Salon's Scores

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For 3,130 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 53% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 45% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 64
Highest review score: 100 The Wolf of Wall Street
Lowest review score: 0 Event Horizon
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,748 out of 3130
  2. Mixed: 1,003 out of 3130
  3. Negative: 379 out of 3130
3130 movie reviews
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  1. The Secret Life of Bees
    May be overly sentimental at times, but at least it's about something.
  2. Miss Potter
    A very gentle-spirited picture, but it's not a self-consciously precious one.
  3. The Hammer
    If you liked "Rocky Balboa" you should be in good shape, since it's exactly the same movie, just aimed at a teeny-tiny-bit younger demographic and with an affectless leading man who avoids hambone acting by not acting at all.
  4. Titus
    Like so many self-conscious directors, Julie Taymor wrecks Shakespeare's already disastrous play with her own horrific vision.
  5. Amen.
    Tricked up with so many points that there's barely any flow to it.
  6. Hannibal
    Hannibal, which is very likely the worst film of this year and quite possibly the next, achieves what no movie I can recall ever even attempting: It somehow manages to be both repugnant and boring.
  7. My Life Without Me
    It's about as phony and manipulative as a movie could be. That Polley seems true every second is maybe the strongest testament yet to her acting. It's exasperating that this movie doesn't have the courage to go places where its actress plainly has the guts to follow.
  8. Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
    That rare sequel that builds on the movie that came before it without crushing its attributes to death. "Escape" doesn't feel belabored. Giddy, freewheeling and sweet-natured, it pulls off the effect of seeming spontaneous, a tall task by itself.
  9. The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom
    Sarin and Sonam also lift the veil on potentially explosive divisions within the Tibetan exile community, which is torn between spiritual and cultural loyalty to the Dalai Lama and a widespread longing for true independence. (The filmmakers clearly belong to the pro-independence camp.)
  10. Iron Man 2
    Yes, yes, yes, Downey is blasé, intelligent and hilarious as Tony Stark -- what do you expect me to say? -- but I'm convinced that sticking with this character much longer won't be good for him.
  11. The Muse
    As The Muse chugs along, it becomes more apparent how tired and pointless it is.
  12. Cars 2
    A fun, silly, kid-friendly summer popcorn entertainment.
  13. Journey to the Center of the Earth
    The picture works because Brevig and his actors -- not to mention his effects -- maintain a sense of humor and lightness. It doesn't hurt that Fraser, a fine actor who's made a name for himself not with his serious performances (which are reliably solid) but for his recurring role in the "Mummy" series.
  14. The Revenant
    It almost continuously gets darker, funnier and edgier as it goes along.
  15. Snow White and the Huntsman
    I resisted this derivative mishmash of classic fairytale and modern epic fantasy for as long as I could, but ultimately it swept me up into its geeky but manly embrace and carried me away on a white charger.
  16. Coach Carter
    Coach Carter, its flaws aside, is as interesting for what it doesn't do as for what it does.
  17. High School Musical 3: Senior Year
    This is a movie that offers simple, buouyant pleasures.
  18. Morning Glory
    This is a brash, lightweight backstage comedy that looks lovely, doesn't insult its audience and uses its stars, both young and old, to terrific effect.
  19. The Last Kiss
    The Last Kiss is more a capable-craftsman film than a work of genuine dramatic insight, but here and there it opens a window onto the terror and wonder of grown-up life, one its characters don't especially want to look through.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Up at the Villa
    Despite the prestigious talents involved, this is strictly "Minor Piece Theatre."
  21. The Man from Elysian Fields
    Mick Jagger acts his age, finally, in an entertaining but ultimately disappointing fable.
  22. Horrible Bosses
    As inconsequential and virtually indistinguishable sub-Judd Apatow white-boy comedies fueled by prison-rape gags and pants-pissing anxiety around black people go, Horrible Bosses is pretty solid entertainment.
  23. Everything's Gone Green
    Fundamentally, it's a well-executed formula movie, perfect for first-date couples or miscellaneous group outings.
  24. Dark Blue
    Shelton has directed Dark Blue in a jacked-up urban thriller style that simply does not play to his gifts. He's a sidewinder, the sort of writer-director who tells his stories through loopy character details and anecdotes.
  25. little man
    A marvelously compressed and immaculately constructed work.
  26. Casanova
    Among the least-heralded of the Christmas releases, Casanova is one of the few that's wholly enjoyable.
  27. War Dogs
    Not only is War Dogs a surprisingly well-told tale in the classic American rags-to-riches-to-rags mode. It’s also a mordant morality fable with a genuine heart of darkness. (Plus, it has one hell of a soundtrack, matching its moods to an array of classic rock and hip-hop tunes in the Martin Scorsese vein.)
  28. Rubberneck
    Rubberneck immediately put me in mind of the classic slow burn of vintage thrillers like Fritz Lang’s “M” and Michael Powell’s “Peeping Tom,” although Karpovsky and co-writer Garth Donovan have cited all kinds of other things, from “Michael Clayton” to “Caché” to “Fatal Attraction.”
  29. The Equalizer
    The Equalizer is gripping, mysterious and even sometimes moving, but it’s never pleasant, still less fun. If you decide to go, don’t claim you weren’t warned. If you skip it, you’re missing one of the year’s signal works of superior Hollywood craftsmanship.
  30. Sherlock Holmes
    Entertaining in a glossy, mindless way.
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