Philadelphia Inquirer's Scores

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For 4,176 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 70% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 27% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Hell or High Water
Lowest review score: 0 The Mangler
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,145 out of 4176
  2. Mixed: 682 out of 4176
  3. Negative: 349 out of 4176
4176 movie reviews
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  1. Scary Movie
    Its grossness knows no bounds, and you'd have to be dead not to laugh.
  2. The Perfect Storm
    The problem with The Perfect Storm is that while its roiling collision of weather systems is pulled off with cinematic deftness, the actors who stand there getting lashed and splashed don't have anything terribly interesting to say.
  3. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
    The whole affair has a painfully self-conscious, self-referential air. Jokes land with a thud, and so, alas, does Rocky, who seems to have forgotten how to fly.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  4. Trixie
    Wastes an A-list cast in a sorry send-up of B-movie private-eye cliches.
  5. The Patriot
    If Emmerich had any sense, he would have ceded the direction of the battle scenes to his star.
  6. Me, Myself & Irene
    Utterly charmless - there's not even a glimmer.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  7. Chicken Run
    It's aimed at adults as much as children, with jokes that work on multiple levels, and contraptions.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  8. Titan A.E.
    Plunges into a void created by a stale and incredibly derivative plot.
  9. Shaft
    Shaft is still enormously involving. It's popcorn, but very fresh.
  10. Jesus' Son
    Floats before your eyes like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The surprise is that, fitted together, these pieces make a completed picture.
  11. Marcel Proust's Time Regained
    The film only occasionally comes to life - it's too literal (and literary), too studied, too still.
  12. Humanité
    While Dumont's movie has its striking scenes, it is doomed to a sense of lethargy and inertia by the kind of people it ponders and the context in which they are placed.
  13. Butterfly Tongues
    Manages the rare feat of being both bleak and deeply rewarding.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  14. Boys and Girls
    It's nothing if not predictable.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
    • 54 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Groove
    Unfortunately, it lacks a compelling story or characters of any complexity.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  16. Pop & Me
    An entertaining, occasionally illuminating autodocumentary.
  17. Sunshine
    A powerful film.
  18. Love's Labour's Lost
    Has its moments of charm, but it's ultimately a fascinating failure that surely looked better on paper than it does on the screen.
  19. Gone in Sixty Seconds
    Proves a theory first advanced in the movie "Repo Man": The more you drive, the stupider you get.
  20. Grass
    A spirited, smart-alecky look at the ongoing conflict between a government that wants to eliminate pot and a public that wants to smoke it.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  21. Big Momma's House
    My guess is that the film will appeal equally to broad-minded 10-year-olds and their grandparents.
  22. Shanghai Noon
    As irresistible as Chan is irrepressible. In a movie season in which, it seems, all the blockbusters boast wheels, it's a treat to see a movie that has legs.
  23. Passion of Mind
    It's too gauzy, and - with its Ron Bass script - too goopy by half.
  24. Kikujirô no natsu
    No one has done the journey quite like Takeshi Kitano in Kikujiro
  25. 8 ½ Women
    8 1/2 Women is a collage-y, self-reflexive sort of film that is designed to shock but more often just annoys.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  26. Mission: Impossible II
    Never as much fun as (Woo's) old Chow Yun Fat-starring Chinese pics.
  27. Dinosaur
    An undeniable and, indeed, unprecedented technical feat that's a feast for the eye, Dinosaur is less easy on the ear.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  28. Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man
    The troupe deserves every bit of its worldwide renown, and it makes this Imax trip one well worth taking.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  29. Young Dr. Freud
    It works beautifully and illuminates aspects of Freud that you might think beyond the reach of the the camera.
  30. Small Time Crooks
    Sunnier and sillier than most of Allen's recent work, makes its belly laughs heartwarming. It's a most winning movie about losers.
  31. Road Trip
    Not as consistently or uproariously funny as "American Pie," but it does have a Zen zaniness that gives it center as well as edge.
  32. Center Stage
    Modestly entertaining when it is engaged in such a celebration onstage, but it trips up when the action moves backstage, where bad dialogue ... lurks in the shadows.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  33. Hamlet
    Almereyda's smart, streamlined adaptation is full of such neat little ironies.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  34. Human Traffic
    Fast, funny.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  35. Up at the Villa
    It's low-grade Casablanca - an ill-fated love affair, rife with murder and deceit, with World War II as a backdrop and a farewell scene that has something to do with getting to Paris.
  36. I Dreamed of Africa
    Consist of little more than people arguing or clambering in and out of dusty Land Rovers.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  37. Gladiator
    It's a stunning Roman triumph.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  38. Adorenarin doraibu
    A high-energy chase, but in this spirited action comedy Yaguchi still finds time to allow the romance between lovers on the run to blossom at its own pace.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  39. The Big Kahuna
    Doesn't have the dramatic heft to warrant all its angst and anguish.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  40. Committed
    Krueger's comedy doesn't always spark, but its underlying intelligence - not to mention Graham's eyes - shines through.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  41. Frequency
    Smart, suspenseful, satisfyingly unpredictable.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  42. Bossa Nova
    Not only is Bossa Nova a lovely romance, but one can say, as one can about few films, that it is restorative as a vacation.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  43. The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
    Lame and misguided homage, which reduces satire to vulgar silliness for kids.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  44. Timecode
    Gimmicky artifice.
  45. Croupier
    Croupier, immersed in a world of gambling, gamesmanship and crime, is a solid, seductive entertainment.
  46. The Last September
    Undeniable asset of an A list cast.
  47. U-571
    It's still a submarine movie, confined by the ship, the sea, and a convention-laden script.
  48. The Virgin Suicides
    There's a melancholy sweetness here, a gentle humor that speaks to the angst and awkwardness of girls turning into women, and the awe of boys watching the transformation from afar.
  49. Set Me Free
    Stands apart from the trite conventions of most coming-of-age drama chiefly through the originality of Pool's approach and the honesty and conviction of Karine Vanasse's portrait of Hanna.
  50. American Psycho
    A high-end version of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" set in the rarefied bistros, boites and brokerages of Yuppie Manhattan in the 1980s.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  51. Where the Money Is
    Leaves you in no doubt of where the talent is in what would otherwise be a throwaway picture.
  52. Southpaw
    Refreshingly gritty and hard-nosed.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Filth and the Fury
    This time around, Julien Temple gets it right.
  54. Rules of Engagement
    A casualty of its own clumsy storytelling.
  55. Return to Me
    She (Hunt) is perfection even when her movie falls a little short.
  56. Price of Glory
    Hollywood keeps turning out boxing movies. Price of Glory is the latest to step into the ring and face an increasingly no-win situation
  57. High Fidelity
    With its knowing take on men, messed-up romance and music, is like one long, hook-filled pop song for the eyes.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  58. Here on Earth
    Nothing wrong with the syrupy romance Here on Earth that a megadose of insulin couldn't fix.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  59. The Color of Paradise
    The film's climax involves a father and son reunion that is tense, tragic and, finally, as transcendent as Mohammad himself.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  60. Such a Long Journey
    Gunnarsson crams his movie with subplots from the novel and then abandons them for lack of room but Seth calibrates the stages of Gustad's journey with infallible judgement and conviction.
  61. Whatever It Takes
    You haven't heard anything until you've heard "Play That Funky Music" on the accordion.
  62. Final Destination
    As full of terrible acting as it is devoid of suspense.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  63. Mission to Mars
    It's low-energy, and it's also depressing to know that people are still listening to Van Halen 20 years from now.
  64. The Ninth Gate
    Begins to take on a striking resemblance to the infamously bad "Eyes Wide Shut."
  65. Drowning Mona
    It can be broadly funny when it does not lapse into lazy "Dukes of Hazzard" caricature, which is often.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  66. The Next Best Thing
    Contrived story lines and an altogether phony resolution erase whatever energy and wit the film displayed, leaving the viewer with an empty, disappointed feeling.
  67. Mifune's Last Song
    With the filmmaking techniques pared to the bone, it is left to the actors to bring the scenes alive - and they do, often brilliantly.
  68. Wonder Boys
    Lovely performances from McDormand, Downey and Richard Knox, who looks uncommonly like Little Richard, as a bar owner named Vernon Hardapple.
  69. Reindeer Games
    Some movie-goers will be more annoyed than surprised by the finale.
  70. Judy Berlin
    Laced with magic-realist bittersweetness.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  71. Pitch Black
    The "Alien" recipe with a little imagination.
  72. Beautiful People
    When Dizdar hits, he hits big.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  73. Hanging Up
    Imagine "King Lear" art-directed by Martha Stewart and you have Hanging Up.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  74. The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
    Scrupulously made and deeply affectionate.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  75. Not One Less
    Has a slow-burning emotional power.
  76. The Tigger Movie
    A yawning affair that would be a perfectly fine video rental but doesn't really require the big screen.
  77. Snow Day
    A light-as-powder family comedy.
  78. The Beach
    Whether he's smacking into an iceberg or flopping topless onto a sandy beach, DiCaprio is still maddeningly lightweight.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  79. Scream 3
    At 116 minutes, this third installment lumbers along like a serial killer in shackles.
  80. The Cup
    An improbably funny and transcendent account of soccer-mad Tibetan monks in exile at a Bhutan monastery.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  81. Isn't She Great
    Has to be among the worst movies ever made.
  82. Eye of the Beholder
    So stupid, so stupefying, so stupendously bad.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
    • 13 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Down to You
    The highlights of the movie are a great song, Sam Phillips' "I Need Love,'' which comes at the end, and Stiles' affecting crying scene.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  84. Supernova
    Really lost in space.
  85. My Dog Skip
    This is a sweet, gentle film - slow and sunny like a summer day, with a message that growing up can be hard, but can also serve as the wellspring of memories that will sustain you for a lifetime.
  86. Next Friday
    A slaphappy, slapdash type of affair familiar to fans of Cheech & Chong and Pauly Shore. It's your basic object lesson in why marijuana is called dope.
  87. Fantasia 2000
    It musters both the merits and the drawbacks of the landmark original.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  88. The Hurricane
    Washington blows you away. To say he gives the performance of his career is an understatement.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  89. The Third Miracle
    So profoundly does The Third Miracle live up to its title that Agnieszka Holland's exceptional meditation upon a priest's crisis of faith might win the endorsement of archdiocese and agnostic alike.
  90. Play It to the Bone
    This is no "Raging Bull."
  91. Titus
    Visually brilliant and thought-provoking.
  92. Galaxy Quest
    It's quite a lot of fun.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  93. The Talented Mr. Ripley
    Takes startling - and startlingly unpleasant - turns. This is not a film with anything approximating a conventional ending.
  94. Any Given Sunday
    A turbocharged and pungently enjoyable take on the sport so many observers see - Stone, of course, included - as a reflection of the darker side of American life.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  95. Angela's Ashes
    Parker has honored the core of the work and in the process turned a great memoir into a memorable movie.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  96. Girl, Interrupted
    The performances in Girl, Interrupted resonate, but the movie does not.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  97. Topsy-Turvy
    A triumph.
  98. Anna and the King
    Yun-Fat is magnetic and majestic, and the story, no matter that it is not entirely true, continues to fascinate.
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  99. Onegin
    Fiennes does this sort of inner pain thing exceedingly well, Tyler is beguiling and believable, and there is an edge of wit and grace to the proceedings.
  100. Stuart Little
    Doesn't have the exuberant inspiration or seamless, polished dazzle of "Toy Story 2," but if the latter is sold out at the multiplex this weekend, the mouse is a passable substitute.
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