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 3.2 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. Good Burger
    The comedy is usually silly, and - in keeping with the fare served up at these busy counters - often tasteless. The wiry Mitchell and the chubby Thompson may physically suggest such great teams as Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello, but - at this stage of their development - the resemblance ends there. [25 July 1997, p.04]
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  2. The Hours
    Though Daldry elicits brilliant performances, particularly from Meryl Streep and Claire Danes, on balance The Hours is more pretentious than penetrating about existential despair.
  3. Explicit Ills
    There's a lot of rambling and shambling going on in these overlapping stories, often to the point where Explicit Ills no longer feels like it has a point.
  4. August: Osage County
    August: Osage County is the movie equivalent of Denny's Lumberjack Slam breakfast. If eggs, bacon, and toast aren't enough, throw in some ham, some sausage, pancakes, and hash browns. And then throw in more ham.
  5. Law Abiding Citizen
    That the film, directed in swift strokes by F. Gary Gray from a screenplay credited to Kurt Wimmer, doesn't really work - unrelentingly grim, unintentionally funny - is almost beside the point. It's a wild concept.
  6. Art School Confidential
    As the film devolved from satire to slapstick horror, I didn't believe in it at all. But in his beetle-browed intensity and tremulousness, I completely believed in Minghella's Jerome.
  7. Oleanna
    Oleanna is Mamet's form of intellectual hazing, and we seated in the theater are, alas, his victims. [11 Nov 1994, p.05]
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  8. Miss Congeniality
    The makeover from ugly duckling to swan essentially replaces narrative catharsis.
  9. Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous
    Deliriously funny if instantly forgettable.
  10. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain
    If you were to judge Let Me Explain purely on its performance portion, filmed at Madison Square Garden during Hart's 2012 tour, the film would merit a full extra star. But at 75 minutes, it feels too skimpy to rave over.
  11. The Summit
    There is a lot of finger-pointing. Assertions are made, theories offered, but not much in the way of certainty.
  12. The Fast and the Furious
    A massive compendium of youth-movie/pedal-to-the-metal cliches. But man, is it fast!
    • Philadelphia Inquirer
  13. Crossing Over
    Harrison Ford - in his best role in years - and Cliff Curtis are the main reasons to see the film.
  14. Unstoppable
    Scott shoots and edits Unstoppable with roller-coaster momentum and an eye (and ear) on that roaring tonnage of steel.
  15. Little Man
    An extremely broad and sometimes crude comedy.
  16. Colombiana
    Colombiana isn't the last word in action movies, but it's a fun ride. And so wrong.
  17. Ghost Team One
    Profane, randy, oversexed, and wonderfully juvenile.
  18. Resurrecting the Champ
    Struggles to get off the ropes and never quite establishes its rhythm. The film takes place in eternal moral twilight, dark enough to make faces look photogenically poignant, light enough to see the white lies.
  19. How to Be Single
    The execution may not be there, but at least it has good intentions. Then again, you know what they say about the road to hell.
  20. Morning Light
    An OK sports doc that owes as much to reality TV competitions as it does to the genre of nautical cinema.
  21. Peeples
    A likable if not exactly groundbreaking comedy.
  22. The Tribe
    A stunning examination of teenage cruelty, exploitation, and crime that refuses to give us the satisfaction of identifying with the characters.
  23. The Invasion
    Mostly about delivering thrills, and chills, and this it does with moderate success and a bunch of fast, no-nonsense edits.
  24. Tomorrowland
    Unlikely to be remembered in decades to come - or even in months to come, once the next teenage dystopian fantasy inserts itself into movie houses.
  25. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
    Lacks the origin-story freshness of its predecessor (even if the inaugural Garfield Spider-Man came only five years after the final installment of the Sam Raimi-directed Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy). It lacks a charismatic central character, too.
  26. The Secret Lives of Dentists
    Scott and Davis bring heart-rending sadness and telling detail to their roles, and imbue Secret Lives with something real and true.
  27. Unfaithful
    Despite some fine, nuanced acting (it's Lane's movie, to be sure), Unfaithful doesn't get much deeper than a romance novel.
  28. Rush Hour 3
    By no means is it a great movie, but it is great slapstick fun, one of summer's guilty pleasures.
  29. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
    A fascinating but flawed work that demonstrates that, contrary to popular wisdom, great minds do not think alike.
  30. Country Strong
    The glaring weakness of Country Strong is James, underwritten and ambiguous, more like Kelly's pimp than her manager.
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