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. Nina's Tragedies
    The biggest weakness in Nina's Tragedies, is the character of Nadav. His shadowy presence leaves the movie without a solid center around which to spin its tales.
  2. Girl Play
    Neither performer upstages the other, but the admirable film is weakened by timidity or a lack of skill.
  3. The Interpreter
    Conventionally described as a political thriller, but The Interpreter is as apolitical as it is unthrilling.
  4. The Amityville Horror
    Low-key creepy rather than outright scary, the new Amityville marks a modest improvement over the original, partly because, from acting to bloody effects, it is better executed.
  5. Madison
    Wants to be both heartwarming and quirky but is sometimes just cutesy instead.
  6. One Missed Call
    Where "Ringu" derived its power from the simplicity of its premise and the purity of its execution, One Missed Call staggers under the weight of its director's taste for baroque excess.
  7. House of Wax
    The set design is fairly elaborate by the standards of the genre, and the victims don't die in precisely the order you might expect, but everything else goes pretty much according to formula, including a last-minute plot twist that opens the creaky door to a sequel.
  8. Kingdom of Heaven
    Scott's ravishing visual style, characterized by a fetishistic attention to surface detail and unrelenting beauty, can work wonders with big subjects, but this is also a director who needs actors powerful enough to shoulder narrative and emotional extremes.
  9. Kicking & Screaming
    At best, this film is half-inflated.
  10. A League of Ordinary Gentlemen
    Directing his first feature, Christopher Browne shows flair and determination in getting the movie's pathos down pat, but he can't quite find enough that is pleasurable in its many reels.
  11. A Common Thread
    Unfortunately, Ms. Faucher's screenplay, written with Gaëlle Macé, never finds its focus or reason for being, and Ms. Naymark just doesn't have enough screen presence to make up for the lack of a story or to justify all those tenderly attentive close-ups.
  12. Apres Vous (After You)
    Had it had the concision and symmetry of a classic French farce, Après Vous could have been an irresistible laugh machine.
  13. High Tension
    By turns unnerving and numbing.
  14. Wild Side
    Too elliptical and poetically structured to cohere as more than an intense mood piece with social ramifications. The movie is so enraptured with its own romantic desolation that its narrative drive becomes sidetracked.
  15. 5x2
    Told in the usual sequence, the story of Gilles and Marion would be a banal bell curve of infatuation, bliss, boredom, regret and recrimination. As it is, 5x2 does not quite make the case that Gilles and Marion are entirely worth our interest, let alone our sympathy, but the reversal of narrative order gives their ordinary moments together a faint aura of mystery, as Mr. Ozon teases us with the conceit that it will all make sense in the end - or rather, the beginning.
  16. This Revolution
    Admirable but unfocused.
  17. Chronicles
    A film divided against itself. The more the cat-and-mouse game between prisoner and reporter points it in the direction of "The Silence of the Lambs," the closer it inches toward the sort of exploitation it condemns; for me, that's too close for Crónicas to be taken without a big grain of salt.
  18. Hustle & Flow
    This disdain for women is not incidental to the film; it is integral to the fantasy Mr. Brewer is selling, which is that pimping is not as hard as it looks.
  19. My Date with Drew
    As his movie-in-progress goes along, his pursuit of a childhood dream looks increasingly like an excuse by a canny aspiring filmmaker to create a work sample.
  20. A State of Mind
    A rare and often chilling glimpse into the culture of North Korea.
  21. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
    There is so much talent on display in Park Chanwook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, it is a drag that the film never rises to the level of its director's obvious ability.
  22. The Brothers Grimm
    Kitted out in period garb and dubious British accents, the actors throw themselves into this flimsy contrivance with energy, but are badly served by a director focused on flipping switches and twirling knobs. Despite a few early sparks of promise The Brothers Grimm sputters and coughs along like an unoiled machine, grinding gears and nerves in equal measure.
  23. Eternal
    Lush, lurid and completely besotted with itself, Eternal is one of those movies normally found slinking around the ether of late-night cable television.
  24. The Man
    While nothing in the movie - least of all the two main performances - is especially fresh or original, it does have a few decent gags and amusing moments.
  25. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
    While not especially good - judged strictly on its cinematic merits, it ranges from O.K. to god-awful - it is still a fascinating cultural document in the age of intelligent design.
  26. Steal Me
    With its lovely scenery and languid pacing, has a warmth and a naturalness that transcend its overheated material.
  27. Campfire
    If Campfire is solidly acted, it is visually drab and has a haphazard narrative momentum.
  28. Green Street Hooligans
    Green Street Hooligans, an accidental advertisement for Alcoholics Anonymous and the somnolent pleasures of cricket that, in the end, is mostly about the pleasures, both visceral and visual, of violence.
  29. Lord of War
    Like everything else in this film, Mr. Cage's performance is watchable if never credible because his director never resolves the disconnect between this star's function (to entertain) and that of his character (to repel).
  30. The Thing About My Folks
    Despite the grumpy, flatulent behavior the script demands of him, Mr. Falk rises above the treacly shenanigans.
  31. One Bright Shining Moment
    Still, as the documentary plods past the two-hour mark, much of Mr. McGovern's legend seems dependent on Nixon's faults, and even the Democrat's political supporters, with hindsight's many gifts, can't infuse his persona with any more dynamism.
  32. Crazy Like a Fox
    Written and directed by Richard Squires, Crazy Like a Fox provides Mr. Rees with the daftest role of a long and varied career.
  33. Flightplan
    To watch Ms. Foster storm through a phony airplane for an entire movie has its very minor pleasures - given the numerous close-ups, you can study her lovely face at your leisure - but there is nothing here to feed the head or fray the nerves.
  34. MirrorMask
    Astonishing and frustrating, the fusion of live action and computer animation created by the Jim Henson Company in MirrorMask is an example of too much lavished on too little.
  35. An Adolescent
    The film, at least 20 minutes too long, has too many competing story lines to succeed as more than an oddball mood piece.
  36. Two for the Money
    A confusion of tones, intentions and allusions, Two for the Money lurches from upbeat to downbeat without ever settling into a coherent groove.
  37. Dandelion
    So much care has been taken to build a mood of hushed suspense that the rushed, tragic conclusion, in which too little is shown and too little explained, leaves you deeply unsatisfied.
  38. Elizabethtown
    Elizabethtown is a long, lurching trip to nowhere in particular, but Elizabethtown is a place where you wouldn't mind spending some more time, though perhaps under different circumstances.
  39. Where the Truth Lies
    In the end, it is Mr. Egoyan's fealty to the novel, its feints and dodges, that proves the film's undoing.
  40. The Dark Hours
    A cold and moody psychodrama poised frustratingly on the border between novel and banal.
  41. Innocent Voices
    As an outcry against the forcible conscription of children into armies around the world, Innocent Voices, is an honorable film. But as a balanced portrait of a tragic civil war, it is simplistic and opaque.
  42. Summer Storm
    Directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner like a barely legal pornography flick with extra plot, the movie is a perfect storm of clichés.
  43. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
    I don't think Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is an altogether bad movie. It's just a movie with no particular reason for existing, a flashy, trifling throwaway whose surface cleverness masks a self-infatuated credulity.
  44. The Legend of Zorro
    This is a hiss-the-villain, cheer-the-hero kind of movie.
  45. Saw II
    It's fully apparent that this sequel is more trick than treat and doesn't really compare to its fine predecessor - though it still manages to be eye-opening (and sometimes positively nauseating) in itself.
  46. Jarhead
    Mr. Swofford's book has earned a place alongside the classics of military literature, but Mr. Mendes's film is more like a footnote - a minor movie about a minor war, and a film that feels, at the moment, remarkably irrelevant.
  47. Brooklyn Lobster
    An unusually pure example of American kitchen-sink realism.
  48. Get Rich or Die Tryin'
    The parts of Get Rich or Die Tryin' that feel most genuine have to do with friendship and family, rather than with criminal intrigue. But the movie ultimately lacks an emotional core. It will certainly make 50 Cent even richer, but it wouldn't have killed him to try a bit harder.
  49. Ellie Parker
    For Ms. Watts, it is a small, brave acting tour de force.
  50. Walk the Line
    There is no way a feature-length movie could do justice to such bounty, and Walk the Line settles for the minimum.
  51. Oxygono
    It does have the feel of farce at times, but much of the time it just seems determined to shock.
  52. Zizek!
    Entertaining without being especially illuminating. If you must see only one documentary about a Slovene philosopher this year, it might be better to read his books.
  53. In the Mix
    A one-dimensional romantic comedy that feels like an old-fashioned vehicle picture, the kind the big movie studios used to make in the 1930's and 40's just to bring in the fans of a particular actor or actress.
  54. Yours, Mine and Ours
    So snug, airtight and insulated from reality that the nice, well-scrubbed "Cheaper by the Dozen" seems almost rambunctious by comparison.
  55. The Libertine
    The rhythms of the dialogue move to the same beat as steadily as a metronome ticks and tocks, while every sentence is polished like stone, absent the jaggedness of real breath and life. You can hear the play in this thing without even knowing it was based on a theatrical production.
  56. My Big Fat Independent Movie
    Has a knowing, insider quality that could generate a modest cult following.
  57. Seamless
    Given the material, Seamless can't be faulted a certain star-struck superficiality
  58. First Descent
    The Alaskan runs are often spectacular, resembling nothing so much as a controlled plummet down an avalanche. All of which is worth the price of admission if "stoked" is a regular part of your vocabulary.
  59. Memoirs of a Geisha
    Mr. Marshall can't rescue the film from its embarrassing screenplay or its awkward Chinese-Japanese-Hollywood culture klatch, but Memoirs of a Geisha is one of those bad Hollywood films that by virtue of their production values nonetheless afford a few dividends, in this case, fabulous clothes and three eminently watchable female leads.
  60. The Family Stone
    The women make The Family Stone, especially Ms. Parker, whose nimble performance is reason alone to see the film: not since Philippe Petit has anyone walked a tightrope with such finesse - and in high heels, no less.
  61. The Matador
    Because The Matador sustains a tone of screwball insouciance and keeps its trump card hidden up its sleeve, it must be counted as a well-made comic thriller. That doesn't mean it has any depth, credibility or artistic value beyond its capacity to divert.
  62. Marebito (The Stranger from Afar)
    In casting about for new sources of fear, Marebito achieves its own level of mediocrity.
  63. Days of Santiago
    Mr. Sibille breaks no sweat under the scrutiny, giving a quiet, concentrated performance that lends heft to less than revelatory material.
  64. The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear
    It is startling that a three-hour film dealing largely with the history of the Middle East should find no time to mention either the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the role of oil in the region. And it is more than a little unsatisfying to see the complex history of American conservatism reduced to the dreams and schemes of a handful of intellectuals.
  65. Happy Here and Now
    Like some other contemporary films that try to stitch together a small army of characters into a community of sorts, Happy Here and Now feels like a symptom in search of a cure.
  66. Wolf Creek
    The vogue for retro-horror, particularly the stripped-down shivers of 1970's slasher flicks, continues apace in this nasty little piece of work from Australia.
  67. The Ringer
    At the sweet heart of this silly film is a determination to upend the clichés and assumptions applied to the population we condescendingly label "special."
  68. Ich hiess Sabina Spielrein
    However fascinating the source material, there's something less than cinematic about 90 minutes of watching people read letters in front of windows.
  69. Tau man ji D
    A slick but silly affair unlikely to appeal to anyone over the age of 15.
  70. Grandma's Boy
    It cheerfully invites the audience to descend to their level, where no joke is too silly or raunchy, and a plot is just a way of passing time between game levels and bong hits.
  71. Kill the Poor
    There's potential here for an incendiary riff on gentrification and its discontents, but the result is only lukewarm. While the ensemble is as pungent as its assorted clichés will permit, the cruddy video photography and haphazard organization of plot blunt the wry thrust of the material.
  72. 24 Hours on Craigslist
    In essence, this is a string of intermittently interesting, occasionally funny, periodically wacky if rarely disturbing, sometimes touching though fairly boring and poorly shot human-interest stories.
  73. Why We Fight
    Mr. Jarecki forcefully, if not with wholesale persuasiveness, argues that our business is specifically war.
  74. Big Momma's House 2
    Inconsequential sequel for the undemanding moviegoer.
  75. When a Stranger Calls
    Jake Wade Wall's screenplay does deserve a word of praise. It has managed to incorporate the advent of cellphones, the *69 command and caller ID, which could have easily made the entire story impossible.
  76. A Good Woman
    When put into the mouths of American actors with no feel for Wilde's high-toned repartee, they simply hang in the air and die.
  77. The Tenants
    The message about race relations in America conveyed by The Tenants, a small, serious, but choppy and psychologically cauterized screen adaptation of Bernard Malamud's 1971 novel, is dire.
  78. Firewall
    Manages to entertain mildly only because it traffics in all the familiar action-movie clichés, giving moviegoers ample opportunity to test their action-movie I.Q.
  79. Eight Below
    Eight Below is Grade A pooch porn, an orgy of canine cuteness.
  80. C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
    Like Mr. Lee's hit-and-miss effort ("Bamboozled"), Mr. Willmott's alternative history takes its inspiration and its rage from an America that has come both a long way and not nearly far enough. But while the filmmaker's anger is palpable it's not very inspired.
  81. Night Watch: Nochnoi Dozor
    The film may be a mess - narratively muddled and crammed with many more vampires, shape-shifters and sorcerers than one movie can handle, but it bursts with a sick, carnivorous glee in its own fiendish games.
  82. Winter Passing
    Its familiar story of an embittered child's homecoming and confrontation with a parent throws off dramatic sparks, but they never flare into a blaze.
  83. Madea's Family Reunion
    Both Ms. Angelou and Ms. Tyson deliver powerful, touching messages. Just as they're sinking in, the film turns into an unabashed chick flick with a painfully gaudy wedding that includes live angels hanging on wires from the ceiling.
  84. Running Scared
    Even a talented lead couldn't save Mr. Kramer from himself. As a writer, he may have fashioned a genre-busting screenplay, one that has its postmodern cake and eats it, too, but as a director he proves himself as blood simple, if generally less adept, as any Hollywood hire.
  85. Home
    Home accumulates a blurry, on-the-fly atmosphere spiked with moments of unexpected sweetness. The movie, though, is most successful when the dialogue mutes and our attention is focused on Jonathan Wolff's gliding camera; in those moments, the brownstone is the most interesting character of all.
  86. Merry Christmas
    If the film's sentiments about the madness of war are impeccably high-minded, why then does Joyeux Noël, an Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film, feel as squishy and vague as a handsome greeting card declaring peace on earth?
  87. Game 6
    A tale of one man's meltdown that ought to have an expiration date of Oct. 27, 2004, stamped on every frame.
  88. Neighbour No. 13
    Suffering its own split personality, The Neighbor No. Thirteen is an art house exploitation film neither arty nor exploitative enough.
  89. Shadow: Dead Riot
    This berserk little B-movie is obviously the greatest zombie flick ever set in an experimental women's prison, easily the underground treat of the season, and totally off its rocker.
  90. American Gun
    If American Gun avoids the most obvious kinds of sensationalism, it has the flaw common to many editorial broadsides of overstuffing its episodes with melodrama and symbolism.
  91. Ice Age: The Meltdown
    The animation is uninspired (with so much ice, the creatures need to be twice as good-looking), and the story is humdrum. (The saber-toothed tiger learns to swim!)
  92. Brick
    It's all so seamy, sordid, lurid and shocking! And dull, despite a noirish gloss of wide-angle cinematography and a jaundiced, smoggy color scheme.
  93. Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!
    As for the authorial conceit - assembling the movie from giddy, spastic, amateur photography captured from every part of the arena - at best it yields energetic perspectives on the show, at worst it looks like a cellphone video camera having an epileptic seizure.
  94. Take the Lead
    Take the Lead, despite its nifty concept and fiery leading man, feels sloppy and rushed.
  95. Scary Movie 4
    The fun of Scary Movie 4 is that it isn't a movie at all. Organized on the principle of parody, not plot, driven by gags and cultural feedback, it's an exercise in lowbrow postmodernism, a movie-movie contraption more nuts than Charlie Kaufman's gnarliest fever dream. It's cleverly stupid.
  96. Look Both Ways
    Bogged down by the stylistic gimmickry of bustling montages and jarring animated segments, Look Both Ways aims for existential drama but succeeds only in reminding us that misery loves company.
  97. Metal: A Headbanger's Journey
    Mr. Dunn and his colleagues dig up some interesting information during their inquiry, like the origins of the devil-horns hand signal, metal's signature salute, but their insider love of the music finally proves as big an obstacle to the film as their ploddingly pedagogic approach.
  98. Mission: Impossible III
    Mr. Hoffman enlivens Mission: Impossible III, which otherwise droops, done in both by the maudlin romance and by Mr. Abrams's inability to adapt his small-screen talent -- evident in his capacity as the television auteur behind "Alias" and "Lost" -- to a larger canvas.
  99. The Da Vinci Code
    I certainly can't support any calls for boycotting or protesting this busy, trivial, inoffensive film. Which is not to say I'm recommending you go see it.
  100. The Lost City
    In its groggy way The Lost City holds your attention. Incoherent, but splendidly panoramic and drenched in wonderful Cuban music, it has the texture of a vivid, intoxicating dream that seems to mean something until you wake up and feel it slipping away. All that remains are feelings and impressions connected by a mood.
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