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. Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable
    Other than keeping Hamilton’s name out there and giving her brand exposure, Unstoppable stops short of making a compelling case for itself.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    King of the Corner
    The mild but affable story of an ad man's midlife crisis, King of the Corner is an actor's film in every way.
  3. The Conspirator
    Redford hasn't moved too far here from an earlier political-thriller template: With its skulduggery, late-night meetings and the contemptuous political cabal out to thwart justice, The Conspirator can be thought of as "All the President's Men – The Lincoln Edition."
  4. The LEGO Ninjago Movie
    The result is an irreverent, kinetic presentation with snappy dialogue and a hammered-home message that is graspable to even those with cup-shaped hands: One's true powers are internal, not external devices.
  5. The Prom
    Murphy’s blindingly bright, consistently energetic, never-ever-ever-still approach works more often than it doesn’t. Think of Murphy’s own Glee but with approximately 30 times the budget and star power.
  6. The Lion King
    It’s an entertaining and thrilling tale, if you’ve never seen it before. But you have.
  7. The Secret Life of Pets 2
    The message of the film is that life throws surprises. While that is true, this predictable film itself is not one of them.
  8. MirrorMask
    The surreal visuals are relentless, overpowering the narrative much as they do in the frames of comic books (sorry, graphic novels).
  9. Frankie
    Sachs manages this day in the life without cumbersome exposition thanks to the texture of this casting, all while keeping the disparate concerns of three generations moving.
  10. The Astronaut Farmer
    Rarely have I seen a movie which made me feel more skeptically Canadian. Please -- it's not true that you can do anything. Stop trying. You might make things worse.
  11. Tusk
    A parable that concerns the monstrous conduct of humans, Tusk is a salute to storytelling, a comic send-up of Canadiana – with awesome references to Degrassi and Duplessis – and a terrorizing vehicle for sharply conceived absurdity.
  12. Harry Brown
    The stark direction, the brittle performances, the impoverished setting, the scatological dialogue, everything about the film screams out "Gritty social realism." Everything, that is, except the plot, which shouts "Eye-rolling melodrama."
  13. Evelyn
    Think of it as trope grope. Things are so relatively democratic nowadays that filmmakers have to rummage through the past for a truly shmaltzy story. And they don't come any shmaltzier than this.
  14. Invincible
    Invincible lacks Herzog's usual visual and intellectual panache, and is afflicted by weak English-language acting, which makes it more of a career curio than a major work.
  15. Facing Windows
    Girotti is especially evocative, his face an alternating current that switches from emptiness to alarm and back again.
  16. Screamers
    If this sounds intriguing, we should add that System of a Down is a lousy live band. And director Garapedian, for all her public-minded zeal, isn't capable of corralling her interviews and opinions into a coherent polemic.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Phar Lap
    Phar Lap is another Australian horsy movie starring an American actor, Ron Leibman (Norma Rae), but this time the American's performance is the only redeeming feature in this otherwise tedious, slow-moving Down-Under tale about a fast-moving horse that should have been named Rocky. [20 Jul 1984]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  18. The Decent One
    The fascination of the film is to see his anti-Semitic development and how matter-of-factly and self-righteously he carries out his monstrous race-cleansing.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Ballerina's Tale
    It’s a complicated story that requires digging deep into uncomfortable questions about ballet’s rigid aesthetic standards and the economics and availability of training. George doesn’t give it the depth or analysis it requires.
  20. Volunteers
    A comedy boasting a gimmick worth a peek. For, into this remembrance of time past and youth altruistic, the script injects a heavy dose of up-to-the-minute pragmatism. [16 Aug 1985]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  21. Godard Mon Amour
    There are good intentions lurking here, especially in star Louis Garrel’s performance, but the film consistently fails to engage on an even basic level.
  22. The Missing
    It might better be titled The Awkward.
  23. The Good Liar
    A con-artist movie that is something of a con itself.
  24. The Last Samurai
    Grandly overblown and deeply cornball.
  25. Baby Mama
    A painfully predictable movie.
  26. Hostel
    The thing is just a clunky and tasteless and dumb scare picture, isn't it? Clunky, yes. Tasteless, for sure. But not so dumb I fear.
  27. Song to Song
    Where Song to Song most distinguishes itself among Malick’s uniquely rich filmography is its abiding despair. It is his most pessimistic film since "Badlands."
  28. The New Romantic
    As sincere and entertaining as it is, The New Romantic makes the classic university mistake of trying to ace the exam by cramming the night before.
  29. The Eyes of Tammy Faye
    The director, Michael Showalter (The Big Sick), and the screenwriters Abe Sylvia, along with Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato who made the 2000 documentary of the same name, either can’t or don’t want to confine themselves to a consistent tone.
  30. Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
    Even when the maximalist visuals grab hold – as in, by your collar with an unpleasant yank – it is hard to feel much but exhaustion.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Pride
    One wishes the makers of Pride had stuck with non-fiction, because their movie reduces Ellis's story to the level of generic sports-flick hokum.
  32. National Lampoon's Vacation
    The film is primarily an excuse for Chase to demonstrate that though he may be a movie star he has yet to learn how to create, let alone sustain, a character, and for director Harold (Caddyshack) Ramis and screenwriter John (National Lampoon's Class Reunion) Hughes to demonstrate that some movie stars get the colleagues they deserve. [2 Aug 1983]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  33. Outrageous Fortune
    Outrageous Fortune is a genuine waste of talent (Midler, Long and Coyote all have it) and time (the standard 90 minutes' worth). [30 Jan 1987]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  34. Tammy's Always Dying
    A uniquely Canadian exercise in down-and-out misery, Amy Jo Johnson’s second directorial effort, Tammy’s Always Dying, delivers a wealth of interesting talent to the table, and leaves them to fight for scraps.
  35. Nijinsky: The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky
    You don't need to have seen a lot of art films to love The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky. All it takes is compassionate curiosity and perhaps some lingering memory of the world as a child experiences it.
  36. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
    Much of Dodgeball feels competent but lazy. The nerds are barely distinguishable, except for one who thinks he's a pirate and says arghh a lot to no humorous effect.
  37. The Adam Project
    It is fast-food fantasy, artificially flavoured and quickly devoured.
  38. They Live
    From its eccentric score (a mix of spaghetti western and funky blues) to its bizarre casting (ex-wrestlemanaic Roddy Piper in the lead role), the flick leaves us off-balance and guessing. By the time we figure out there's not much to guess at, the credits roll by and the jig is up. [5 Nov 1988]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  39. Idlewild
    Artistic originality is not so common a commodity that you can afford to get too fussy about the details.
  40. Snakehead
    Leong’s documentary realism is powerful – if tough on an audience – but his fiction skills are erratic in a film that relies too heavily on Sister Tse’s narration, much repeated flashbacks and heavy exposition of the characters’ motivations.
  41. Surviving Picasso
    Surviving Picasso is flat-out dull, hanging like a K Mart print in a suburban mall - a testament to Merchant-Ivory's blew-it period. [20 Sep 1996]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 55 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The 33
    As millions watching the eventual rescue understood, the strength of those miners and the unlikely hope of their families, was utterly captivating. Their survival moved me deeply then and, with The 33, it still does now.
  43. The Great Gatsby
    It’s a terrific adaptation that succeeds not only as a work of cinema but also, wonderfully, as proof of the novel’s greatness. In short, the picture rebukes the revisionists even while entertaining them.
  44. The Package
    The ads give this a Lamborghini label, but under the hood, it's just a clunker that putzes along like a suburban sedan. [26 Aug 1989]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  45. City of Tiny Lights
    A classic private-eye tale updated for a multicultural London, director Pete Travis’s noir is entirely watchable, but it’s only because of to Ahmed’s captivating presence.
  46. The Bride!
    It flails wildly from minute to minute, bursting with ideas and themes it barely has time to articulate, but the sheer unpredictability of its narrative and aesthetic gesticulations guarantee that your attention never threatens to drift, and that your nerves remain constantly on edge.
  47. Old School
    Speaking of funny things, director Todd Phillips has been down this path before in "Road Trip." There, toiling in the same lame genre, he actually showed a hint of comic ingenuity. Here, the hint has dwindled to a hoarse whisper.
  48. City of Angels
    A lovely oddity.
  49. The Men Who Stare at Goats
    These Stooges-like antics are more about showing what good sports his stars are than honing any real satiric edge.
  50. Higher Learning
    Like an over-ambitious freshman with a term paper, Singleton raises every issue and illuminates none. And, again, this film is better when the combative heat rises, particularly when the long-telegraphed confrontation between Malik and the neo-Nazi finally comes to a (skin)head. [13 Jan 1995, p.C3]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 54 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Passion
    Where Corneau flirted with erotic tension, De Palma flaunts it. Where Corneau went for nightmarish reality, De Palma does noirish dreams.
  52. Magic in the Moonlight
    One distraction is that everything feels smothered in an extra helping of déjà vu sauce: another movie featuring a middle-aged misanthrope with a dewy younger woman; another film with stage magic as a theme.
  53. Hulk
    Whereas the psychology is surreal and wonderfully fluid, the action is too real and surprisingly listless, displaying little of the kinetic zip, or the sheer lyricism, that Lee brought with such memorable effect to "Crouching Tiger."
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Reluctant Fundamentalist
    It’s a timely narrative subject, but its treatment in The Reluctant Fundamentalist is fundamentally flawed.
  55. Brubaker
    David Keith, a native of Tennessee, had a tiny role in The Rose (as Bette Midler's soldier friend) and he is one of the few in the Brubaker cast whose accent is authentic and who appears to have the wherewithal to survive in a penitentiary. His scenes are the only respite from the movie's shrill, simplistic self-congratulation. [21 June 1980]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  56. Assassination Nation
    Levinson displays some amazing technical chops – most of which can be traced back to Joseph Kahn, but never mind – and there’s one standout home-invasion sequence toward the end. But some warnings are best heeded.
  57. Volcano
    In a few sound bites, we get the picture and the picture's motto: the smug and selfish coast is an order of disaster-flick toast waiting to burn.
  58. To Rome with Love
    The current postcard from abroad is not great, but not grating.
  59. Pledge
    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.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Deep Blue Sea
    One of those stupid movies that are good to relax with.
  61. And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen...
    For those who don't know his (Lelouch's) work, And Now Ladies and Gentlemen will be fun because his style is unique and unpredictable. But for those who have known him in better form, this one is not a must-see.
  62. The Green Butchers
    Black comedies don't get much darker than this.
  63. Imagine That
    An Eddie Murphy comedy that's actually endearing.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
    A run-of-the-mill movie hero.
  65. Charlie Bartlett
    Actually, occasionally, does feel good. Now if only it had something to say.
  66. You Don't Mess with the Zohan
    This picture is to comedy what carpet bombing is to aerial warfare: The onslaught is so relentless that occasional direct hits on the funny bone are a statistical guarantee.
  67. The Hunting Party
    The Hunting Party does a good job of illustrating Winston Churchill's observation, "There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result."
  68. Bee Season
    Though bathed in ecclesiastical light and a work of obvious craft and ambition, Bee Season is grimly serious and rather full of itself.
  69. Life
    Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds and others float around one another for an intense but spark-free 103 minutes, their characters barely sketched.
  70. Another Simple Favor
    Seven years is a long time to attempt a reheating of all the many ingredients that made the original film go down so easily, and Another Simple Favor simply tastes off.
  71. Thor: The Dark World
    A good model of how superheroes can save the world without forced gravitas, and have fun doing it.
  72. Beast
    It’s an edge-of-your-seat crowd-pleaser that cares enough to develop its story world and characters just as well as its jump-scares and tension.
  73. The Riot Club
    There’s a flicker of déjà vu seeing Max Irons step into the role of a posh Oxford University student in The Riot Club. Irons has inherited the cheekbones and silky voice of his father, Jeremy Irons.
  74. Lonesome Jim
    The narrative of Lonesome Jim pokes about aimlessly, trying to mine nuggets of amusement.
  75. The Last Stand
    Dig just a shade beneath the surface, trade in the text for the subtext, and a more interesting picture emerges – a little richer, sadder, almost poignant. Arnie is back again, yet now, as a storied immigrant nearing the end of his tale, he's become an odd sight to behold.
  76. Thanks for Sharing
    Thanks for Sharing might best be described as being like Steve McQueen’s sex-addiction drama, "Shame," if it were rewritten by Neil Simon at his most schmaltzy.
  77. The Substance of Fire
    Consequently, your reaction to the film will pretty much hinge on your opinion of the play. Ho-hum is my humble verdict.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Best Sellers
    Clichés abound and you think you know where this is going. But in her feature debut, Canadian director Lina Roessler manages some genuine surprises. Caine is wonderful, Plaza is charming. The film has its moments, but one for the books this ain’t.
  79. Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
    This omnibus of four tales is cheerful, campy, garish, ghoulish and gross. That means it's a success on its own unambitious B-movie terms. [05 May 1990]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  80. Spiderhead
    Perhaps sensing that the film needs all the toe-tapping energy it can get, Spiderhead’s cast make the most out of their thin material.
  81. Zack Snyder's Justice League
    It is still by no means a great film, even compared against the standards of contemporary superhero cinema, which is bleeding any sense of individual artistry and purpose each passing year. But it is a wild, invigorating experiment to experience.
  82. Pandora's Promise
    Pandora’s Promise is less an exploration of the subject than a well-constructed sales pitch.
  83. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
    Watching Attack of the Clones is like getting rapped on the head with a rubber mallet -- no lasting damage (I pray and hope), but bad enough to bring on an acute bout of dizziness and disorientation. Definitely do not operate heavy machinery after viewing -- this behemoth is brutal.
  84. Battle in Seattle
    Near the end of the movie, Django jokes that, after the protests, people may still not know what the WTO is, but "they know it's bad." That's a fair summation of how much insight Battle in Seattle provides for its viewers.
  85. I Am Woman
    Plays like an easy-listening hit.
  86. Entrapment
    The film doesn't work, it ain't charming.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Jersey Boys
    It never reaches the soaring, cloud-busting heights of Frankie Valli’s otherworldly falsetto, and it doesn’t even try.
  88. Hidalgo
    The beautifully photographed film is quite stylized at times...But it manages to steer clear of the stereotypes one might expect of a movie set in this time and place, thanks in part to the underlying and, mostly, underplayed themes of spirituality and the search for identity.
  89. Batman Forever
    Alas, Schumacher doesn't ride on the momentum; worse, he's not an action director, and the film grinds to a dead stop every time it tries to speed up.
  90. Memoirs of a Geisha
    Full of falling rain, fluttering silk, John Williams's music and whispery voiceover, Memoirs of a Geisha is one long oxymoronic exercise in attempting to show delicacy through overkill.
  91. Juggernaut
    There are some small-time twists in this small-time thriller and, naturally, McHattie does solid work as one of the more slippery characters Saxon encounters in his quest for justice, but DiMarco just can't sustain enough tension or drama to power the film through a plodding 105 minutes.
  92. F.I.S.T.
    Gripping to watch but ultimately misses the target. [29 Apr 1978]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  93. The Brady Bunch Movie
    There's a risk of taking The Brady Bunch too seriously but, please, let's not think of it as funny, then or now. [18 Feb 1995]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  94. Art School Confidential
    Like a smart-ass student clever enough to see through everyone but himself, Art School Confidential falls victim to the very clichés it wants to puncture.
  95. Ricki and the Flash
    Regardless of its flimsy emotional interior, Ricki is a worthy addition in this year’s growing canon of strong female-centred films.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Life Stinks
    Mel Brooks manages some richly funny scenes that are spoiled by excessive gags. [27 July 1991]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    So I Married an Axe Murderer
    For the first 45 minutes, it's a listless and humourless comedy. But, after Mike Myers clobbers viewers over and over again with his open, eager-to-please style, the movie slowly lurches to life So I managed a few laughs. [3 Aug 1993]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 54 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Sparkle
    Anyone who has seen "Dream Girls," "What's Love Got To Do With It?" or even "The Doors" will find themselves in familiar (if inferior) territory here.
  99. The Devil's Rejects
    While this may all sound seductively warped to those who enjoy movies featuring sexually deviant confinement and torture, blasphemous rants and rampaging rednecks, The Devil's Rejects does not live up to its sick, twisted and campy intentions. "Straw Dogs" meets "Smokey And The Bandit" for the new millennium it ain't.
  100. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
    Johnny Knoxville is now 42, and he’s clearly torn. He still wants to be a Jackass, but in a movie with an actual story that offers something even slightly more substantive than cringing at other people’s self-inflicted pain and humiliation.
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