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. Running with Scissors
    The hearty performances are undone by the forced eccentricity of the sets, the clothes, the music and, especially, the characters. The film is ugly and facile and childish in its love of its own naughtiness. Only Jill Clayburgh, as a creepy woman in whose home Augusten must live, feels human. The rest is no more real than a "Simpsons" episode -- and offers fewer laughs.
  2. The Iron Lady
    Anyone looking for a full-bodied account of the woman, her deeds, and her place in history shouldn't be encouraged to linger too long with The Iron Lady.
  3. The Princess Diaries
    It's such a delightful, amusing fairy tale that it leaves you wanting more.
  4. Exodus: Gods and Kings
    As an action spectacular, Exodus is on par with Scott's other forays into ancient times, "Gladiator" and "Kingdom of Heaven." But as a believable human drama, much less a worthy exploration of Judaism's origins, it falls flat.
  5. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2
    No one joyfully embraces this absurdity better than Michael Sheen. The actor finds a ridiculous-yet-perfect way to deliver every single second of his performance as head of the global vampire council -- He's all over the film's finale. It's fantastic.
  6. The Sea
    There's a handful of good scenes (some of the vengeance that's wreaked is priceless) and it's generally well-played. But the soul of the thing isn't distinct enough from the bitterness it portrays.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Atlantis: The Lost Empire
    A tedious let-down that will bore adults and only mildly amuse children.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Fallen
    Go only if you're really, really willing to suspend disbelief. [16 Jan 1998, p.23]
    • Portland Oregonian
  9. Hook
    Hook is full of funny and engaging moments, but they are separated by too many moments that are neither. It should have been written to be shorter, perhaps a brisk 90 minutes instead of the 135-minute behemoth it is now. [13 Dec. 1991, p.AE08]
    • Portland Oregonian
  10. 300
    The movie swings back and forth from awesome to awful so regularly and rapidly that it's like a jai alai match.
  11. Race to Witch Mountain
    The Rock charms you through the worst of it, but the effects are cheap, the dialogue is about as challenging as a "Hannah Montana" episode, and the pace manages to be both brisk and numbing.
  12. Any Given Sunday
    Though intermittently entertaining, it's too long and rarely insightful in new or meaningful ways.
    • Portland Oregonian
  13. Goya's Ghosts
    Whatever the faults of Goya's Ghosts -- and there are several -- you've got to hand it to director Milos Forman: It takes real chutzpah to cast Randy Quaid as the king of Spain.
  14. The King Is Alive
    To some, this will seem the height of aesthetic experimentation; to others, the most unendurable arty hogwash.
  15. Dead Man's Shoes
    Meadows loses control as he goes along, veering into assorted noodling and sacrificing the knife's-edge clarity of the early going for something arty and artificial.
  16. The Monuments Men
    The story of the rescue of these priceless artifacts is absolutely worthy of as much attention as Hollywood can provide. But by the final, self-congratulatory, groan-inducing scene, it's more than clear that this telling of it is a monumental mess.
  17. The International
    There's a nifty shootout at the Guggenheim Museum and a lot of scenic travel, but little in it compels.
  18. Betsy's Wedding
    Betsy's Wedding is a literate, nicely acted, thoughtful and mostly charming comedy with a little drama. Its intelligent wit will be familiar to Alda fans. [22 Jun 1990, p.F15]
    • Portland Oregonian
  19. Rudderless
    The movie wobbles as it approaches the home stretch, but, thanks to its leading man, manages to stick the landing.
  20. The Producers
    The new film is a nauseatingly unsteady medley of brilliance and foolish nonsense.
  21. Nacho Libre
    You either come into Nacho Libre ready to surrender yourself to Hess' quirks and smirks or you don't. Middle ground is virtually impossible to imagine.
  22. Romeo Must Die
    To be fair, the film is trash and doesn't aspire to very much, but it's bad trash -- inept -- and that really isn't forgivable.
  23. Rat Race
    Rat Race isn't a stupid movie -- it's an aggressively stupid movie that journeys into realms of absurdity that are, well, aggressively funny.
  24. Under the Tuscan Sun
    Does at least come bearing two gifts: the rolling beauty of Tuscany and the understated elegance of actress Diane Lane. The rest of the film is fit fodder for the Oxygen Network.
  25. Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!
    For children old enough to get the jokes about Vicodin but young enough to innocently fantasize about movie stars, Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! will be a perfectly pitched midwinter treat.
  26. Safe House
    There are several things to enjoy here. The use of motel service-industry code words by the safe-house staff is dryly funny.
  27. Hit So Hard
    It's a long film for such a familiar story.
  28. Labor Day
    While it's nice to see Reitman try to branch out from the hip, acerbic humor of "Juno" and "Young Adult," his clumsiness with this more earnest material is an unpleasant surprise.
  29. RoboCop
    Aggressively loud, terminally mediocre.
  30. Saint Laurent
    A recent article in Film Comment magazine praised Saint Laurent for avoiding "banal psychologizing," but Bonello avoids any insight into his subject's state of mind, banal or not.
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