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 2.6 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 Broken Circle Breakdown
    It’s possible the movie’s actually too unflinching; there are moments where your nose is dangerously close to being rubbed in this pile of emotional trauma. Then again, when you come from the same country as the Dardennes brothers, you’ve got to pull out all the stops to compete in the misery department.
  2. Out of the Furnace
    Like last year’s vaguely similar “Killing Them Softly,” “Furnace” reeks of '70s-inspired, downbeat, politically conscious genre filmmaking. And its cast is composed of hard-working, seemingly omnipresent actors who understand what Cooper’s after.
  3. A Perfect Man
    Flat and uninteresting, both visually and dramatically, this is a waste of two appealing actors.
  4. Frozen
    Engaging characters, an unforced pro-girl agenda and amusing songs make this at least the equal to last year’s “Brave.”
  5. Black Nativity
    Directed as if it were an after-school special, with listless performances and musical numbers (Mary J. Blige shows up as a platinum-wigged congregant), Black Nativity is as simple and condescending as Hughes' work was complex and demanding.
  6. Nebraska
    Even the tiny roles in this Rockwell-meets-Breughel panorama are perfectly, although almost cruelly, cast.
  7. Philomena
    Effective, fact-based melodrama that packs an unexpected emotional wallop.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Book Thief
    The Book Thief renders a dark history in the most bland and inoffensive hues. Most of its success relies on our foreknowledge of history. Its own efforts are hollow, squandering a good cast on lazy writing.
  9. Dear Mr. Watterson
    So, be warned: You may not learn anything from this mild, unremarkable film, but you might be tempted to order the deluxe, four-volume “The Complete Calvin and Hobbes” after watching it. I was, and I don’t regret it a bit.
  10. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
    Lawrence steps up. And her character's fierce independence provides a welcome alternative to certain vampire-fixated young-adult heroines who define themselves entirely through the attention of much-much-older men.
  11. Great Expectations
    There’s nothing approaching a unique take on the story.
  12. How I Live Now
    The result calls to mind “Lord of the Flies” and “Children of Men,” even if the film’s second half is much less compelling than its first.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Thor: The Dark World
    The big battle in Thor: The Dark World is one of Marvel’s more genuinely rousing sequences. Once this movie gets warmed up, it’s warm through and through.
  14. Dallas Buyers Club
    It wouldn’t be surprising to hear about moviegoers demanding their money back after seeing The Dallas Buyers Club, but not because the film isn’t good. It’s actually very nearly great.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Motel Life
    Hirsch gives a finely tuned performance, almost absent of technique or self-consciousness, which dovetails nicely with Dorff's more expressive, method approach.
  16. Faust
    As usual, the director is a wizard at camera movement and more than willing to plunge his audience into unpleasantness.
  17. Mr. Nobody
    van Dormael’s vivid visual sense and genuine curiosity about the nature of love and life, time and death, make it well worth surrendering to his imagination for a while.
  18. Big Sur
    Some of the performances -- Mitchell, Fischler and especially Lucas -- are lively, but Barr never gets under Kerouac's skin to show the pain of an artist who can't hold his life together. It's a tragedy, played entirely on the surface.
  19. Ender's Game
    Eventually the movie wants to have things both ways: to approvingly entertain mainstream audiences with the glittering spectacle of space battles and to pay lip service to the notion of conscience.
  20. The Counselor
    The Counselor is nothing but a dumb, gory, grab-bag of clichés and the biggest waste of talent since "Savages." It makes Oliver Stone look subtle.
  21. Marwencol
    One of the most affecting true-life character studies in quite some time.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Patience Stone
    There are surprising developments and revelations along the way, and they all eventually dovetail into a beautiful conclusion.
  23. Good Ol' Freda
    The quality that made her an ideal fan club president makes her an endearing, if unenlightening, interviewee.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
    Sometimes it's a delicate comedy-drama with Oscar-worthy performances and touches of "A Streetcar Named Desire." And sometimes it's a foul-mouthed "Candid Camera" full of poop jokes and starring Johnny Knoxville in old-man makeup.
  25. All Is Lost
    The pacing is perfect, and the action, mostly filmed in a studio, is never less than utterly believable. The director’s first feature, “Margin Call,” was full of rapid-fire dialogue, and he shows off considerable range by following it up with this film.
  26. Concussion
    Loses all its energy in the last 30 minutes and ends up back where it started. Maybe that's the point, but if so, it's as subtle as a blow to the head.
  27. The Fifth Estate
    In retrospect, and with no disrespect meant, it may have been a mistake to entrust a story this polarizing to Bill Condon, the filmmaker who most recently made “Twilight: Breaking Dawn,” and “Dreamgirls.”
  28. The Summit
    The Summit does an amazing job of putting you on the mountain, making it one of the most terrifying horror films a climber or an acrophobe could ever see.
  29. Captain Phillips
    The pressure cooker atmosphere builds for almost too long, but when the resolution finally occurs, the sense of relief is that much more palpable.
  30. C.O.G.
    C.O.G. is probably of the most interest to Sedaris fans curious to see how the humorist’s unique tone translates to film (the answer is moderately well).
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