The A.V. Club's Scores

Select another publication »
For 10,411 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: 5,570 out of 10411
  2. Mixed: 3,735 out of 10411
  3. Negative: 1,106 out of 10411
10411 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. Star Maps
    Star Maps rather transparently equates prostitution with show business; both exploit the impoverished and do no favors to minorities. It's a valid equation, but once the point is made, Star Maps has no place to go.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown
    There's really no bad performance by the great English actress Judi Dench, but this romanticized Victorian historical drama treads close.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    George of the Jungle
    This appalling desecration of Jay Ward's 1960s cartoon series suffers from countless movie-ruining flaws.
  4. 4 Little Girls
    An important act of historical preservation, a focused and effective film that brings back a dark, important moment in history with startling clarity.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Men in Black
    Deserves credit for supplementing its special effects with a breezy script and genuinely charismatic performances by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.
  6. Out to Sea
    A manipulative attempt to swindle money out of the generation that came of age during the Harding Administration, Out To Sea has the wit and sophistication of your average Fox TV pilot.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    My Best Friend's Wedding
    Just as crippling is the movie's tendency to waver back and forth between black comedy and Nora Ephron-esque schmaltz.
  8. Batman & Robin
    Clooney fails to make much of an impression as The Batman, but to make an impression amongst all the garish theatrics, he would pretty much have to shout his dialogue in rhyming verse, backwards.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 58 Critic Score
    Underground
    The same message could have been delivered in half the time, at half the volume.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 0 Critic Score
    Speed 2: Cruise Control
    But like De Bont's awful "Twister", Speed 2: Cruise Control somehow manages to fail in every way.
  11. Ulee's Gold
    Though it occasionally wears its metaphors on its sleeve, Ulee's Gold should, if there's any justice, find the same thoughtful-drama-hungry audience that made "Sling Blade" a hit.
  12. Love! Valour! Compassion!
    While director Joe Mantello (who also helmed the stage production) often uses the opened-up space of the movie well, he doesn't always avoid some of the common pitfalls that come with adapting plays.
  13. The Brave
    The Brave ultimately plays like the world’s most depressing remake of Joe Versus The Volcano, with all the joy and whimsy replaced by gloom and grime. It’s a morbid, maudlin oddity that starts off slowly and never finds its footing.
  14. Fathers' Day
    Add to these problems the fact that Fathers' Day is a comedy starring two reputedly hilarious people who don't make you laugh once, and you have a movie that would be great if everything about it weren't terrible.
  15. Nowhere
    Nowhere is Araki's most accomplished film yet, and if it never quite comes together, it's still a wildly entertaining film.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
    It helps that Myers has Powers down pat. Still, the need to parody "Casino Royale" could have been taken care of in an eight-minute TV skit; instead, we're given nearly 90 minutes of someone else's party.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Breakdown
    Breakdown is just a skillfully constructed, smartly conceived, escapist thriller that does just about everything right.
  18. Irma Vep
    The film is a true torchbearer of the French New Wave—playful, restless, full of invention, and born of an overwhelming discontent for the status quo.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
    Kudrow and Sorvino aren't really given a script to work with; most jokes consist of the two women being vacuous together.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Volcano
    Deft filmmaking that allows the special effects to help, not be, the story combines with an actual script to make Volcano a smart, self-aware, and most of all fun disaster movie.
  21. 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag
    Zany antics of the most painful sort.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Murder at 1600
    By violating the law of show-don't-tell, the already shaky Murder At 1600 is lost beyond hope of redemption.
  23. Grosse Pointe Blank
    Smart in a rare way that matters greatly to good contemporary comedy: Like last year's "Flirting With Disaster," its script and direction underplay absurd situations, letting its characters amuse without showing the strains of forced wackiness.
  24. Shall We Dance?
    While the characters, situations, and gags are all familiar, Shall We Dance?'s gentle humanity and quiet exuberance are contagious.
  25. Schizopolis
    Fast-paced and ambitious, it never bores, and Soderbergh proves himself interesting to watch in addition to being gifted behind the camera.
  26. Inventing the Abbotts
    The members of its young cast (Jennifer Connelly, Joaquin Phoenix, Liv Tyler) have all shown promise elsewhere, but don't really get to do much but look attractive and troubled here. They may be stars, but as long as they keep treading water in bland stuff like this, the world may never know.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Double Team
    Someone involved in the making of this movie is clearly insane; it should be just a standard buddy/action movie, but aside from lots of kickboxing and shooting and a big fight at the end, it doesn't follow any of the genre's chimp-simple conventions. It may be the worst Van Damme movie ever made.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Devil's Own
    What makes it worth the price of admission is the energetic performance Ford pulls off in the cookie-cutter role of big-city cop.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »