The New York Times' Scores

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For 20,311 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 49% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 61
Highest review score: 100 Short Cuts
Lowest review score: 0 Gummo
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9,399 out of 20311
  2. Mixed: 8,446 out of 20311
  3. Negative: 2,466 out of 20311
20311 movie reviews
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  1. Until the End of the World
    The longer it gets, the loopier it gets. [19 Jan 1992, p.13]
    • The New York Times
  2. 16 Bars
    The individual stories have moments of power, but 16 Bars feels abbreviated. It only sometimes transcends its role as an awareness tool and reveals the texture and detail that long-term documentary filming can produce.
  3. Swiss Family Robinson
    The uniformly competent performance of the cast make it a moderately entertaining, if rather somnolently paced, story-book film.
  4. Mutiny on the Bounty
    Has its ups and downs. Bronislau Kaper has provided a highly chromatic musical score that is consistent with the size, the sweeping romance and the eventual lumpishness of this film.
  5. Fright Night
    Though Mr. Holland's handling of his stars is successful enough to establish him as a newcomer with promise, his material here is uneven and often flat.
  6. A Dog Called Money
    Harvey is detail-oriented, good-humored, intimately involved and encouraging of her fellow musicians. The tunes she crafts for the resulting record are intricate and eclectic, but still honor the raw directness of her early work.
  7. Melody Makers
    [A] hardly epochal but largely pleasant documentary.
  8. The People Under the Stairs
    Though the new movie has its share of blood and gore, it is mostly creepy and, considering the bizarre circumstances, surprisingly funny.
  9. The Call of the Wild
    This “Call of the Wild,” however defanged and updated, doesn’t lack for exciting canine brawls or tense rescues from frozen waters. It also doesn’t lack for an almost soothing corniness.
  10. Defending Your Life
    Within the larger context of the Brooks oeuvre, this pleasantly mortifying arrangement makes perfect sense. [22 Mar 1991, p.C12]
    • The New York Times
  11. The Willoughbys
    Though it tends to feel disjointed as a whole, The Willoughbys thrives when it embraces its grim plot and lets mischief reign.
  12. Cavale
    As a trio, Viance, Zaghouani and Pellizari are bright and full of energy, and Gourmel allows their scenes together to play with improvisational looseness. Their vivacity lends purpose to the entire film.
  13. Three Christs
    Whether it is the star power of the cast or the seductiveness of the period recreation, Three Christs has an appealing professionalism — an odd fit for a film about challenging a profession.
  14. Pom Poko
    Its ecological concerns, nuance and occasional lyricism place it squarely within the Ghibli oeuvre but not among its masterpieces.
  15. Little Women
    If anything, it has hauled back much too briskly on the strings of the heart and has strained a few muscles in the process.
  16. Blood In, Blood Out
    Bound by Honor looks and sounds authentic but, like many community wall paintings, it has the manner less of one artist's vision than of a community endeavor. This may explain its singular shortcomings and its redeeming sincerity.
  17. The Good Son
    The Good Son has a handsome, scenic look that sustains interest, and a suspenseful ending that is quite literally gripping. The film's final scene is one of its few suspenseful and original moments.
  18. Free Guy
    Free Guy has charm, but there’s not much memorable in the same old quest, same old boss fight, then game over.
  19. Reflections in a Golden Eye
    The shame of it is that this conclusion is so anticlimactic and banal, because there is so much in the picture that seems to be leading to -- certainly prepares us to expect -- much more.
  20. The Matrix Resurrections
    The actors’ sincerity and effortlessly synced performances have always been this series’ greatest special effects, and watching them slip back into their old roles is a pleasure. The movie they’re in is still as beholden to the same old guns and poses as the earlier ones, the same dubious ideas about what constitutes coolness, the same box-office-friendly annihilating violence. But it’s still nice to dream of an escape with them.
  21. The Europeans
    The Europeans isn't simply pretty, it's so relentlessly pretty it becomes almost boring to watch.
  22. Judgment Night
    A tight, energetic sleeper in the action-adventure genre, manages to pack a few anti-machismo sentiments into an otherwise brawny tale.
  23. The Roads Not Taken
    Potter delivers her vision here in a form that’s perhaps too raw, too undistilled. There’s precious little lightness negotiating with the dark. Her lack of compromise is, as always, admirable — as is her way with actors.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Where the Red Fern Grows
    There is nothing pretentious or particularly ambitious about Where the Red Fern Grows, but it is a nice film about a boy and his dogs in a peaceful time long ago. [17 Mar 1985, p.28]
    • The New York Times
  25. Corpus Christi
    The idea that a charlatan might offer more solace than a real priest is a trite concept, but it’s one that Corpus Christi portrays with conviction. The movie rests on the shoulders of Bielenia — or rather, in his eyes, which photograph as a chilling gray.
  26. Those Who Remained
    Those Who Remained leaves much unsaid about their pasts, sometimes at the risk of seeming coy (the word “Jewish” is never spoken). But Hajduk and Szoke are strong performers.
  27. Bloodshot
    Bloodshot runs out of meta tricks before it is over, and David S.F. Wilson, who borrows his visual vocabulary from Tony Scott and Michael Bay, delivers action sequences with such choppy continuity that viewers may be as confused as Ray. He deserves bonus points, however, for embracing silliness.
  28. Quigley Down Under
    The director, Simon Wincer, makes Quigley Down Under an unapologetic homage to the formula western at its most pokey, complete with Wagon Train-style score. All things considered, this could be a lot worse.
  29. Men at Work
    A good-natured lowbrow farce about two southern California garbage men who dream of opening their own surf shop.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    All the Bright Places
    Theodore’s story line is not always handled with the depth it should receive. It’s an unfortunate flaw in a film that impressively balances moments of joy with equally resonating despair.
  31. Raya and the Last Dragon
    The unity rhetoric feels awfully trite, but it also teaches forgiveness: a worthy lesson for the kids.
  32. Charm City Kings
    The dirt bikes and their exuberant operators are the saving grace — and joy — of the sincere if overstuffed drama Charm City Kings.
  33. Graffiti Bridge
    Prince's direction is on a par with his acting, roughly equivalent to his aptitude for Presidential politics. Nonetheless, the film has a lively style, a galvanizing score and some dance numbers in which the star truly shines.
  34. News of the World
    This isn’t a bad movie. The problem is that it’s too nice a movie, too careful and compromised, as if its makers didn’t trust the audience to handle the real news of the world.
  35. Heimat is a Space in Time
    Despite some tedious passages, Heimat Is a Space in Time takes an intriguing approach to history that remains refreshingly rooted in primary sources.
  36. The Fight
    If the filmmakers succeed in wringing drama from decisions that have already come down, their efforts at character development are hit-and-miss.
  37. Mucho Mucho Amor
    The movie is generous about allowing Mercado to present his view of the world in his own words, but it’s a shame not to be able to see the world through his eyes.
  38. Uncle Frank
    In Uncle Frank, the writer-director Alan Ball (“True Blood”) combines several overworked genres — the coming-of-age picture, the road-trip odyssey, the angst-filled family-reunion movie — and mostly steers clear of the obvious pitfalls.
  39. Eyewitness
    A thoroughly delightful but far from plausible mystery melodrama that operates exclusively on high spirits and a no-nonsense intelligence that is never sidetracked by coherence.
  40. Nine Days
    The narrative conceits of Nine Days, while exquisitely constructed, are intricate to the point of laborious. At times the movie almost sinks under their weight.
  41. Falling in Love
    Falling in Love is not a bad movie by any means. It's not stupid or gross or cheap. It's been done with taste, but it's the sort of production that, even when it works, which it frequently does, seems too small and trite to have had so much care taken on it.
  42. Back Roads
    Less a movie than an extended sketch, and it's to the credit of Mr. Ritt, his stars and Gary Devore, the screenwriter, that the movie is so much fun, even given its occasional soggy patches.
  43. Assassins
    Its main virtues are a wild story and a stealth sense of outrage. It argues that these so-called assassins became political pawns and had to face the courts without witnesses who might have aided their defense.
  44. Suspect
    If Suspect amounts to less than the sum of its parts, those parts are often valuable on their own.
  45. Russkies
    A comic-book movie whose heart is in the right place.
  46. The Coca-Cola Kid
    The Coca-Cola Kid is of more interest for these oddball peripheral touches than for its awkward attempts at satire.
  47. Missing in Action
    A simple, bullet-riddled, crowd-pleasing action movie.
  48. Subway
    Unlike ''Le Dernier Combat,'' which had humor and urgency, Subway appears to have been a good deal more exciting to film than it is to see.
  49. Only
    The writer-director Takashi Doscher forgoes apocalyptic spectacle to focus on the pandemic’s effects on Will and Eva’s romance. Too bad. Most of the scenes could have been lifted from a generic relationship drama, and it is only the couple’s conversation, not their visually desaturated world, that distinguishes them.
  50. Cabaret Maxime
    Despite the classic David-versus-Goliath narrative, the story is never as mesmerizing as the grotesquely glam stage numbers and Imperioli’s illuminated face watching them, glowing with pride.
  51. Twice in a Lifetime
    An enjoyable, second-rate family drama rich in the kind of folk wisdom that can ordinarily be found on daytime television.
  52. Morons from Outer Space
    Sometimes overly silly, with the kinds of sight gags and brief pastiches that might make for a middling ''Airplane'' imitation; in one unforgivable moment, it shows what happens when a spaceman sneezes. Much of it is better than that, however.
  53. Iceman
    There's a certain ghoulish excitement to all this, but it is quickly dissipated.
  54. Blood on Her Name
    Oppressively dark and unrelentingly intense, Blood on Her Name packs down-and-dirty performances, and a few surprises, into a tight 85 minutes.
  55. Banana Split
    Is Banana Split an empty indulgence or a comfortingly familiar confection? Probably both.
  56. Grandview, U.S.A.
    Grandview, U.S.A. is slight, but it has a good enough cast to keep it watchable.
  57. City Heat
    Overdressed and overplotted as it is, City Heat benefits greatly from the sardonic teamwork of Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. Without them the film would be eminently forgettable, but their bantering gives it an enjoyable edge.
  58. Wildcats
    This is another of the iron-buttercup roles in which Miss Hawn has been specializing since ''Private Benjamin,'' films in which her inspired dizziness masks an unexpectedly strong will. Initially, that contrast was delightful. But it has begun to seem less and less funny as Miss Hawn's films develop a preachier edge.
  59. No Small Affair
    As directed by Jerry Schatzberg from a screenplay by Charles Bolt and Terence Mulcahy, the film stays snappy much of the way.
  60. Unfaithfully Yours
    Miss Kinski is a major problem. She's a beauty, all right, but she appears to have no flair whatever for comedy of this sort, or maybe of any sort.
  61. Legal Eagles
    Though publicized as a breakthrough into adult comedy for Mr. Reitman (''National Lampoon's Animal House,'' ''Meatballs,'' ''Ghostbusters''), this new film is less a true adult comedy than a teen-age comedy populated by adults who are functioning in an adult world.
  62. Yentl
    The best thing about Yentl is its earnestness. It may resemble a vanity production from afar (or at close range, too, for that matter), but even at its kitschiest it seems to be heartfelt. That goes a long way, though not far enough, toward saving the film from its own built-in difficulties.
  63. Without a Trace
    Taken on its own terms, Without a Trace is a reasonably well made film, and it's certainly slick enough to hold an audience's attention. But its own terms are very, very limited.
  64. Author! Author!
    Hiller makes this warm, friendly and sometimes cute, but he doesn't make it move very quickly.
  65. Still of the Night
    A velvety-smooth looking romantic mystery melodrama that has far less to do with life than with other movies. It's clever but chilly in the way of something with a mechanical heart.
  66. Justine
    The movie is a tightly observed character study that thins out during more expositional moments, but it’s still a thoughtful tale of loneliness and its remedies.
  67. Phoenix, Oregon
    It’s all a bit uneventful, but it works as an endearing portrait of average life: sometimes up, sometimes down, but moving steadily along.
  68. High Spirits
    Luckily, High Spirits has a good cast and enough joie de vivre to rise above some of its underlying clumsiness.
  69. Black Moon Rising
    The film sounds pretty silly, and it is, but it's not painful to watch. Harley Cokliss, the director, and John Carpenter, Desmond Nakano and William Gray, who wrote the screenplay, never allow credibility to worry them, or even those of us in the audience. Like a stolen car, it moves pretty fast, if erratically. It has a tendency to put Quint into impossible situations from which he walks away with unexplained ease.
  70. Malignant
    None of this is especially scary, but, if you’re patient, Wan delivers the kind of hilariously sick climax that only a sadist would spoil. Or envisage.
  71. I Wanna Hold Your Hand
    Some routines work a lot better than others, but the whole film sparkles with a boisterous lunacy that's perfectly in keeping with the frenzy of the fans.
  72. Blue Story
    The film has a powerful sense of place, with details that feel authentic and, in some cases, lived through. Yet Rapman’s civic-minded lyrics (“There really ain’t no winners when you’re playing with them guns”) have a habit of reducing the drama to tidy morals.
  73. Lady Jane
    At the very least, Lady Jane ought to summon more emotion than it does. But the early part of it is so reserved, and the latter part so incongruously fulsome, that it never manages to draw any deep response - not even when a beheading costs the hapless young Jane her luxuriant, Brooke Shields-like hair.
  74. Flashpoint
    Mr. Tannen's strength is his ability to grab his audience's interest quickly and to hold on to it, even by the most superficial means. Even when the movie doesn't entirely make sense, it manages to be effective.
  75. Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula
    Here, after the gunfire dies down, terror at times gives way to a melancholy that can be quite affecting even if the message remains familiar: We have met the zombie, and it is us.
  76. LA Originals
    Way too much of LA Originals has that overly chummy vibe, but the shambling, yearbook quality of the film is also its reason for being.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Last Hard Men
    The Last Hard Men is not just a horse opera; it's practically Tristan and Isolde. Only the love-death relation isn't between a man and a woman but between a retired lawman and a halfbreed Navajo who is obsessed with the notion of killing him.
  78. The Legend of Swee' Pea
    As absorbing as The Legend of Swee’ Pea is, it might have been even better if May had pulled back the curtain more on his off-camera interactions with his subject
  79. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
    After a decade in development, the project that made it to the screen is a noisy, pixelated smash-and-zap that does manage to capture the spirit of play.
  80. Intrigo: Samaria
    Fox is riveting as a stubborn go-getter who often employs morally questionable methods for the sake of truth and art. But her screen presence isn’t enough to fill out this lean thriller, which hits so many cliché beats along the way.
  81. Blood Quantum
    Unfortunately, the film emulates many of its genre brethren’s inability to convert a promising start into a solid second act. . . . though a haunting finale almost redeems the flabby midsection.
  82. The Paper
    Beyond letting its characters talk fast, use jargon and interrupt each other, "The Paper" misses most of the genre's real flavor. Its progress is methodical and sane.
  83. Becoming
    It hits all the notes of a megastar choosing to share her life with the public: selective biographical moments and star-studded guest appearances, plus a healthy dose of motivational messaging about the virtues of education and the holistic ownership of personal narratives.
  84. Phantom of the Opera
    To be sure, the production is elegant. Settings and costumes are superfine and, photographed in technicolor, they all mawe a lavish display. But that richness of décor and music is precisely what gets in the way of the tale.
  85. Ron's Gone Wrong
    As family entertainment, it’s fine.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Aviva
    Pride in frank eccentricity pushes at times into the unintentionally absurd. Still, it’s exciting how these dance sequences are treated like any other scene, and disappointing when the compulsion to justify them takes hold.
  87. Amulet
    This is Garai’s feature directing debut, and it is as satisfying as it is promising, despite an unfortunate wind down. She has a great eye — and a real feel for the power of silence and visual textures — but she stumbles when she explains too much.
  88. And We Go Green
    [A] cheery, lightweight documentary.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Now, Voyager
    For all its emotional hair-splitting, it fails to resolve its problems as truthfully as it pretends. In fact, a little more truth would have made the film a good deal shorter.
  90. Pat and Mike
    It is smoothly directed by George Cukor and slyly, amusingly played by the whole cast, especially by its due of easy, adroit, experienced stars.
  91. The Audition
    Hoss’s work is impeccable and illuminating, and the movie’s foursquare, frank, brisk approach is salutary. But its final scenes lean into triteness and frustrating evasiveness, which makes the picture a less than entirely satisfying experience.
  92. The One and Only Ivan
    Mostly The One and Only Ivan consists of fairly standard Disney lessons, about the hardships of losing parents (real and surrogate) and how difficult it is to embrace change.
  93. Psychomagic, A Healing Art
    Jodorowsky’s patients express gratitude and relief. But there has to be an easier way to alleviate stuttering than rubbing red dye on your genitals, putting on gold lamé hot pants, being body painted and walking the streets of Paris talking to oneself.
  94. The Naked City
    There are countless more fascinating facets to this city than the work of cops with crime and countless more striking characters in it than genial detectives and mumbling crooks. However, within that range of interest, Mr. Hellinger has done a vivid job in this, his appropriate valedictory, which comes to you spontaneous and unrehearsed.
  95. Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall
    What it resembles more than anything is a deluxe extended episode of a television music-biography series like “Unsung” (or “Behind the Music” minus the scandals).
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Bellboy
    A generous—some might even say gratuitous—proportion of the anecdotes are devoted to mild shaggy dog jokes, with a subdued audience chuckle as the kindest response. Mr. Lewis' devotees may find the comedian disappointingly restrained.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Rio Bravo
    Despite its slickness, virility, occasional humor and, if it may be repeated, authentic professional approach, it is well-made but awfully familiar fare.
  98. The Beach House
    After a dillydallying slow start, Brown ratchets up the tension efficiently, summoning a mix of gross-out body invasion, eco-mutation and large-scale cosmic dread on a small budget.
  99. Without Love
    Miss Hepburn gives a mischievous performance as the girl who really wants to be chased, and Mr. Tracy is charmingly acerbic when confronted with her cool or coy wiles.
  100. Follow That Bird
    The teaching of letters and numbers, for which Sesame Street is famous, is played down here in favor of messages about getting along.
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