NME's Scores

For 373 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 63% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 32% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.4 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Oppenheimer
Lowest review score: 20 Death on the Nile
Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 8 out of 373
373 movie reviews
  1. While its oddball nature won’t be to all tastes, the championing of female guile over insufferable male idiocy will surely leave many with a big smile on their faces.
  2. Directed without restraint by Ridley Scott, it’s a bewildering blend of high fashion, high camp and high tragedy that’s chaotic but also wildly entertaining.
  3. Dawn Of The Nugget might have a bit too much Netflix polish in places, and the spark of the original film doesn’t ever burn as brightly here, but there’s still a lot to love about a family film pitched for the post-Christmas dinner funk that’s all about the horrors of the poultry industry.
  4. Wonka isn’t quite an immaculate confection, but it’s moreish enough to become a future festive favourite. You’ll want to tuck right in.
  5. Lovers of the currently unfashionable historical epic, however, mostly aren’t eager to see Napoleon for the love story at its core. What they want is a battle – blood and thunder writ large. On this front, there’s little in modern cinema to equal what Scott and his team manage.
  6. Saltburn isn’t the most talked-about party of the year, but you shouldn’t miss it all the same.
  7. What makes this fifth film the best of the franchise is its tense, paranoid latter half.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With polished visuals and an experienced cast, director Hur Jin-ho concocts a morally complex work that will both challenge and reward viewers.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Simplicity can be elegant, one must be careful not veer into simplistic, which can be monotonous. Ballerina teeters on the edge both.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    DeVidas’ film might be a difficult watch but, as well as serving up a reminder of the horrors of addiction, at least it gives us plenty to be grateful for too.
  8. But while DaCosta’s Candyman reboot was thrilling, this never musters the same level of engagement, despite a script that is chock full of good lines and a cast of willing participants. More meh than marvel, you might say.
  9. Hope, then, is the film’s lasting message. Hope that it’ll spark much-needed conversations. But also hope that they won’t be so needed in the future.
  10. Saving the day this time isn’t Poirot, but the city itself which Branagh captures in all its decadently crumbling glory.
  11. Bell is as low-key brilliant as he always is – that ominous, gravelly voice gets a great workout, while his withered, grey-haired appearance lends the film real gravitas. And yes, there is enough Saw iconography here to keep the bloodthirsty on-side.
  12. Eschewing melodrama for a more low-key register, it may not satisfy those looking for quick thrills. But this slow-burner is a stylish look at a bygone era, when all that mattered was having enough money to put petrol in your tank.
  13. The Killer is an entertaining, crowd-pleasing banger that stands up to multiple views. It’s a superior hit-man romp that doesn’t outstay its welcome from a director who misses the target less than his protagonist.
  14. Uncut Gems is an anxiety-inducing heart-attack of a movie that grabs its audience by the throat and shakes until there’s no breath left.
  15. At least Scream star Matthew Lillard brings some creepiness into his little screen time. Otherwise, Five Nights At Freddy’s is moribund.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    It’s a staggering feat. In the space of one seamless performance, Swift is at turns a playfully eccentric artist, a country star and a genuine pop icon. Yet for all the spectacle, it might be those acoustic songs that linger longest in the memory.
  16. This might not be what fans expect from an Exorcist movie, but they’ll be even more surprised that it’s actually watchable.
  17. Combining spectacular effects work with a surprisingly provocative script, it’s a superbly made sci-fi adventure that delivers plenty of robo-thrills.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Like A Star Is Born, Maestro peters out after an astonishing first act that frontloads all of Cooper’s directing tricks.
  18. It’s not all wide-eyed insight and romantic misery though. Past Lives is also very, very funny.
  19. Spaeny is superb as Priscilla, making you feel every painful aspect of her emotional journey, from infatuation and initial confusion through to heartbreak and finally self-discovery. Similarly, Elordi makes a terrific Elvis.
  20. As ever with Anderson, the design is meticulous. Some can find this style cloying, but it suits this glorified short perfectly, never outstaying its welcome.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    At its best, The Blackening is a fun, laugh-out-loud blockbuster that sends up the many genre clichés surrounding Black people in horror (mostly the notion that they always die first in horror films). At its worst, though, it’s a reductive slasher-comedy where most jokes earn a measly huff.
  21. As summer blockbusters go, it’s only ever really mildly diverting. But bringing us a first Latino superhero in a DC movie, ably played by the charming Maridueña, is still to be applauded.
  22. Thankfully, if you can suspend your disbelief, Heart Of Stone is plenty of fun and far slicker than a lot of recent Netflix content. It almost goes without saying that the ending leaves room for a potential franchise. And after two hours of near-constant japes and scrapes, you’d need a heart of stone – or at least a high entertainment threshold – not to think “Oh go on then, why the hell not?”
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Taken on its own merits, the live-action Zom 100 is a pretty fun time – a consistently amusing adventure that makes up for its slightness with an abundance of silliness.
  23. Wheatley proves himself an instant master of CGI monster movie mayhem here, but by piling it on so relentlessly thick he all but admits defeat in his initial attempts to give the franchise any believable depths.

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