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. Gerontophilia
    Comely Lajoie plays the part of catnip admirably, with bing cherry eyes and a Quebec accent. And as Mr. Peabody, Walter Borden gives better than the stock flamboyant roué that the role deserves.
  2. The Great Gatsby
    Luhrmann piles on one shiny distraction after another. But amid all the seductively gaudy excess, DiCaprio finds both the heart and hurt buried within one of literature’s everlasting enigmas.
  3. Godzilla
    Despite a few fiery breaths, there’s mostly hot air from a lot of serious actors slumming it.
  4. Take This Waltz
    Is there another actor working today whose face registers the extraordinary range of emotions Michelle Williams can display? Even in a film as false as Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz, her swiftly shifting expressions feel unerringly true.
  5. Still Life
    This might have worked as a short story. As a film, it’s not viciously bad, but it’s dull.
  6. Late Bloomers
    Though Hurt and Rossellini make a warmly believable couple, they can't overcome the film's biggest drawback: Gavras' own awkward attitude toward aging.
  7. Chinese Puzzle
    It’s nice to see these characters again. But there’s an uncomfortable strain of bitterness running through the nostalgia. Klapisch is, for example, much kinder to his good-natured leading man than any of the ladies, who are by turns cruel, flaky and dishonest.
  8. The Iron Lady
    While The Iron Lady fails as a biography, it succeeds incontestably as a showcase. Streep captures Thatcher's voice and mannerisms and then pushes further, creating a three-dimensional character rather than simply offering a technically deft impression.
  9. The Day the Earth Stood Still
    The film's major action sequences are never exciting, and even the now-requisite destruction of New York feels lazy.
  10. God Bless America
    As both a comedian and filmmaker, Bobcat Goldthwait ("Shakes the Clown") has carved out a valuable spot as an idiosyncratic instigator. But even fans may be disappointed at how swiftly he undermines its own message here.
  11. 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.
  12. Dying of the Light
    The irony is that in the low-key but mildly absorbing “Light,” Cage comes close to making it work.
  13. The Uninvited
    Yeah, this is pretty much your classic been-there, done-that scenario: evil stepmother, clueless father, imperiled teen.
  14. Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
    There’s some cross-cultural deadpan comedy, but unfortunately, the main character is too removed from reality to be truly sympathetic. The specifics of this movie are engaging, but the big picture stays buried.
  15. The Legend of Tarzan
    Alexander Skarsgard is more abs than actor as the ape man, and Margot Robbie's Jane looks about as 19th-Century as an Aussie surfer girl. Together, they produce all the real-life passion of an Abercrombie & Fitch ad.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Discoverers
    Plays like a folksy version of “The Descendants,” and the unusually grizzled Dunne excels. Sadly, the movie is marred by tepid, often crass comedy.
  17. Wish You Were Here
    Though much of the film is overcooked and overwrought, it’s well-played, and writer-director Kieran Darcy-Smith keeps us guessing, and watching.
  18. The Woman on the 6th Floor
    Philippe Le Guay's carefully-tailored crowd-pleaser does have its pleasures, even if originality is not among them.
  19. Full Grown Men
    Friedlander offers a nicely subtle performance, but the other actors - including Alan Cumming, Deborah Harry and Amy Sedaris - appear to have turned up as a favor to the director. Don't feel obliged to follow their lead.
  20. Mental
    The cutesy energy is just too much in this Aussie comedy that’s overly bemused by its quirkiness.
  21. All Is Bright
    Giamatti and Rudd banter with appeal, but Melissa James Gibson’s lackluster script doesn’t offer either much to work with.
  22. The Armstrong Lie
    There’s so much more to this story — as any number of articles about the people he wronged attest — but this time, Gibney never really gets in gear.
  23. Rabbit Hole
    Kidman is able to draw you in even as the movie's solemn, morbid obviousness wears you out.
  24. Play the Game
    If you love Viagra jokes, look no further. Otherwise, stay home and find yourself a "Golden Girls" marathon.
  25. Tap World
    This crowded 72-minute doc “focuses” on at least 13 different dancers in a well-meaning but misguided and ultimately frustrating love letter to tap.
  26. Orphan
    Orphan doesn't add much to the genre except, disturbingly, a fetishistic bent that's creepy in the wrong way.
  27. Shutter Island
    For all the trickiness and bluster, Shutter Island is dead inside.
  28. That Evening Sun
    Director Scott Teems' film is as quiet as untilled soil -- not always a good thing -- but Holbrook has a handle on where to dig.
  29. Somebody Up There Likes Me
    The actors hold our attention, and there’s something to be said for the guys’ pathological disconnect. But the movie itself is too disconnected to say it.
  30. Hanna
    The forced coming-of-age parable that filmmaker Joe Wright laces with fairy-tale symbolism is heavy-handed from the get-go.
  31. Million Dollar Arm
    As slickly entertaining as you’d expect a Disney-produced inspirational sports movie to be. But it’s so lacking in sincerity and creativity that “inspirational” never rounds the corner to “inspiring.”
  32. Kidnap
    Berry, who’s been down a similar road before in “The Call,” brings grit, guts and tears. But all that’s not enough to break the monotony — or the preposterous conversations she has aloud with herself.
  33. High School
    The nearly unrecognizable Chiklis almost single-handedly saves the day.
  34. Head Games
    Director Steve James ("Hoop Dreams") has a worthy message, but never makes the case that he needs an entire documentary to deliver it.
  35. Closed Circuit
    The big twist to Closed Circuit is stated in the film’s TV ads, so even the element of surprise is lost. There may have been the making of a juicy, episodes-long BBC series here, but as it is, there’s barely any juice at all.
  36. Backtrack
    Backtrack eventually moves beyond its shamelessly borrowed set-up to create a few chills of its own.
  37. Americano
    Scenes of the director as a school-age boy in a Varda film are haunting, but end up simply sparking a desire to see Varda's work.
  38. The Smurfs 2
    Unlike that earlier live action/animation hybrid, however, which had a cheery, almost campy New York fashion-industry setting, The Smurfs 2 is mostly loud and unfunny.
  39. Backwards
    As her boss and boyfriend, an impressively good-natured James Van Der Beek adds a professional sheen to what otherwise feels like a vanity affair.
  40. Safe House
    Safe House devolves into unexciting action scenes that feel left over from the "Bourne" flicks and are peopled with cloak-and-dagger stereotypes.
  41. The Next Three Days
    It's laughably, eye-rollingly absurd.
  42. Youth in Revolt
    While Cera is charming enough to keep us watching, he's never allowed to cut loose -- even though that's supposed to be the whole point of the movie.
  43. A Short History of Decay
    Nathan’s neurotic self-indulgence strains our patience.
  44. The Woman in the Fifth
    Hawke works hard to solidify Pawlikowski's wispy ideas (which are adapted from Douglas Kennedy's novel).
  45. The Vow
    As the world's most chipper recovering coma patient, McAdams is a beautiful blank. There's not a single moment when her character feels real, or as if she genuinely has anything at stake. So it's a good thing Tatum steps up to add a little depth to this unabashedly lightweight venture.
  46. As Cool as I Am
    Simplistic plotting, pedestrian visuals and poorly-handled melodrama do lend the project a cheap, made-for-TV feel, which is underscored by the fact that Danes and Marsden don’t seem obliged to turn in their best work.
  47. Scenic Route
    The first half of Scenic Route is basically a filmed play, and not an insightful one. The more surreal second half takes on a moodier edge, but the switcheroo ending is cutesy to the point of annoying. Fogler impresses with some brooding edge, but neither he nor the location photography is enough to recommend you join him on this doomed trip.
  48. Life During Wartime
    You will find a few glimmers of humanity in Todd Solondz' latest exercise in acerbic observation. But Solondz continues to mistake judgment for honesty, and empathy for weakness.
  49. The Good Doctor
    Bloom's watchfulness and brittle seriousness anchors The Good Doctor, even as it wanders away from reality and into its own bizarre world.
  50. Hotel Transylvania 2
    Well, put a stake in it. It's done.
  51. Let Fury Have the Hour
    The result is undoubtedly impassioned. But it's also so blinkered and self-congratulatory that it feels like an undergraduate thesis project. Even if you relate to the cause, you may find yourself frustrated by the effort.
  52. 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.
  53. Nobody Walks
    It's a naive example of the transformative powers of a 23-year-old let loose amongst the dullards. Whoa.
  54. Nature Calls
    Surely Patton Oswalt could have leveraged all those accolades from last year's "Young Adult" into a better project than this instantly forgettable comedy.
  55. American Casino
    The movie's lack of Michael Moore-style dynamism has a dulling effect. What saves it is the human face it puts on the crisis, and its indictment of corporate greed.
  56. Seeking Justice
    Cage and the always-intense Pearce keep this thing going, but even they seem to know the ultimate destination is a bargain bin.
  57. Detachment
    It's nice to see righteous anger in a movie. If only the education drama Detachment knew what to do with it.
  58. Soul Surfer
    Dennis Quaid lends some needed saltiness as Hamilton's supportive dad.
  59. Aloha
    Aloha isn’t horrible, but it does have a pitiable odor about it, like a dog that’s sat too long on the beach. Crowe aspires to Golden Age of Hollywood repartee, but something feels off, just as it did in “Elizabethtown” (2005) and “We Bought a Zoo” (2011). Everyone just seems to be trying too hard.
  60. Dark Skies
    The pacing is so tedious and the action so unexciting that it's a real thrill when J.K. Simmons shows up as a wry alien expert — and a huge disappointment when he disappears a few minutes later.
  61. Tooth Fairy
    Tooth Fairy's script -- which was written by five people -- is lousy, and the direction, by Michael Lembeck, is weak.
  62. Extinction
    If only they had more screen time. The film’s core problems: too little zombie and too much plot. The upside, though, is McColgan as Lu. Chafing against her small world, McColgan is cute, charming and clearly someone to watch.
  63. All Together
    Amiable but ambling.
  64. A Liar's Autobiography - The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman
    John Cleese, Michael Palin and Chapman himself (courtesy of interviews, skits and various recordings he made before his death from cancer in 1989) chime in. It's an odd little trip, but if it weren't, one would have to ask, "Well what's all this, then?"
  65. W.E.
    While W.E. cannot be counted as a successful directorial effort, there are genuine elements of interest here. The most notable is a nervy central performance from Andrea Riseborough, who plays true-life Baltimore socialite Wallis Simpson.
  66. Delicacy
    Gently sweet but unmemorable bonbon.
  67. Meet Monica Velour
    The deepest chord is hit by Cattrall, who almost manages to wipe away the memory of "Sex and the City 2."
  68. The Kindergarten Teacher
    Slightly mesmerizing performances from Larry and young Shnaidman just manage to sustain interest in this quiet story. Even if it’s going nowhere.
  69. You're Next
    Combining the dysfunctional family reunion and the home invasion thriller, You’re Next tries, somewhat valiantly, to add new twists to the usual bloody horror-flick shenanigans. But aside from a few fresh chords, it’s same-old, same-old.
  70. Flow: For Love of Water
    Flow makes you thirsty for more information.
  71. Four Christmases
    Like the last gift buried under singing Billy Bass fish, dancing Coke cans, joke books and mounds of wrapping paper, there's a glimmer of fun in Four Christmases that almost gets vacuumed up with the tinsel.
  72. The Innkeepers
    A well-shot but generically dull disappointment.
  73. Dancing Across Borders
    Informative and flavorful, though lacking in surprise.
  74. The City of Your Final Destination
    Ivory appears most concerned about creating a mood, and in this regard he's successful. But Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's surprisingly bland screenplay, based on Peter Cameron's novel, feels half-finished
  75. The Mummy
    Sure it’s got big, blurry action scenes, a plane crash, and an army of dusty, mindless zombies. But I think some of them may have been the screenwriters, because the movie’s practically lifeless.
  76. Heaven Is for Real
    This heavy-handed movie is simply a sermon its makers think we all should hear.
  77. God's Fiddler: Jascha Heifetz
    While some documentaries are broad enough in theme and creative enough in style to attract a wide-ranging audience, others remain best-suited to a smaller group of devotees. Such is the case for Peter Rosen's biography of violinist Jascha Heifetz.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Safe Haven
    Duhamel is goofy and harmless, but unlike Ryan Gosling in “Notebook,” adds no texture or subtlety. Hough (“Footloose”), while photogenic, is similarly bland.
  79. Private Romeo
    Unfortunately, "modern" additions (like the soldiers' YouTube videos and some social media moments) feel clunky, and a necessarily shortened approach trips the movie up, though leads Matt Doyle and Seth Numrich - accomplished Broadway actors - are intense, engaged and appropriately tragic.
  80. Queen of the Lot
    The only grace notes come from Noah Wyle and Peter Bogdanovich as the two characters who refuse, in different ways, to buy the industry line.
  81. Wanderlust
    Despite the calculated advance press about the movie's nudity, polygamy, dirty talk, etc., David Wain's comedy is depressingly banal. And all that breathless hype now feels like nothing more than manipulation.
  82. Perfect Sense
    Though it eventually gets down to more serious business, this Glasgow-set apocalyptic romance-drama seems, at first, to be most concerned about whether restaurants will survive the end of the world.
  83. Fly Away
    Rickards tries hard in a difficult role and Greg Germann offers nice support as an empathetic neighbor. But like her character, it's Broderick who keeps things from falling apart.
  84. We the Party
    It's a shame, though, that the movie also features stereotyped or retrograde attitudes towards Jewish, gay, and female characters. Perhaps Van Peebles' kids could school their dad on the virtues of across-the-board respect.
  85. Stonewall
    Stonewall may be about coming out of the closet, but it wants to play it straight.
  86. The Incredible Hulk
    Roth and Hurt glower semi-engagingly, and while Norton's scrawniness works, he seems intellectually disengaged, despite his helping to craft Zak Penn's script.
  87. Jonah Hex
    If all you want is a bullets-and-bombs B-movie, you'll get your money's worth: Somehow, Hayward makes 82 minutes feel like hours.
  88. The Time Being
    Despite the movie’s flaws, Cicin-Sain does show considerable confidence for a first-time writer and director.
  89. Backstreet Boys: Show 'Em What You're Made Of
    True, the Boys are thoughtful and eloquent, and the whole package is engaging enough to hold even a newcomer’s attention, but the end result is an incomplete story of a forgotten band hoping to celebrate — or should I say sell-abrate — an anniversary no one else remembered.
  90. Smurfs: The Lost Village
    They blue it. The brains behind the eye-popping but soul-sapping Smurfs: The Lost Village missed an opportunity to celebrate girl power.
  91. In Secret
    What do we do about a movie that is half compelling and half unwatchable? Director Charlie Stratton seems to be onto something at the start of his period drama In Secret. Then it all slips through his fingers.
  92. Elegy
    Roth's works are particularly hard to do justice to onscreen, perhaps because the celebrated author's personality is really in his words
  93. White Bird in a Blizzard
    Having carried the mediocre smash “Divergent,” Shailene Woodley now uplifts another underwhelming teen thriller. This one’s as tiny as that one was huge.
  94. Fifty Shades Darker
    Since Dornan is as dull as a catalog model anyway — he wanders through the movie like an Abercrombie searching for his Fitch — the shopping-list look of the movie makes sense. But Dakota Johnson deserves better.
  95. Kingsman: The Secret Service
    Half amusing and half appalling, Matthew Vaughn’s shameless spy caper Kingsman: The Secret Service is ultimately done in by its own hypocrisy.
  96. Kidnapping Mr. Heineken
    Sam Worthington and Jim Sturgess are solid as two of the four kidnappers, but Swedish director Daniel Alfredson pushes the caper button too many times. More sly wit would have helped things come to a head.
  97. Ceremony
    A story that never finds a reason for its own existence.
  98. The Perfect Family
    While they have all the materials needed for a sharp satire, they're too timid to arrive at any real revelations.
  99. To Rome with Love
    Much of the young cast - especially a miscast Page - make the oft-repeated mistake of saying Allen's dialogue as he might say them; the result is a lot of hyperarticulation, stammering and gesturing.
  100. The Unborn
    What "The Exorcist" might look like if Madonna rewrote it, this silly fright flick finds college student Casey (Odette Yustman) haunted by a Kabbalistic demon.
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