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. Fat Albert
    While endearing as cartoons, they don't wear flesh well.
  2. Finding Neverland
    Forster's movie doesn't want to grow up, but it doesn't seem to understand childhood, either. For a film about the life-affirming power of imagination, Finding Neverland displays precious little of its own.
  3. The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
    Benefits from extremely modest expectations. For it to be anything but painfully arbitrary would count as an accomplishment, so the fact that it's superficially entertaining qualifies as a minor triumph.
  4. Two Brothers
    The tiger footage in Two Brothers would make for a solid nature documentary, but because the animals are shoehorned into a narrative, they've been anthropomorphized to death.
  5. Feeling Minnesota
    Marginally watchable-in part because of the odd presence of Dan Aykroyd and Courtney Love-it's ultimately pointless, repetitive and more concerned with appearing offbeat than actually doing anything inventive.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Jackal
    At best, The Jackal is an uninspired, by-the-numbers action thriller.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Bean
    When Atkinson tries to stretch familiar Beanisms into 80 minutes, the results are mostly unsatisfying.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Event Horizon
    The movie looks great at first, with interesting spaceship designs and genuinely creepy abandoned interiors, and the initial idea had plenty of potential. But by the time the story gets rolling, the filmmakers are trying unsuccessfully to scare the audience with sudden loud noises and gallon upon gallon of fake blood.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Excess Baggage
    Although Excess Baggage is not actually unwatchable, this is mostly due to Del Toro's dazed charisma and an inspired bit of weirdness by Christopher Walken as Silverstone's dangerous uncle.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Nutty Professor
    The film is otherwise plastic; the supporting players stink and a few too many fart jokes exist where wit belonged.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Evita
    Its political insights are half-hearted at best, and as entertainment it fails to excite. The songs sound mostly like glam-rock relics.
  12. Home for the Holidays
    The result is a movie that feels both fussed-over and meaninglessly cruel.
  13. Death and the Maiden
    Weaver's overacting and Dorfman's bold-faced dialogue oversell the scenario. Only Kingsley's sly turn gives Death And The Maiden any real feeling of disquiet.
  14. Last Party 2000
    The Last Party's scattershot approach doesn't linger on any single topic long enough to make a convincing case for any side.
  15. A House on a Hill
    The energy of Workman's editing and the innate value of seeing the creative process play out makes House watchable.
  16. Acts of Worship
    Though it isn't explained until the closing minutes, the title Acts Of Worship says a lot about Rodriguez's terminal weakness for the overwrought and faux-poetic.
  17. Hidden in Plain Sight
    Nods at objectivity but announces its activist intentions throughout.
  18. Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space
    Tamala 2010 feels like either a singularly detail-organized dream, or an exceptionally formal drug trip.
  19. A Thousand Peace Clouds Encircle the Sky
    Ultimately, the film is the kind of neither-fish-nor-fowl work unlikely to satisfy anyone: There's not enough hot-and-heavy action for thrill-seekers, and not enough substance for those looking for above-the-waistline kicks.
  20. Clockstoppers
    Botches what could be the most mischievous power since Scott Baio's telekinesis in the 1982 comedy "Zapped!": a wristwatch that speeds up time for the user until the rest of the world seems to be standing still.
  21. A Letter to True
    The definition of a vanity film, Weber's latest opus lacks the focus even to qualify as dilettantish. Offering plenty for the eye and little for the brain, the film suffers from a dearth of ideas as it glides pleasantly but emptily from one gorgeous surface to another.
  22. Evergreen
    Evergreen suffers from creeping indie-itis, epitomized by the low-light digital video and droning electric-guitar soundtrack, but its biggest weakness lies in Zentelis' apparent fear of surprise.
  23. Straight-Jacket
    Loses its sass too quickly.
  24. Freeze Frame
    Compelling as it sounds, the idea behind Freeze Frame doesn't make any sense, especially when realized in practical terms.
  25. SubUrbia
    This adaptation of Eric Bogosian's 1994 play-- which revolves around several post-high-school drifters hanging around a convenience store while awaiting the return of their rock-star classmate -- doesn't hold up to Linklater's previous work, and the problem is Bogosian's script.
  26. Odessa... Odessa!
    Too pretty to dismiss, but too dull to recommend.
  27. little man
    While Conn's story is inherently compelling, it's pretty much ruined in the telling thanks to her unnerving choice to fill it with a twinkling piano-heavy score, florid narration, and trembling slow-motion.
  28. 39 Pounds of Love
    As documentary drama, 39 Pounds Of Love is as ungainly, blunt, and icky as its title.
  29. Babe: Pig in the City
    Maybe it could have worked had the movie found a story worth telling, but it simply drifts from depressing incident to depressing incident, resembling the nightmare of an adorable but deeply emotionally scarred pig. Anyone with fond memories of Babe ought to avoid this mirthless, dispiriting sequel.
  30. Best Men
    As a comedy, it's painfully unfunny, and as a drama, it's both silly and overcrowded with unnecessary characters and subplots. Still, Best Men has its moments.
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