The A.V. Club's Scores

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For 10,414 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 51% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 46% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 Badlands
Lowest review score: 0 A Life Less Ordinary
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5,571 out of 10414
  2. Mixed: 3,736 out of 10414
  3. Negative: 1,107 out of 10414
10414 movie reviews
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  1. We Live in Time
    We Live In Time’s worst sin is making its thin characters so damn boring. They’re so likable and sweet, even their flaws are forgivable.
  2. Until Dawn
    The terrible script so often steals the spotlight that the gory, by-the-numbers filmmaking putting it into action is almost besides the point. Sandberg, for his part, can stage an effective horror sequence.
  3. Gunslingers
    Gunslingers drags on for a little over 100 minutes, and the best it can show for it is Cage yelling about Jesus in a funny voice.
  4. Bride Hard
    Bride Hard aims for the goofy joy of a drunken bachelorette party, but is more like the morning-after hangover.
  5. Mortal Kombat II
    It’s because Mortal Kombat II is neither campy enough to revel in its violent bad taste, nor earnest enough to pull off its sprawling ambitions that it most resembles a late-stage Marvel entry.
  6. Rental Family
    Fraser walks through this aggressively sappy drama with the aura of simple goodness that has served him well. But such concentrated radiance starts to feel like a denial of the painful reality Rental Family ignores. The movie wants to give you a hug, but you may be tempted to slap it across the face.
  7. Silent Night, Deadly Night
    The film is even less than the sum of its genre trappings.
  8. Desert Warrior
    The movie’s basic appeal––that of rebels rising up against evil empires––still works to some extent, but Desert Warrior does little to make it memorable beyond its historic production.
  9. The Wrecking Crew
    The Wrecking Crew casts about between genres like driftwood caught by the tide; for two hours, the script cycles between family trauma drama, goofy Hawaiian noir, meathead romp, and wham-bang slugfest. The indecision at least showcases some consistency, though, in that each approach is equally dissatisfying.
  10. Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War
    Jack Ryan: Ghost War [editor’s note: the full title of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War is way too long to keep repeating] is a straightforward spy movie without excitement or intrigue, like a training exercise to keep Krasinski busy. Even the franchise’s main distinguishing factor, its rah-rah patriotism, is no match for a few moments of product placement from the Saudi tourism board.
  11. Balls Up
    Farrelly’s film wanders aimlessly without being driven by anything absurd or outrageous enough to conjure a Hangover-like reaction, nor anything with enough humanity to justify the occasional heart-to-heart conversations between Brad and Elijah.
  12. Bride & Prejudice
    Chadha doesn't seem at home with either Austen or Bollywood, and her ambitions far exceed her competence in the song-and-dance numbers, which are a clutter of stiff choreography and silly original lyrics.
  13. Alone in the Dark
    A fairly faithful adaptation of what a game is like, but without the pleasure of getting to play or the much-needed option of pressing the "off" button.
  14. Hide and Seek
    Like far too many junky post-"Sixth Sense" thrillers, Hide And Seek essentially exists for the sake of its third-act plot twist, but the climactic revelation merely pushes it from bad to worse.
  15. Boogeyman
    Mostly Boogeyman remains content to be a film about a boogeyman who hides in closets and under beds and gobbles people up. And for that, it deserves a certain amount of respect. On the other hand, the film could hardly be any sillier.
  16. The Pacifier
    Revealing hitherto unseen depths of stiffness, Diesel stumbles badly in the role.
  17. Dot the I
    The plot's profound implausibility wouldn't matter if the ideas and emotions behind it had any power.
  18. Melinda and Melinda
    A second-rate comedy and a third-rate drama, Melinda And Melinda gives viewers two unsatisfying movies in one. The only genuine tragedy here involves a once-brilliant comedy writer plunging further into a seemingly permanent artistic freefall.
  19. The Ballad of Jack and Rose
    Some good Bob Dylan songs are called in to underline the big moments, but end up eclipsing them instead. There's more drama and insight in a snippet of "One More Cup Of Coffee" than the entirety of Jack & Rose.
  20. King's Ransom
    Devotes its first two acts to establishing the comic monstrousness of all its characters.
  21. Dead & Breakfast
    In a self-conscious moment late in the action, one character says she feels like she's in a bad horror movie. No kidding.
  22. Jiminy Glick in Lalawood
    A film this slipshod needs much more star-power than it's able to muster.
  23. The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D
    Sadly, the film's creaky, sometimes painful dialogue makes it all too easy to believe that it was genuinely co-written by a small child.
  24. Herbie Fully Loaded
    In reviving the beloved Disney property, Robinson attempts to resuscitate the fast-motion shots and sub-Three Stooges physical comedy of classic Herbie, but the new model seems distantly related to the innocent, peppy little car of old.
  25. 9 Songs
    Between the performances in the bedroom and on stage, 9 Songs gives off plenty of heat, but the whole project seems half-thought-out and hastily arranged, hampered by butt-ugly DV photography that turn skin tones grimy and make the Brixton scenes look as high-grain as a bowl of Mueslix.
  26. Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
    What's perhaps most surprising about European Gigolo is its reactionary streak, exemplified by knee-jerk attacks on Europe's equally knee-jerk anti-Americanism. Then again, that seems fitting. The sequel functions as the ultimate Ugly American, good for a few cheap, vulgar laughs and nothing else.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Chumscrubber
    The resulting film is an example of how a film with camera and acting skills in its corner can still fall flat on its face.
  28. Undiscovered
    The vapid teen talent show Undiscovered turns on a plot point so moronic that even the most dedicated bad-movie buffs have cause to stay away.
  29. The Gospel
    Unsurprisingly, the unimaginatively filmed but high-intensity gospel performances prove a highlight, radiating an energy and urgency that the film's stilted dialogue, awkward romance, and clunky plotting can only aspire to.
  30. Domino
    Domino de-emphasizes the human element--not to mention such niceties as plot and clarity--to such a degree that only those who show up purely to watch combustibles go "boom" won't feel insulted.
  31. Ellie Parker
    It almost seems that Watts made a movie this intentionally scuzzy and low-rent as a severe form of penance to the gods of authenticity for the sin of making millions jet-setting around the world appearing in big, glamorous super-productions. But she goes too far in making the audience suffer as well.
  32. Bartleby
    Parker's film is flat beyond the flatness appropriate to the story; the conflict between Glover and Paymer follows Melville's original so squarely that it quickly begins to feel like they're going through the motions.
  33. Analyze That
    All the principals -- except, significantly, screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan -- reprised their roles for the sequel, and all seem confused as to why they returned.
  34. The Tuxedo
    A frenetic, busy, expensive machine that looks good but runs on autopilot.
  35. The Château
    Never recovering the energy of its early scenes, the heavily improvised Château becomes shapeless and dull.
  36. Biker Boyz
    Could and should have been a giddy, tongue-in-cheek action-comedy romp. Instead, it's a meandering action-drama, in which nearly all of the abundant laughs are unintentional.
  37. How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
    A pathetic wallow, first in misanthropy and later in sentimentality.
  38. Return to Never Land
    The film crawls to a halt, its pace further marred by anemic, time-wasting pop songs. Even at 72 minutes, Never Land feels padded, while the animators make Never Land so unmagical that war-torn London seems preferable by comparison.
  39. Evelyn
    From the maudlin musical cues to a senseless romantic subplot that's only barely tacked on, every aspect of Evelyn stabs blindly and insistently at emotional buttons -- Beresford has made the feel-manipulated movie of the year.
  40. Empire
    Empire devolves into a bloody revenge thriller with an ending as primitive as its opening is convoluted.
  41. The Three Marias
    A series of third-act complications provides much-needed narrative surprise, but until then, The Three Marias is a disappointingly flavorless genre exercise.
  42. The Bank
    LaPaglia brings the hero into a world of greed and compromised values, but his fork-tongued monologues aren't remotely seductive, which makes the ending a foregone conclusion.
  43. Showtime
    De Niro and Murphy are visibly uncomfortable with each other. Their improvisation seems chaotic and mismanaged, and the movie follows in kind.
  44. Big Bad Love
    The junk-shop surrealism ultimately gets the better of everyone's good intentions.
  45. Scotland, Pa.
    Shakespeare hasn't had it this rough since Lemmy from Motörhead performed the opening soliloquy in "Tromeo And Juliet."
  46. The Sea
    The acidic Shakespearean family drama The Sea can't be faulted for lack of ambition. It can, however, be faulted for a fatal lack of heart.
  47. Mango Yellow
    It's a lot to suffer through for a film that has nothing to say, but insists on saying it anyway. Repeatedly.
  48. The Event
    A deadly earnest, relentlessly solemn affair.
  49. Deuces Wild
    A repellent orgy of gratuitous violence and hackneyed melodrama, Deuces Wild marks a grim nadir for everyone involved, including late cinematographer John A. Alonzo (Chinatown, Harold & Maude), who deserved a much better swan song.
  50. The Year That Trembled
    Movies have the ability to make history come alive, but this dull period soap opera feels more like history that's already been embalmed.
  51. Blast from the Past
    The first 20 minutes of Blast From The Past, in which the film actually does something with its central concept, aren't that bad.
  52. Apt Pupil
    McKellen is fine, of course, but the film as a whole offers about as much insight into evil as Ming The Merciless in a “Flash Gordon” serial.
  53. Babí léto
    A mud bath of sentiment, strained speechifying, and gloppy music.
  54. Deliver Us from Eva
    Hardwick switches gears from wacky comedy to romantic drama about halfway through Deliver Us, but it's too late, and what follows is far too dull to make any difference.
  55. The Singing Detective
    What this Singing Detective really needed was to be reworked top to bottom, preferably by a writer fleeing some demons of his own.
  56. Suspended Animation
    A film as grisly as it is dumb.
  57. All About the Benjamins
    A witless, bloody, unpleasant mismatched-buddy movie.
  58. The Middle of the World
    When they (the family) arrive at their destination, the story arrives at an ending that's neither obvious nor interesting, kind of like the film leading up to it.
  59. Don't Tempt Me
    This must all make sense to Yanes, somehow, but the film plays like a private joke with no punchline.
  60. 54
    The film's sole redeeming facet is Mike Myers' rich, multilayered performance as Rubell: Simultaneously repulsive and charming, hedonistic and oddly paternal, Myers steals every scene he's in. It's a great performance that deserves to be in a much better film.
  61. Bringing Down the House
    Yet another comedy that suggests someone should take Martin aside and remind him that he can do better.
  62. Civil Brand
    Civil Brand's aesthetic is pure mid-'70s blaxploitation, and not in an ironic or reverent sense. Even the heavy-handed political rhetoric is in keeping with the neo-blaxploitation vibe, since even bad blaxploitation movies often had revolutionary undercurrents.
  63. Venus Boyz
    Becomes hard going the longer Baur stretches out the parade of narcissists, all spouting received wisdom, cultural clichés, and bad poetry.
  64. The Jungle Book 2
    Even the animation is imitative rather than inventive.
  65. Rugrats Go Wild
    Rugrats Go Wild! represents one giant leap forward for corporate cartoon synergy, but one similarly large step back for the Rugrats franchise.
  66. Brokedown Palace
    The once-reliable Danes is a particular detriment, but it's really hard to care whether either character escapes from what looks like a really unappealing summer camp.
  67. At First Sight
    It's drainingly mediocre.
  68. High Crimes
    A major disappointment that lacks the courage to follow through on its premise's themes.
  69. Son of the Bride
    The best that can be said of Son Of The Bride is that it's attractively photographed. But, then, so was the Hindenburg explosion, and this packs far less excitement into its two shapeless hours.
  70. Suicide Kings
    The only redeeming moments come from Walken, whose assured, effortless screen presence stands out from his faceless co-stars. Taped to a leather chair and bleeding profusely from a severed finger, he's still the most powerful person in the room.
  71. Species II
    Though it never really taps into the whole JFK-as-alien-sex-fiend plot as a source of satire, Species 2 is still the superior piece of trash its predecessor should have been.
  72. Who Is Cletis Tout?
    In the absence of sincerity, Cletis Tout creates a vacuum that flushes out the entire story, leaving nothing but its own hollow cleverness.
  73. Let's Get Frank
    Everly tries to patch together a profile out of borrowed news clips and shoddy videography. In the process, Frank's charisma and force never emerge.
  74. Johnson Family Vacation
    It's a sign of trouble when watching a movie prompts nostalgia for the movie it's ripping off, particularly when that movie wasn't any good. But walking out of Johnson Family Vacation, it's hard not to feel misty-eyed for the urine-soaked-sandwich gags, incest jokes, and other refined comic elements of "National Lampoon's Vacation."
  75. Dead or Alive: Final
    In Dead Or Alive: Final, Miike trades his grimly comic, sex-and-blood insignia for a self-consciously wacky conflation of Hong Kong action cinema and Japanese anime, with a little cheap science fiction tossed in for good measure.
  76. Greendale
    There's no forgiving the home-movie slackness of Greendale for its numbing dearth of imagination.
  77. Anything Else
    A joylessly plodding film that cannibalizes Allen's classics of the '70s and '80s while managing only a few decent one-liners.
  78. Forces of Nature
    Only succeeds sporadically, even if it's never quite the unwatchable monstrosity it so clearly could have been.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Smilla's Sense of Snow
    The matter-of-fact way in which the story is presented serves as a constant reminder of how implausible the whole thing is. Add to this the single expression Ormond and Byrne are allowed throughout the film, and you're left with one more weak, confusing, ignorable movie that embarrasses its source.
  80. The Perfect Score
    Attempts at high spirits and the presence of Matthew Lillard all suggest that this is supposed to be a comedy.
  81. Bad Boys II
    Bad Boys II is the rare case in which escapism involves leaving the theater.
  82. Kaena: The Prophecy
    With so many plot hooks and so many story demands, it's incomprehensible that Kaena spends so much time on meaningless action.
  83. Freddy vs. Jason
    Aside from a promising scene involving a cornfield rave and the pyrotechnic potential for grain alcohol, it drags along, taking a small eternity to set up a final showdown that plays more like a bloody pro-wrestling event than the stuff of nightmares.
  84. Death to Smoochy
    An aggressive black comedy that seeks to satisfy a bloodlust already quelled many times over.
  85. Reign of Fire
    Director Rob Bowman seems at a loss as to what to bring to the film, which, even with its good choice of leads, plods along from one dragon fight to the next, all of them staged to showcase Fire's impressive CGI dragons, but none choreographed with any real flair.
  86. One Last Kiss
    Through it all, Muccino piles on one shrill confrontation after another. At times, he seems headed for the melodramatic turf owned and operated by Pedro Almodóvar, but where the young Almodóvar would have deployed a prankish wit and the older Almodóvar scraped toward the humanity beneath.
  87. Brothers in Arms
    Has little to recommend it. A sterling example of how an unimaginative combination of interviews and archival footage can drain the life from even the most compelling topic, it feels padded at a mere 68 minutes.
  88. Catch That Kid
    The film combines dour heroes with a drab look, and the string of "Don't try this at home"-style stunts should underwhelm even viewers too young for James Bond or XXX.
  89. Radio
    Anyone who already knows better than to taunt the disabled, or former Oscar winners, should probably give it a pass.
  90. Half Baked
    The main problem, however, is Tamra Davis' leaden direction, which prevents Half-Baked from developing comic momentum. There are a few scattered laughs.
  91. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
    There's gore aplenty here, but precious little suspense or terror.
  92. Hope Floats
    If there's one thing more heartbreaking than a crying child, it's a crying child wearing thick glasses, an image exploited numerous times throughout the course of the dull, uninvolving, tissue-thin Hope Floats.
  93. Stateside
    A mess.
  94. Harvard Man
    Channels Toback in his purest form, which will probably be a treat for auteurists and a headache for just about everyone else.
  95. Love Don't Cost a Thing
    This is teen product at its most generic.
  96. Never Die Alone
    Though steeped in both subgenres, Never Die Alone subverts that vicarious enjoyment by showing violence and abuse so unrelentingly ugly that only a sadist could derive the least bit of pleasure from it.
  97. Max
    Quirky, unsatisfying portrait.
  98. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
    It reduces a large cast to an unwieldy collection of simpletons and caricatures.
  99. Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
    Nothing is more dangerous than a sequel to a wildly successful awful movie, because the artisans involved have to preserve the franchise, which means honoring the original formula as if it were a cure for cancer.
  100. The Hunting of the President
    What a shame that The Hunting Of The President feels like part of the problem.
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