Newsweek's Scores

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For 1,617 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 57% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 40% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.7 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 Children of a Lesser God
Lowest review score: 0 Down to You
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 952 out of 1617
  2. Mixed: 532 out of 1617
  3. Negative: 133 out of 1617
1617 movie reviews
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  1. Emma
    The self-deluded, 21-year-old heroine, can be an awful pain, but her meddling misjudgments are redeemed by her wit, grace and budding moral intelligence, and it's Gwyneth Paltrow's triumph that we always keep sight of that potential as she blithely plucks all the wrong heartstrings in town.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Manny & Lo
    In her starched nurse's uniform, shuffling around with a bicycle chain for leg irons, Place would steal the movie if the youngsters weren't so impossibly perfect. [05 Aug 1996, p.73]
    • Newsweek
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    A Time to Kill
    Kill is a disappointing movie: slow, overpopulated and muddled in its thinking.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Trainspotting
    Artfully ambivalent, Danny Boyle's film, twists with a junkie's logic. It does not preach; it wallows in the pain and, more daringly, in the pleasure.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Walking and Talking
    Holofcener has a wonderful breezy touch. She hides life issues in such sweet moments, you barely notice them as they go down.
  6. Independence Day
    The dialogue is tacky, the characters stock and the special effects no improvement on anything George Lucas did 20 years ago.
  7. Phenomenon
    Soft to the point of squishiness, Phenomenon is rescued from terminal bathos by Travolta's radiant conviction.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Nutty Professor
    Directed by Tom Shadyac ("Ace Ventura"), it's nearly sociopathic in its quest for laughs, and busts a very big gut.
  9. Striptease
    Unfortunately, no one seems to have clued Demi in on the joke. Never known for her light touch, she appears to be act-ing (earnestly, humorlessly) in some other movie altogether, a dreary melodrama about a noble mom fighting for her child.
  10. Lone Star
    The payoff comes at the end, when the myriad threads pull together with a shock like a noose tightening around your neck. Built with old-fashioned craftsmanship, Lone Star is not a movie you'll quickly forget. [8 July 1996, p.64]
    • Newsweek
  11. Eraser
    Director Charles ("The Mask") Russell is no James Cameron. He can produce a requisite amount of suspense and mayhem..., but his filmmaking is strictly B-movie generic. [01 Jul 1996 Pg.62]
    • Newsweek
  12. Stealing Beauty
    This fragile, precious chamber piece, co-written with Susan Minot, rarely seems worthy of the high style lavished upon it. [24 Jun 1996 Pg.83]
    • Newsweek
  13. The Cable Guy
    It can't risk real pathos, or real horror, and still be a Jim Carrey movie, so the most it achieves is a kind of unsettling creepiness. Strange movie: Carrey is working his gifted butt off, and we're not allowed to laugh.
  14. The Rock
    The presence of Connery is pure balm, purring those Celtic tones like smoky single-malt Scotch.
  15. DragonHeart
    Screenwriter Charles Edward Pogue and director Rob Cohen have reasonably literate fun subverting the knight genre. [10 Jun 1996, p.91]
    • Newsweek
  16. Mission: Impossible
    Holes in the script cause the narrative to burp at times.
  17. Dead Man
    The mordant, deadpan humor that streaks through Dead Man is echt Jarmusch, but it's in the service of his most mysterious and deeply felt movie, a meditation on death and transfiguration that, by the end, has thrown off the protective veil of irony. [03 Jun 1996, Pg.75]
    • Newsweek
  18. I Shot Andy Warhol
    Harron sets the stage expertly, but her lack of a point of view ultimately enervates the movie. [6 May 1996, p. 78]
    • Newsweek
  19. The Truth About Cats & Dogs
    Director Michael Lehmann ("Heathers") nimbly keeps this airy concoction afloat.
  20. Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy
    A twisted comedy for twisted times, this movie made me happy. Go figure.
  21. Courage Under Fire
    The film seems to want us to pin a medal to its own chest.
  22. James and the Giant Peach
    Dahl himself thought his book would be impossible to translate into film, and for all the ingenuity that's been thrown at the screen, perhaps he was right. This overgrown peach never ripens.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Flirting with Disaster
    The old pros cavort grandly. Moore even strips down to a black bra and panties, and rolls in bed with her husband (George Segal).
    • Newsweek
  24. Welcome to the Dollhouse
    The beauty of Welcome to the Dollhouse is its pokerfaced objectivity, which neither condescends to its pubescent victim nor romantically inflates her plight.
  25. Girl 6
    In one of his most impudently engaging movies, Lee's heroine has a lot of sex—on the telephone.
  26. The Birdcage
    Everyone will be tickled pink by this sleek Mike Nichols remake.
  27. Rumble in the Bronx
    This is a good introduction to the affable Chan persona. The comedy is broad, the inner-city Americana hilariously off-base, and the English dubbing may prove disconcerting to U.S. audiences. But the cheesiness is part of the fun.
  28. City Hall
    Director Harold Becker ("The Onion Field," "Sea of Love") makes "City Hall" absorbing in its evocation of New York fauna and rhythms. The problem is in the screenplay. [19 Feb 1996, p.68]
    • Newsweek
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    From Dusk Till Dawn
    Robert Rodriguez's second effort is a funny, craftily written piece of low-grade horror crapola.
  30. Dead Man Walking
    No simple diatribe against capital punishment, it's a strong film, made stronger by two terrific performances.
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