The Hollywood Reporter's Scores

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For 12,913 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 51% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 45% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Lowest review score: 0 Dirty Love
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6,616 out of 12913
  2. Mixed: 5,131 out of 12913
  3. Negative: 1,166 out of 12913
12913 movie reviews
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  1. That's What I Am
    This well-intentioned tween-friendly message movie is earnest to a fault.
  2. Downtown Express
    While Downtown Express suffers from a derivative storyline, it offers enough musical authenticity to provide ample compensations.
  3. Master
    The film is often so deterministically plotted that a sense of creative detachment hangs over far too many scenes, leaving an impression that the filmmakers may sometimes be more interested in making grand statements than in engaging interest.
  4. Palmer
    A capable cast helps the pic rise above its formulaic nature (take out a drunken hookup and some language, and this is a thoroughly mainstream family film, at least for families of non-homophobes), but doesn’t make it a must-watch by any means.
  5. Palindromes
    It's a highly stylized piece of work typical of director Todd Solondz, who renders wildly exaggerated sequences on a topic not generally thought of as a basis for comedy. He leaves it to the viewer to decide if it's insightful whimsy or meaningless drivel.
  6. Let Fury Have the Hour
    Feel-good documentary gathers great interviews but isn't sure what they add up to.
  7. Indivisible
    Has clear appeal for heartland Christians who are more concerned with uncomplicated edification than with storytelling. It would be more at home in the rec rooms of churches than in movie theaters.
  8. Lilo & Stitch
    The live-action Lilo & Stitch is faithful enough to the original to please traditionalists and tweaked enough to feel somewhat fresh.
  9. She Came to Me
    She Came to Me is a movie whose strained eccentricity gets positively goopy, conveying so little genuine feeling that the stakes for any of the characters never feel terribly high.
  10. Apres Vous (After You)
    The story itself is silly and exaggerated.
  11. Flag Day
    It’s just too bad there’s not more of a personal stamp on the material to rescue it from its indie-film clichés. Flag Day is not a complete misfire, and if a no-name director had made it, the movie would probably get a pass. But considering the emotional stakes involved it’s neither terribly memorable nor moving.
  12. The Deb
    Wilson’s direction is similarly uneven, especially toward the middle of the film, which packs in convenient plot points to distract from narrative thinness. The result is off-kilter pacing that threatens to undo the film’s more successful parts.
  13. Hysteria
    Hysteria, is a pleasurable diversion, even if it could have used a touch more spark in the writing.
  14. In the Grey
    If nothing else, Guy Ritchie’s latest effort proves that a movie can be ridiculously convoluted and simple-minded at the same time.
  15. We Are Marshall
    What should have been an inspirational story about fortitude and courage in the face of mind-numbing tragedy becomes a compendium of sports cliches.
  16. The Winning Season
    Among the girls, Emma Roberts has solid scenes with Rockwell.
  17. Earthwork
    Oscar-nominee John Hawkes' convincing portrayal of real-life "crop artist" Stan Herd is the exceedingly quiet center of an exceedingly nonabrasive film that has all the dramatic energy of plants growing.
  18. Split: A Deeper Divide
    It has little to offer a well-informed viewer.
  19. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
    After slipping badly with the second installment two years ago, the Narnia franchise does a full-on belly flop with this third.
  20. Penguins of Madagascar
    While there are plenty of madcap antics to fill a feature, all that manic energy ultimately proves to be more exhausting than exhilarating.
  21. Fatherhood
    It’s both an effective star vehicle and a tender tearjerker.
  22. The Better Angels
    The film succeeds in that it provides a more vivid sense of this sort of 19th century childhood -- and Lincoln’s youth in particular -- than most people would have had before.
  23. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
    The plot gets itself tangled up in multiple villain strands, but in the main this installment is emotionally weightier and more satisfying than its predecessor.
  24. L'autre monde
    Ultimately a powerful portrait of the sort of apocalyptic culture clash that is resulting in an increasingly dangerous and fragmented world.
  25. Drug Lord: The Legend of Shorty
    The filmmakers get astonishing access, eventually earning enough trust that they get to visit Guzman's family home and interview his mother, who proudly recalls how fascinated he was with stacks of play money as a child.
  26. Knock Knock
    A film that flirts and flirts with explanations for its action without ever delivering.
  27. On a Magical Night
    Breezy and bright, with the stylized look and feel of a stage play, Honore’s bubbly bottle of cinematic champagne runs out of fizz somewhere around its midway point. Even so, there are still enjoyably shallow pleasures to be savored here.
  28. Beyond Outrage
    The maverick Japanese writer-director-actor known for his vicious set-pieces and macabre sense of humor eventually delivers some lip-smacking pleasures in the slow-ignition yakuza thriller Outrage Beyond.
  29. Finding Steve McQueen
    Unfortunately, despite the fascinating story that provides its inspiration and a solid cast, the pic provides neither sufficient thrills nor humor to make it anything more than a minor diversion.
  30. The Journey
    Mainly of interest for the latest impressive turn from British national treasure Timothy Spall — snorting and blustering his way through the plum role of Protestant uber-firebrand Ian Paisley — deficiencies in script and direction render the vehicle less than road-worthy.
  31. Rent
    One of the best film musicals in years -- exuberant, sexy and life affirming in equal measure.
  32. Another Stakeout
    While the elements all seem to be lifted from the scriptograph, they're pleasingly assembled in this Richard Dreyfuss/Emilio Estevez starrer, a good-natured, lightweight amusement which should nail down some passable box office and then scurry on to greater success as a video rental. [19 July 1993]
    • The Hollywood Reporter
  33. Free State of Jones
    A compelling and little-known story of the Civil War period is studiously reduced to a dry and cautious history lesson in Free State of Jones.
  34. Sharp Stick
    None of it adds up to a coherent thesis on love or sex, but it doesn’t really need to. And there’s something thrilling about Dunham’s refusal to give her film a clear social intent. Much like Sarah Jo’s sexual dalliances, Sharp Stick is ultimately about the excitement of exploration.
  35. Mr. Popper's Penguins
    The six penguins cast in this amiable family comedy steal the movie -- along with any fish they can find -- although the film's star, Jim Carrey, does manage to hold his own. Barely.
  36. I Trust You to Kill Me
    Although Sutherland is an amiable and charismatic figure, his lack of emotional expressiveness doesn't help matters here. The film does, however, offer the spectacle of his getting a tattoo of the film's title (one of the band's songs) in Icelandic.
  37. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween
    Although it provides a fair number of mild scares and laughs, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween feels more like a kiddie film than did the original.
  38. A Good Woman
    While screenwriter Howard Himelstein and director Mike Barker have done a workable job of drawing the Wilde social satire out of the drawing room, the film never quite manages to travel at the same buoyant velocity as the acerbic wit.
  39. The Big Question
    What might have made for an interesting short film lacks the weight to sustain its feature (albeit, brief) length, and even the presence of Mel Gibson, Jim Caviezel (in full bloody Christ mode) and Monica Bellucci is unlikely to attract any but the "Passion" obsessed.
  40. Another Evil
    The pic relies almost entirely on the subtle comic gifts of its two leads, finding little in the way of plot to kick its characters into laugh-generating action.
  41. A Paris Education
    As anachronistic as A Paris Education may seem (a running time of 136 minutes doesn’t always help matters, either), there’s a conviction to the storytelling that can’t be denied, and no matter what your tastes are, it’s hard not to be moved by Etienne’s struggle to find his voice amid so much doubt and disillusion.
  42. Run
    Graham begins Run with a solid premise, but he lacks the dramatic horsepower to move the story out of second gear.
  43. Stormy
    Unfortunately, the exhaustive repetition of the most familiar parts of her narrative — plus an over-reliance on poorly utilized footage from an ethically compromised earlier documentary project — left me more irritated than moved by Stormy, however persuasive I found its main character.
  44. The Killer Inside Me
    Good-looking but not very effective adaptation of the seedy classic by "Grifters" author Jim Thompson.
  45. The Rocker
    Overcomes its essential familiarity thanks to a frequently witty script, grounded direction (by Peter Cattaneo, of "Full Monty" fame) and an engaging turn by its star that proves him more than capable of carrying a comedy feature.
  46. Resistance
    Though Marceau's artistic ideals are central to the film, Resistance happily avoids novelty, making its hero one credible human among many in a wartime tale that, though largely familiar in its feel, dramatizes a question that has become urgent for many in recent years: How does one best resist hatred — by fighting its proponents, or rushing to assist its targets?
  47. The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears
    The main point of the film remains its style, which is so constantly and loudly reinforced that it’s often hard to concentrate on the story.
  48. Remember Me, My Love
    Achieves the dubious distinction of featuring a large gallery of nearly all unlikable characters.
  49. The Burial Society
    This non-secular variation on "The Usual Suspects" falls prey to a creeping structural rigor mortis that sets in early.
  50. The Tender Bar
    If it struggles to find a rhythm, especially in the early going, there’s no question that it sends you off on a gentle high.
  51. Bachelorette
    A tasty cast and a good share of snappy dialogue provide entertainment but can't make this pre-nuptials shindig quite the party that it might have been.
  52. On Any Sunday: The Next Chapter
    It's a visually stunning experience. Even the shots of riders crashing, and there's enough of them here to fuel a dozen PSAs, achieve a haunting visual poetry.
  53. 69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez
    Even Gandhi (maker of 2016's Obama-early-years feature "Barry") admits that what he hoped would be a cautionary tale is probably just one more way for the infamous celeb to get the attention he craves.
  54. Dog Eat Dog
    The film positively swills in its disreputability and all-around low-budgetness; sporting a healthy disregard for respectability, Schrader has just gone for it here with a highly focused recklessness that he turns to his creative advantage.
  55. Valley Girl
    Mostly, Valley Girl succeeds because it doesn't take itself too seriously, instead offering a fun return to the rollercoaster peaks and valleys of first love while reminding us that the experience can change young lives without necessarily defining them.
  56. A Goofy Movie
    A favorable flop of the ears to director Kevin Lima for the film's overall winning tone. [07 Apr 1995]
    • The Hollywood Reporter
  57. Gnomeo and Juliet
    The movie comes up short on inspiration despite a stellar voice cast that includes James McAvoy and Emily Blunt and a toe-tapping songbook by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.
  58. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
    This one offers plenty of lurid fun and some genuine scares. But the grounding in dark spirituality that made the previous entries focused on the Warrens so compelling gets diluted, despite the reliably dignifying double-act of Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson.
  59. Wanderlust
    Stars Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston find themselves at home here, playing against a stock-raising performance by Justin Theroux as the charismatic libertine who prompts their adventure.
  60. Hypnotic
    It’s watchable enough, but ultimately has the counterfeit feel of a filmmaker dabbling in a genre that’s not a natural fit and finding little joy in it.
  61. The Moment
    You maybe have to be fully on board with the Charli xcx circus to really appreciate what a movie about it is trying to do. For the more casual viewer, The Moment is entertaining enough, for a while.
  62. Surrogate Valentine
    Mumblecore goes on the road in Dave Boyle's slight but amiable buddy comedy.
  63. Silent Night
    Remakes of '80s-era cult-favorite horror flicks seem to be all the rage these days. But they have to be better than this formulaic effort to replace the already not-so-great originals.
  64. Ejecta
    Ejecta is ultimately too disjointed and incoherent to have the desired impact. But it certainly features some arresting moments during its wild ride.
  65. Five Feet Apart
    The film becomes more exhausting than tense. In the end, all that manipulation backfires. Unlike the best of its genre, the rote Five Feet Apart isn’t wrenching enough to jerk a single tear.
  66. Deep Water
    Lyne’s take on the material, scripted without distinction by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson, manages to drain all the subtlety and psychological complexity from Highsmith’s story of marital warfare, transgression and obsession.
  67. Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me
    You Don’t Know Me aims to cut past the mythology to reveal the flesh-and-blood woman underneath, and in doing so assembles a mostly sympathetic, mostly compelling portrait of an all-American tragedy. But when even a movie aimed at capturing the “true” Anna Nicole Smith seems unsure exactly who that might be, it’s hard not to wonder who any of this is really for.
  68. [REC] 4: Apocalypse
    As an above-average adrenaline-driven roller-coaster ride, which offsets its multiple cliches with raw, controlled energy, it works.
  69. Pokémon Detective Pikachu
    It turns out Pokemon Detective Pikachu isn’t half bad.
  70. Atropia
    Gates offers an incredibly compelling premise, shedding light on the scale of military propaganda in the United States, but in taking on so much, her film ends up not saying enough.
  71. Rid of Me
    Neither its depiction of the world of squares nor its embrace of rule-flouting self-affirmation rings true, so the inevitable happy ending offers little joy.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Lucky Ones
    This moderately engaging, offbeat film requires a patience that audiences haven't demonstrated recently for stories concerning the fate of soldiers at home or abroad.
  73. The Book of Eli
    The Hughes Brothers' measured, well-paced direction complements the comic-book simplicity of this narrative.
  74. The Quarry
    Sensitive performances only go so far toward generating sparks in the slow-moving film, which never becomes the crime-and-punishment nail-biter it might've been.
  75. Australia
    Defies all but the most cynical not to get carried away by the force of its grandiose imagery and storytelling.
  76. Long Weekend
    Clever enough to not take his plot too seriously while fully indulging in its sentimentality, the filmmaker has crafted an undeniably feel-good romantic comedy. You'll have to try hard not to fall under its spell.
  77. Boys Life 4: Four Play
    Style takes precedence over content in this fourth installment of Strand Releasing's popular series of gay-themed short-film compilations.
  78. Sacred Planet
    In this well-intentioned celebration of nature and traditional ways of life, giant-screen images feel generic when they should inspire wonder.
  79. A House on a Hill
    Unfortunately demonstrates the same fractured attention span that makes those Oscar-night montages so entertaining.
  80. Jig
    The film's inability to illuminate the finer points of the rigid form, to define what separates the great from the good, proves frustrating for the outsider.
  81. Bridgend
    A textbook example of how not to turn real-life headlines into big-screen drama, Jeppe Ronde's Bridgend is a toxic combination of the laughable and the reprehensible.
  82. Brooklyn Rules
    The writing in Brooklyn seems even more generic. An excessive use of voice-over narration is a sure sign of a failure of dramatization.
  83. Fighting Tommy Riley
    More character study than sports movie, the people in this film come across very much as flesh-and-blood personalities despite the script's tendency to indulge in cliches and let characters deliver highly emotional speeches.
  84. Guest of Honour
    Guest of Honour feels like a failed attempt to tame the unwieldy story of a complicated novel. But in fact it's an original screenplay, which means Egoyan has gone out of his way to create the overly fussy structure, perhaps in a bid to lend the psychologically wobbly drama some weight.
  85. Girls Will Be Girls
    The one-gag camp-athon has gone over big at gay film festivals, but in theatrical release this debut feature from theater/TV veteran Richard Day has limited appeal. Its best bet will be as a rental item.
  86. Beauty Shop
    Plays like a pilot for a TV sitcom. It sets up enough story threads for an entire season yet nothing much actually happens during the 105-minute running time.
  87. Earth to Echo
    Credit a youthful, energetic spirit, nicely conveyed by its cast of naturally-acting newcomers, a workable raw-footage construct and a spare but smartly spent special effects budget for the satisfying end result.
  88. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain
    Diverting but not enough to expand Kevin Hart's fan base much.
  89. Samba
    Neither funny enough as an outright comedy nor solid enough as a drama, and certainly not believable as an affaire de coeur.
  90. Viceroy's House
    Chadha has distilled a fascinating and epic true story into a starchy, stuffy, sanitized period piece that never fully engages on an emotional or educational level.
  91. Body at Brighton Rock
    Mildly involving indie.
  92. Castle in the Ground
    The film is quite well-acted and made with a stylistic imprint that's atmospherically tailored to the subject matter, if a little fussy and self-conscious at times. But it's an unrewarding downer.
  93. Malcolm & Marie
    The seductive fluidity of the camerawork, as much as the punchy performances and muscular writing, keep Malcolm & Marie compelling even when it risks becoming an extended exercise in style.
  94. Astro Boy
    Derivative bits aside, the pint-sized Japanese icon takes flight in vibrant CG animation -- no 3D glasses required.
  95. Hampstead
    The extemporized feel to some of the dialogue makes their rapport seem all the more credible and consequently there is something open-hearted and friendly about the performers that keeps the film watchable, for all its faults.
  96. Astronaut
    Despite its title, this mild-mannered feature debut from British TV actor turned writer-director Shelagh McLeod remains determinedly earthbound for most of its duration, more heart-tugging family saga than intergalactic adventure.
  97. Blast Beat
    There's plenty of potential here to bring original insights to the immigrant experience, but not enough skill in the plotting or execution to tap into it.
  98. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
    Depp is the comic gel that holds the whole enterprise together. The performance is a total delight that somehow combines Bugs Bunny, Peter Pan and Charlie Chaplin.
  99. Rigor Mortis
    Rigor Mortis’ strongest suit lies with its cast. The film comes with lavish (and sometimes distractingly so) digital effects, but it’s the old-timers who are instrumental in injecting humanity and life into the film.
  100. Point of No Return
    Even by the slight standards of high concept -- put sexpot in next-to-nothing costume and have her shoot people -- "Point of No Return" is thin. Screenwriters Robert Getchell and Alexandra Seros make attempts at humor, primarily such high frivolities as sadism or food-gorging, and there is a perfunctory attempt to round out Ms. Killer herself, largely socio-drivel about her abusive upbringing. [19 March 1993]
    • The Hollywood Reporter
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