The A.V. Club's Scores

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For 10,422 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: 5,575 out of 10422
  2. Mixed: 3,739 out of 10422
  3. Negative: 1,108 out of 10422
10422 movie reviews
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  1. Lost Highway
    A slow, ponderous, ultimately unsuccessful exercise in cerebral nihilism.
  2. Basic
    For twists to work, viewers have to feel like they're being led along, not jerked around, and James Vanderbilt's script eventually devolves into little more than a series of jerks, stopping short only of introducing evil twins and alien interlopers.
  3. Honey
    Cotton-candy filmmaking, all spun sugar and hot air.
  4. Raising Helen
    The strange thing about Raising Helen is that nothing out of the ordinary ever really happens.
  5. Bush's Brain
    Constructed out of poorly supported accusations, vague innuendo, and naked emotional appeals, Bush's Brain has a Rove-esque quality of its own.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fierce Creatures
    Cute lemurs and a couple jabs at corporate a--holery can't save Fierce Creatures from its manic malaise.
  7. I Am David
    While it's not always necessary for filmmakers to relate that closely to their material, Feig's marked distance from the story of a sullen boy who parts the Iron Curtain may account for its generic artlessness.
  8. Connie and Carla
    Seems as much an imposter in the drag-queen world as its heroines; it fronts the sort of safely asexual gay characters found on network TV.
  9. Kiss the Girls
    Freeman and Judd are fine, as could be expected, but their pairing deserves a better movie -- not one with a cheap twist ending that will easily be spotted by anyone who's studied the complex machinations of any episode of Murder, She Wrote.
  10. Birth
    The ick-factor deepens as the story progresses, but the mystery never does.
  11. Old School
    A comedy with a terrific premise and little else.
  12. Shark Tale
    Every single joke, character detail, music montage, and pop-culture reference looks extensively market-tested, whether via screenings, focus groups, or other box-office successes.
  13. Man on Fire
    Scott's latest exercise in assaultive excess nevertheless lingers for two and a half hours, like a drunken houseguest who won't leave.
  14. Wonderland
    Wonderland is to "Boogie Nights" what "Blow" was to "Goodfellas": an accomplished knockoff with all the tricks and none of the soul.
  15. Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
    Doesn't have a mean bone in its body, but it's so sloppily assembled that even Lohan's charm can't keep it together.
  16. The New Guy
    A comedy just funny enough to make viewers wish it were far funnier.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Absolute Power
    A murky, often confusing story riddled with half-hearted performances, erratic characters, and too many cliched lines and situations.
  18. Cowboy Bebop the Movie: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
    The ambition is laudable, but the execution is wanting, and the attempt itself may indicate that Watanabe and company have forgotten what made Cowboy Bebop so much fun.
  19. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
    An overstuffed would-be epic.
  20. Shall We Dance
    Chelsom has transformed a low-key charmer into an overblown shtick-com whose idea of restraint only extends to forgoing wacky sound effects, a laugh track, and amplified rim-shots every time a character delivers a wisecrack.
  21. The Lizzie McGuire Movie
    As it goes with the TV show, so it goes with the movie, which benefits from being shot largely in Rome and suffers from trying to stretch its sitcom antics to feature length.
  22. You Got Served
    Offers viewers a trade-off: half an hour of phenomenal dancing in exchange for an hour of atrocious drama.
  23. The Chronicles of Riddick
    As bloated and ponderous as its predecessor was lean and focused, Chronicles ups the stakes along with the budget while jettisoning just about everything that made "Pitch Black" stand out from other thrillers about weary humans battling nefarious space beasties.
  24. Ladder 49
    In a shrill attempt to overcompensate for the film's shortcomings, William Ross' hyperbolic score does the audience's work for it, cheering heroism, guffawing during lighthearted moments, and getting all misty-eyed during the tender and tragic scenes.
  25. Patch Adams
    The film begins to resemble the dramatic equivalent of a porno movie, with emotional orgasms spewing forth at a rapid clip. By the time Patch Adams reaches its narrative climax, it has long since shot its dramatic load.
  26. Surviving Christmas
    Affleck's psychotic enthusiasm aside, no one seems to be having a good time, and the ill will becomes infectious.
  27. The United States of Leland
    Hoge, who scripted and directed The United States Of Leland, caters to his cast too much. He gives almost every character a way-too-involved subplot, which distracts from the heart of his story.
  28. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
    At times, Innocence feels like a clip show of Oshii projects past. But the effect proves more dulling than warmly familiar.
  29. Wicker Park
    Instead of building toward a grand romantic climax, it just gets sillier before exploding into a torrent of unintended laughs.
  30. Paparazzi
    Paparazzi follows the vigilante playbook in all its banality, without much in the way of moral reflection.
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