The New York Times' Scores

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For 20,278 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: 9,380 out of 20278
  2. Mixed: 8,434 out of 20278
  3. Negative: 2,464 out of 20278
20278 movie reviews
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  1. Pipe Dream
    It's clear that this is a farce about ambition that is not ambitious enough, right down to its cutesy, punning title.
  2. Welcome to Collinwood
    What the movie lacks in polish, though, it makes up for in pluck, enthusiasm and slapstick shamelessness.
  3. Bloody Sunday
    The level of accomplishment in the filmmaking is overwhelming.
  4. Red Dragon
    The entire picture is a third-generation Xerox copy, in part because adapting Mr. Harris's books for the screen seems to turn directors into rigid formalists.
  5. Just a Kiss
    What elevates the movie above the run-of-the-mill singles blender is its surreal sense of humor and technological finish.
  6. The Tuxedo
    May have been tailored just for Mr. Chan, but it still feels like off-the-rack garb. And by now, Mr. Chan deserves much better than a hand-me-down suit that smells like a rental.
  7. Skins
    Might have been better off as a documentary, with less of Mr. Eyre's uninspired dramatics and more of his sense of observation and outrage.
  8. Crazy as Hell
    Starts on a note of relative naturalism and under Mr. La Salle's nuanced direction gradually becomes more and more unhinged until it concludes in an altogether different genre.
  9. Shanghai Ghetto
    The film uses standard techniques to tell its tale -- videotaped interviews with survivors interspersed with newsreel images from the period -- but does so with integrity and attention to detail.
  10. Biggie and Tupac
    Whether or not you buy Mr. Broomfield's findings, the film acquires an undeniable entertainment value as the slight, pale Mr. Broomfield continues to force himself on people and into situations that would make lesser men run for cover.
  11. The Man from Elysian Fields
    By the end, after an hour and a half of wondering -- sometimes amusedly, sometimes impatiently -- just what this strenuously unconventional movie is supposed to be, you discover that the answer is as conventional as can be.
  12. Wasabi
    Culinary purists have observed that much of what passes for the spicy Japanese condiment wasabi at American restaurants is an ersatz concoction of horseradish and green food coloring. The French-language action comedy Wasabi is just as artificial, pumped with horseradish to give it heat in lieu of actual spice.
  13. Sweet Home Alabama
    If Sweet Home Alabama, directed by Andy Tennant from a screenplay by C. Jay Cox, has the ingredients for a classic screwball comedy, the movie is in such a rush to entertain that it barely connects the dots of its story. But it still has its effectively goofy comic moments.
  14. Moonlight Mile
    Though its conclusion is too tidily therapeutic, and though elements of its story strain credibility, Moonlight Mile has an understated, lived-in quality and a wry, unforced sense of the absurd.
  15. The Trials of Henry Kissinger
    A muckraking effort that will probably play best to the converted.
  16. Daydream Believer
    It's the best kind of homemade movie, created with skill, modesty and a pleasing awareness of what works in an ultra-low-budget format that tends to be performance and storytelling, rather than visual expressiveness and technical polish.
  17. Invincible
    If Invincible is soft at the center, its visual grandeur and mostly full-blooded performances make it gripping, for this eminent German director has pulled off the tricky feat of elevating a true story into a larger-than-life allegory.
  18. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
    The film isn't even as good as the second-rate game it is based on, which is nothing but a shootout.
  19. The Four Feathers
    Such few assets aren't enough to alleviate the film's shallowness.
  20. The Banger Sisters
    Certainly begins with its heart in the right place. But the movie eventually snaps under the strain of its plot contrivances and its need to reassure.
  21. Don't Ask Don't Tell
    Finds a few chuckles.
  22. Trapped
    Pointless little kidnapping thriller.
  23. Snipes
    Mr. Jones, who recently starred in "Zig-Zag," a similarly striving, overwrought picture, is a disciplined and likable performer, and he bravely perseveres in the face of narrative absurdity and rampant overacting.
  24. The Ignorant Fairies
    The acting is impeccable, and the intentions are serious and noble, but the affection it elicits stops short of love, and its coziness never risks true intimacy.
  25. 8 Women
    Indefensible, cynical, even grotesque; it is also pure -- that is to say innocent and uncorrupted -- fun.
  26. Secretary
    A wholesome self-help fable about the unlocking of shame and its magical transformation into pleasure and personal liberation.
  27. Spirited Away
    The towering, lost dreaminess at the heart of the film is an unmistakable obsession of this director.
  28. The Experiment
    It's empty calories trying to trumpet its bogus nutritional value, and the strain for social importance undermines the picture.
  29. Quitting
    With Quitting, he (Zhang) has removed sentimentality from the theme and presented it with unflinching honesty, a quality he shares with his fearless cast.
  30. The Children of the Century
    Though well dressed and well made, ultimately falls prey to the contradiction that afflicts so many movies about writers. What makes them so fascinating, so representative, cannot really be shown on screen.
  31. Igby Goes Down
    Although Igby has its share of glitches and tonal inconsistencies, it packs an emotional wallop similar to that of another cultural golden oldie as beloved in its way as "The Catcher in the Rye": "The Graduate."
  32. Barbershop
    I've seen better movies recently, but it's been a long time since I've left one feeling the easy, full-bellied happiness this one evoked.
  33. Alias Betty
    Such an accomplished piece of filmmaking that it interweaves enough characters and themes to fill three movies.
  34. Stealing Harvard
    Together, Mr. Lee and Mr. Green have a daft comic energy, and they are assisted by game performances from the rest of the cast.
  35. Ted Bundy
    Disturbingly superficial in its approach to the material.
  36. The Pinochet Case
    Eloquent, meticulously structured documentary -- Sober political and legal analysis alternates with grim first-hand accounts of torture and murder in a film that has the structure of a choral symphony that swells to a bittersweet finale.
  37. Swimfan
    Like "Cruel Intentions," Swimfan is entertaining enough to be considered a guilty pleasure. But to transcend the teenage movie genre both movies would have needed a baby Glenn Close, and both came up short.
  38. City by the Sea
    Stumbles from restrained, fine-edged realism into blunt and muddy melodrama.
  39. The Execution of Wanda Jean
    Offers an unusual opportunity to observe the inequities in the death penalty, not just the inherent immorality but also the haphazard administration of it and public misperception of how the whole thing works.
  40. 7 Days in September
    An almost unbearably powerful documentary.
  41. In Praise of Love
    Godard's artistry -- the way his scenes are at once archly stylized and informal, the quick precision of his eye -- is unarguable. But the beautiful images and solemn words cannot disguise the slack complacency of his vision.
  42. Heartbreak Hospital
    An excruciating demonstration of the unsalvageability of a movie saddled with an amateurish screenplay.
  43. Burning Man: The Burning Sensation
    An appealing blend of counter-cultural idealism and hedonistic creativity.
  44. The Big Carnival
    Ace in the Hole is an acquired taste -- and an unforgettable one.
  45. Mad Love
    An often watchable, though goofy and lurid, blast of a costume drama set in the late 15th century.
  46. FeardotCom
    It is painful to watch an actor as skillful as Mr. Dorff reduced to delivering flat repetitive dialogue that would make any actor look foolish.
  47. Agnivarsha: The Fire and the Rain
    Has a lavish ceremonial gloss. It is also a very erotic movie.
  48. *Corpus Callosum
    A playful parlor trick, a departure from the performance-art films that have made this director's reputation. In keeping with his lighter side, *Corpus is also fun; imagine a Looney Tunes segment or an episode of Nickelodeon's "Kablam!" directed by Red Grooms.
  49. Mother India
    The film is at once a sort of Indian "Stella Dallas," which finds the heroine making sacrifice after sacrifice on behalf of her family, and a "Gone With the Wind"-style epic of social change.
  50. Red Satin
    The movie rides on Ms. Abbass's serenely confident performance. As Lilia metamorphoses from a shy housebound widow into a woman calmly rejoicing in her body and her sexuality, Ms. Abbass marks her character's every blush and hesitation in the process of letting go with a winning delicacy and sweetness.
  51. Undisputed
    Lacks more than subtext: it barely has text. At times, the picture seems to have been edited with a blowtorch. But it gets the job done efficiently and swiftly.
  52. Little Secrets
    Sunny, pleasant, squeaky-clean family film in which nothing surprising happens, and that is the point. Ms. Wood has a poise and wistfulness beyond her years, and she seems likely to follow the path of the child star Diane Lane into more nuanced adult roles.
  53. Serving Sara
    With the dog days of August upon us, think of this dog of a movie as the cinematic equivalent of high humidity.
  54. The Isle
    A movie of extremes, and that goes for its aesthetics. As gory as the scenes of torture and self-mutilation may be, they are pitted against shimmering cinematography that lends the setting the ethereal beauty of an Asian landscape painting.
  55. Amy's Orgasm
    This movie is Ms. Davis's fourth film as a director, and she has a bright, chipper style that keeps things moving, while never quite managing to connect her wish-fulfilling characters to the human race. Like someone who smiles too much, Amy's Orgasm seems rather sad at heart.
  56. How I Killed My Father
    A kind of murder mystery, but eventually the only victim is the audience's interest -- the picture is uncompromising and inauspicious.
  57. S1m0ne
    Because the material gives off such a delicious vibe, even though the movie itself feels a little old, you want to like Simone. It would be easier if it were a more forceful comedy. But Mr. Niccol's style is that of reticence -- as a director, he's a little coquettish.
  58. Gibel Otrara
    Has an edge of cynicism and cruelty that just as often suggests the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone.
  59. One Hour Photo
    Unfortunately One Hour Photo turns everyone but the central character into a cutout.
  60. Possession
    Possession is in the end an honorable, interesting failure. It falls far short of poetry, but it's not bad prose.
  61. The Adventures of Pluto Nash
    Strands one of the most gifted casts assembled in some time. Sadly, though many of the actors throw off a spark or two when they first appear, they can't generate enough heat in this cold vacuum of a comedy to start a reaction.
  62. Mostly Martha
    Extremely enjoyable, though a few degrees shy of perfection.
  63. Blue Crush
    It's hard to resist being swept up in Blue Crush, not least because David Hennings's shimmery photography carries the breeze and spray of the island right into the theater. The movie is also the latest example of a subgenre that might be called feminexploitation.
  64. Katakuri-ke no kôfuku
    It's all very zany. Occasionally it is even madcap. You would almost be tempted to smile at times, albeit weakly, if it weren't for Mr. Miike's habit of pounding home every joke with exaggerated reaction shots.
  65. All My Loved Ones
    The material continues to carry its inherent emotional power and moral importance. As banal as the telling may be -- and at times, All My Loved Ones more than flirts with kitsch -- the tale commands attention.
  66. I'm Going Home
    Gives you the steady pulse of life in a beautiful city viewed through the eyes of a character who, in spite of tragic loss and increasing decrepitude, knows in his bones that he is one of the luckiest men alive.
  67. The Château
    Here is one performer (Testud) whose features -- small sad eyes, sharp nose, wide rueful smile -- can sustain a feature by themselves.
  68. Scarlet Diva
    Permeated by a self-pitying, adolescent naïveté.
  69. Secret Ballot
    A very minor contribution to the great corpus of Iranian cinema that has emerged in the last 20 years.
  70. xXx
    Action fans will watch their adrenaline levels redline, and those not at ease with this climax-after-climax style will white knuckle their way through to the end.
  71. The City of Lost Souls
    (Miike's) work is fun to look at but emotionally unengaging, perhaps because he can't summon enough belief in his pulp-fiction characters to make them come alive.
  72. 24 Hour Party People
    "Print the legend," Mr. Wilson says at one point, both quoting John Ford and laying the foundation for his own often fact-free fabulous fabulism. And this movie is just that -- fabulous.
  73. Stripped
    This is a bumpy ride, but one worth taking.
  74. Blood Work
    A wry exercise in geriatric uplift.
  75. Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams
    The movie is a gaudy, noisy thrill ride -- hyperactive, slightly out of control and full of kinetic, mischievous charm.
  76. The Good Girl
    There's more to everyone here than we're initially led to think. The Good Girl is like a neurotically charged post-millennial take on the trailer-park comedies that Jonathan Demme once claimed for himself.
  77. Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat
    This picture is mostly a lump of run-of-the-mill profanity sprinkled with a few remarks so geared toward engendering audience sympathy that you might think he was running for office -- or trying to win over a probation officer.
  78. Full Frontal
    The aesthetic of Full Frontal is as rough and grainy as the off-the-rack digital video in which much of it was shot.
  79. One Last Kiss
    Provides more than enough sentimental catharsis for a satisfying evening at the multiplex.
  80. The Master of Disguise
    A film so family-safe it feels sheathed in plastic Bubble Wrap. Unfortunately, it's not even as much fun as popping the bubbles. It doesn't matter that the film is less than 90 minutes. It still feels like a prison stretch.
  81. Signs
    Mr. Shyamalan never gives us anything to believe in, other than his own power to solve problems of his own posing, and his command of a narrative logic is as circular -- and as empty -- as those bare patches out in the cornfield.
  82. Gaza Strip
    Mr. Longley makes powerful use of the techniques of cinéma vérité. The absence of voice-over narration and talking-head interviews gives his portrait of daily life under duress a riveting immediacy.
  83. Merci Pour Le Chocolat
    Mr. Chabrol's droll assault on petit-bourgeois security feels like a satire of "Ordinary People" directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
  84. The Kid Stays in the Picture
    One of the funniest, and most telling, films of the year. The filmmakers call "Kid" a documentary, but the movie is one of the unusual kind that is firmly lodged inside the subject's perspective.
  85. Swimming
    Without exaggerating their lovability or condescending to their foolishness, Mr. Siegel makes vivid, likable people out of his three protagonists as they affect one another and are affected in turn.
  86. Lan Yu
    Lan Yu is like a less dizzily gorgeous companion to Mr. Wong's "In the Mood for Love" -- very much a Hong Kong movie despite its mainland setting.
  87. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
    A photographer for magazines like Vanity Fair and GQ, as well as a veteran director of commercials, Mr. Jones brings a trained eye to this, his first documentary. The low gray skies of Chicago prove once again to be a boon to photography, and the city has seldom looked better than it does here, in its chilly, minimalist beauty.
  88. The Country Bears
    Sandwiched between the musical numbers are an eclectic assorment of cameos, including Willie Nelson, Queen Latifa and Elton John. The funniest one comes during the closing credits, when the rapper Xzibit testifies that the Country Bears were a formative influence on hip-hop, certainly something the Eagles could never claim.
  89. Who Is Cletis Tout?
    This mistaken-identity picture is so film-culture referential that the final product is a ghost.
  90. Austin Powers in Goldmember
    Like a giant balloon painted with Day-Glo colors, however, the whole gaudy mess wouldn't inflate without the force of Mr. Myers's comic genius. It's his baby, baby. And after three editions, it's still flying high.
  91. Happy Times
    A wise, gentle and sad new comedy by Zhang Yimou.
  92. K-19: The Widowmaker
    (Director Bigelow) piles up one nerve-racking crisis after another, interspersed with moments of ethereal, almost otherworldly beauty.
  93. What to Do in Case of Fire
    Its bone-deep willingness to do anything to entertain is exhausting.
  94. Stuart Little 2
    What sets the "Stuart Little" franchise above most of the competition is its emphasis on sharply drawn character and its profusion of witty remarks (mostly from the mouth of Snowbell) that are cutting enough to amuse grown-ups without sailing over children's heads.
  95. Tadpole
    Shot in just two weeks with a hand-held digital camera, the movie often looks frayed around the edges. Yet it has a soulful heart and a clear grasp of its rarefied milieu (Manhattan upper-level moneyed academia).
  96. Eight Legged Freaks
    Awkward, obvious and sporadically -- very sporadically -- amusing.
  97. Langrishe Go Down
    A teasing, oblique curiosity of a movie.
  98. Ayurveda: Art of Being
    As a believer preaching to an audience of believers, he (Nalin) feels no need to offer proofs or anything even approaching a rational argument.
  99. All About Lily Chou-Chou
    Much of All About Lily Chou-Chou is mesmerizing: some of its plaintiveness could make you weep. If only Mr. Iwai trusted the material enough.
  100. My Wife Is an Actress
    A terrifically deft picture about the thick line that separates movie glamour from the real world, and the thin line between common sense and paranoia.
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