Tampa Bay Times' Scores

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For 1,471 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 59% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 39% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 64
Highest review score: 100 Fruitvale Station
Lowest review score: 0 Blair Witch
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 818 out of 1471
  2. Mixed: 501 out of 1471
  3. Negative: 152 out of 1471
1471 movie reviews
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    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Monster Squad
    Dekker's notion of pouring comedy and horror into the cinematic Cuisinart and leaning on the starter switch doesn't work here. [14 Aug 1987, p.D1]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 31 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    North Shore
    If the movie has nothing important to say, so what? Neither do most surfers. [14 Aug 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 62 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Back to the Beach
    Back To The Beach, starring the early '60s most popular teen-agers, Frankie and Annette, combines the campiness of a college reunion, the corniness of a high school musical, and the values of Mister Rogers. The film's only redeeming quality is that it knows it … and manages to laugh at itself occasionally. [10 Aug 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 27 Metascore
    • 0 Critic Score
    Who's That Girl
    Who's That Girl is a stern test of your MQ (Madonna Quotient). It is quite possible to hate this movie before the animated credits sequence is over. [10 Aug 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Stakeout
    A contrived finish only serves to resolve the dangling threads of a story that ought to end with a huge laugh, not a self-conscious giggle. [7 Aug 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 24 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
    Superman IV: The Quest for Peace doesn't attempt to disguise its sentiments - no more so than Greenpeace - but neither does it lose the campy spirit of the 1978 original. Although never as stylish as the first movie, it shows verve and a modest wit. Superman IV is not as funny as the first sequel, but it isn't as violent, either. [27 July 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  7. La Bamba
    Writer-director Luis Valdez's movie is an example of just how tedious a bio-pic can be. [24 July 1987, p.3D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 15 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Jaws: The Revenge
    This sequel has neither the tingling anticipation of Spielberg's '75 original, nor the excellent 3-D effects of the third film. [22 July 1987, p.2D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 28 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise
    Director Roth, working from a screenplay by Dan Guntzelman and Steve Marshall, makes this material about as interesting as a dirty joke told v-e-r-y slowly, in pidgin French. [13 July 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  10. Innerspace
    The roller coaster of events more than compensates for the film's inane dialogue. Innerspace is the stuff summer adventure is made of. [1 July 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  11. Dragnet
    Despite its commercial leanings, Dragnet is consistently entertaining. Its acting is flawless and its tone is refreshingly reverent toward the old Dragnet series. [26 June 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  12. Roxanne
    A pleasant surprise. It's a gentle, unforced adult comedy that capitalizes on situations rather than gags. [19 June 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  13. Withnail and I
    Withnail and I is one of those pictures that manages to be consistently amusing and grating at the same time. It stirs some good memories while pointing to the aimlessness of an era. [2 Oct 1987, p.5D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Witches of Eastwick
    The Witches of Eastwick is a theme park without a theme. Like Nicholson and his co-stars, Miller doesn't have a lot on his mind. He just wants to have fun. His movie is organized mayhem, a strange and funny tour de force. [15 June 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  15. Predator
    Predator has a certain comic-book quality that, combined with its parody of movies like The Magnificent Seven, is very appealing. It provides the action, suspense and technical wizardry that summertime audiences crave. [12 June 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  16. The Believers
    The Believers is the type of movie that generates shocks more successfully than it tells a story. [10 Jun 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  17. Harry and the Hendersons
    This is a fun picture, even if it's overly sentimental and has the feeling of an extended Amazing Stories segment. Director Dear is a master Spielbergian craftsman. Now, all he has to do is demonstrate some originality to establish himself as a quality film maker. [5 June 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Benji the Hunted
    Benji the Hunted lacks the charm of the previous films, and although the production values are excellent, the film makers are saying, "We did it for the money." What else is new? Film makers named Stallone, Norris and Schwarzenegger do it all the time. There is no reason not to expect it of Benji's owners. [19 June 1987, p.3D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  19. The Stepfather
    While The Stepfather doesn't transcend the limitations of most slice-and-dice movies, it comes close. And has fun trying.
    • Tampa Bay Times
  20. The Untouchables
    Too often, the movie relies on the contrived situations endemic to gangster movies, rather than explore new routes to tell the story. Yet, there is an undeniable visual power that places The Untouchables in the class of The Godfather and Once Upon a Time in America. [3 June 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  21. Beverly Hills Cop II
    Beverly Hills Cop II is practically a carbon copy of the original movie, which, at the very least, exhibited a glimmer of invention. The sequel is superior only in terms of technique. It looks slicker and sounds better; more like a music video. Its tone is fractionally more reserved. And there isn't the unsettling clash between humor and violence. [22 May 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  22. Gardens of Stone
    Gardens of Stone is not a great picture. But it is a good one, made by a visionary director who strives to address film as literature. This is an absorbing companion piece to Coppola's Apocalypse Now, which treats the war in allegorical terms. [12 May 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  23. My Life as a Dog
    The particular genius of My Life As a Dog is its ability to capture the joy, fear and fantasy that make pre-adolescence so beguiling. [18 Sept 1987, p.3D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  24. Extreme Prejudice
    Extreme Prejudice is an exceptionally bad movie, despite a powerful introduction in the tradition of Hill's bloodiest ventures, Southern Comfort, The Long Riders and 48 HRS. [24 Apr 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  25. Project X
    Project X is a predictable, sappy Save The Monkeys movie. [17 Apr 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  26. The Secret of My Succe$s
    The Secret of My Success is Ross's most engaging romantic comedy since California Suite. Interestingly, it uses some of the best elements of his less successful movies: the pictorial splendor of Pennies from Heaven, the fusion of music and image in Footloose, the unbridled comic delivery of Protocol, the sense of character from Max Dugan Returns. [10 Apr 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  27. Blind Date
    It is a fairly conventional cartoonish farce, like his 1986 horse racing comedy A Fine Mess. And despite Blind Date's emphasis on excess, its final cut seems uncommonly restrained. [27 Mar 1987, p.4D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  28. Street Smart
    It's not an art film, although it's an extremely intelligent piece of filmmaking. [27 Apr 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
  29. Tin Men
    Writer-director Levinson returns to Baltimore (his home town) with a perceptive, rueful comedy called Tin Men. It is about male camaraderie and revenge, and it, too, uses its setting as a statement. Baltimore, circa 1963, represents hope, transition and a fading American Dream. [13 Mar 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Raising Arizona
    Like Hi and Ed, Raising Arizona has a few problems. The repeated slapstick chases and fights are a little wearisome, and the final showdown between Hi and the biker is badly overdrawn, and gratuitously violent in the DePalma- Cronenberg style. Still, there is something appealing about a film that lists "baby wrangler" among the credits. And little T. J. Kuhn is liable to start a "critter boom" all by his lonesome. [10 Apr 1987, p.1D]
    • Tampa Bay Times
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