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. Getaway
    When Macbeth said, "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing," he must have had visions about Courtney Solomon's Getaway, a car chase thriller with zero thrills and a stench that all the perfumes of Arabia couldn't erase.
  2. Short Term 12
    Rehab movies nearly always make me cringe, as if the audience needs to take medicine, as if hope needs to be force fed. Short Term 12, an exceptional film in every way, breaks the mold.
  3. You're Next
    The surprise is how effective Wingard is at keeping the atmosphere jumpy and tense. And you can't help rooting for Erin, who could win Survivor if she went on the show. Vinson's take-charge performance is the life of this badass party. When you're ducking in your seat, it's nice to have someone to root for.
  4. The World's End
    It'll knock you on you ass from laughing when you're not rubbing your eyes in disbelief.
  5. Paranoia
    It galls me that Hollywood thinks we're shallow enough to swallow this swill. Or am I just being paranoid?
  6. Jobs
    Jobs is a one-man show that needed to go for broke and doesn't. My guess is that Jobs would give it a swat.
  7. Ain't Them Bodies Saints
    Ain't Them Bodies Saints offers no glib answers or smooth resolution, but there's no question that Lowery is a filmmaker with a striking future.
  8. Lee Daniels' The Butler
    It's watching Cecil open his eyes, in Whitaker's reflective, powerfully understated performance, that fills this flawed film with potency and purpose. Striving really does bring its own glory.
  9. Lovelace
    We pity Linda, but it's no substitute for understanding her.
  10. Elysium
    Like District 9, an allegory of apartheid that took four Oscar nods and put Blomkamp on the map, Elysium delivers sci-fi without dumbing it down. It's a hell-raiser with a social conscience.
  11. The Canyons
    Stephen Rodrick's New York Times article about the making of The Canyons had humor, suspense and propulsion. They should have made that movie. What we have here is dead on arrival.
  12. The Spectacular Now
    James Ponsoldt's funny and touching coming-of-age tale covers old ground with disarming freshness.
  13. 2 Guns
    Hell, I really meant to at least like 2 Guns. But I couldn't. The movie just didn't make the extra effort.
  14. The To Do List
    Does Carey go too far? Duh. But why gripe when you can't stop laughing?
  15. Blue Jasmine
    Want to see great acting, from comic to tragic and every electrifying stop in between? See Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine.
  16. The Wolverine
    This pissed-off man of Adamantium claws is stalking new ground (Japan), and his fight with yakuza on top of Tokyo's speeding bullet train is a wowser.
  17. Blackfish
    Forget "The Conjuring," Blackfish may be the scariest movie around.
  18. Only God Forgives
    Where "Drive" shrewdly mystifies, Only God Forgives stupefies. You can see its gears grinding. But I'll always hang on for a rare talent like Refn. Even when he stumbles, he leaves you eager to see what he's up to next.
  19. The Conjuring
    It scared the living crap out of me. Only at the movies is that a compliment.
  20. Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus
    Cera, still one of a kind and still making us love him for it (Arrested Development – yes!), never flinches. Jamie is impossible to like. And yet we do because Cera plays him without an ounce of bogus ingratiation. He's terrific.
  21. Fruitvale Station
    Fruitvale Station is a gut punch of a movie. By standing in solidarity with Oscar, it becomes an unstoppable cinematic force.
  22. Pacific Rim
    What pulls us over the rough spots is the mind meld between del Toro the artist and the child inside him. They both want to astonish us. Geeks everywhere, salute.
  23. The Heat
    McCarthy is a force of comic nature. And she and Bullock mix it up like pros. In this dead-battery of a movie, these live-wires miraculously ignite sparks.
  24. The Way, Way Back
    The Way Way Back gets it wittily, thrillingly right. It turns the familiar into something bracingly fresh and funny. It makes you laugh, then breaks your heart.
  25. Despicable Me 2
    It's still a first-class charm assault.
  26. The Lone Ranger
    Here they're just putting "Pirates of the Caribbean" in a saddle and pretending we won't notice.
  27. White House Down
    The poster for this movie should read: Hello, Suckers!
  28. Unfinished Song
    Stamp's award-caliber performance as a closed-off man on the brink of turning into stone is a miracle of subtlety and feeling. This is acting of the highest order. Redgrave partners him superbly, bringing warmth and nurturing humor to a role she refuses to play for easy tears.
  29. Monsters University
    It's all infectious fun, despite the lack of originality. In the art of tickling funny bones, Crystal and Goodman earn straight A's.
  30. World War Z
    World War Z is still as smart, shifty and scary as a starving zombie ready to chow down on you, baby, you.
  31. 20 Feet from Stardom
    Sometimes it's racism; sometimes bum luck; sometimes it's producer Phil Spector putting Love's voice in another singer's mouth. You watch. You hear the gospel spoken in the voices of these women. And you marvel.
  32. The Bling Ring
    Emma Watson is sensational as Nicki.
  33. Man of Steel
    Caught in the slipstream between action and angst, Man of Steel is a bumpy ride for sure. But there's no way to stay blind to its wonders.
  34. This Is the End
    There's no way you won't have a blast. In their directing debuts, Rogen and Goldberg come up aces, mixing hilarity and horror like pros and never letting up on the killer momentum.
  35. Tiger Eyes
    The result is an uncommon intimacy, the kind you find in a Judy Blume novel. Her grit and grace are all over this heartfelt adventure of a movie. She gives it a spirit that soars.
  36. Much Ado About Nothing
    Whedon, without skimping on the tale’s tragic undercurrents, has crafted an irresistible blend of mirth and malice.
  37. The Internship
    A flabby farce that might win a pass at the box office because it's just so cute and family friendly. But where's your edge, guys? Where are the laughs that walk a tightrope?
  38. The Purge
    DeMonaco shows a sure hand at building tension. Too bad the film devolves into a series of home-invasion clichés. The Purge was almost on to something.
  39. The East
    You leave The East with a hunger to know more and a good idea of where to look. For Marling and Batmanglij that counts as mission accomplished. For audiences, it’s that rare thing these days – a movie that matters.
  40. Now You See Me
    I left this movie feeling I’d been had. And not in a good way.
  41. After Earth
    The young Smith has energy, but not the acting chops. And he's no miracle worker. The burden of carrying this dull, lifeless movie is just too much. And it's hell on an audience. It's not a good sign when you sit there thinking – Make. It. Stop.
  42. Before Midnight
    Whatever a modern love story is, Before Midnight takes it to the next level. It's damn near perfect.
  43. Fast & Furious 6
    It’s kickass trash that never pretends to be more. Bonus points for that.
  44. The Hangover Part III
    What happened, bitches? Didn't the letdown of The Hangover Part II – basically Part I set in Thailand but minus the laughs – teach you anything? Guess not.
  45. Frances Ha
    Baumbach, in his most compassionate film since The Squid and the Whale, catches Frances in the act of inventing herself. It's a glorious sight to see.
  46. Star Trek Into Darkness
    Kudos to Abrams for going bigger without going stupid. His set pieces, from an erupting volcano to the hell unleashed over London and Frisco Bay, are doozies. So's the movie. It's crazy good.
  47. Stories We Tell
    The result, with its flashing perspectives and stealthy wit, is unique and unforgettable.
  48. The Great Gatsby
    There may be worse movies this summer than The Great Gatsby, but there won't be a more crushing disappointment.
  49. Pain & Gain
    In between scenes of the muscleheads torturing their victim, Bay indulges his taste for treating women as sluts and grisly brutality as a nifty excuse for a cheap laugh. Pain and Gain is personal all right. You leave these characters with the distinct impression that they're Bay's kind of people.
  50. What Maisie Knew
    Cartwright, find something sadly timeless in a child torn apart in a custody battle that no one wins, least of all the child.
  51. Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's
    You don't have to be in vogue to enjoy this stylish ride through Bergdorf's. It's a surprise package to die for. Miele and his virtuoso cinematographer, Justin Bare, show how fashion can be aspiration, a model for dreaming the impossible.
  52. Greetings from Tim Buckley
    Badgley, best known for playing "lonely boy" Dan Humphrey on Gossip Girl, is a revelation. He wears his role like a second skin.
  53. Iron Man 3
    For all the clanking armies of iron knights on display to dazzle the eager kid in each of us, this summer epic rings hollow. There's no one home inside the suit.
  54. At Any Price
    Bahrani is a gifted filmmaker. But he shoots himself in the foot by throwing in a contrived plot device that creates drama at the expense of credibility. Suddenly, we're isolated from a film that had made us believe. It's a breach of trust that comes at too high a price.
  55. Mud
    In the hands of Nichols, Mud emerges as a thing of bruised beauty. There's magic in it.
  56. Oblivion
    For all the bells and whistles – an electronic score by M83, a screen-busting Imax presentation and Cruise going full throttle – Oblivion feels arid and antiseptic, untouched by human hands. Bummer.
  57. To the Wonder
    Malick keeps pushing Affleck to the corner of the frame, as if he's more interested in the women. I found it difficult to maintain interest in anyone. If there's such a thing as a feather that weighs a ton, it's To the Wonder.
  58. Disconnect
    Bateman, in a rare dramatic role, is just tremendous, finding depths of emotion where they're least expected. Disconnect works they same way. Even when it trips on its ambitions, it hits home.
  59. 42
    Given Helgeland's rep as a screenwriter (including an Oscar for 1997's L.A. Confidential), it rankles that 42 settles for the official story. The private Robinson, who died of a heart attack at 53 in 1972, stays private. We stay on the outside looking in. Let it be.
  60. The Company You Keep
    There's enough plot to stuff a miniseries, but Redford never loses sight of the human drama. Martyrdom is not conferred, nor is reinvention equated with redemption. Drawing skillfully on a first-rate cast, Redford builds a riveting, resonant political thriller that values the complexity of its characters and the intelligence of its audience.
  61. Trance
    Dawson digs deep and nails every nuance, making the dizzying suspense resonate with raw emotion. She is, in a word, electrifying. Even when the wheels come off the too-busy plot, so is the movie.
  62. Room 237
    Ascher's unique and unforgettable film is a tribute to movie love. I couldn't have liked it more.
  63. The Host
    The Host basically comes down to a vote for Team Jared or Team Ian. I voted myself into oblivion about half an hour in. Niccol, who once added mystery and suspense to the sci-fi of 1997's "Gattaca," is no match for the giant marshmallow that is The Host.
  64. The Place Beyond the Pines
    It's a beast of a movie, an emotional roller coaster that threatens to go off the rails, and does. But Cianfrance, working from a scrappy script he wrote with Ben Coccio and Darius Marder, takes you on a hell of a ride.
  65. Gimme the Loot
    Instead of the easy attitudinizing that is the default position for teen comedies, Gimme the Loot fills each frame with raw talent and exuberance.
  66. The Sapphires
    You could call it an Aussie "Dreamgirls." I'd call it a blast of joy and music that struts right into your heart.
  67. Admission
    I'd see Tina Fey and Paul Rudd in anything, but this is pushing it. Admission is so slight that a breeze could flatten it.
  68. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
    Magicians have been pulling rabbits out of hats for ages. And yet, with all this talent, no one can make a decent script materialize.
  69. Spring Breakers
    As Alien, a gun-crazy Florida drug dealer with tats, beaded cornrows and a grill any rapper would envy, Franco is a bug-f--k blast. Too bad the movie itself is rarely as outrageous as he is.
  70. Beyond the Hills
    Exorcist junkies should look elsewhere. Instead of spinning heads and projectile puke, Mungiu offers nuance and provocation. The result is quietly devastating.
  71. Emperor
    Only near the end, when MacArthur and Hirohito meet in person, do we get fireworks. And that's thanks to Jones, who makes sure this old soldier will never die in our memory. As for this tepid movie, it just fades away.
  72. Oz the Great and Powerful
    There's no Judy Garland songs, no Scarecrow, no Tin Man, no Cowardly Lion. There's also no simplicity, no magic, no truth.
  73. Jack the Giant Slayer
    It's a bloodless, gutless piece of PG-13 fodder, geared to go down easy. That it does. It practically evaporates while you're watching it, lulling when you most want it to levitate.
  74. Stoker
    Stoker is Park's darkly funny, deliciously depraved riff on Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt."
  75. No
    No grabs you hard, no mercy, and keeps you riveted.
  76. Safe Haven
    I hate Safe Haven. It's a terrible thing to do to your Valentine.
  77. A Good Day to Die Hard
    Ah jeez. I actually wanted this one to be good. Or at least decent. Or at least a reminder of what got us all fired up about the first Die Hard in 1988. But A Good Day To Die Hard, the fifth in a creatively exhausted series, is total crap.
  78. Beautiful Creatures
    It's a bigger yawn than it sounds.
  79. Side Effects
    Side Effects is Soderbergh in full, flinty vigor. It's anything but a formula murder mystery.
  80. The Gatekeepers
    The Gatekeepers cuts deeper than any political thriller. It's a powerhouse.
  81. Stand Up Guys
    Some actors don't need top-shelf material. Just the pleasure of their company is enough. And so Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin turn the insubstantial Stand Up Guys into solid entertainment.
  82. Sound City
    The film’s genius is the way it applies the lessons of Sound City to any job. “The human element,” says Grohl, “that’s what makes the magic.” In his directing debut, Grohl shows the instincts of a real filmmaker. Sound City hits you like a shot in the heart.
  83. Warm Bodies
    The script is too primly PG-13 to really go for it. Warm Bodies even suggests that true love can help the right zombie grow a new heart. That's a con job that makes Bodies lukewarm at best.
  84. Bullet to the Head
    I can't detect the hand of Hill in even a single scene in Bullet in the Head. It plays like a Stallone vanity project, impure and stupefyingly simple.
  85. John Dies at the End
    Coscarelli junkies won't be bothered by the film's herky-jerky rhythms. Go for the freaky fun of it, though a little soy sauce on the side sure wouldn't hurt.
  86. Parker
    This Parker spits in our collective eye. Don't blame us for spitting back.
  87. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
    What to say about this lame-brained, limp dick attempt to update a classic Brothers Grimm tale into an f-bomb throwing vomit-inducing 3D franchise? I say, screw the damn thing and run the other way.
  88. Broken City
    Another January dud. Broken City drops hot-shot actors in a quicksand of clichés and watches them sink.
  89. Mama
    Chastain digs deep, going beyond the call of scream-queen duty to find the passion that gives horror a pulse.
  90. Quartet
    The actors are world-class charmers, and the magnificent Dame Maggie is the diva divine. Her wit still stings, as it does on "Downton Abbey."
  91. Struck by Lightning
    In his screenwriting debut, Glee's gifted Chris Colfer, 22, proves he can lace a line with sass and soul. The downside of Struck by Lightning, besides the fact that Colfer's character, Carson Phillips, is struck dead in the first scene, is that Colfer hands himself all the best lines.
  92. Gangster Squad
    This movie made my ears hurt. Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and James Ellroy could have turned this pulp into insinuating jazz. What's here is a cartoonish bore.
  93. Promised Land
    Director Gus Van Sant finds the human side of a knotty issue. No polemics. Just the face of a new America in crisis.
  94. Les Miserables
    Besides being a feast for the eyes and ears, Les Misérables overflows with humor, heartbreak, rousing action and ravishing romance. Damn the imperfections, it's perfectly marvelous.
  95. Not Fade Away
    His (Chase) ardent, acutely observed debut makes him, at 67, a filmmaker to watch.
  96. This Is 40
    That's what makes This Is 40 so potently, painfully funny, even when it's gross. What other film would dare suggest rectal monitoring as a form of closeness?
  97. The Impossible
    The go-for-broke intensity and emotional layering Watts brings to her role is an acting triumph. And McGregor matches her in a performance of ferocity and feeling.
  98. On the Road
    A dash of Tarantino might have juiced up Walter Salles' wrongheadedly well-mannered take on Jack Kerouac's 1957 Beat Generation landmark. Kerouac's semi-autobiographical novel comes to the screen looking good but feeling shallow.
  99. Jack Reacher
    This is Cruise's show. And he nails it. The patented smile is gone, replaced by a glower that makes Jack Reacher a dark and dazzling ride into a new kind of hell.
  100. Zero Dark Thirty
    Hang on tight. The knockout punch of the movie season is being delivered by Zero Dark Thirty.
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