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For 1,070 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 58% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 40% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 Frost/Nixon
Lowest review score: 0 Gigli
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 709 out of 1070
  2. Mixed: 172 out of 1070
  3. Negative: 189 out of 1070
1070 movie reviews
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  1. Catch That Kid
    While this Kid isn't up to "Spy Kids" standards, the good news is the film hews closer to the high-concept kids' movies of the 1980s than to all that Disney Channel goo that's been repackaged for the big screen lately.
  2. Miracle
    Miracle is definitely exciting, and it’s family-family to boot. Take the kids. They may not buy the "any dream is possible" stuff, but if nothing else, the story might pique their interest in American history.
  3. The Dreamers
    The thrills of this movie are aesthetic ones, the creation of new, ravishing imagery (and all three of our young heroes are beautiful enough to be up to this task), the surrender to dream logic, the adoration of the silver screen.
  4. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
    Given that the B-to-Z movies parodied in Cadavra were funny to begin with, it begs the question as to why writer-director-star Larry Blamire and company bothered. I think they’re not so much nostalgic for this type of movie as they are for the kind of laughter it provoked.
  5. The Return
    Unfortunately, the reach of The Return exceeds its grasp, and so this film of gruffly beautiful images didn't put a hook in me the way Zvyagintsev so ardently seems to want it to. [March 2003, p. 27]
    • Premiere
  6. You Got Served
    The beauty of You Got Served is that it delivers the moves from every vantage point.
  7. On the Run
    What On the Run has going for it: solid acting, taut editing, smartly economical dialogue, an elevatingly reverberant score, and a rousing vitality that left me salivating for The Trilogy in full.
  8. Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!
    It is a cute, silly romantic comedy, with little suspense and nothing particularly new to add to genre.
  9. Teacher's Pet
    The ending of Teacher's Pet, like the rest of the film, feels a bit rushed. Then again, the movie is geared toward a population with small attention spans and smaller bladders.
  10. Chasing Liberty
    The whole film, in fact, feels slapped together and unfocused. Though the movie’s too dopey for anyone older than ten, there are scenes where characters drink and go skinny-dipping.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Cheaper by the Dozen
    Cheaper entertains a broad audience by recalling an age of family filmmaking when that term wasn’t synonymous with crap.
  12. Paycheck
    Paycheck is a bogus journey.
  13. The Company
    Ramshackle one minute, pointlessly deliberate the next.
  14. Monster
    Proves more irksome than moving.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Mona Lisa Smile
    Director Mike Newell strips away facades and keeps this movie singing to the feel-good ending where everyone learns a life lesson by graduation time, whatever their choice may be.
  16. House of Sand and Fog
    Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly create characters that live and seethe with absolute credibility, and Ron Eldard’s Lester is a subtle portrait of a good man who lets himself go bad, first out of boredom, then out of erotic fixation.
  17. Calendar Girls
    Everyone involved figured that sentiment trumps sloppiness. Original Soundtrack
  18. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
    A phantasmagorical slab of epic entertainment that satisfies on every conceivable level.
  19. Girl with a Pearl Earring
    The film is well-paced and surprisingly suspenseful.
  20. The Statement
    As a thriller, The Statement is relatively disappointing, but as a moral study, the movie proves far more promising.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Something's Gotta Give
    Frances McDormand, as Erica’s younger sister, flourishes in her few minutes of screen time. She’s flinty, ferocious, and purely hysterical.
  22. Stuck on You
    It may not be saying much, but what keeps this movie afloat, aside from solid performances, is the nearly sophisticated dynamic of an otherwise redundant punchline.
  23. Big Fish
    Big Fish really is a big delight.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Honey
    Sticky, saccharine, bordering on diabetic, Honey overindulges.
  25. The Last Samurai
    Depends on how you're feeling about Tom Cruise--as opposed to the character he's putatively playing.
  26. Monsieur Ibrahim
    With the careful timing and nuance of a master actor, Sharif turns a two-dimensional sketch into the film's most absorbing character.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    What Alice Found
    Alice has all the emotional truth of an America’s Most Wanted reenactment.
  28. The Legend of Leigh Bowery
    At best, this movie functions as a brief companion piece to Boy George's new Broadway show, “Taboo.”
  29. My Flesh and Blood
    With My Flesh and Blood, Karsh finds a worthy subject in the constant day-to-day challenges facing a truly extraordinary family.
  30. In America
    Has a warmth that’s utterly enchanting, and a tenderness that’s genuinely touching. This is a real gem.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    The Haunted Mansion
    Perhaps The Haunted Mansion will scare the ride-adaptation trend out of Disney's system. Let's hope Mr. Toad doesn't have a development deal.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Cooler
    Driving the plot, Baldwin gives an inexorable, career-marking performance.
  33. 21 Grams
    Too-laborious meditation on life and death.
  34. The Cat in the Hat
    I do hate to say it -- it's really a drag, but why did they let this Cat out of the bag?
  35. Gothika
    Gothika deserves credit for embracing the ghost story genre so whole-heartedly, but as any ten-year-old girl can tell you, there's nothing original here to see.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    The Barbarian Invasions
    Girard gives feisty life to the battle-weary professor, but Rousseau just follows the drill--he is glass-eyed to the point of distraction. And for all its intellectual maneuvering, the film never regains the simple power of its opening salvo.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Missing
    Howard’s inclination toward graphic, gruesome violence, reminiscent of Ransom’s grisly denouement, The Missing is, at its core, a story well-told and built upon the solid foundation of Blanchett’s supremely capable performance.
  38. Anything But Love
    There's a lot to be said for a movie that isn't after instant fame, but only wants to make audiences feel good.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
    Weir consistently proves that he can take any kind of material and adeptly make it his own.
  40. Looney Tunes: Back in Action
    It's flat-out comedy all the way, head-spinningly clever (you'll be talking about a sequence set in the Louvre for weeks) and always engaging. For my money, it's the comedy of the year.
  41. Tupac: Resurrection
    Resurrection is a revelation.
  42. Love Actually
    There were times watching this movie when I felt I was being force-fed 30 pounds of crème brûlée. Which isn’t to say I choked on every minute: I chortled heartily at the thread about the comeback of the washed-up rock star (Bill Nighy).
  43. Just an American Boy
    Earle fans might see this film as a satisfying portrayal of a man they know and love, but those unfamiliar with the man and his music will likely leave the theater without much more interest in him than when the movie began.
  44. The Matrix Revolutions
    On the plus side, there are these super-scary mechanical octopus-type things with a billion eyes and metal tentacles that fly in great awful swarms and look like the non-organic versions of the flying-brain-and-spinal-cord monsters that made the otherwise laughable '60s sci-fi flick "Fiend Without aFace" so cool.
  45. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
    While Bartley and O'Briain flat-out lucked out with this felicitous endeavor, their fearlessness, unobtrusive narration, and lack of Michael Moore man-and-microphone pandering is to be saluted.
  46. Suspended Animation
    Each segment introduces new characters and a radically different scenario, which suggests that Hancock's structure may actually be an insecure attempt to deliver a horror movie.
  47. Shattered Glass
    Against very steep odds, writer-director Billy Ray and company have, in telling the real-life story of fictionalizing "New Republic" writer Stephen Glass and his downfall, produced the most entertaining inside-journalism movie since "All the President's Men."
  48. Girlhood
    Documentarian Liz Garbus masterfully turns her minimalist camera's eye on young girls institutionalized at the Waxter Juvenile Facility near Baltimore.
  49. Beyond Borders
    When it's all over and it's apparent that entire sections of the film are irrelevant and the paper-thin love story leaves you unsatisfied, hold your tongue, and try to remember that this film is v-e-r-y important.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Radio
    Both Harris and Gooding, Jr. are fine actors trapped in a mawkish, pandering production that wastes the latter and is a waste of time for the former.
  51. Brother Bear
    While not a masterpiece along the lines of "The Lion King," and not a super-smart witticism-fest like "Lilo and Stitch," Brother Bear is deeply heartfelt, touching, and beautiful.
  52. Elephant
    I haven't been crazy about a lot of Van Sant's recent work, but what he does here is simply astonishing. [November 2003, p. 25]
    • Premiere
  53. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
    Manages to pull off an adequate amount of scares, when compared to most horror flicks in theaters this Halloween season.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Runaway Jury
    Irritatingly, Fleder's flair for broadcasting plot twists treats the audience with the same patronizing indulgence as Hackman does his potential jurors.
  55. Pieces of April
    A modestly scaled film on every level, but Hedges and company manage to ring true on almost all the material's sweet and sour notes.
  56. Returner
    The story and stunts are outlandish, and the effects are distractingly computer-generated. To be fair, some of the best things about the film are very Japanese, notably the anime.
  57. Veronica Guerin
    Too bad the movie was assembled by Hollywood types -- Joel Schumacher directed, Jerry Bruckheimer produced -- who like to have things 15 ways at once. Hollywood types don't like journalists, so while they're lionizing Guerin, they go out of their way to make almost every other journalist depicted in the picture despicable.
  58. Intolerable Cruelty
    While it's not nearly as beguiling as the Coen's last pic, the uncanny "The Man Who Wasn't There," Cruelty is still a brisk hoot.
  59. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
    Although this installment is a beautiful stand-alone thang (check out how its chronology-juggling storyline creates a perfect circle, structure-wise).
  60. Dopamine
    Nothing happens as you might expect it to, but the Pinocchio ending is definitely out.
  61. Girls Will Be Girls
    It is the overwhelmingly acrid sense of humor that leaves a bad taste in one's mouth at the end of the film.
  62. Mystic River
    Perhaps the greatest, most affecting articulation of the theme Eastwood has been exploring since 1990's "White Hunter Black Heart": how violence--real violence, not movie violence--perpetrated and experienced, can erode and/or obliterate the human soul.
  63. School of Rock
    An unexpectedly exuberant, only mildly subversive celebration of music, learning, and going all out for what you love.
  64. The Station Agent
    Though the movie is predictable, it's also honest; Fin emerges from his struggles a better person but not A Better Person, if you catch my drift. And in any case all of the actors are a great pleasure to watch.
  65. Wonderland
    The filmmakers may have wanted to deconstruct any sense of a formal, cohesive narrative; instead, they have merely demolished it.
  66. Bubba Ho-tep
    A wildly creative amusement, thanks mostly to Campbell, whose weathered yet still-taking-care-of-business Elvis is alone worth the price of admission.
  67. Duplex
    Might have been a tasty black comedy if treated as such, but the twisted sense of humor is never allowed to elevate beyond the cutesy sensibilities of a romantic comedy.
  68. The Rundown
    Surprisingly clever, high-energy adventure (director Peter Berg should be proud).
  69. Under the Tuscan Sun
    An uneven love story but a picture-perfect love letter to Italy.
  70. Prey for Rock & Roll
    When confronted with real problems--and there's enough melodrama here to top a movie-of-the-week marathon on Lifetime--these otherwise empowered characters seem helpless to defend themselves.
  71. My Life Without Me
    Touching.
  72. Yossi & Jagger
    Although director Eytan Fox focuses on Yossi and Jagger's specific situation, he also casts a critical eye on the responsibility military service puts on all young people who are still in the process of discovering themselves.
  73. Demonlover
    Olivier Assayas latest effort could be mistaken for a hipper-than-thou thriller. But it isn’t--it’s in fact a difficult, challenging, and troubling art film. [October 2003, p. 19]
    • Premiere
    • 43 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Anything Else
    The dialogue itself is not interesting or funny. Ostensibly sophisticated remarks--lazy references to Freud or Dostoevsky or whatever--pack no dramatic or intellectual weight.
  75. Cold Creek Manor
    Clunky and riddled with clichés from start to finish, which is a shame because the cast is able and is led by Oscar-nominated director Mike Figgis.
  76. The Fighting Temptations
    The film, directed by "My Cousin Vinny's" Jonathan Lynn, is a fun movie which proves to be worth a look and a listen.
  77. Underworld
    Riddled with ammunition for what Alfred Hitchcock called the "Plausibles"--those poor-sport moviegoers who insist on pointing out a movie's inconsistencies instead of simply enjoying the ride
  78. Casa de los babys
    Hobbled by weak argumentation, a character who winds up a complete muddle, and Sayles’s inclination to romanticize Latin American revolutionary types, Casa is as mixed an effort as the filmmaker has essayed in some time. [October 2003, p. 18]
    • Premiere
  79. Mambo italiano
    Perfectly harmless but by no means cinematic. It is unapologetically vying for the same moviegoers that "Greek Wedding" connected with last summer.
  80. Cabin Fever
    It plays on your knowledge of/expectations about generic horror movies and then either delivers the goods from an unexpected angle or pulls the rug out from under you.
  81. Matchstick Men
    It’s a 21st-century version of "The Sting" for these so far rather unkind and ungentle times.
  82. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
    The entire film is a thrown-together collection of gunfights and in-jokes. The film is more concerned with expanding this universe of seedy tequila bars and dusty city streets than it is in telling a narrative story.
  83. Dummy
    It's the details that make Dummy such a winner. By way of comparison, consider last summer's "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," in which each actor put a heartfelt spin on his or her one-joke character (the father who believes that Windex cures everything). Well, here's an entire movie built on nuggets like that.
  84. Lost in Translation
    This is one of the year's most subtly moving films, and a strong affirmation of Coppola's substantial talent.
  85. Carnage
    A truly remarkable and compassionate debut from a savvy, self-confident filmmaker. No bull.
  86. The Order
    With its ho-hum hero and lackluster love story, The Order would likely be one big implausible bore if it wasn't for production designer Miljen Kreka Kljakovic.
  87. Party Monster
    Better than I expected but still not entirely convincing. As a cautionary tale for demimonde-sters, though, it has its useful points--never argue about money while you're in a K-hole, that sort of thing.
  88. Taking Sides
    The idea for the film is engaging and interesting, but the result is bland.
  89. Jeepers Creepers II
    Viewers should hope Jeepers 2 is the final act in this series. The once-promising Creeper, who we see up close this time, has emerged as a garden-variety killer.
  90. Civil Brand
    There's no question that Civil Brand has an ambitious premise, but it feels boxed in by the standard prison-movie formula.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Suddenly
    Each new plot point in Suddenly occurs like the title says, but the passage between them is slow, steady, and sure.
  92. The Battle of Shaker Heights
    The dubious whimsy, devoid of any directorial voice, plays more like a very special episode of Dawson’s Creek.
  93. Thirteen
    The result is a disturbing look into the so-called Wonder Years of adolescence, with convincing, award-worthy performances from each of its key players: Hunter, Wood, and Reed.
  94. Freddy vs. Jason
    Are these iconic, antihero relics smartly satirized in a post-slasher, or is FVJ just more dated, third-wave trash? Disappointingly, it's the latter.
  95. American Splendor
    One of the funniest, smartest, most moving pictures of the year.
  96. Passionada
    Its compelling cast and sincere matchmaking goals are reason enough to play along.
  97. Open Range
    A moderate success, if a bit clunky. Somewhere beneath the syrupy melodrama and the scenes that should have expired long ago, there is an intelligent, thoughtful western in waiting.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    OT: Our Town
    At opening night, with every seat in the cafeteria filled, you realize that the students have not only carved out a fledgling drama department in this sports-mad place, they’ve updated Grover’s Corners to Compton.
  99. Shaolin Soccer
    Comedy-action lunacy of a truly high, and endlessly bizarre, order.
  100. Le divorce
    The actors and acting are so attractive--as is, per usual in a Merchant Ivory production, the scenery--that the movie’s less deft handling of the scenario’s various themes, not to mention some stumbling in the final quarter, when the story’s tone grows a little darker, doesn’t stand out as much as it might have.
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