The Globe and Mail (Toronto)'s Scores

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For 7,291 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 48% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 49% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 The Red Turtle
Lowest review score: 0 The Mod Squad
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,349 out of 7291
  2. Mixed: 1,826 out of 7291
  3. Negative: 1,116 out of 7291
7291 movie reviews
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  1. Vincent & Theo
    For all its merits - a lush canvas, a first-rate cast, a thoughtful director examining a theme directly relevant to his own checkered career - Vincent & Theo doesn't quite measure up. [16 Nov 1990]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  2. Oliver Twist
    So what's surprising here isn't Polanski's choice of material but his utter failure to put any distinctive stamp on it.
  3. Hostiles
    Like Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," the underlying tension involves the protagonist's journey to regain his humanity. Hostiles, a hotbed of hostility.
  4. The We and the I
    Still, credit Gondry, like Tocqueville before him, with at least re-examining tired clichés and scraping the rust off stereotypes.
  5. Sharper
    When the narrative knife is as dull as it is here, there is just no fun in bleeding out. If Caron and his collaborators don’t learn their lesson, though, at least we will. Work smarter, not Sharper.
  6. The First Omen
    While unable to fully deliver on the promise of its artistic potential, The First Omen remains, nonetheless, a fun, low stakes introduction for horror newbies to The Omen franchise and an enjoyable enough tribute to the original film (offering, also, a more contemporary take on visualizing the grotesque).
  7. Soapdish
    This broad farce about a group of soap-opera stars is played at a hysterical pitch, but there are some real chuckles amid the mayhem. [31 May 1991]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
      • Posted Jun 28, 2017
  8. Hanna
    It's one of those imperfect pictures that manages to command and hold our attention straight from the opening frames.
  9. Lone Wolf McQuade
    Lone Wolf gets mad as a bee-stung boxer dog. [18 Apr 1983]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  10. Pacific Rim
    Of all this year’s loud, over-long summer action movies that, in various ways, simulate the experience of having a tin bucket placed over your head and being struck repeatedly with a stick, it must be said that Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim is by far the most entertaining.
  11. The Smashing Machine
    Safdie recognizes that The Smashing Machine is a single-purpose invention, one built to run on the blood, sweat and sometimes even the tears of Dwayne Johnson. Consider the act of watching the movie a double dose of cinematic benevolence: rewarding yourself, and saving the star from his own worst Hollywood instincts. Two birds, one Rock.
  12. Swallow
    This is a movie that cries out for attention, in ways both admirable and grating.
  13. We Were Soldiers
    If the action is graphic and immediate, other aspects of the movie are inexcusably bad.
  14. L'Auberge Espagnole
    A film whose limitations are the same as its appeal: It's a bauble. Running at barely more than 80 minutes, the film is both a travelogue and a commercial for swinging polyglot Europe.
  15. Cocoon
    The people behind Cocoon have taken many of the weariest of the cinematic cliches of the eighties and invested them with hearts and minds; from an unsightly chrysalis, a thing of beauty has been born. [21 June 1985]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  16. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
    The tale is about meeting Death and comes with this moral: When The End arrives, better to embrace it with love than to try to cheat it with avarice. Hey, if nothing else, Part 1 has got some nerve, so greedily refusing to practice what it earnestly preaches.
  17. GoldenEye
    For devotees of the genre, the bad news is the best news: Bond is back and nothing has changed except the stuntman's canvas - it's bigger than ever, duly pumped up to Schwarzeneggarian standards.
  18. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
    The Fantastic Four is here for a proper reset – a buoyant and frequently dazzling one at that, which sort of makes up for the failed movie adaptations of Marvel’s first family from the past.
  19. In My Mother's Arms
    Roughly-made but illuminating, the Iraq documentary In My Mother's Arms is a brief immersion into life in a Baghdad boys' orphanage.
  20. The Lovers and the Despot
    It’s a fantastically bonkers story told excitedly in The Lovers and the Despot, a stranger-than-fiction yarn that would make a hell of an opera.
  21. Down in the Valley
    Down in the Valley is one of those pictures you root for even when it goes badly wrong.
  22. The Year of Living Dangerously
    The Year of Living Dangerously is chic, enigmatic, self-assured - and empty. [18 Feb 1983]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  23. In a Better World
    Give director Susanne Bier full marks: Her encasing parable is brand new and immediately provocative.
  24. Touch Me Not
    It’s not that every film has to achieve some grand epiphany, but Touch Me Not is not nearly as satisfying as the primal act it’s obsessed with.
  25. Point and Shoot
    Point and Shoot is a riveting documentary and a disturbing portrait of a pampered American’s “crash course in manhood.”
  26. Agnes
    From the cult Oklahoma director Mickey Reece, the horror film Agnes is funny – both funny ha-ha (in sly ways) and funny-peculiar all around.
  27. Photograph
    The Mumbai-set Photograph is a gentle romance cleverly told, and not without humour.
  28. Last Breath
    The underwater cinematography, orchestrated by Nick Remy Matthews, is often startling, destined to make the dark box of a movie theatre all that more engagingly claustrophobic. And the ultimate story behind Last Breath is incredible, verging on the unbelievable.
  29. Silkwood
    Silkwood is a friendly, kooky and caring film. [09 Dec 1983]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Close to Home
    The film is much more subversive for treading back and forth between the political and the personal, the Arab and the Israeli points of view.
  31. The Pillow Book
    There's as much to draw us in, but far less to put us off. [13 Jun 1997]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  32. Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
    A surprisingly tender look at San Diego Comic-Con.
  33. The Way
    The pilgrimage is still long but, even with the crosses they bear, these are pilgrims lite – perhaps it's the modern way.
  34. Absence of Malice
    Absence of Malice is lively, provocative and intelligent, three qualities in short supply this Christmas. It simplifies, but it rarely distorts, and it doggedly picks at sores journalists would just as soon banish by Band-aid. [19 Dec 1981]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  35. Marie Antoinette
    Here's one thing about Marie Antoinette: It sure is easy to watch. And here's another: It's even easier to forget.
  36. Suffragette
    Some will criticize the director’s choice to recount a collective struggle through just one individual, but Mulligan’s performance, coupled with a solid script by Abi Morgan, shows us just how much is at stake when a woman decides to wage war.
  37. Guilty by Suspicion
    Guilty by Suspicion is a morality play innocent of moralism and manipulation. It's what almost nobody thinks Hollywood is: decent. [15 Mar 1991]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Interview
    The end result of this showcase for Buscemi's writing, acting and directing chops is so uneven and mixed in small details and overall tone that it's anybody's guess if it's one for the Oscars or the Razzies next year.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Sunflower
    Sunflower succeeds as both a moving family drama and a microcosm of China's social history since the 1970s.
  40. Sunshine
    That last wrong turn completely undoes a picture that had been steering a very impressive course.
  41. Mean Dreams
    Spiritual questions and thoughts on the importance of flesh-and-blood relationships are raised, but the strength of the you-can-run-but-you-can’t-hide drama is the dewy charisma of the two young co-stars.
  42. The Prince of Egypt
    Certainly spectacular -- an elaborately designed combination of animation and computer-generated imagery -- but at times it's a spectacular bore.
  43. He Got Game
    Coming from a major director like Spike Lee, this is a colossal disappointment. And a surprising one.
  44. Alien: Romulus
    Álvarez eventually gets there, with the third act of Romulus impressively nauseating. But otherwise, the filmmaker isn’t developing this cinematic universe so much as he is stunting its growth.
  45. Heaven Help Us
    As directed by Michael Dinner from Charles Purpura's script, the movie combines the anti-Catholic satire of Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You with the rowdy sexuality of Porky's and the stereotyping of every mediocre teen film ever made. [8 Feb 1985]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  46. Frozen II
    I could watch the background environmental action here for hours. But then the second thought of my Frozen 2 experience hit: I really wish I was listening to Let it Go right now.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    The Beautiful Country
    With its visual splendour, The Beautiful Country is indeed lovely to behold, but its story of human misery and survival doesn't always benefit from the painstaking art direction, picturesque vistas and surges of dramatic music.
  48. Real Life
    Brooks' bravery is spiriting; in his debut he has written an unlikeable character doing unlikeable things to likeable people. One wishes his talent as a director matched his chutzpah. [17 Mar 1979]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  49. Gretel & Hansel
    Everything about Gretel & Hansel is weirder, smarter and way more cinematic than I’d expected, thanks to some fascinating movie choices made by director Oz Perkins.
  50. MaXXXine
    As compared to both X and Pearl, West’s bag of cinema tricks in MaXXXine reaches a level of engagement that feels both compulsive and abridged.
  51. Frailty
    This is a guy movie, a gothic creepshow.
  52. Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War
    The film is never as powerful or convincing as it should be.
  53. Soundtrack for a Revolution
    With young audiences definitely in mind, the film puts a fresh spin on the issues and struggles of the civil-rights movement.
  54. Wanted
    This is a blockbuster busting out of the block; this is a Hollywood staple served up on a European platter; this is summertime fare with a wintry verve.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    The Goodbye Girl
    If you enjoyed previous Simon comedies like Plaza Suite, it is virtually guaranteed that you will enjoy Goodbye Girl. If you have not previously enjoyed Simon's work, Goodbye Girl will not convert you. [21 Dec 1977]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  56. Adoration
    Though there are moments when the drama turns into intellectual debate, the film is also emotional, moving with a fluid, mounting tension and moments of anguish and strange, startling humour.
  57. Outbreak
    After a great start, Wolfgang Petersen's intelligent medical thriller is infected by some nasty germs, resulting in the all-too-common Actionitis. [10 Mar 1995]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  58. JCVD
    Unlike "Being John Malkovich," which JCVD sometimes resembles, there is no secret portal to the star's head; instead, the audience gets a fleeting glimpse through the smeared window of his soul.
  59. Cop Land
    A good film prevented from being a great film by an act of well-intentioned but misguided casting.
  60. Captain Marvel
    This shiny and progressive and golly-gee packaging misrepresents how Captain Marvel made its way into the world, and what it is actually about. Namely: money, the easy exploitation of intellectual-property, artistic conformity and queasy politics that undermine whatever liberal notions it’s peddling.
  61. Dolphin Tale
    A potentially appealing story about a rescued disabled dolphin gets smothered with inspirational family values guff.
  62. A Better Life
    Speaking of moves, A Better Life is an interesting one for Weitz, who produced "American Pie" and directed "The Golden Compass" and, ahem, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon." Whatever the reason (his grandmother was a Mexican movie actress), this film feels more personal that just a gig.
  63. The Notorious Bettie Page
    Anyone expecting another dark satiric film in the same vein of Harron's earlier movies will be disappointed. Perhaps as befits a bondage-themed picture, The Notorious Bettie Page is very restrained, even a little starchy.
  64. Rental Family
    The star’s eager-to-please persona and overgrown puppy-dog physicality keeps the film from falling into complete shtick. It is all the more remarkable a feat given that Phillip is a complete cipher of a character.
  65. The Eight Hundred
    While the scale of Hu’s production is indeed impressive in its giganticness, and likely plays excellently on the IMAX screens for which it is intended (I had to settle for watching it on my television), The Eight Hundred falls a few hundred yards short of war-movie greatness.
  66. undertone
    The film works best when it is only Evy and her headphones on the screen, the character’s head (and ours) becoming overwhelmed by some truly impressive, singularly creepy sound design.
  67. Clockwatchers
    Quite consciously, Sprecher has dramatized that wry riff from Frank Zappa: "Life is high school with money." [12 Jun 1988, p.C3]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  68. Pooh's Heffalump Movie
    Delivered without irony or subtext but lots of gentle humour, a kind of family fare that is rare on the big screen these days.
  69. The Innkeepers
    Admittedly, it's been a long time since Kelly McGillis was being hyped as "the next Grace Kelly." But of all the films in all the world for whom the former Top Gun lust object could have done a walk-on, this lacklustre haunted-house feature is the one she chooses?
  70. One Hour Photo
    One Hour Photo is two-thirds of a movie -- the last act is a bit of a shambles.
  71. Northfork
    Just when the movie seems set to soar, there's a drag factor -- it keeps getting weighed down, if not sunk, by an anchor of ponderousness.
  72. Blue Juice
    The movie seems much, much longer than its 90-minute running time. [15 June 1998]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  73. Quartet
    Essentially Masterpiece Theatre comfort food, a chance to watch fine actors act without too many complications.
  74. Prometheus
    There's definite mastery here, but it's hardly a masterpiece.
  75. Northern Soul
    It thrills because Constantine, a noted British photographer, shows instead of tells.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Bonjour Tristesse
    What Chew-Bose gets so right about these characters is their very performativity, building a lifestyle where everyone is legible to each other despite a desire to remain unknowable.
  77. Goon
    What a disappointment.
  78. Always Be My Maybe
    The journey here, over all, is still worth it, full of Asians making jokes, talking dirty and getting it on – like any good rom-com.
  79. The Queen of My Dreams
    While The Queen of My Dreams works in some places, it’s too disjointed a narrative to truly immerse the viewer into the technicolor universe.
  80. The French Lieutenant's Woman
    Two great beginnings disappoint in the end. If the novel is a dying form, film treatments are the poison. [21 Sep 1981]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Renoir
    Gilles Bourdos’s film is more conventional than its mould-breaking subjects deserve.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Straight Time
    Straight Time is an exquistitely crafted film, loaded with good performances, propelled by excellent direction and brimming with heart-wrenching suspense. Unfortunately, it is also overwhelmingly depressing. [24 Mar 1978]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  83. Big Bad Wolves
    While Big Bad Wolves delivers the Hostel-like torture jolts with ruthless precision, the movie is also a rudely funny satire of a macho, paranoid culture where the protection of children is used to justify any conduct.
  84. The Pursuit of Happyness
    Both Smith and his son are appealing presences, but The Pursuit of Happyness seems to take place in a sociological vacuum. Gardner's insight into his difficulties begins and ends with the thought that, in the pursuit of happiness, there's a lot more pursuit involved than happiness, and unasked political questions seem to dangle ominously over the entire movie.
  85. Eight Below
    At two hours, Eight Below becomes rather repetitive and arduous in its final stretch, the rescue mission. But the canine cuteness, breathtaking action and acts of bravery are worth braving the Disney elements -- overpowering, poignant music, an unnecessary romantic subplot -- if you like your movies doggy-style.
  86. The Bad Guys 2
    Whenever Rockwell’s purr comes on, which is often given Mr. Wolf’s central role, the whole affair sings, uniting both children who are naturally entranced by the actor’s delivery and adults who get Oscar-calibre work in an otherwise forgettable kiddie flick.
  87. Bombshell
    Ambivalent and tepid as it attempts to fashion a tick-tock thriller from Ailes’s downfall.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Belle
    Needless to say, Belle is a handsome piece of selectively reupholstered history, but its lesson on the victories of social progress in England seems almost as narrowly perceived as Dido’s own view of the world from the immaculately trimmed Mansfield lawns.
  89. Suspiria
    There are a lot of words that come to mind when watching Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Suspiria: beautiful, gross, overwhelming, frustrating, disturbing, powerful, long, gross, audacious, baffling, explicit, extravagant and did I mention gross?
  90. Avenue Montaigne
    Avenue Montaigne is not a film to be taken too earnestly, but it would be a mistake to miss its bittersweet undertones. The movie is as airy as a spun-sugar dessert, but Thompson's observations on the artistic life are both affectionate and knowing: Beauty and wealth, though inevitably compelling, are appreciated as means to humane ends, not goals in themselves.
  91. 1408
    Really wanting to get into our heads, 1408 tries awfully hard to play both sides of logic's boundary line -- tries and fails, and then succeeds, only to ultimately fail again. On the whole, the frights are frighteningly erratic.
  92. Enigma
    The combined talents of Apted, Stoppard and the stellar cast make Enigma a puzzle worth solving.
  93. Blackboards
    We've got the trademark elements but not their magical bonding, and the result is a selection of scenes in search of a movie.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Sixth Sense
    At least tries to disturb us, rather than shock us or gross us out, and that is admirable. But it doesn't pull it off, and the movie is indicative of the trouble Hollywood has these days making that most frightening kind of movie -- the kind that lets the audience frighten itself.
  95. Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)
    Adoring, appropriately offbeat documentary.
  96. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
    Plays it a little too safe and hackneyed with the comedy, but the characters and the talented actors who play them are a refreshing change of pace that make the movie feel like a minor buddy-comedy revolution.
  97. Swiss Army Man
    That the film – part dark comedy and part cinematic dare – is the most unusual sight you’ll encounter at the movies this year is not up for debate.
  98. Fright Night
    The new version is mildly entertaining with some fun performances.
  99. Ready or Not
    Despite its sometimes overwhelming sense of familiarity – including a conceit that feels lifted from last year’s Game Night, an impossible feat given both productions’ development timelines – Ready or Not is still energetic, inventive and bloody enough to permissibly coast on its influences’ fumes.
  100. Born to be Blue
    Budreau constructs with imagination and pleasing fluidity, painting a portrait with a soft, sympathetic focus while steering clear of worship.
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