Portland Oregonian's Scores

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For 3,654 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 63% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 34% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.8 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Caesar Must Die
Lowest review score: 0 Summer Catch
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,408 out of 3654
  2. Mixed: 966 out of 3654
  3. Negative: 280 out of 3654
3654 movie reviews
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  1. Garden State
    Zach Braff has come up with a charming, funny, melancholy ode to twentysomething angst.
  2. Los Angeles Plays Itself
    Gives us a fresh way to think not only about movies but about the town in which so many of them are made, and in that regard it's kind of amazing.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 16 Critic Score
    She Hate Me
    Given the abundance of tedious sex in She Hate Me it's no wonder the whole thing's such a turn-off.
  4. The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
    What really separates Zatoichi from a run-of-the-mill action pic is the sense of humor -- and even more than that, the sense of fun -- that Kitano brings to it.
  5. The Bourne Supremacy
    Solid summer entertainment set in a recognizably real world.
  6. Catwoman
    Berry has no character to play, but Sharon Stone's an over-the-top hoot.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Home at the End of the World
    The film equivalent of the blind date described as "really nice." It's neither bad nor good, just sort of earnest and well-meaning.
  8. Ju-on: The Grudge
    Creepy, purposefully frustrating, nonlinear horror exercise from Japan that quietly burrows right into your skull.
  9. Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut
    Longer cut's slapdash additions make a cool, ambiguous film more literal; original 2001 version is far better.
  10. I, Robot
    Proyas does a jaw-dropping job, particularly in the opening scenes, of depicting Chicago in the year 2035.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Maria Full of Grace
    Astonishes on many levels.
  12. Zhou Yu de huo che
    Before dismissing Zhou Yu's Train as the over-conceived, over-edited, under-written perfume ad that it is, the following must be said: It's great to see Gong Li onscreen again.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Door in the Floor
    By turns absorbing, unsettling and, for lack of a better word, icky.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
    Their collective timing is so off that the dead space around their endless bits is like that more commonly experienced during a job interview gone wrong.
  15. Sleepover
    Forgettable teen piffle.
  16. The Inheritance
    The politics of the story come to life through the vivid characterizations of a uniformly excellent cast.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
    The miracle of Some Kind of Monster is Berlinger and Sinofsky's ability to make us root for these self-absorbed man-children.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Riding Giants
    A more sober, less in-your-face documentary than Peralta's great skateboarding flick.
  19. King Arthur
    An action film without a completely empty head, and these days, that's as rare as Excalibur itself.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Before Sunset
    Hawke is not a brilliant actor, but here he rises to the occasion: Every inch of him registers the weight of this moment.
  21. The Clearing
    Surprisingly dreary kidnapping drama.
  22. Spider-Man 2
    Spider-Man 2 succeeds in pretty much the same way "Superman II" did -- only more so.
  23. The Notebook
    Hs a single goal: to prod your tear ducts to open up. It is very, very good at this task. Whether The Notebook is good in any other respect is a bit more complicated.
  24. Two Brothers
    Charming, Kiplingesque fable.
  25. Kaena: The Prophecy
    Clumsily animated feature; probably better as a video game than as a movie.
  26. White Chicks
    Worthless, tasteless and unfunny.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Fahrenheit 9/11
    A savagely partisan indictment of George W. Bush's presidency.
  28. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
    If you hold a perverse soft spot in your heart for straight-to-video underdog junk like "Ski School," you're going to love Dodgeball.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The Terminal
    Hanks is remarkable in one of the minor films in smarm-meister Spielberg's oeuvre.
  30. Facing Windows
    Some lovely photography and even Mezzogiorno's hot-blooded performance fail to keep Facing Windows from feeling fractured.
  31. Around the World in 80 Days
    Dumb, enjoyable kids fare; Jackie Chan's fanny-kicking world tour is a textbook example of how a movie can be "fun" without, strictly speaking, being "good."
  32. The Chronicles of Riddick
    Amazing-looking sequel to cult fave "Pitch Black"; unfortunately, the film's wrecked by a surprisingly weak, goofy script.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    The Stepford Wives
    So god-awful it falls into the category of needing to be seen to be believed. A purported satire of the 1975 camp horror classic, it succeeds in failing on almost every level, including knowing what it's actually satirizing.
  34. Garfield
    In short, it's an almost flawlessly innocuous entertainment for kids.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Napoleon Dynamite
    A cult classic-in-the-making.
  36. Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
    It's the sort of history you could nibble on for hours.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
    Much has been made about the fact that the world's most popular fictional children are growing up and straight into that horror-filled no man's land of the human life span, puberty.
  38. The Story of the Weeping Camel
    Mostly this film is a glorious ode to the culture and family bonds that override all else, and to the expressiveness of both the human and animal actors.
  39. The Day After Tomorrow
    Delivers the expected thrills and groans.
  40. Baadasssss!
    Compelling both as a chronicle of guerrilla filmmaking and as a son's movie about his father, it presents a clear-eyed, warts-and-all view of artistic obsession.
  41. Bukowski: Born into This
    Often-brilliant, often-reverent documentary deconstructs Bukowski's bad-boy literary persona, finds a fascinatingly messed-up guy behind the words.
  42. The Mother
    Powerful, subtle, quietly terrifying film about the consequences of a widow's stab at a May-December romance.
  43. Saved!
    A mean-spirited exercise in hypocrisy.
  44. Raising Helen
    This goopy dramedy is unfunny, mentally bankrupt and makes parenthood look like a terrifying death sentence.
  45. The Five Obstructions
    It's a treat to be diverted by a film that actually has a brain.
  46. Love Me If You Dare
    There's something in the obsessiveness of these characters that pushes the film just beyond the level of believability, even for a romantic fable such as this.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Shrek 2
    Medal prediction: The green guy is golden.
  48. Breakin' All the Rules
    This could be the year's smartest romantic comedy.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Troy
    In the end, the battle scenes are elegant and compelling and there are some fine moments when O'Toole, as Priam, summons his inner Lawrence of Arabia and makes us believe that we're actually watching a tragic altercation that brought down great men descended from gods.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Coffee and Cigarettes
    Like dark chocolate -- not semi-sweet, but the exotic, nearly black stuff -- Coffee and Cigarettes won't appeal to everyone. Jarmusch is the 70 percent cacao of contemporary filmmakers, and people who love this kind of chocolate swear by it.
  51. New York Minute
    Exists for one purpose, and one purpose only: to further the entertainment careers of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. It's like an Elvis movie for 'tweenagers. That doesn't make the film uninteresting as a pop confection.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Van Helsing
    If an eardrum-damaging score and people getting routinely slammed into stone walls at a 100 miles an hour without so much as chipping a tooth is your idea of a good time, then Van Helsing won't disappoint.
  53. Godzilla
    In the annals of monster movies, one name stands above all the rest, way above: Godzilla.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    Super Size Me
    The film has accomplished something few documentaries manage: It's created a stir. It's got people thinking and talking. And avoiding the fries.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    Laws of Attraction
    The larger question is not whether these two will wind up together, but rather, if the filmmakers wanted to make a teen movie, why didn't they use real teenagers?
    • 66 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Mean Girls
    Sassy and sharp.
  57. Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius
    It's passable, but in telling the tale of a man known to attempt the risky drive, it's a shame the filmmakers decided to shoot for par.
  58. Since Otar Left
    This combination of fatalism, nostalgia and willfully naive optimism captures something essential in the Russian soul.
  59. 13 Going on 30
    A charming, funny piece of wish-fulfillment for young girls -- and, if you're much older than that, a disturbing critique of modern male sexuality.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Man on Fire
    Scott apparently decided it was a good idea for his subtitles -- much of the film is in Spanish -- to shimmy across the screen, to fade in and out dramatically, and in general do even more to distract us.
  61. The Twilight Samurai
    The pace of this Oscar nominee may be a bit contemplative for audiences seeking "Yojimbo"-style action, but it's surely a more realistic and moving look at life in 19th-century Japan.
  62. The Agronomist
    The film verges on hagiography as one interviewee after another testifies to Dominique's positive influence on his nation, but in this case the cynical notion that there must be another side to the story is easy to tamp down.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Kill Bill: Vol. 2
    While Tarantino's famous fight sequences are grisly, funny and genuinely entertaining, his love scenes are so tender, so fraught, you fear for the safety of your own heart.
  64. Connie and Carla
    May be fairly funny, sort of sweet and slightly muddled, but one thing about it is utterly certain: It loves, loves, loves some bad cabaret.
  65. The Punisher
    It actually makes the 1989 version (starring Dolph Lundgren) look pretty good by comparison. Oh, yes. It's that ghastly.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Young Adam
    In this moody, claustrophobic almost-thriller -- the pacing is as sluggish as the Scottish canals that serve as its setting.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    The Alamo
    Hancock's direction isn't flashy, and the pacing is a little curious...Still, he has the quiet chutzpah to suggest that a man can be both flawed and heroic, cowardly in his personal life and noble in his public one.
  68. The Girl Next Door
    A pleasant surprise. It's not without its problems, but it's character-driven, funny and, if not dark, then at least a pleasant shade of gray -- with tremendous performances by Hirsch and Olyphant.
  69. The Whole Ten Yards
    This is one of those movies that also hand reviewers a ton of their own quotes as ammunition. Perry, just summing it all up: "I've never been this confused in my entire life!"
    • 73 Metascore
    • 91 Critic Score
    I'm Not Scared
    If the slightly hurried third act and unlikely conclusion don't quite deliver on the brilliance of the first 75 minutes, it's a forgivable offense. This is a different sort of horror film, where the known is infinitely more frightening than the unknown.
  71. Hellboy
    The movie's got a heart as warm as hellfire.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Home on the Range
    Will best be enjoyed on DVD. You can pop it in for the kids and spend the next 90 minutes or so doing something else.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 42 Critic Score
    The Prince and Me
    The only thing unpredictable about The Prince and Me is the plot's basic logic. It's unfortunate, because the young leads are appealing and the issues Paige confronts are important. Why couldn't the movie be half as smart as she?
  74. Walking Tall
    Don't go in expecting much and you'll have fun. Consider it The Rock's "Raw Deal."
  75. The United States of Leland
    The result is a frustrating and disturbing mishmash of vague philosophical noodling, which even the best-chosen cast can't imbue with zip.
  76. Jersey Girl
    The minute the movie flashes forward seven years and Castro takes over as Affleck's grade-school-age daughter: The whole enterprise suddenly becomes rather charming.
  77. The Ladykillers
    For a certain brand of film geek, the best news about The Ladykillers is that it isn't a Tom Hanks movie. It's a Coen brothers movie.
  78. Dogville
    This unique cinematic experience is a parable of greed and revenge that could take place anywhere.
  79. Never Die Alone
    In the hands of a more nuanced actor, David could have been a riveting character; but DMX's limited range means it's never clear why such a remorseless thug was seeking "redemption" in the first place.
  80. Mayor of the Sunset Strip
    His life stands as a testament to the idea that an average-looking bloke with a can-do attitude and a dream in his heart can rub shoulders with the folks the rest of us only get to read about. And he's got the photographs to prove it.
  81. Two Men Went to War
    The first half of the movie is a particular delight, with the bug-eyed, chinless Cuthbertson playing beautifully against grouchy, stoic King, who's barking mad under that stiff upper lip.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
    If you've got a 10-year-old underfoot who needs entertaining, you could have a worse time.
  83. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
    Adventuresome, melancholy and exhilarating.
  84. Taking Lives
    Pretty much the worst recent example of a genre.
  85. Dawn of the Dead
    Tense, bloody, funny and smart; lacks original's conscience, but it's still a surprisingly gritty remake.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Intermission
    A sort of low-down, dirty-faced Irish cousin of "Love Actually," the glossy smarm replaced by a jittery raunchiness.
  87. Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
    If you have a low opinion of the first "Cody Banks," and your kids drag you to this one, you may be tempted to do some food-flinging of your own.
  88. Secret Window
    "The only thing that matters is the ending," says Rainey toward the end of the movie. He's talking about the writers' craft. Koepp, despite the best efforts of his cast, sends this comment soaring into the ether of irony.
  89. Knafayim Shvurot
    This story could take place anywhere there are families struggling to remake themselves in the aftermath of tragedy; its universality is perhaps the most potent political message of all.
  90. Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
    A distancing cynicism has been slathered over the story's maudlin core, with the hope perhaps that between these two conventional extremes resides a genuine emotional truth. That may be the case, but "Wilbur" doesn't quite get to it.
  91. Starsky & Hutch
    What this alteration says about societal trends of the past three decades is open to debate, but the change is a tiny hint that earnest fidelity to the source was not a top priority.
  92. Hidalgo
    The movie's a veritable Viggo-a-go-go.
  93. The Reckoning
    The problem is the obviousness with which the plot unfolds -- it's as if the filmmakers had a 14th-century audience in mind, one that had never seen a movie.
  94. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights
    At its best during the anachronistic nightclub scenes and anytime prolonged dancing is on screen. It's mostly music video stuff, but the young actors are likable enough, and the film works up just enough momentum to give it some significance.
  95. Twisted
    A snore.
  96. Goodbye Lenin!
    One of those gratifyingly nostalgic works of art that accept the present day but remind us, as well, that the past wasn't necessarily worse.
  97. The Passion of the Christ
    Stunning in its violence and fascinating in its ironbound focus.
  98. Kitchen Stories
    It's a film that triumphs in small ways and satisfyingly demonstrates how our human nature is based on both the eccentricity of our hearts and the quirky workings of our heads.
  99. Against the Ropes
    It's a weird anti-woman message masquerading in a movie about empowerment. And there's nothing inspired about that.
  100. EuroTrip
    Quite possibly the single most artless gross-out comedy I have ever seen. It relentlessly slaps you with dead carp after dead carp of icky gags -- without any of the cleverness, cinematography or characterization that would give those gags even the slightest bit of juice.
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