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. Alpha Dog
    Timberlake walks off with the movie. Too bad it's not worth stealing.
  2. Freedom Writers
    Leave it to Hilary Swank. Even when her film's pace lags behind its cliches, she sparks this true story, about a California teacher who sparks her students, with the passion the subject demands.
  3. Pan's Labyrinth
    Del Toro never coddles the audience. He means us to leave Pan's Labyrinth shaken to our souls. He succeeds.
  4. Notes on a Scandal
    If you want to see explosive acting, just watch Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett ignite in this film version of Zoe Heller's 2003 novel.
  5. Children of Men
    Cuarón has a gift only the greatest filmmakers share: He makes you believe.
  6. The Good Shepherd
    Shepherd wants to say something profound about the effect of a deceitful government on human values. But it's tough to slog through a movie that has no pulse.
  7. We Are Marshall
    No go. Marshall deserved better than this misbegotten tribute.
  8. Venus
    O'Toole gives a staggering performance -- fearless, defiantly untamed and in its own way a work of art.
  9. Curse of the Golden Flower
    The final effect is stunning, but also sadly impersonal.
  10. Letters from Iwo Jima
    Eastwood's direction here is a thing of beauty, blending the ferocity of the classic films of Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai) with the delicacy and unblinking gaze of Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story).
  11. The Painted Veil
    The Painted Veil has the power and intimacy of a timeless love story. By all means, let it sweep you away.
  12. Rocky Balboa
    Just when you're ready to puke, the old Bill Conti theme ("Gonna Fly Now") kicks in -- are you feeling it? -- Stallone steps in the ring and every day is Christmas. All together now: Rock-ee! Rock-ee!
  13. Dreamgirls
    This baby dazzles like nothing else anywhere.
  14. The Good German
    This is Soderbergh's show, and a haunting and hypnotic show it is.
  15. Breaking and Entering
    The actors, especially Binoche, do their damnedest to bring urgency to their roles. But despite Minghella's admirable attempt to tackle major themes on an intimate scale, the film goes down like weak tea. There's no kick in it.
  16. The Pursuit of Happyness
    Smith wins our hearts without losing his dignity, as Chris suits up for success by day and fights off despair by night. The role needs gravity, smarts, charm, humor and a soul that's not synthetic. Smith brings it. He's the real deal.
  17. Apocalypto
    Gibson has made a film of blunt provocation and bruising beauty.
  18. Blood Diamond
    DiCaprio is terrific, but he can't save this lecture from the shame of using Africa as a vehicle for another white man's redemption.
  19. Inland Empire
    My advice, in the face of such hallucinatory brilliance, is that you hang on.
  20. Days of Glory
    Bouchareb's film helped shame the French government into raising pensions for more than 80,000 of these veterans. Here's that rare movie that really did change things. I'll be damned.
  21. The Lives of Others
    Von Donnersmarck has crafted the best kind of movie: one you can't get out of your head.
  22. The Fountain
    In telling a tale of love across time, Aronofsky is sometimes guilty of creating arty, pretentious psychobabble. But in visual terms, he's trying to expose his own raw, romantic heart. Folly? Maybe. But a risk worth taking.
  23. 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.
  24. Casino Royale
    Craig gives us James Bond in the fascinating act of inventing himself. This you do not want to miss.
  25. Fast Food Nation
    It's less an expose of junk-food culture than a human drama, sprinkled with sly, provoking wit, about how that culture defines how we live.
  26. For Your Consideration
    Catherine O'Hara is comic perfection as Marilyn Hack.
  27. Bobby
    Estevez means well. But having your heart in the right place is no excuse for insipid ineptitude.
  28. A Good Year
    The scenery is glorious; you can almost feel the sunshine and smell the wine. But Crowe and Scott are bulls in Mayle's china shop. Like an assertive Burgundy served with a delicate fish, they're a classic wrong pairing.
  29. Stranger Than Fiction
    This is a Ferrell you've never seen before, nailing a role that calls for breakneck humor in the final race against the clock and touching gravity in the love scenes with Gyllenhaal.
  30. Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
    Downey makes something lively, sexy and moving out of a role that's just a thin concept. But the movie feels like it's still in the darkroom.
  31. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
    You won't know what outrageous fun is until you see Borat. High-five!
  32. Volver
    Volver is Almodovar's passionate tribute to the community of women -- living and dead -- who nurtured him. Through the transformative power of his art -- carried on the wings of Alberto Iglesias' exhilarating score -- we feel their presence. You do not want to miss this one.
  33. Babel
    In the year's richest, most complex and ultimately most heartbreaking film, Inarritu invites us to get past the babble of modern civilization and start listening to each other.
  34. Shut Up & Sing
    For three years, the camera focuses on the Chicks as wives, mothers, entertainers and political flash points. Their fight to stay uncompromised is inspiring.
  35. Death of a President
    Shopworn propaganda.
  36. Marie Antoinette
    With lyrical intelligence and scrappy wit, Coppola creates a luscious world to get lost in. It's a pleasure.
  37. Running with Scissors
    Too much manic energy runs the movie off the rails.
  38. Flags of Our Fathers
    A film of awesome power and blistering provocation.
  39. The Prestige
    Nolan directs the film exactly like a great trick, so you want to see it again the second it's over. I'd call that wicked clever.
  40. Sleeping Dogs Lie
    Goldthwait's movie, shot on video that makes it look dragged through puppy poop, is an unholy mess. But it also possesses a quick wit and an endearing tenderness toward Amy as honesty wrecks her life. It's sweet, doggone it.
  41. 51 Birch Street
    Through haunting home movies, Mina's diaries and interviews with Mike, a raw, riveting portrait emerges of what a child sees in his parents' relationship and what lies beneath.
  42. Infamous
    The film's most pleasing surprise is the beautifully nuanced portrait of Capote's confidante, "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee, by Sandra Bullock. You heard me. Bullock gives the film what it otherwise lacks: the ring of truth.
  43. The Departed
    A new American crime classic from the legendary Martin Scorsese, whose talent shines here on its highest beams.
  44. Little Children
    This unnervingly funny and quietly devastating film -- director Todd Field's first since his smash 2001 debut with "In the Bedroom" -- pulls you in like a magnetic-force field.
  45. Employee of the Month
    I laughed once or twice during this flat and fatuous farce, mainly because director and co-writer Greg Coolidge lifted a lot of it from "Office Space."
  46. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
    Putridly written, directed and acted.
  47. Shortbus
    If there is such a thing as hard-core with a soft heart, this is it.
  48. The Queen
    One of the best and liveliest movies of the year - funny and touching in ways you can't predict.
  49. School for Scoundrels
    Uproarious and unexpectedly biting.
  50. The Last King of Scotland
    Whitaker is on fire, and as long as he's onscreen, King keeps you riveted.
  51. All the King's Men
    Overthought, overwrought and thuddingly underwhelming, this high-profile misfire makes a congealed gumbo out of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer-winning 1946 novel and the Oscar-winning 1949 movie that followed it, sinking a classy cast in the goo.
  52. Jackass Number Two
    The heart of Jackass - the adolescent drive to bash body and soul into the symbolic brick wall of maturity - remains pure.
  53. American Hardcore
    Messed up as it is, you can't tear your eyes away from this explosion of brutal sounds and images.
  54. 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.
  55. The Black Dahlia
    Looks and flows great, dripping with the 1940s crime-thriller atmosphere that James Ellroy described in his 1987 novel. On other levels -- plot (overstuffed), suspense (muted), acting (Hilary Swank as a femme fatale? Please!), posing (Scarlett Johansson plays dress-up as a mini Lana Turner), sex (it's all before and after) -- the movie is a bust.
  56. The Last Kiss
    Director Tony Goldwyn tries for the lyrical melancholy he brought to "A Walk on the Moon," but as Michael waits for days on Jenna's porch getting drenched (as irritating a scene as any in recent cinema), only the most rabid chick-flick fan will fail to notice that it's the movie that's all wet.
  57. The U.S. vs. John Lennon
    Lennon's spirit, like his music, shines through this movie like a beacon. Powerful stuff.
  58. Hollywoodland
    The irony is that Affleck's battering at the hands of fame has prepped him beautifully to play Reeves.
  59. SherryBaby
    Sherrybaby is the kind of pretend-arty Sundance thing that gives indie cinema a bad name.
  60. This Film Is Not Yet Rated
    Kirby Dick's indispensable guerrilla attack on the film-ratings system gives Hollywood a swift, smart and hilarious kick in its institutional, hypocritical ass.
  61. Idlewild
    This oddball mix of "The Cotton Club" and "Six Feet Under" is a big, beautiful mess. But it offers the not-uninstructive spectacle of talented people stumbling over large and unwieldy ambitions.
  62. Snakes on a Plane
    It's not so bad that it's good. It's so bland that it's boring. Not even worth a hissss.
  63. The Illusionist
    Edward Norton is at his best here, chalking up another boundary-stretching performance this year in the wake of the unfairly overlooked "Down in the Valley."
  64. World Trade Center
    Undeniably affecting, but you leave it wanting more.
  65. The Descent
    Prepare to be scared senseless, and then, when you think you have it figured, your certainty will be shaken by scenes built to scare you even more.
  66. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
    The laughs come and go, but Ferrell makes NASCAR his bitch funny. Funnier. And more fun. And then the fun skids to a stop. You know how it goes: Plot gets in the way.
  67. Miami Vice
    If you're looking for a crime story that sizzles with action, sex and the visceral jolt of life on the edge, Miami Vice is the one.
  68. Scoop
    No more than a beguiling trifle. But in the dog days of summer, it's a perk to wallow in inspired silliness.
  69. John Tucker Must Die
    Awful.
  70. Little Miss Sunshine
    It's "National Lampoon's Family Vacation" with soul.
  71. Clerks II
    Best of all, Jason Mewes is out of rehab to play Jay and spar with Smith as Silent Bob, his dope-dealing partner.
  72. Lady in the Water
    You leave Lady thinking there are still voices in Shyamalan's head well worth a listen.
  73. Monster House
    The voice work is exceptional, with a special nod to Maggie Gyllenhaal as a toxic-tongued baby sitter and Jason Lee as her raunchy-to-the-point-of-depraved boyfriend. Kenan is a talent to watch, even in a flick that doesn't know when to quit.
  74. My Super Ex-Girlfriend
    If the script for this comic spin on Fatal Attraction were only a tenth as hot as Uma Thurman, director Ivan Reitman might have had something here.
  75. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
    Lively is an odd word for something called Dead Man's Chest, but lively it is. You won't find hotter action, wilder thrills or loopier laughs this summer.
  76. A Scanner Darkly
    This gifted writer-director isn't out to dull the masses with cinematic opium. Embedded in the visionary headtrip of A Scanner Darkly is a hotly political call to arms.
  77. The Devil Wears Prada
    Sinfully funny.
  78. Superman Returns
    Superman returns with a bang. Singer tarnishes his hero's halo with just enough sexual longing and self-doubt to make him riveting and relatable. That "S" on his suit has a whole new meaning: He's a Soul man.
  79. Click
    Can no one save the talented Sandler from himself? I hate this movie. Click. I hate this movie. Click. I hate this movie. Click.
  80. Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
    In this muddled but marvelous blend of documentary and concert film, director Lian Lunson takes you down to a place where it's possible to look closely at the life and art of cult troubadour Leonard Cohen.
  81. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
    The F&F franchise ran out of gas half way into the 2001 original.
  82. The Lake House
    I can't believe that even the most rabid chick-flick masochists wouldn't gag on it.
  83. Nacho Libre
    This Nacho leaves your palate longing for more spice and less rancid cheese.
  84. Land of the Blind
    Political satire is so rare that it's a shame to watch the reliable Ralph Fiennes and Donald Sutherland lend their talents to one that is blind to its own incompetence.
  85. Wordplay
    There's more palm-sweating suspense in one minute of this baby than in all of "The Omen."
  86. Cars
    What Cars teaches is how to blend brash comedy with technical astonishments so that each enhances the other. I can't imagine who wouldn't want to test-drive this one. Like the promos say, "It's got that new-movie smell."
  87. A Prairie Home Companion
    Take a swig of this moonshine. There's magic in it.
  88. The Heart of the Game
    There's no denying the exuberant energy and emotional force of this movie. It gets to you.
  89. The Omen
    Not since Gus Van Sant inexplicably directed a shot-by-shot remake of Hitchcock's "Psycho" has a thriller been copied with so little point or impact.
  90. The Break-Up
    Vaughn and Favreau are so money, just like they were in "Swingers."
  91. X-Men: The Last Stand
    Last stand? My ass. Billed as the climax of a trilogy, the third and weakest chapter in the X-Men series is a blatant attempt to prove there is still life in the franchise.
  92. An Inconvenient Truth
    Gore keeps us riveted by being charming, literate and profoundly persuasive on a topic that's scarier than anything in a dozen Japanese horror flicks. Vote Gore on this one.
  93. The Da Vinci Code
    There's no code to decipher. Da Vinci is a dud -- a dreary, droning, dull-witted adaptation of Dan Brown's religioso detective story.
  94. Poseidon
    You'll end up entertained if you forgive the cliches and let Petersen grab you with the visuals.
  95. 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.
  96. Down in the Valley
    Down in the Valley is a wild thing that sticks with you long after it's over. You know, a real movie.
  97. United 93
    Far from being exploitive, the effect is inspiring: This is the best of us.
  98. Army of Shadows
    From the first sight of German soldiers goose-stepping past the Arc de Triomphe to a postscript that spells out the fate of characters whose moral confusion is all too real, Army of Shadows is a movie of its time -- and ours.
  99. Kinky Boots
    Don't worry. It just sounds like another bad Sharon Stone movie. Kinky Boots trips on its contrived plot, but this blend of trash and sass is a comfy fit.
  100. The Notorious Bettie Page
    Harron needed just the right actress to play Bettie. And she lucked out big time. Gretchen Mol (The Shape of Things) is hot stuff in every sense of the term. She delivers the first performance by an actress this year that deserves serious Oscar consideration.
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