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. The Beaver
    The storyline would appear trite and the message muddled even to someone who'd never heard the name Mel Gibson.
  2. Time and Tide
    A lyrical, exciting adrenaline rush.
  3. Manic
    Really, we'd rather just watch a good documentary about the subject. And as the camera flings around, we occasionally forget about what could help the teens and think more about what could help the director: How about a tripod?
  4. Calendar Girls
    The result is an overly long, overly cute film that is far too tickled with its own naughtiness. It truly is an instance of if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the film.
  5. Gray's Anatomy
    As usual, the genius is in the storytelling details that Gray musters and manipulates, the side trips and observations, the depth of his personal observations. His near hysteria is funny in itself, though when he tries for a one-liner, it almost inevitably falls flat. But that's not a problem: It's just Spalding.
    • Portland Oregonian
  6. Tokyo Pop
    Tokyo Pop is an amiable, ambling film mixing travelogue, romantic comedy and musical documentary. [20 Apr 1988, p.C08]
    • Portland Oregonian
  7. Trust
    A diabolically well-made film about a 14-year-old girl who's raped by a pedophile who grooms her with online chats and sexts.
  8. What About Bob?
    It recalls a kind of French farce that assumes its audiences want to see the rich suffer. [18 May 1991]
    • Portland Oregonian
  9. Lone Survivor
    The surprisingly thoughtful third act both introduces complexity to its portrayal of the Afghan people, and subtly reminds us that, despite Luttrell's astonishing constitution and self-surgery skills, as well as the ultimate sacrifices made by his comrades in arms, it was all for naught.
  10. Bandits
    The picture's strength is comedy -- but the love and crime stories too often drag, falter or just plain frustrate.
  11. Treasure Planet
    A handsome picture, with lots of nifty borrowings from the "Star Wars" galaxy, but it's never particularly compelling as a story or as a vehicle for emotions, and when it's over you have a feeling of still waiting for it to get started.
  12. Middle Men
    What could have been a complex portrait of a flawed man dealing with the perils of success ends up far less interesting.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Life of Crime
    There's nothing very serious to it, perhaps. But it takes its fun very seriously indeed and – after a long summer of big-budget extravaganzas -- ends up providing a small, end-of-season delight.
  14. Nell
    Although the Hollywood treatment intrudes at times, it's still a compelling film, richly filmed and deeply moving. [23 Dec 1994, p.12]
    • Portland Oregonian
  15. Celeste and Jesse Forever
    Well-intentioned but underdeveloped and self-satisfied, it feels at times like the ultimate movie for the millennial generation, or at least its stereotype.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Under the Same Moon (La misma luna)
    First-time director Patricia Riggen uses parallel story lines to tell the mother's and son's tales...It's a storytelling technique that's meant to emphasize how mother and son are utterly unaware of the other's struggles, but instead it robs the plot of tension, making the inevitable reunion seem schmaltzy.
  17. The Perfect Storm
    The stick-figure people in the script haven't the slightest chance of making an impression, and you're more excited at the prospect of the next big wave?
  18. Only the Strong Survive
    Agreeable and warm, is content for the most part merely to allude to complexity and darkness in the lives of its subjects.
  19. Big Eden
    Entertaining, well-acted and hopeful about a world in which sexual orientation isn't a big deal, Big Eden is a pretty picture -- it just tends to be a little too perfect and cute for its own good.
  20. The Rundown
    It's fun, albeit a little messy, under the frequently punchy direction of Peter Berg.
  21. Gunnin' for That #1 Spot
    A basketball documentary where the climactic game looks like a Hong Kong wire-fu epic.
  22. Beowulf
    For the record, it's truly puzzling that this film has been rated PG-13; it's much stronger than that. The monsters of "Beowulf" have haunted human imagination for more than a millennium; the ones in this film will easily provoke a few nightmares.
  23. Breakfast on Pluto
    [Murphy] makes a thrillingly flesh-and-blood creature of Kitten, with her yearning, her droll, self-deprecating wit, her breathless romanticism and her puckish vibrancy. It's easily the most fun bit of screen acting this year, and as rich and nuanced as the lead in any drama.
  24. Spider-Man 3
    Spider-Man 3 is a likeable film -- Maguire's personality, or Raimi's channeled through him, is genuinely charming. But the tenor of the film is too often too muted, melancholy and enervated for something of its size.
  25. Mission: Impossible II
    Moves with terrific energy, alternating riveting action sequences with intimate material in a manner that's pure Woo.
  26. Unbroken
    Those who watch Unbroken, Angelina Jolie's movie about Zamperini's life, only have to suffer for a little more than two hours, but it's a cruel and unusually harsh punishment.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 33 Critic Score
    Waking the Dead
    As so often happens, politics and religion add up to a double dose of self-righteousness.
    • 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.
  29. Tower Heist
    Doesn't demand much of the audience, sure, but it doesn't provide much, either. It's as if an all-star gang of would-be crooks got together to rip off...moviegoers.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Untamed Heart
    It is Tomei's movie. The actress brings an energy and sincerity to her roles that takes them beyond whatever they were written to be and makes them almost unreasonably appealing. For all the improbabilities in Untamed Heart, the most improbable is that Caroline has a history of men running away from her. [15 Feb 1993, p.C06]
    • Portland Oregonian
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