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 Family Stone
    A machine-tooled entertainment that's as fake and flimsy as a plastic Christmas tree. The only reason the movie isn't as bad as it has a right to be is the marvelous Diane Keaton.
  2. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
    A small movie that plays like a Western epic.
  3. The Producers
    If you have seen the play, especially if you've seen it with the original cast, treasure the memory and protect it. The movie will attack it like a virus.
  4. Hoodwinked!
    The superior animation we've seen over the last few years has raised the bar for family entertainment like Hoodwinked, which features lackluster character design, so-so animation and only fitful bursts of cleverness.
  5. King Kong
    What a movie! This is how the medium seduced us originally.
  6. The Grace Lee Project
    A funny and insightful exploration into identity issues we all can recognize.
  7. Happy Here and Now
    A few relevant themes do bubble up from this visually intriguing swamp of self-indulgence, but Arquette's pseudo-philosopher seems to speak for Almereyda when he says, "If there was a point, there wouldn't be a story."
  8. 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.
  9. Brokeback Mountain
    Gently unfolds into an epic, heartbreaking love story that's far greater than the sum of its parts.
  10. Mrs Henderson Presents
    This genteel confection skews toward older audiences - those who go for "Calendar Girls," "Ladies in Lavender" and "Mrs. Brown."
  11. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
    A generation-spanning journey that feels both comfortingly familiar and excitingly original.
  12. Marebito (The Stranger from Afar)
    Never gives us what it promised: a glorious, totally new sense of horror.
  13. 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.
  14. Isn't This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal
    Any opportunity to see Pete Seeger perform, even at age 85, is worth taking - and Seeger is front, center and full-throated in Jim Brown's concert film.
  15. The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear
    Eye-opening political documentary focuses on "the strange world of violence and fear, fantasy and deception, in which we now live."
  16. The World's Fastest Indian
    Whether he'll achieve his goal of setting the world land-speed record for motorcycles is never in doubt, of course, but getting to a film's climactic scene has rarely been more fun.
  17. Æon Flux
    The wordless six-minute animé shorts - at the end of which our double-jointed heroine would always die - don't lend themselves to a 95-minute action movie where viewers might rightfully expect something to make sense.
  18. Transamerica
    This drama offers a chuckle at every turn.
  19. First Descent
    We've seen this story before, and the thrill is gone.
  20. The Kid & I
    Arnold's heart is in the right place, but somebody needs to save him from himself - and soon.
  21. The Far Side of the Moon
    Rarely do adaptations of stage plays work on screen, and almost never do they work as well as this one does. Most remarkably, the dryly comic "Moon" is virtually a one-man show.
  22. Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt
    it's Van Zandt's family that provides the film's most memorable moments.
  23. The Boys of Baraka
    The results are amazing, though bittersweet, and demonstrate how complicated and expensive it is (though not impossible) to break the cycle of poverty, crime and lack of education.
  24. Down to the Bone
    Farmiga is excellent as a woman who is like the mouse she feeds to her son's pet snake - trapped and about to be eaten alive by ordinary circumstance.
  25. Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont
    The movie pulls off the trick of blurring the distinctions between romantic and platonic attractions across the generations.
  26. Seamless
    Fashion is something you either get or you don't, and whether you'll want to lay down $10 for Douglas Keeve's insider documentary depends entirely on whether you'd spend your last few bucks on the new issue of Vogue.
  27. The Ice Harvest
    The nasty, violent material has two small beacons of hope - Nielsen as a fair-weather stripper in the manner of old film-noir dames, and Quaid as a scurvy ­mobster who hates being cheated. With his puffy, reddened face, Quaid looks like a bad Santa.
  28. In the Mix
    Even diehard fans will get more out of watching a four-minute music video than they'll find in this mixed-up mess.
  29. Just Friends
    And though Samantha is written as a sly spoof of Ashlee Simpson, Faris frantically overplays her. She might have taken a tip from Smart, a lovely, understated actress who wastes too much time in lousy films.
  30. Rent
    As a conventional drama, Rent would be a pretty corny soap opera. As filmed theater, it's only slightly more con­vincing. The saving graces - and there are many - are Larson's original songs and the comfortable fit of its ensemble cast.
  31. Yours, Mine and Ours
    The humor is supposed to stem from the clash of kids who have been raised so differently and of partners with opposing views of child care. But there are just so many jokes you can make about who gets to use the bathroom when.
  32. 39 Pounds of Love
    There are some very moving scenes, and Ankilewitz' emotional and physical strength is certainly inspiring. Equally compelling is the dedication of his able-bodied friends and family, who never patronize him. Regrettably, the film itself, which feels both breathlessly over-awed and padded out at only 74 minutes, is unable to treat him with the same relaxed respect.
  33. The Libertine
    Not since Philip Kaufman's 2000 "Quills," the story of the Marquis de Sade, have we had so debauched a literary and movie hero, and Johnny Depp plays him with the relish of an actor who has made odd-ball characters his specialty.
  34. Syriana
    The movie adds up to one of the smartest and most ambitious political thrillers in years. But if you find a more difficult movie to follow this year, it will be in Mandarin without subtitles.
  35. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    The darkest, most thrilling entry yet in the movie franchise.
  36. Walk the Line
    What Walk the Line does well, it does really well. Mangold was ­wisely gen­erous with the amount of musical performance he included in the film, and the later scenes - showing Cash and Carter as partners - are so well shot and edited, they defy you to sit still.
  37. Oxygono
    There are moments of amusing melodrama, but for the most part, the action is too preposterous to take seriously, and too serious to be very much fun.
  38. Private
    Private, Italian director Saverio Costanzo's stunning human drama, would seem like something out of Kafka if it weren't based on real events and a relatively common fact of contemporary Palestinian life.
  39. Unveiled
    The parts are more valuable than the whole in Angelina Maccarone's Unveiled.
  40. Breakfast on Pluto
    Cross-dressing and the Irish Troubles don't mix well in Neil Jordan's cloying, fanciful Breakfast on Pluto.
  41. Gilles' Wife
    This is a lyrical art movie with admittedly limited commercial appeal, but worth seeing for cinematic explorers.
  42. The Syrian Bride
    The result is both tragic and darkly comic - in this complex environment, blame and sorrow are locked in a partnership of absurdity.
  43. Derailed
    James Siegel's best-selling thriller Derailed is a perfect commuter book that has become the most imperfect of movies.
  44. Zathura: A Space Adventure
    Jon Favreau's adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's kid-lit adventure of the same name, more than fills the bill - though it's unlikely to draw anyone over the age of 11 (not counting baby-sitters).
  45. Pride & Prejudice
    Seeing the splendid new version of Pride & Prejudice can be hazardous to your health: There's a very real danger of swooning.
  46. Bee Season
    It took one novelist, one screenwriter and two directors - Scott McGehee and David Siegel - to cobble together this earnest nonsense, and if it weren't for 12-year-old novice Flora Cross, who plays its central character, all would be lost.
  47. Ellie Parker
    Shot on digital video, made on the run whenever Watts was available between gigs, the movie is a pointless, tedious eyesore.
  48. Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic
    On stage, the attractive 34-year-old Silverman is very funny. She's too blue for Comedy Central, and too slow-paced for an HBO hour, but she'd come off better in either of those formats than she does in this mishmash.
  49. Cape of Good Hope
    The film does deserve credit for juggling difficult racial and class issues - but with a wacky score, cute puppies and silly side stories also jockeying for space, Bamford's best intentions tumble to a heap long before the movie ends.
  50. Good Morning, Night
    Though he doesn't possess the dangerous confusion of his tragically misguided heroes, veteran director Marco Bellocchio does share their capacity for raising thought-provoking points that end in an ineffectual tangle.
  51. The Comedians of Comedy
    While there is a great deal of laughter among the quartet, there's scarcely a giggle in it for the audience.
  52. Get Rich or Die Tryin'
    A gangsta rapper without fire in the belly isn't terribly interesting, cinematically or musically.
  53. The Swenkas
    When these proudly strutting dandies glide through a grimy basement as if they didn't have a care in the world, their joy is irresistible, and Ronde's point is made.
  54. Chicken Little
    The studio's fresh corps of CG animators may get up to speed before the current four-picture cycle is completed, but if they don't get better material to work with, the sky will be falling along Dopey Drive.
  55. 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.
  56. Brooklyn Lobster
    The triumph here is the natural, fluid way the characters interact, many of them displaying real-life, quirky senses of humor you don't often find in screenplays.
  57. The Dying Gaul
    These are three characters in search of a moral pulse.
  58. Gay Sex in the 70s
    Lovett's history is heavy on hedonism, but he does deliver a succinct perspective on this celebratory era - between the sad bookends of repression and loss.
  59. I Love Your Work
    Working with a self-consciously urgent, neo-noir style, Goldberg seems intent on expressing a meaningful message of some kind. It's too bad, then, that he has chosen such a shallow subject.
  60. Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
    Left-wing flame-thrower Robert Greenwald (Uncovered: The War on Iraq) gets after the global giant anyway, and he may have you thinking twice before entering another Wal-Mart parking lot.
  61. The Legend of Zorro
    Two hours of ludicrous action, forced humor and self-conscious romance.
  62. Prime
    The occasionally amusing, generally fatuous romantic comedy about a dazzling divorcee, a smitten Jewish boy and a controlling Jewish mom who also happens to be the divorcee's psychotherapist, is a high-concept movie with a Yiddish accent.
  63. Saw II
    Though the overall effect feels a little anemic compared with its predecessor, the ads promise blood, and - oh yes - there is blood.
  64. The Weather Man
    Nicolas Cage does such a persuasive job of portraying Chicago TV weatherman Dave Spritz as a train wreck of a guy that you wonder whether this might actually be a training film for a psychoanalytic convention on hopeless cases.
  65. little man
    But with her penchant for frilly romance and sentimentality, the focus is often, cloyingly, on Conn as the heroine of the story, the mother who (sob!) wouldn't give up.
  66. New York Doll
    The film paints an affectionate portrait of a wry, somewhat addled man whose hard-partying past was in stark contrast with his later life - a fluffy cat nestles in his guitar case while he explains his nickname.
  67. Paradise Now
    At the stunning conclusion, you feel as if the weight of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has come down on your head.
  68. Three... Extremes
    Blood, grotesquerie and humor mix equally in the first two, but the full combo makes a savory witches' brew for Asian-cinema cultists (or Halloween lovers in need of a gore fix).
  69. Ballets Russes
    Goldfine discover so many fascinating themes within their seemingly narrow subject that anyone with the slightest interest in history or human nature will find it absorbing.
  70. Doom
    Even The Rock, who can usually be counted on to enliven any scenario, seems bored by the laughably feeble script.
  71. 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.
  72. Shopgirl
    Danes' smart, fun, radiant and very attractive Mirabelle actually undermines the premise of the book
  73. Stay
    If "The Sixth Sense" was a bad movie redeemed by its surprise ending, Marc Forster's Stay is a seemingly good movie leading to a devastating letdown.
  74. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
    Designed as a giant put-on, "Kiss Kiss" is so inside Hollywood, so anxious to bite the hand that fed Black, that it plays like an elaborate prank. Some of it is a lot of fun; most of it is a lot of nonsense.
  75. After Innocence
    Though Jessica Sanders' rambling documentary about the damaged lives of wrongfully imprisoned men would have made a better subject for an hour-long "Dateline" special, it's still a powerful indictment of a judicial system too anxious to close cases, and then close ranks when someone tries to reopen them.
  76. White King, Red Rubber, Black Death
    Unfortunately, Bate saddles his otherwise compelling chronicle with awkward re-creations and an aggressively overbearing narration.
  77. Emmanuel's Gift
    Yeboah is so levelheaded about his own accomplishments that the swelling score and emotional narration from Oprah Winfrey feel embarrassingly sentimental.
  78. Innocence
    A visually lush and eerily enigmatic parable of female sexuality, Lucile Hadzihalilovic's ominous fairy tale raises questions you'll be wondering about for days.
  79. Protocols of Zion
    Levin learned nothing that should surprise anyone who is both sentient and sane. But in tracing much of this contemporary anti-Semitism to a phony 19th-century document in which Jewish leaders lay out plans for taking over the world, we at least get some understanding of how some twisted people justify their hatred and fear of Jews.
  80. Kids in America
    Overall, though, you get the exhausting feeling that Stolberg is desperately trying to prove how cool he is. And didn't you see enough of that in high school?
  81. Ushpizin
    Gentle and affecting, it offers an introduction to a mostly unfamiliar world while touching on issues recognizable to all.
  82. Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family
    The documentary fascinates not only because of its subject matter but because the three people - whose backgrounds are individually developed - are so likable.
  83. Domino
    The movie is quite off its rocker: Jerry Springer, Chrisopher Walken, Tom Waits as a roadside prophet, a miscast, nervous Lucy Liu as an FBI agent -- it's a feverish, violent jumble that's shot as if high on mescaline -- the drug, not the salad.
  84. Elizabethtown
    Crowe was going for something magical in all this, but the film is so affected and mannered, so preciously in love with itself, that it's painful to watch. Scenes go on and on, and when you think the movie's over, it goes on and on some more.
  85. The Fog
    The fog also does something genuinely eerie: It causes everyone in the cast to deliver dreadful performances and display inappropriate reactions when their friends are drowned, burned, stabbed or thrown into glass display cases.
  86. Where the Truth Lies
    Egoyan's uncharacteristic bid for the mainstream flames out on many levels, but it's hard not to stare with fascination at the dying embers.
  87. North Country
    North Country may be a simplistic account of a hard-won battle, but it will have audiences cheering.
  88. Innocent Voices
    The many riveting moments will stay with you for days, and Padilla is well up to the task of carrying this intense story on his tiny shoulders.
  89. Loggerheads
    Hunt and, especially, Harper do excellent work rounding out sketchily-written roles. But Pardue, who offers little beyond movie-star looks, is either miscast or genuinely unable to grasp his character's intense longing and insecurity.
  90. Nine Lives
    A couple of the stories don't quite accomplish what Rodrigo intends, but most are poignant, disturbing, and superbly acted.
  91. Summer Storm
    There's nothing truly new to be found here, but Kreuzpaintner treats Tobi's confusion with respect and gentle humor, making this an especially sensitive coming-of-age/coming-out story.
  92. The President's Last Bang
    This South Korean political satire might not have historical resonance for American audiences -- it's loosely based on the 1979 assassination of dictator Park Chunghee by his own people -- but it takes the same comically dim view of governmental power and procedure as "Dr. Strangelove."
  93. Don't Tell
    The script and the performances are all fine, but it's very slow going.
  94. Land of Plenty
    Unfortunately, Wendeers frustrated wake-up call quickly buckles under the heavy burden of its earnest message.
  95. Good Night, and Good Luck.
    The biggest little movie of the year - and one of the best ever about the news media.
  96. The Gospel
    You may not subscribe to the film's evangelical message, but you'll be floored by the extraordinary musical scenes, which lead up to a showstopper featuring gospel superstars like Donnie McClurkin and Yolanda Adams.
  97. In Her Shoes
    A bungled mess that spends an hour creating two characters whose lives are about as believable as a successful ambush set by Wile E. Coyote for the Roadrunner.
  98. Two for the Money
    Too long by about 20 minutes, and takes itself too seriously near the end. But if you're looking for a movie for a boys' night out, it's a winner.
  99. Waiting...
    This warmed-over slop feels as if it's been congealing for twice that long.
  100. The Aggressives
    The charismatic young women who populate Daniel Peddle's illuminating documentary are vibrant proof that there's still an untold story waiting around every New York City corner.
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