The New York Times' Scores

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For 20,271 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: 9,377 out of 20271
  2. Mixed: 8,430 out of 20271
  3. Negative: 2,464 out of 20271
20271 movie reviews
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  1. You've Got Mail
    The film's mix of romance and reading matter is seductive in its own right, providing comfy book-lined settings and people who are what they read and write.
  2. The Prince of Egypt
    A well-made work with much to recommend it, even if its worthiness is not the brightest flare on the movie horizon this season.
  3. The General
    Mr. Boorman, working in top form with a keenly acerbic overview, has written the film so sharply that the facts speak well for themselves.
  4. A Simple Plan
    When you get the shivers watching this wintry tale unfold, it won't be from the cold.
  5. Star Trek: Insurrection
    Insurrection is breezily paced, and Michael Piller's screenplay has enough good-natured humor to keep things from bogging down into sentimental pomposity.
  6. Shakespeare in Love
    Shakespeare meets Sherlock, and makes for pure enchantment in the inspired conjecture behind Shakespeare in Love.
  7. Rushmore
    It's too smart to be maudlin.
  8. Jack Frost
    Jack Frost is so sugarcoated that it makes other recent efforts in this genre look blisteringly honest. On the other hand, it's just cheerful and bogus enough to keep children reasonably entertained.
  9. Little Voice
    Horrocks's phenomenal mimicry of musical grande dames...makes a splendid centerpiece for the otherwise more ordinary film built around it.
  10. Psycho
    It remains the most structurally elegant and sneakily playful of thrillers. At least some things never change.
  11. Home Fries
    This absurdist satire of sex, sibling rivalry, Oedipal ties, homicidal fantasies and fast food in the American heartland at least has the right attitude. It just isn't funny enough in its particulars to make you break up laughing.
  12. Very Bad Things
    Humorous slashings and car accidents constitute similar high points in a film that is glaringly short on ''Scream''-style self-mockery to match its dopey mayhem.
  13. A Bug's Life
    Makes jaunty, imaginative use of both extraordinary technology and bold storytelling possibilities within the insect world.
  14. Babe: Pig in the City
    As directed once again by George Miller, Babe remains a cute little porker, but his fanciful new backdrops are less beguiling.
  15. Waking Ned Devine
    Kirk Jones, who wrote and directed this blithe comedy, has been a prize-winning director of television commercials. And he has the knack of finding rubbery, expressive faces and letting each villager's quirks emerge on cue.
  16. Celebrity
    Ms. Davis gets to deliver the film's obvious message in a single unremarkable line: ''You can tell a lot about a society by who it chooses to celebrate.'' But most of what you can tell from the fun-house mirrors of Celebrity is what you already know.
  17. Central Station
    There's plenty of room for sentimentality here, but the wonder of Salles' film is all in the telling.
  18. The Rugrats Movie
    The pleasant surprise is that the film is a delight.
  19. Enemy of the State
    It has a hurtling pace, nonstop intensity and a stylish, appealing performance by Will Smith in his first real starring role.
  20. Meet Joe Black
    With a too-many-cooks screenplay credited to Ron Osborn, Jeff Reno, Kevin Wade and Bo Goldman, it's so long that every character regrettably wears out his or her welcome.
  21. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
    An empty, farcical blood bath that's virtually shock-free except for one preposterous plot twist.
  22. Velvet Goldmine
    Brilliantly reimagines the glam-rock 70's as a brave new world of electrifying theatricality and sexual possibility, to the point where identifying precise figures in this neo-psychedelic landscape is almost beside the point.
  23. The Siege
    Edward Zwick's ultimately sedate thriller starts out with crisply efficient style and the potential for a much more involving story.
  24. The Waterboy
    This escapist comedy is so cheerfully outlandish that it's hard to resist, and so good-hearted that it's genuinely endearing.
  25. Elizabeth
    This Elizabeth is presented as a glamorously stressed-out modern woman who must cope with a super-intense case of having it all.
  26. Gods and Monsters
    What especially elevates it is the razor-sharp cleverness of McKellen's performance, which brings unusual fullness and feeling to a most unusual man.
  27. Belly
    Belly is a film that begs for a pat on the head for its virtue while catering to cinematic tastes more interested in crotch shots, topless dancers, wall-sized television screens, ganja galore and, wherever possible, crime without punishment, all to the accompaniment of a high-octane soundtrack.
  28. Living Out Loud
    The filmmaker has borrowed from Chekhov the soul-baring introspection that can be so ineffable on the page or stage yet becomes so damply sensitive and dramatically vague on screen.
  29. Vampires
    Ridiculous without being awful enough to be hilarious.
  30. American History X
    An inflated yet gut-slugging film.
  31. Life Is Beautiful
    Benigni effectively creates a situation in which comedy is courage. And he draws from this an unpretentious, enormously likable film that plays with history both seriously and mischievously. Piety has no place here, nor do tears until the final reel. Life is Beautiful plays by its own rules
  32. Pleasantville
    Ingenious fantasy.
  33. Apt Pupil
    Both actors play their roles so trickily that tensions escalate until the horror grows unimaginatively gothic.
  34. Orgazmo
    Faced an insoluble problem: how do you make a boundary-shattering gross-out farce about the porn business that isn't itself pornographic? Having the actors wear silly costumes embellished with sex toys just won't do the trick.
  35. The Cruise
    As much as Mr. Levitch's voice grates, you can't help but admire the zest for life of this heroically independent but impossibly self-centered crank.
  36. The Last Days
    Each person's story is so compelling it is worthy of a feature-length documentary itself. If The Last Days has a flaw, it is that the stories have been so abbreviated to keep the film moving quickly that they feel incomplete.
  37. Happiness
    It has taken only two films, "Welcome to the Dollhouse" and now Happiness, for Todd Solondz to establish his as one of the most lacerating, funny and distinctive voices in American film.
  38. Beloved
    Beloved works on its own but is much enhanced by familiarity with the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. In so ambitiously bringing this story to the screen, Ms. Winfrey underscores a favorite, invaluable credo: read the book.
  39. Practical Magic
    Based on Alice Hoffman's fanciful novel and directed with go-for-broke prettiness by Griffin Dunne, Practical Magic is nothing but a guilty pleasure.
  40. Bride of Chucky
    The novelty of a bloody horror film built around a malevolent doll carrying the soul of a serial killer has worn thin.
  41. The Sentinel
    Although the thriller aspect of "La Sentinelle" doesn't quite add up, the film is still an absorbing, psychologically resonant portrait of French student life. As directed by Desplechin, the attractive young cast hardly seems to be acting.
  42. Holy Man
    For all the funny possibilities of Mr. Murphy's neat transformation here, the latest comedy from Stephen Herek ("Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," "The Mighty Ducks") doesn't know what to do with him.
  43. The Celebration
    Though it dedicates itself to avoiding directorial egotism, in accordance with strict rules of the Danish filmmakers' collective known as Dogma 95, Thomas Vinterberg's Celebration is still a virtuoso feat.
  44. Slam
    What Slam possesses is real passion, and that is in short supply in movies these days.
  45. Flowers of Shanghai
    Lavish in its depiction of surfaces -- clothing, furniture, lighting fixtures -- Flowers of Shanghai proves deficient in its revelation of inner lives.
  46. What Dreams May Come
    What Dreams May Come, based on a novel by Richard Matheson and directed by Vincent Ward, the New Zealand filmmaker noted for his skill at creating lavish cinematic dreamscapes, represents the uncomfortable collision of two ideas about filmmaking, one commercial, the other eccentrically, ambitiously dreamy.
  47. A Night at the Roxbury
    A lot like the brothers themselves: undeniably pathetic but strangely lovable. Still, do you really want to spend an hour and a half with them in a dark room?
  48. Antz
    Antz works best just showing off its prodigious voice talent.
  49. I Stand Alone
    The movie's triumph -- if that's what it is -- is in the force of its assault. It takes one man's unbearable truth and bashes us in the skull with it.
  50. Clay Pigeons
    A film that delights by confounding expectations.
  51. Ronin
    Ronin can be watched as appreciatively for its hard-boiled performances as for its visceral excitement.
  52. Urban Legend
    Maybe there will be an oversaturation of ''Scream''-inspired horror films someday soon, but this one feels fresh.
  53. Pecker
    Finding hilarity in John Waters's latest movie title is the basic pre requisite for enjoying the goofy ingenuity of his new film.
  54. Monument Ave.
    The dialogue and the ensemble acting maintain a near-perfect pitch.
  55. One True Thing
    Bluntly, poignantly believable.
  56. Rush Hour
    At regular intervals the film stops short for similiarly nifty Chan choreography, letting the star flip, swivel, scamper up walls and hurl large objects with his feet.
  57. A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries
    In fact even the film's most dramatic moments are presented with decorousness bordering on detachment.
  58. Permanent Midnight
    Permanent Midnight is as enveloping as it is darkly cautionary, thanks to the effectively varied layers of Mr. Veloz's direction and the bitter intensity Mr. Stiller brings to his central role.
  59. Rounders
    Mischievously entertaining...Dahl's film has character in oversupply even if its actual characters are sometimes thin. Poker fever makes up for whatever the story lacks in everyday emotions.
  60. Simon Birch
    No doubt there are those who will deem Simon Birch ''heartwarming.'' It is exactly the kind of movie that has given that hackneyed superlative a bad name.
  61. Cube
    Cube, the story in question, proves surprisingly gripping, in the best ''Twilight Zone'' tradition.
  62. Without Limits
    Towne especially excels at the smaller touches that bring such connections to life, whether it's an ear for pop music or a clear familiarity with college girls, circa 1970, or the group of bonsai trees that presumably occupy Bowerman when he isn't measuring feet and molding rubber. His proudly unconventional Without Limits is filled with such souvenirs of the real world.
  63. Knock Off
    Knock Off runs breathlessly over land and water in familiar comic book fashion, offering more action than sense and next to nothing in the way of suspense, humor or romance.
  64. 54
    Years from now, if Mark Christopher's timid, meandering film 54 is spoken of at all, it will probably be lumped together with Whit Stillman's ''Last Days of Disco'' as one of two movies released in 1998 to bungle the same opportunity.
  65. Dead Man on Campus
    A predictably dumb movie made for very young audiences, playing to youth's love of excess and loaded with masturbation jokes.
  66. Your Friends & Neighbors
    The web of lies, failures and brutal revelations here is strong stuff, and it's the work of an original filmmaker who takes no prisoners.
  67. Next Stop Wonderland
    Next Stop Wonderland isn't really much more than a beautifully acted, finely edited sitcom, but it creates and sustains an intelligent, seriocomic mood better than any recent film about the urban single life.
  68. Blade
    Although the opening scene suggests a dark urban satire, Blade quickly turns into a cartoonish futuristic action-adventure yarn in which Blade is the only thing keeping humanity from being exterminated by vampires in a hematological holocaust.
  69. The Eel
    Yakusho and Ms. Shimizu deliver unerring performances in a splendid film that harvests hope from a bleak landscape.
  70. Slums of Beverly Hills
    Ms. Jenkins, who makes her writing and directing debut with wit and confidence, keeps the small surprises frequent and the coming-of-age perspective sharp.
  71. How Stella Got Her Groove Back
    The movie, adapted by Terry McMillan from her semi-autobiographical novel, is pointedly boundary-breaking in its positive portrayal of a May-September relationship between a younger man and an older woman.
  72. The Avengers
    It's a film to gall fans of the old television series and perplex anyone else.
  73. Return to Paradise
    The film's cool, sober texture and its clever characters are often more interesting than the larger plot.
  74. Snake Eyes
    A great big juicy gob of apocalyptic paranoia.
  75. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
    For horror film devotees eager to know how this unseasonable visit from the darker spirits of autumn rates, frankly, it's more marketing trick than moviegoer treat.
  76. BASEketball
    Essentially two movies stuck together like chewing gum on a subway platform. One is a dumber-than-dumb teen comedy crammed with farcical sight-gags and raunchy adolescent humor, the other a no-holds-barred satire of professional sports, and the greed, egotism and pomposity surrounding them.
  77. Ever After
    Veering wildly between farce and suds, the movie never makes up its mind whether it's a spoof, a soap opera or a feminist pep talk.
  78. The Governess
    Because the cinematography of The Governess is so richly panoramic, the movie forces you to contemplate the emotional power exerted by film.
  79. The Negotiator
    Though the film has its basis in an actual event that took place in St. Louis, it takes on the homogeneous look of many other thrillers in which an emergency escalates into a paramilitary operation.
  80. The Parent Trap
    The visual illusion that Ms. Lohan is actually two characters has been accomplished so seamlessly that it barely diverts attention from one of the film's greatest passions, its product plugs.
  81. Saving Private Ryan
    Steven Spielberg's soberly magnificent new war film, the second such pinnacle in a career of magical versatility, has been made in the same spirit of urgent communication. It is the ultimate devastating letter home.
  82. Western
    A funny, romantic film filled with cozy intimacies and lovely, wide-screen images of the French countryside.
  83. Lolita
    The film's master stroke is its understanding that this is Humbert's story, told in his own lyrical voice, from his own passionate, sad, tortured perspective.
  84. The Mask of Zorro
    This is hot-weather escapism so earnestly retrograde that it seems new.
  85. There's Something About Mary
    A romantic comedy that's a hoot in every sense, worth a smidgen of disapproval and a whole lot of helpless laughter...The film works ridiculously well because it never stoops to being mean-spirited or (despite all appearances) authentically inane.
  86. Pi
    As smart as it is, Pi is awfully hard to watch. Filmed with hand-held cameras in splotchy black-and-white and crudely edited, it has the style and attitude of a no-budget midnight movie.
  87. Lethal Weapon 4
    The characters remain funny and likable, and they all live on Earth.
  88. Armageddon
    The actors mark time, and the gung-ho heroics on display are embarrassingly hollow.
  89. Out of Sight
    The film's sleek moodiness and visual sophistication are so effective that there's even a scene here that makes Detroit look like the most romantic city in the world.
  90. Smoke Signals
    Shows colorful style and a wisdom beyond precocity about its setting and its people.
  91. Buffalo '66
    Cool, stark compositions and the occasional audacious visual trick give Buffalo '66 a memorable look even when its narrative enters the occasional uneventful stretch.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dr. Dolittle
    There is the language to consider, but despite the film's slow start, small children should take to the idea of communicating with animals.
  93. I Went Down
    I Went Down owes much of its novelty to steering clear of Irish movie stereotypes and instead showing off a spare and quizzical indie spirit.
  94. The X Files
    Though both stars are sometimes eclipsed when the film strains for big action episodes, Mr. Duchovny sustains enough cool, deadpan intellect and suppressed passion to give the story a center. Ms. Armstrong has the harsher, more restrictive role, but she plays it with familiar hardboiled glamour.
  95. Mulan
    A film that not only breaks the cross-dressing barrier but also ratchets up the violence level for children's animation.
  96. Henry Fool
    This film aspires to be a meditation on (among other things) art, trust, loyalty, politics and popular culture. With utter simplicity, and with unexpectedly intense storytelling, it achieves all that and more.
  97. Edge of Seventeen
    The movie gets the music, the clothes and the tone of the teen-age culture of that era exactly right.
  98. High Art
    To their credit, the actors immerse themselves deeply in the film's self-conscious aura. Ms. Sheedy reinvents herself as a tough, fascinating presence, while Ms. Mitchell's earnest bewilderment also serves the story well.
  99. Six Days Seven Nights
    Ms. Heche and Mr. Ford make an appealing, wisecracking team, and they look comfortable with the rugged demands of their roles.
  100. Can't Hardly Wait
    [The writers/directors] show easygoing humor and the wisdom to borrow well. Their film at various times recalls tenderhearted coming-of-age comedies from "American Graffiti" onward, with strong homage to the works of Cameron Crowe, Amy Heckerling and John Hughes.
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