The Guardian's Scores

Select another publication »
For 6,594 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 41% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 54% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.1 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 London Road
Lowest review score: 0 Melania
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,497 out of 6594
  2. Mixed: 3,778 out of 6594
  3. Negative: 319 out of 6594
6594 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. Pelé: Birth of a Legend
    Considering this is the first biopic of one of the world’s most beloved athletes, it’s too bad such a predictable and ham-fisted kids’ flick was the goal.
  2. Tulip Fever
    There are, indeed, some sparks in this movie. The Vikander/DeHaan romance is a dud no matter how well it’s lit, but the “downstairs” passion between Grainger and O’Connell has a degree of realism and eroticism.
  3. American Pastoral
    What we have on our hands is a dud, but there are a few grace notes that save it from being an unmitigated disaster.
  4. The Unknown Girl
    The Unknown Woman is an odd, dramatically stilted and passionless quasi-procedural concerning a mysterious death; it depends on a series of unconvincing, and in fact borderline-preposterous, encounters and features a bafflingly inert performance from Adèle Haenel, whose usual spark appears to have been doused by self-consciousness.
  5. From the Land of the Moon
    The film takes on Gabrielle’s listlessness, slumps into an opiated fug. The malady is mysterious and not easily treatable. It just exhausts you. It transforms from a story about release to just another jail. At times it felt like there was no escape.
  6. Staying Vertical
    An incoherent, inconsequential picture which sometimes looks worryingly as if it is being made up as it goes along.
  7. The Land
    There are sequences of the four prowling the streets on their boards with a fatalist, sinister beauty that show Caple Jr is more than capable of crafting striking compositions. Unfortunately, the jump from image-making to storytelling in this case fails to stick the landing.
  8. The Chaser
    It's atmospheric but derivative, and I didn't find the denouement's Christian imagery convincing.
  9. The Discovery
    The final act is a pineal flooding of baffling explanations and twists. What’s worse is that there is very little drama underpinning it; by this late stage the collected characters are still stuck dredging up their backstories, doing little to propel the narrative forward.
  10. The Blackcoat's Daughter
    The frozen landscapes are undeniably gorgeous and the empty school halls are chilling. There are crafty moments here and there, glimpses of the midnight movie that could have been. February’s big villain is precisely what the film is lacking: a devilish spirit.
  11. Denial
    Under the workmanlike direction of Mick Jackson (The Bodyguard), what should have been a rousing and ragingly topical crowdpleaser, instead feels more like a Lifetime movie.
  12. The Grinch
    More bah-humbuggery – which is a rational response to the wall-to-wall Christmas jumpers – and less zany antics here would have done the job better.
  13. War on Everyone
    You can’t let your heroes be truly, purely horrible. But McDonagh’s moral twist comes in way too late and much too hard. It leaves you dizzy.
  14. Bleed for This
    For all its smashed open cuts and swollen eye sockets, Younger’s film remains an oddly sterile experience. For a biopic, it is remarkably featureless.
  15. Tomb Raider
    Throughout Vikander maintains a kind of serene evenness of manner. Blandness is Lara’s theme.
  16. Ralph Breaks the Internet
    The incessant and eerily unsatirical product placement is enough to give you a migraine: especially the complacent Disney cross-promotion.
  17. Gold
    There’s not much that glitters in Gold, a lackluster caper that proves that even the priciest ore can bore.
  18. Bad Santa 2
    Mark Waters wrings occasional snickers from a patchy script, but the whole feels tamely conventional: misanthropy passed through the usual Hollywood motions.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mr. Church
    It’s the film’s racial politics, particularly its stereotypical evocation of willing servitude by an African-American, and its characters’ refusal to acknowledge this imbalance of power, which make it not so much old-fashioned as downright retrograde – and likely to go down even worse with black audiences than Driving Miss Daisy.
  20. Trespass Against Us
    Everything about this picture is at such a deliberate arm’s length that it is hard to know what is meant to be whimsical and what is serious melodrama.
  21. Una
    Mara and Mendelsohn have a compellingly toxic chemistry together and their initial confrontation is intriguingly tense. But once we’re locked into the meat of the story, the film has nowhere else to go, at least anywhere that’s of interest and the pace becomes laborious as their discussions turn repetitive.
  22. The Secret Scripture
    Sheridan’s take on the material is solidly made but sorely lacking in subtlety.
  23. Their Finest
    At its core, it’s really just a workplace love story that grows increasingly uninterested in its plucky heroine’s journey in favour of hitting familiar rom-com notes – and to give audiences another reason to love Bill Nighy.
  24. I'm Not Ashamed
    The public and private Rachel are, at first, quite different, until her eventual decision to be an out-of-the-closet believer. Even with this rancid script and amateurish direction, McLain sells this inherently undramatic turn as an emotional triumph.
  25. The Girl with All the Gifts
    There are substantial talents involved in this film, but it doesn’t come together.
  26. I.T.
    There are some nice touches, but it unwinds into dullness and silliness and the hi-tech conceit is basically abandoned in favour of low-tech analogue violence and punch-ups.
  27. Viva
    As a performer, Biller is fearless in her pursuit of perfectly recreated cheesecake, but is a twitchy and not especially charismatic presence. Where her film lets itself down, though, is it's simply not funny.
  28. Downriver
    The film’s technical achievements can’t compensate for a deeply unsatisfying screenplay.
  29. Up for Love
    It’s more silly than funny, and audiences can be forgiven for wondering if an actor of restricted growth should have been cast.
  30. In Dubious Battle
    Franco deserves points for attempting something with idealism. But the execution falls flat.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »