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. Battle in Seattle
    Well-intentioned but as earnest as a college freshman discovering campus politics.
  2. Ya lyublyu tebya
    Quirky, character-driven comedy.
  3. Jersey Boys
    As the most comfortable performer among this inexperienced cast, Walken brings a crucial maturity. In contrast, Young seems to have been hired primarily for his uncanny falsetto.
  4. Hidalgo
    It's a bit of an oddball story, but surely there was a less plodding way to elaborate on it.
  5. Milan Hlavsa a Plastic People of the Universe
    For the most part, the Plastics' music -- is not extraordinary. But as it's told here, their story is.
  6. Memoirs of a Geisha
    The movie may be set in prewar Japan, but it's pure 1940s Hollywood. There's costume, pageantry, melodrama, the feeling of a sweeping epic without the bother of too much accuracy, equal doses of heartbreak and uplift.
  7. 4:44 Last Day on Earth
    Feels stagy and anti-visceral.
  8. He's Way More Famous Than You
    Feiffer sometimes gets snagged on the look-at-me nature of her meta-performance, veering from pathological to pathetic, and not always in the best way.
  9. All Is Bright
    Giamatti and Rudd banter with appeal, but Melissa James Gibson’s lackluster script doesn’t offer either much to work with.
  10. Pontypool
    A horror flick that's all talk and (almost) no action? The risk pays off better than you'd think.
  11. 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.
  12. Ricki and the Flash
    The story here, like a lot of bar bands, goes loud to cover up mediocrity. When Streep sings, though, so does the film.
  13. Save the Date
    Mohan should have made a little more effort for us. Another pass at the screenplay probably would have done it. But one gets the sense he's already moved on to the next thing.
  14. Sparkle
    A strong cast, empathetic direction and memorable soundtrack help create a movie that does everyone proud.
  15. The Devil's Rejects
    Surely, this bloodthirsty comic farce about a sadistic backwoods family being hunted by a sadistic backwoods sheriff is the "Citizen Kane" of hix-ploitation horror.
  16. 10 Items or Less
    Every potentially worthwhile or amusing moment in writer-director Brad Silberling's 10 Items or Less could be told in 10 minutes or less, with credits included.
  17. Hands of Stone
    Ana de Armas makes a lasting impression as Felicidad, the angelic girl (her hair is braided, like a halo) who’s the love of Duran’s life. Too bad their relationship is underexplored and left to a quickie montage of baby-making and deliveries. That’s one of the reasons the film’s not a knockout.
  18. A Walk in the Clouds
    A Walk in the Clouds might have been helped by a more charismatic starring couple. They lack the character to stand up to such veteran scenery chompers as Quinn and Giannini. Instead, Reeves and Sanchez-Gijon seem like quivering Bambis in a lion's den. [11 Aug 1995, p.37]
    • New York Daily News
  19. 12 Strong
    Battle sequences on horseback are executed perfectly for maximum pulse quickening. It helps to have a few good men — with apologies to Army vets disgusted with the Marine reference — cast in the supporting roles.
  20. Melinda and Melinda
    But Allen can still write a good joke and there are some here. Not enough to say he has returned to form, but enough to remind you of what that form was.
  21. Die, Mommie, Die!
    A brilliantly pitch-perfect sendup of a particular type of cheesy movie.
  22. All the Wilderness
    First-time writer/director Michael Johnson falls back on coming-of-age clichés. But overall, his sensitive, moody camerawork and the cast’s strong performances go a long way toward making the familiar feel fresh.
  23. Love Etc.
    With all of the city available, she made the curious choice to follow couples who are neither unique nor especially memorable.
  24. Hamlet 2
    There's a lot of potential here, and a sharper script might have made all the difference.
  25. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
    Unlike last year's superior "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer" - which put its grade-school heroine through similarly seasonal woes - "Dog Days" squanders several chances to find something magical in the mundane.
  26. Bruno
    Packed with filthy jokes, insane sight gags, and body parts used in decidedly uncommon ways, Brüno is hands-down the dirtiest R-rated movie you'll see this year.
  27. Amu
    As writer, director and producer, Bose has taken on more than she can handle - a fact increasingly obvious each time she stumbles over political themes. But she has a genuine gift for atmosphere, making the many wordless scenes, in teeming streets and on crowded trains, the movie's best.
  28. The Tracey Fragments
    The Tracey Fragments is a grating stunt that plays like a film-school project, cutting a bland story into a million tiny irritating pieces.
  29. When Animals Dream
    An eerie, imported horror tale that’s rich with tone but otherwise lacking bite.
  30. Puccini for Beginners
    Awkward, unconvincing bisexual roundelay.
  31. Get Smart
    While the whole cast -- including Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson -- is game, too much time was spent coordinating chase scenes and explosions, and too little fixing a slack script that relies on bathroom humor and snickering sex jokes.
  32. Dear Mr. Watterson
    The deeply private, intensely ideological and undeniably brilliant Watterson would make an absolutely fascinating subject. But director Joel Allen Schroeder has no access to him. So instead he talks a lot about how much he loves “Calvin and Hobbes” and then invites other fans to do the same.
  33. CSNY/Déjà Vu
    "I hate this stinkin' war," Neil Young announces in this chronicle of CSNY's "Freedom of Speech Tour," and the rest of the movie is just as unapologetically blunt.
  34. Return to Me
    This romantic comedy is about a love that is destined to be, and it celebrates that warm huddle of caring and craziness called family.
  35. From Hell
    An amazing physical specimen, beautifully photographed and edited. If you think of it as your own opium dream, you may dismiss the lousy story as a mere side effect.
  36. Julien Donkey-Boy
    I'd never seen anything like it, and can say that I hope to never see anything like it again.
  37. The Château
    Rudd delivers the best bad Franglais since Inspector Clouseau.
  38. Reno: Rebel Without a Pause
    Anyone familiar with Reno's politically minded monologues won't be surprised by her fury, which has sometimes been fueled by a self-righteousness that's undermined her valid observations.
  39. Chuen jik sat sau
    A flashy homage to a dozen better movies, this self-conscious Hong Kong action flick is so packed with visual thrills, you may not notice that there's absolutely nothing beneath its impressively slick surface.
  40. The Bread, My Sweet
    Cynics need not show up, but if you're looking for a feel-good fairy tale, this one's certainly sweet enough to satisfy.
  41. Let's Get Frank
    There's nothing new here, but Frank provides a genial reminder that politics doesn't always have to take the low road.
  42. Whole New Thing
    Slight Canadian coming-of-age drama.
  43. Fierce People
    What might have read as a dense allegory comparing the rituals of the super-rich with the tribal customs of the violent Ishkanani tribe in the Amazon becomes a tedious, over-ripe soap opera on screen.
  44. The Misfortunates
    The title of The Misfortunates ­really applies to any audiences unlucky enough to sit through it.
  45. Fairhaven
    Movies like this, from "Diner" to "Beautiful Girls" to "Garden State," have a standard trajectory, and this film's no different. But it has a nuance and a rumpled comfort with itself, which turns Fairhaven into an inviting place to visit.
  46. What We Did on Our Holiday
    “Holiday” is more palatable than similar, American-bred films like “The Family Stone” or This is Where I Leave You. Still, once Connolly’s sad-eyed, hippie-ish cancer sufferer is gone, there’s little reason to keep going.
  47. Eddie the Eagle
    Hugh Jackman doesn't play Wolverine in Eddie the Eagle, which is too bad. The film deserves to be slashed to bits.
  48. Bobby
    This is simply too vast a task for a filmmaker as inexperienced as Estevez. Compared with, say, Robert Altman's similar but far more complex "Nashville," Bobby mostly comes off as a Hollywood public service announcement: passionate, righteous and strikingly removed from reality.
  49. A Decent Factory
    Though it lacks a focus or greater artistic vision, Thomas Balmès' no-frills documentary offers Westerners a valuable glimpse into the sweatshops of the new China.
  50. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
    Just another loud, boy-centric comedy aimed at ’tweens. The movie turns a slight children’s book — in this case, Judith Viorst’s 1972 fave, from which it takes mainly the title — into a charmless mishmash.
  51. The Exterminating Angels
    Soft porn for people who like to watch - and want to be punished for it.
  52. Freeze Me
    Ishii instills this unpleasantness with some Hitchcockian black humor.
  53. Portraits chinois
    The group in Portraits Chinois is a little too diverse and unwieldy to keep emotional track of.
  54. Malèna
    If Mussolini had a Monica Bellucci to inspire his troops, we might still be trying to take Palermo.
  55. Warriors of Heaven and Earth
    A magnificent looking and occasionally very silly Chinese Western.
  56. Paper Heart
    While Cera is adorable, Yi’s faux ­naiveté is overplayed and her philosophical musings are underwhelming. But you won’t soon forget the real-life couples she interviews.
  57. The Girl
    Writer-director David Riker's film is tough going, but worth it.
  58. Oblivion
    Kosinski’s ultimately underwhelming film leads nowhere. As its palpable sense of dread — well-sustained in a gently cascading first hour — gives way to dead ends, this Omega Movie shoots itself in the foot.
  59. The Berlin File
    The story feels fairly perfunctory — not to mention unnecessarily knotty — but the well-connected leads do their best to ground it. And while this one falls far short of the “Bourne” films that serve as an influence, the intense action scenes consistently deliver some solid genre jolts.
  60. The ROMEOWS
    For the most part, we sit in on the conversations as good-natured, ordinary guys — all graduates of Brooklyn College in the ’50s — reminisce.
  61. A Little Help
    Weithorn, a sitcom vet whose credits include "Ned and Stacey" and "The King of Queens," makes sure even the quiet moments in the unassuming "A Little Help" move things forward. And that every one of Laura's missteps is in the right direction.
  62. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
    There's nothing here for kids, or, for that matter, anyone who claims to be an adult. But if the title makes perfect sense to you, the movie probably will, too.
  63. Draft Day
    Haven’t Cleveland fans suffered enough? Not only have they never won a Super Bowl, but now the Browns serve as the center of Ivan Reitman’s painfully creaky sports drama.
  64. Camp X-Ray
    OK, haters: Here’s the movie meant to silence your complaints about Kristen Stewart’s acting range. And it might, if you can sit through all of it.
  65. Downtown 81
    Alternates between being amusingly pretentious and studiously dull.
    • New York Daily News
    • 54 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Why Did I Get Married?
    The problems are real; the solutions are ... well, really entertaining. Perry mixes heartfelt drama with bold-stroke, insult-slinging comedy.
  67. American Made Movie
    You’ll never buy an inexpensive T-shirt without feeling guilty again. At least not after seeing Nathaniel Thomas McGill and Vincent Vittorio’s thorough documentary, which explains something you already know — American manufacturing is dying.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Michael Moore in TrumpLand
    The film is better when Moore is joking about America’s problems, presenting fake Trump ads or offering a parody news broadcast from the day of Trump’s inauguration, but he doesn’t do enough of that in TrumpLand.
  69. Music of the Heart
    No actress of her generation inhabits characters as thoroughly and convincingly as she (Streep) does, and this performance carries the movie
  70. Gerry
    Gerry isn't much of anything, and doesn't claim to be. It's a movie stripped of its movieness.
  71. Observe and Report
    While it stops before sliding too far into the darkness,Observe and Report hits a lot of bull's-eyes by aiming for the gut, not easy belly laugh.
  72. 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.
  73. The Magnificent Seven
    Instead of ever getting truly "Magnificent," these multicultural gunslingers remain largely a meh seven.
  74. With Friends Like These...
    The movie works as well as it does ­because the cast knows the material so ­intimately. (review of re-release)
  75. Small Time
    His (Surnow) unfocused script swerves all over the road, but Christopher Meloni and Dean Norris repeatedly get things back on track.
  76. 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.
  77. Rock Star
    It's sweet but not the least bit plausible that any kid in the mid-'80s would be surprised that along with rock 'n' roll come sex and drugs.
  78. Bee Movie
    Kids are going to adore looking at this movie, living in it, flying through and above its brilliant landscape. It's an animated joyride over a relief map of Manhattan. I just wish the script was as good as the paint.
  79. Assault on Precinct 13
    In a preamble that sets up Hawke's character, the jittery hand-held camera and grainy palette establish the look and feel of a '70s movie, thus paying homage to the Carpenter version, which, frankly, had more suspense.
  80. The Signal
    Director William Eubank seems more concerned with building to an epic, superpowered ending rather than anything making a lick of sense. In the spirit of the characters and audience, though, it feels right.
  81. Because of Winn-Dixie
    Thanks to director Wayne Wang ("The Joy Luck Club"), there are also artistic touches that keep this movie from sticking to the roof of the mouth the way peanut butter does to Opal's pet.
  82. Vacancy
    Short, sharp and to the point, Vacancy has a single goal, and that is to scare the hell out of you.
  83. 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.
  84. Some Velvet Morning
    As an acting symposium, this is 83 minutes of Tucci exercises; never a bad thing. The wooden Eve does her best, but director/writer Neil LaBute unfortunately underwrote her character — by design, it would seem, given all that transpires.
  85. Human Traffic
    Funny and masterfully inventive.
  86. Mau Mau Sex Sex
    This spirited documentary shows us the hazards of filming volleyball at nudist camps and the marketing possibilities of women mating with gorillas.
  87. People I Know
    It was filmed in and around the World Trade Center, and the subsequent cuts, reshoots and sleights of hand designed to obscure that fact prove devastating.
  88. Jet Lag
    Who knew that Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno could be unlikable? And yet, there they are, grating on each other's nerves (and ours) as strandees at Charles De Gaulle airport.
  89. The Fighting Temptations
    A raucous gospel comedy that's as broad as co-star Beyonce Knowles' vowels and chockablock with foot-stomping, up-with-the-choir music that will have even atheists praising the Lord.
  90. The Notebook
    Two hours of the worst sort of sentimental sap.
  91. The Hunting of the President
    I'm not sure the filmmakers - one, Harry Thomason, is a long-time Friend of Bill - have connected enough dots to prove a "vast" conspiracy. But that many people devoted much of their lives and resources to destroying Clinton is indisputable.
  92. A Single Shot
    Who would have guessed that sex, drugs and double-crossing could be so unrelentingly boring?
  93. Paranormal Activity 2
    Without giving anything away, much of the excruciatingly teased-out tension here echoes the first movie without upping the ante.
  94. Shorts
    Provides just enough smart, silly fun for families desperately seeking an easy (and air-conditioned) escape from hazy August humidity.
  95. Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema
    Has raw action and urgent performances, but loses power due to an amateur approach.
  96. Music Within
    The performances are all solid, but Sheen, last seen as Tony Blair in "The Queen," is so good in his incredibly demanding role that he makes the natural discomfort people feel at seeing someone so debilitated disappear completely.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sinister
    Ridiculous, and never scary, and with the worst ghost makeup in the history of the horror genre, Sinister is enjoyable, even funny at times. Most amusing might be watching Hawke play a character willing to do anything to regain his fame.
  98. Alice in Wonderland
    It tends to get lost in its own delirium, which will enchant some and drive others bonkers.
  99. A Wrinkle in Time
    Director Ava DuVernay’s version of the beloved children’s classic has a big cast and the best of intentions. It’s socially progressive, racially diverse and packed with positive messages. It’s just not much fun.
  100. The Big Year
    This one could have flown over the cuckoo's nest, or smacked into a glass pane, but instead lands in the middle of the road where quirky and popular meet.
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