Rolling Stone's Scores

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For 4,534 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 56% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 41% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.6 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 The Wolf of Wall Street
Lowest review score: 0 Joe Versus the Volcano
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,923 out of 4534
  2. Mixed: 982 out of 4534
  3. Negative: 629 out of 4534
4534 movie reviews
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  1. Reality Bites
    By spinning something fresh out of something familiar, Reality Bites scores the first comedy knockout of the new year. It also brings out the vibrant best in Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke as friends who resist being lovers, makes a star of Janeane Garofalo as their tart-tongued buddy and puts Ben Stiller on the map as a director.
  2. Borg vs. McEnroe
    These performers keep you mesmerized, making the most of what they're given even when the film sinks into a swamp of whose-dick-is-bigger competitions and sports clichés about product endorsements.
  3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    What Button shows is that Ben is ultimately not the hero of his own life or his own movie. He gets inside our head, that's for sure, but, frustratingly, we never get inside his.
  4. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
    Popstar mixes the hilarity with a surprising amount of heart. 4Real.
  5. Cairo Time
    It's a haunting and hypnotic film.
  6. The Dying Gaul
    The actors could not be better. Sarsgaard, Scott and the luminous Clarkson negotiate the film's razor-sharp laughs and bone-deep tragedy with resonant skill. Lucas' powerfully haunting film gets under your skin.
  7. Silver City
    The real action in Silver City happens on the fringes, where the mischief is. Daryl Hannah is spice incarnate as Dickie's sexy screw-up sister. Billy Zane plays a lobbyist with insinuating soullessness. And Dreyfuss feasts on the snappiest lines.
  8. The Devil's Rejects
    Indefensible on a moral level, Rob Zombie's perversely watchable follow-up to his much-reviled cult hit "House of 1000 Corpses" is loaded with filmmaking energy.
  9. Prime
    Younger knows it's fun to watch Rafi and David cross lines of age, culture and religion. He also knows it's painful. That's what makes his movie hilarious and heartfelt.
  10. The History Boys
    The film can't hide its stage origins, and in cutting almost an hour on the journey from stage to screen some resonance is lost. But Bennett's dialogue sparkles and skewers with killer wit. Dig in.
  11. House of Sand and Fog
    Before it runs off course into excess, this brilliantly acted film version of the 1999 novel by Andre Dubus III moves with a stabbing urgency.
  12. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
    Spectacular in every sense of the word, even if you don' t know an Orc from a Uruk-Hai.
  13. Edward Scissorhands
    Edward Scissorhands isn't perfect. It's something better: pure magic.
  14. 1408
    Heebie-jeebies are guaranteed.
  15. Basic Instinct
    The film is for horny pups of all ages who relish the memory of reading stroke books under the covers with a flashlight. Verhoeven has spent $49 million to reproduce that dirty little thrill on the big screen.
  16. Blind Spot. Hitler's Secretary
    Just one talking head, that's all. But the head in this mesmerizing documentary belongs to Traudl Junge.
  17. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
    When is a movie fall-down funny even when some scenes fall flat on their fat ones? When it's Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.
  18. Julie & Julia
    Meryl Streep -- at her brilliant, beguiling best -- is the spice that does the trick for the yummy Julie & Julia.
  19. 21 Jump Street
    Are we always still in high school in our heads? 21 Jump Street thinks so. And Hill and Tatum are just the crazy-ass comedy team to prove it.
  20. Buffalo Soldiers
    Adapting Robert O'Connor's novel, director Gregor Jordan slaps us with keen wit and purpose.
  21. Beloved
    What is surprising -- remarkable even -- is that Beloved arrives onscreen with a minimum of dull virtue, gagging uplift and slick Hollywood gloss.
  22. A Home at the End of the World
    How many movies these days leave you wanting more? The funny and heartfelt Home is a small treasure.
  23. Despicable Me 2
    It's still a first-class charm assault.
  24. Death and the Maiden
    Polanski, working from a fluid script by Dorfman and Rafael Yglesias ("Fearless"), gives the story its due. He creates an atmosphere of claustrophobic tension to rival his "Knife in the Water" and "Repulsion".
  25. Patriots Day
    Berg's unquestioning faith in law and order could have used, well, a little questioning. But there's no doubt about the worth of the movie as a well-earned tribute to the heroes and victims of a tragic event that may have just made Boston stronger.
  26. Things We Lost in the Fire
    Del Toro is the movie's force field. This is a performance you will not forget.
  27. Sommersby
    The love story, beautifully acted by Richard Gere and Jodie Foster, makes for a ravishing romance. And British-born Jon Amiel (Queen of Hearts, TV’s Singing Detective) directs with admirable restraint.
  28. Two Lovers
    The film's secrets unfold slowly, allowing Phoenix and Paltrow -- a luminous fusion of grace and grit -- to build a relationship in full. The script, by Gray and Richard Menello, is inspired by Dostoevsky's "White Nights."
  29. Jeff Who Lives at Home
    The funny, touching and vital Jeff, Who Lives at Home reaffirms your faith in Jay and Mark Duplass. Their films hit you where you live.
  30. Mission: Impossible III
    Bury the nostalgia. Like the rap twist Kayne West puts into the film's classic theme, this movie is best when it stirs it up.
  31. Inside Deep Throat
    The film goes beyond historical anecdotes. Besides fresh and funny insights from the likes of Norman Mailer and John Waters, it shows how little censorship politics have changed from Nixon to Bush.
  32. The Amateurs
    You'll notice that the actors are way overqualified for this nonsense. But the kick they get out of one another is what pulls you in. Traeger's script does more than strain credulity, it administers multiple fractures.
  33. Antwone Fisher
    The uniformly fine performances are a tribute to Washington, who plays the shrink with his customary command.
  34. Body of Lies
    The result is commendably non-West-centric, but no less sentimentally conceived.
  35. Napoleon Dynamite
    Hess and his terrific cast -- Heder is geek perfection -- make their own kind of deadpan hilarity. You'll laugh till it hurts. Sweet.
  36. Deepwater Horizon
    Berg does a tremendous job of throwing us into the action with the help of dizzying handheld camerawork from Enrique Chediak.
  37. Julieta
    Almodóvar's admiration for Munro is not misplaced. Despite rough patches, Julieta morphs into a haunting and hypnotic tribute to both their talents.
  38. Lone Survivor
    Like the best war movies, Lone Survivor laces action with moral questions that haunt and provoke.
  39. Rudo y Cursi
    Luna and García Bernal display the kind of chemistry that makes you overlook the clichés in the script by first-time director Carlos Cuarón. Sometimes good-natured fun is enough.
  40. Natural Selection
    Best known as Ed Helms' nagging fiancée in "The Hangover," Harris is just perfect without ever looking down on Linda's faith in God and herself. Her performance earns a special kind of glory.
  41. Johnny Suede
    There's no denying the kick of Pitt's memorably offbeat performance and writer-director Tom DiCillo's stylish debut.
  42. Detachment
    Adrien Brody deserves superlatives for his acting in the alternately mesmerizing and maddening Detachment.
  43. Down to the Bone
    If there were an ounce of taste left in Hollywood, the magnificent Vera Farmiga would be a front-runner for the Best Actress Oscar.
  44. Off the Map
    The funny and heartbreaking Off the Map, directed with a poet's eye and a keen ear for nuance by Campbell Scott, resonates with something rare in today's movies: simplicity.
  45. Happy End
    Happy End is a puzzle and it's our job to connect the pieces. If it doesn't drive you crazy first, you'll find yourself maddened and mesmerized to the bitter end.
  46. Macbeth
    If you haven't seen Marion Cotillard play Lady Macbeth, you really haven't seen the role inhabited with the glorious fire and ice it needs to haunt your dreams.
  47. In Praise of Love
    For all its bile and incoherence, In Praise of Love is filled with haunting images and insights. Godard may be a lion in winter, but the lion still roars.
  48. Tiny Furniture
    It's the work of a filmmaker with a stunning future.
  49. Grand Piano
    The ending is a TVish cop-out. But until then, watching Wood sweat emerges as a pulse-pounding experiment in terror.
  50. Keane
    Keane means to shakes us, and does.
  51. Triple 9
    Triple 9 is no "Reservoir Dogs," but it is a twisty, terrific ride.
  52. Something's Gotta Give
    In an era of dumb farce, Something's Gotta Give is something special.
  53. I'm Not Scared
    In the guise of a nerve-jangling thriller, director Gabriele Salvatores, an Oscar winner for "Mediterraneo," delivers a fierce, frightening and deeply moving study of childhood. It's a keeper.
  54. The Eye
    The Pangs deliver enough shivery scares to keep you up nights. Eyes wide shut.
  55. Unstoppable
    a bang-up ride that means to wring you out. Mission accomplished.
  56. The Last Station
    The film itself, energetically directed and written by Michael Hoffman, can't always rise to the level of its two dynamo stars.
  57. Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic
    Sarah Silverman is the most outrageously funny woman alive.
  58. Cabin Fever
    First-time director Eli Roth turns this cheapie into a greatest-hits of horror. It's a blast of good gory fun that just won't quit.
  59. The U.S. vs. John Lennon
    Lennon's spirit, like his music, shines through this movie like a beacon. Powerful stuff.
  60. Drag Me to Hell
    Horror-movie heaven.
  61. My Cousin Rachel
    Credit Rachel Weisz, who's just the dynamite actress needed to play a character who could be a misunderstood innocent or a fortune-hunting seductress who could be a cold-blooded killer. How delicious to watch the star keep us guessing.
  62. Café Society
    Café Society isn't peak Allen, in the manner of such recent high points as "Midnight in Paris" (2011) and "Blue Jasmine" (2013), but the film — which could be helpfully subtitled Manhattan v Hollywood — feels lively, lived-in and fallibly human.
  63. In the Shadow of the Moon
    Want to know what the “right stuff” really is? Take a look.
  64. Killing Them Softly
    Murder is just another day at the office for corporate America, and the film hammers that theme home with diminishing returns. But the acting is aces, especially Pitt mixing it up with the superb James Gandolfini.
  65. The Grandmaster
    What's on screen in The Grandmaster is off-puttingly disjointed, but it's also dazzling in its startling action and ravishing romance.
  66. Garden State
    It's a hilarious and heartfelt ode to twentysomething angst. Braff has himself a winner.
  67. 22 Jump Street
    Thanks to this team of merry pranksters, 22 Jump Street hurts so good.
  68. Tarzan
    Propelled by Mark Mancina's percussive score, this Tarzan swings.
  69. In a World...
    In fact, Bell the writer, director, producer and actress knows how to set a savvy trap. While we're laughing, she pulls the rug out, making us see Carol's world as a microcosm for the world every working woman lives in. That she does it with subtlety, humor and touching gravity marks Bell as a filmmaker to watch.
  70. The Muppets
    The Muppets slaps a smile on your face you won't want to wipe off.
  71. 25th Hour
    In a multiplex filled with empty New Year vessels (take that, Kangaroo Jack), this holdover grabs you hard.
  72. Despicable Me 3
    Carell is the life of the party and the main reason this animated blast of slapstick silliness packs appeal beyond the PG crowd.
  73. Wind River
    Yes, his direction hits a few tonal bumps; he could have been tougher on his screenwriter on tightening the plot twists. No matter. Wind River packs an elemental power that knocks you for a loop.
  74. Kicking and Screaming
    Scenes move from hurt to resigned laughter and ring poignantly true. The heroically unfashionable result is a minor but distinct pleasure.
  75. Coraline
    OK, sensitive tykes may be scared shitless. But those who tough it out with this twisted, trippy adventure in impure imagination will only be the better for it.
  76. Okja
    Yes, this far-out fable is too much in every department. But it is also the work of a visual storyteller drunk on the power of movies to stir things up ... and maybe even to heal. It's a bumpy ride, for sure, but hold on. Okja is worth it.
  77. The Rover
    All you really need to know is that The Rover is a modern Western that explodes the terms good and evil; that its desolation is brilliantly rendered by Michôd and cinematographer Natasha Braier; that Pearce and Pattinson are a blazing pair of opposites.
  78. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
    Who would have guessed that a documentary about gamers obsessed with scoring a world record at Donkey Kong would not only be roaringly funny but serve as a metaphor for the decline of Western civilization?
  79. Steel Magnolias
    No use fighting it. this laugh-getting, tear-jerking, part-affecting, part-appalling display of audience manipulation is practically critic-proof...The result can best be described as shamelessly entertaining.
  80. Every Little Step
    A thrilling combination of documentary and musical dazzler.
  81. The Science of Sleep
    Fusing animation and live action with a series of outrageous props, Gondry veers dangerously close to being precious. But make no mistake: Gondry's hallucinatory brilliance holds you in thrall.
  82. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
    The good news is that Mockingjay – Part 2, the big finale, has quit the ass-dragging in favor of what made the book a page-turner. There's the visual fireworks, for sure. But there's also the darkness of the theme.
  83. The Brothers Grimm
    If you're a Gilliam junkie, as I am, you go with it, even when the script by Ehren Kruger (The Skeleton Key) loses its shaky hold on coherence.
  84. My Week with Marilyn
    The luminous Michelle Williams goes bone-deep here. Monroe's beauty was one of a kind. No one, not even Williams, can act it. What Williams does, with fierce artistry and feeling, is illuminate Monroe's insights and insecurities about herself at the height of her fame.
  85. Starting Out in the Evening
    Langella delivers a master class in acting. He's playing Leonard Schiller, an aging author aching from the loss of his wife, a weak heart and literary neglect.
  86. Young Adult
    In this tale of stunted development, Theron is a comic force of nature, giving her character considerable density and humanity despite her monstrous aspects.
  87. Legends of the Fall
    What makes Legends such an entertaining male weepie is the star shine. Though the admirable Quinn has the toughest role, Pitt carries the picture.
  88. It Follows
    Mitchell has his own twisted gift for letting atmosphere help define character. It Follows creeps you out big-time in that cool way that freezes the blood.
  89. Monster-in-Law
    It's a hoot to watch Fonda cut loose and mix it up with J. Lo, even when the laughs turn mean-spirited.
  90. Early Man
    To use the film's terms: You go expecting a World Cup qualifying round. You leave having just seen a decent enough exhibition match.
  91. Camp
    The modestly perfect antidote to a synthetic, overblown movie summer: a blast of exuberant fun that stays rooted in humanity.
  92. Cinderella
    Count Cinderella as a dazzling dream of a movie from director Kenneth Branagh, who can leap from the Bard (Henry V) to the boffo (Thor) with no apparent sweat.
  93. Golden Exits
    You inherently felt that he had incredible work in him if you could simply wait out his enfant terrible phase. Golden Exits is the first of Perry's people-behaving-badly pieces to start to make good on that promise.
  94. Jennifer's Body
    Hot! Hot! Hot!
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
    Bridges in particular is quite excellent, taking his character's surface sweetness to at times almost psychotic extremes.
  96. True Romance
    The blistering confrontation scene between Hopper and Walken -- both in peak form -- will be talked about for years. It's pure Tarantino: a full-throttle blast of bloody action and verbal fireworks.
  97. The Passion of the Christ
    Powerfully moving and fanatically obtuse in equal doses. The typical star rating doesn't apply, because scenes range from classic to poor and all stops in between.
  98. Paranormal Activity
    With a $15,000 budget too puny to empty a petty-cash drawer, the no-frills Paranormal Activity comes packed with thrills.
  99. Bride & Prejudice
    Lightweight but utterly beguiling.
  100. The Hours
    These three unimprovable actresses make The Hours a thing of beauty.
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