New York Daily News' Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
  1. Kingdom of Heaven
    For all its scale, grandeur, historical context and political brass, "Kingdom" is no more compelling a period drama than last year's "Alexander."
  2. Fighting Tommy Riley
    The sort of slick-looking indie that plays well at film festivals, this heavy-handed boxing drama is really just a flyweight bulked up on cliches and false sentimentality.
  3. Jiminy Glick in Lalawood
    What Short does not deserve - and neither do we - is a feature-length movie about Jiminy.
  4. Mysterious Skin
    A well-conceived story that is very hard to shake.
  5. Up for Grabs
    Michael Wranovics' documentary replays this sorry chapter in all-American greed in glorious detail.
  6. The Great Role
    Director and co-writer Steve Suissa misses every opportunity to go deeper, either for laughs or pathos.
  7. Brothers
    Tapping into the basest fears of war while subverting all expectations, director Susanne Bier deftly reads between the headlines.
  8. A Hole in One
    Director-writer Richard Ledes shows better command of 1950s period atmosphere than he does of either his subject or his cast.
  9. Crash
    Concludes in a shower of ashes, which is fitting because this movie is a billowing bonfire of ugly human behavior. Rarely have there been so many characters in need of timeouts, cold showers or house arrests.
  10. Writer of O
    It is a mash note from first-time filmmaker Pola Rapaport to Aury, but its attempts to dramatize passages of the book are at odds with Aury's advice that "Story of O" was a piece of writing "not meant to be spoken."
  11. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    Most of the film is way too goofy for all but the most thumbstruck Hitchhiker.
  12. xXx: State of the Union
    Critics are inclined to describe the action in films like "XXX" and Lee Tamahori's sequel, XXX: State of the Union, as "cartoon violence." I'll resist doing that out of respect for cartoons.
  13. 3-Iron
    There is a vengeance motif that is worked out in a way that is both emotionally satisfying and completely unbelievable.
  14. À Tout de Suite (Right Now)
    Though it happens two-thirds into the movie, when Lili is abandoned by the others in Greece without either luggage or money, Le Besco's vulnerability draws us into her predicament.
  15. Death of a Dynasty
    There are some funny moments and amusing cameos, but it's not enough to elevate this project's slapdash approach.
  16. Funny Ha Ha
    Bujalski celebrates the awkwardness of twentysomething life, allowing Dollenmayer to create a beautifully authentic portrait.
  17. The Holy Girl
    Alche has an amazingly expressive face and becomes such a magnetic presence that you'll feel a distinct need to rescue her.
  18. Ladies in Lavender.
    Ultimately, Dance is unable to connect the many threads of his rather flimsy script, leading to an abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying conclusion. But the journey is worth taking, thanks to the company of its stars.
  19. Stalin's Wife
    There's plenty of passion beneath this movie's unadorned surface.
  20. The Tunnel
    Though the film is as long as the escape route, Richter's brisk direction keeps us riveted through the suspenseful finish of his vivid history lesson.
  21. The Interpreter
    An intelligent, old-fashioned nail-biter.
  22. A Lot Like Love
    In A Lot Like Love, there is no doubt - nor suspense, nor depth.
  23. King's Ransom
    Dumber than the worst UPN sitcom.
  24. Double Dare
    Amanda Micheli's candid documentary introduces us to two of these real-life daredevils, and it is a genuine pleasure.
  25. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
    Is a movie worthwhile if it makes you sick? Absolutely, in the case of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.
  26. Madison
    There isn't a scene, an action or a character that rings true, yet the narrative summary of the events that inspired it is a matter of record.
  27. The Man Who Copied
    Manages to tackle some serious issues without sacrificing its inherently sweet nature.
  28. Night of Henna
    Mildly pleasant movie.
  29. Save the Green Planet!
    Will thrill those who prefer their violence graphic and their comedy surreal.
  30. The Amityville Horror
    Why remake a horror film if you can't make it scarier?
  31. House of D
    Sappy and improbable.
  32. It's All Gone Pete Tong
    The faux-documentary format does nothing for the material, but Kaye turns in a chaotic and ultimately moving performance.
  33. Perlasca: The Courage of a Just Man
    Zingaretti does a fine job shading a character that is written as an unalloyed saint.
  34. Torremolinos 73
    The result is a highly amusing folly, rendered with a surprisingly gentle affection.
  35. The Girl from Monday
    Hartley's satire of consumer-driven sexuality is undermined by the straight-faced decision to cast affectless model Tatiana Abracos as the heroine.
  36. Palindromes
    This is extremely dark and politically loaded material.
  37. State Property 2
    Given that its predecessor hit bottom in the glorification of thug thrills, State Property 2 had nowhere to go but up. Yet, it doesn't.
  38. Sahara
    Eisner is not remotely up to the challenge. Spending millions on action scenes does not mean you get them right.
  39. Fever Pitch
    Relationship comedy like this is mother's milk to Drew Barrymore, who, as usual, is adorable and perfect.
  40. Kung Fu Hustle
    The overly broad martial-arts comedy Kung Fu Hustle was obviously made with skill and affection for its many cinematic sources, yet I found the tone, timing and emotional involvement off by just enough to irritate rather than enchant.
  41. Eating Out
    The story doesn't make any real sense, and the production values are home movie-cheap. But the cast seems to be having fun.
  42. Eros
    When the producers of Eros, a triptych of short stories about eroticism and desire, described what they wanted from Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, American Steven Soderbergh and Italian master Michelangelo Antonioni, they must have written the memo in Chinese. Only Wong attempted something sensual.
  43. Winter Solstice
    Very little actually happens in the movie. There are no cathartic breakdowns or soul-changing epiphanies. Instead, we're offered a collection of small moments that feel so familiar, they remind us how false most films really are.
  44. ...And They Lived Happily Ever After
    Gives moviegoers a funny, observant, evanescent approach to the mysteries of human desire.
  45. The Friend
    Actors do an excellent job portraying young people struggling with an almost manic paranoia.
  46. Major Dundee (re-release)
    The movie still isn't great, but it's an important remonstration to that oldest of all studio-system curses: the producer who thinks he's more creative than the director.
  47. First Love
    The movie exaggerates a common dynamic between men and women.
  48. Sin City
    Sin City snaps, crackles and pops like no graphic novel ever brought to the screen. Mixing live-action with computer-generated images, it looks like the novels, talks and bleeds like the novels, is as muscular and voluptuous as the novels - and it leaves you breathless as only a movie can.
  49. Dust to Glory
    But where there is a natural poetry of motion in surfing movies, off-road racing is a herky-jerky pastime whose ­appeal is hard to fathom. I guess you had to be there.
  50. Girl Play
    With little plot and a stifling set, the ­movie needs stronger performances than its leads can offer.
  51. Control
    Smart, imaginative - and nearly ­impossible to watch.
  52. Look at Me
    This audience-pleaser is smart and acerbic. Jaoui has an uncanny ear - as director, co-writer and part of the inspired ensemble cast - for human foibles, self-deception, celebrity worship and female body issues.
  53. Beauty Shop
    The story and humor are so tame the movie barely merits No More Tears.
  54. Odessa... Odessa!
    The Brighton Beach crowds come off more like tourists, and the Odessans in Israel can't seem to decide which is their real homeland. And it's all very confusing.
  55. Guess Who
    A disappointing retread of a bunch of better movies.
  56. The Ballad of Jack and Rose
    Phenomenal acting, plus intelligent direction and themes, put The Ballad of Jack and Rose above other indie films about loss of innocence. At the same time, there is something garish about watching a father and daughter struggle with the snake of incest in their ill-advised Garden of Eden.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    D.E.B.S.
    Cute, campy and as proudly insubstantial as its heroines' micro-miniskirts, D.E.B.S. deftly fulfills its Jane Bond fantasies without so much as breaking a nail.
  58. Lipstick & Dynamite, Piss & Vinegar: The First Ladies of Wrestling
    Dynamite perfectly describes this riveting documentary.
  59. Nina's Tragedies
    Israeli director Savi Gabizon has created a nuanced coming-of-age portrait that ought to strike a chord with ­audiences ­everywhere.
  60. Oldboy
    This hunt for revenge is really a quest for self-discovery. The story, acting and brilliant directing elevate Oldboy into a human struggle to know yourself and your place in the universe, and to live with that sometimes terrible knowledge.
  61. Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous
    The movie awkwardly tries to present Bullock and King as an interracial odd couple. But the overall result is charmless, even insulting.
  62. Mondovino
    If you have a serious interest in wine and the ­patience for this kind of rangy, undisciplined filmmaking, you'll learn something. But you'll have more fun at a winetasting.
  63. Ice Princess
    Cusack is excellent as Joan, the only woman in the film who values a girl's brains over her body, so it's a shame Fywell treats her with amused scorn.
  64. The Ring Two
    An uneven story undermines this horror franchise, despite high-quality performances by Naomi Watts and David Dorfman.
  65. 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.
  66. 16 Years of Alcohol
    But the film has a poetic pulse, its ups and downs accompanied by some smartly chosen pop songs, a seductive original score and McKidd's husky voice-over narration.
  67. Fifty-Fifty
    With a cast of mostly non-actors, the film seems rough-hewn, like something you'd find rusted along a road. But it's actually a sophisticated blend of crime thriller, coming-of-age story and social realism.
  68. Steamboy
    The weak story and bland hero are no match for the increasingly exciting visuals, while the score by Steve Jablonsky should be on exhibit in the Hall of Lead.
  69. The Rider Named Death
    A visually lavish but somewhat sterile adaptation.
  70. Milk and Honey
    Maggio and his stars find some unexpected truths in a familiar tale.
  71. Hostage
    Beyond the cliches, there's something deeply offensive about the way Hostage exploits our empathy for children in peril.
  72. Robots
    Visually, Robots is fun and imaginative. The wow factor is enhanced in the IMAX version, also opening today.
  73. The Upside of Anger
    In making such an appealing movie about characters who are usually swept under the Hollywood rug, Binder does us all a service.
  74. Millions
    This is a family movie in the best sense; it plays to children without talking down and to their parents without pandering. Mostly, it's just good fun.
  75. In My Country
    Would be better if it weren't so preachy.
  76. Dot the I
    You can't have as many twists and turns in a story as dot the i without testing the audience's patience, and losing it before delivering the punch line.
  77. Off the Map
    Perhaps the most evocative movie of the new year, Campbell Scott's Off the Map, moves at the pace of a Southwestern sunset and ends before you're quite ready to let it go.
  78. Be Cool
    The author is not to blame. Published in 1999, "Be Cool" is hipper, cooler and better than "Get Shorty," but everything hipper, cooler and better about it is either missing from the film or camped-up beyond recognition.
  79. The Jacket
    Adrien Brody is cornering the market on roles where he's hunted, haunted and under-nourished.
  80. The Pacifier
    An abysmal comedy that should have been strangled in its crib.
  81. Dear Frankie
    It is a sweet, wonderfully acted cameo of a movie about the lengths to which a lioness will go to protect her cub.
  82. Face
    Good acting and dull dialogue.
  83. Gunner Palace
    Provides an intimate, nonpoliticized, uncensored and totally unappealing look at the lives of U.S. soldiers serving during a grim and uncertain period of insurgency.
  84. Intimate Stories
    As stripped down as its title, this gentle Argentinian road movie makes much out of very little.
  85. Walk on Water
    The film nearly drowns in earnest morality.
  86. The Best of Youth
    After all the observations on heartache, politics, art, commerce, passion, identity, mortality, even mental health, six hours begin to seem downright compact.
  87. Cursed
    It's hard to tell who is more Cursed - the pretty young people who turn into werewolves on screen or the people who buy tickets for this slow, witless, predictable horror flick.
  88. Diary of a Mad Black Woman
    An absolute mess with no coherent tone, story or point of view.
  89. Man of the House
    [A] straight-to-video-quality mess.
  90. The Other Side of the Street
    Bernstein blunts the inherent tension by zipping everything along at the pace of a snail with a sore foot. Still, Montenegro does wonders in her long silences, and makes her love scene with the eager 72-year-old Cortez look like a hookup at Club Med.
  91. Up and Down
    The screenplay is chock-full of political and social observation tarnished by uneven ­acting and editing. The clumsy humor doesn't translate well.
  92. 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.
  93. Constantine
    For all its spiritual angst, Constantine is about as silly as fantasies get.
  94. Son of the Mask
    What the filmmakers missed in assuming the mask from the earlier film is that it was Carrey's astonishing physical comedy that made that film a hit, not the animation.
  95. Nabbeun namja
    South Korean director Kim Ki-duk does a bizarre riff on the twisted macho ethos of abusing women until they learn to love you.
  96. Bigger Than the Sky
    It's strictly amateur hour.
  97. Downfall
    The very thought of humanizing Hitler makes me queasy. If he had a good side, I don't want to know about it.
  98. Naked Fame
    It's interesting in the same way the early, rejection episodes of "American Idol" are oddly compelling. But, of course, you can watch those for free.
  99. Schultze Gets the Blues
    Krause is very nearly too passive. Deadpan is one thing, an empty vessel is another.
  100. Turtles Can Fly
    There's no refuge in this uncomfortably realistic movie, and that is its strength.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »