Portland Oregonian's Scores

  • Movies
Select another publication »
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 2.7 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
view
per page
  1. America the Beautiful
    Takes its point -- our nation has an unhealthy obsession with beauty and physical perfection -- and uses it as a bludgeon.
  2. Frozen River
    It's not a happy film, but it feels true.
  3. The X Files: I Want to Believe
    Worst of all, not once does Mulder answer his cell phone to hear those immortal lines: "It's Scully. There's been another death."
  4. Step Brothers
    Are Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay getting tired of their own shtick?
  5. American Teen
    Unsurprisingly, the formulaic "Breakfast Club" casting yields a formulaic narrative.
  6. Baghead
    Baghead has a nearly documentary quality that infuses it with a sense of heightened stakes and real peril. In a characteristically offhanded way, it's cunningly skillful.
  7. Brideshead Revisited
    You could wish for more, but for that there's still the epic-length miniseries. If you want just two hours of mournful, lovely melodrama of manners, this is a fine choice.
  8. CSNY/Déjà Vu
    What saves CSNY/Dejà Vu from its self-importance is the surprisingly lively, timely and timeless music. The only dicey onstage moments involve Stills' falling over or wheezing his way through "For What It's Worth."
  9. Man on Wire
    Takes on the air of a heist film as the preparations proceed, and even knowing the outcome, tension still remains.
  10. Boy A
    That the audience is forced to examine its own assumptions about the situation is the result of an extraordinary, moving performance by Andrew Garfield.
  11. The Dark Knight
    Because make no mistake: The Dark Knight is many things, some of them deliriously fun, some of them deeply impressive, and some of them puzzling and frustrating. But most of all it is dark.
  12. Mamma Mia!
    I can see how Mamma Mia! might be a fun stage musical. As a movie musical, it's a train wreck.
  13. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
    The sheer volume of amazing things that del Toro is able to mine from his unconscious and render plausibly on the screen is remarkable. Hellboy II feels pretty sequel-y, as these things go, but there's a lot in it that has no precedent of any kind, anywhere, ever. That stuff makes it worthwhile.
  14. Journey to the Center of the Earth
    It's inoffensive and shiny and competent and kids will dig it, and I can already barely remember a single thing that happened.
  15. Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
    I wish Zenovich wasn't forced to skate surfaces when it comes to Polanski's perspective -- his interviews are vague and archival -- but she skillfully works around him to craft a maddening look at one of Hollywood's most infamous trials.
  16. Garden Party
    More a collection of character vignettes than a full-blown story, Garden Party nonetheless shows as much promise for its makers as it gives to its characters.
  17. Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
    Because there was anarchy and randomness in Thompson's life and work, you find it in Gonzo.
  18. Kabluey
    A mordant, almost-too-dark comedy, but a comedy nonetheless.
  19. The Wackness
    The most adventuresome element in The Wackness isn't its pop-culture skin but the unlikely friendship of Luke and Squires...As buddies, they're a kick. But you wish they had a kickier picture to support them.
    • Portland Oregonian
  20. Hancock
    In a film marketplace where even the best superhero movies tend to do a lot of the same stuff, I really admire Will Smith and bad-boy director Peter Berg for trying something different.
  21. Tell No One
    In the fine tradition of well-made thrillers, it's enough that it all feels solid at the moment, and the final revelations are unexpected and seemingly inevitable.
  22. WALL-E
    It's a justifiably G-rated film, but parents may have some 'splainin' to do.
  23. Wanted
    Bekmambetov revs it up furiously and unleashes one bit of hyperactive, dazzling invention after another. The result is a throwaway wrapped up in the coolest packaging imaginable, which is acres better than the opposite.
  24. Gunnin' for That #1 Spot
    A basketball documentary where the climactic game looks like a Hong Kong wire-fu epic.
  25. The Last Mistress
    What's different here is the setting: Instead of modern-day misogyny, the heroine of The Last Mistress is up against its 19th-century version.
  26. Get Smart
    For the most part it's dull, bland and unsatisfying: a food-court version of home cooking.
  27. The Love Guru
    I still kind of find myself admiring the actor, and the film. Love Guru is insane and self-indulgent but also fully committed, and there's a surprising undercurrent of earnestness to its philosophy portions.
  28. Brick Lane
    Like many things about Brick Lane, this story is dealt with in too cursory and pat a fashion. The film's heart can't be faulted, but its head is working in a regrettably low gear.
  29. The Happening
    Think of the worst Spielberg thriller or one of Hitchcock's dull late career works, then make it ugly and fill it with bad performances; voila: The Happening.
  30. The Incredible Hulk
    Loses something when it depends on its computer-generated creatures to carry the story. The effects are a mile above the previous Hulk film, but there's still a certain awkwardness to some movements, and an odd lack of definition to the massive muscles that makes them seem like gelatinous sacks of meat.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »