The New York Times' Scores

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For 20,323 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: 9,408 out of 20323
  2. Mixed: 8,448 out of 20323
  3. Negative: 2,467 out of 20323
20323 movie reviews
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  1. Indian Point
    Ms. Meeropol is steadfast in providing both sides of the story. That’s admirable, yet it can come across as uninvolving.
  2. Men Go to Battle
    The filmmakers’ bold pushback against the rigid formality of the genre they draw upon doesn’t always deliver. With the exception of Ms. Korine, the performers often seem to have a hard time shaking off the aura of the contemporary. Nevertheless, there’s much of value here.
  3. The Debt
    Slow and sincere, The Debt bites off more plot than it can dramatically chew, its characters — especially the go-between played by the excellent Argentine actor Alberto Ammann — diluted by political maneuvering.
  4. Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You
    Effective topical entertainment, we are reminded, rarely comes without creative conflict.
  5. Fathers and Daughters
    The spectacle of actors of the quality of Russell Crowe, Aaron Paul, Janet McTeer, Octavia Spencer and Jane Fonda earnestly struggling to wring eye moisture from hammy, flat-footed dialogue (credited to Brad Desch, an unknown), while maintaining some dignity, is depressing proof that an actor is only as good as his or her material.
  6. Captain Fantastic
    It’s left to Mr. Mortensen, who can make menace feel like vulnerability — and turn vulnerability into a confession — to keep the movie from slipping into sentimentality. He’s the most obvious reason to see it, although Mr. Ross’s insistence on taking your intelligence for granted is itself a great turn on.
  7. Zero Days
    Zero Days has a similarly balanced outlook along with a critical political viewpoint that avoids hysteria and demagogy. Its strongest protest is against what Mr. Gibney sees as the dangers of excessive American secrecy.
  8. Cell
    Dated, despondent and pretty much a disaster, Cell plays like a series of nods to other science fiction-horror hybrids, notably “The Matrix” (1999) and Philip Kaufman’s 1978 remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
  9. Our Little Sister
    Seeming to wander through small incidents and mundane busyness, it acquires momentum and dramatic weight through a brilliant kind of narrative stealth. You are shaken, by the end, at how much you care about these women and how sorry you are to leave their company.
  10. Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
    Witless, soulless, often amateurish and filled with product placements (nice going, Coors), the movie has nothing going for it other than some wasted talent.
  11. Cold War 2
    It is a summer sequel worth its salt, a brisk exercise in suspense and high-gloss mayhem.
  12. The Secret Life of Pets
    The Secret Life of Pets is adequate animated entertainment, amusing while it lasts but not especially memorable except as a catalog of compromises and missed opportunities.
  13. Under the Sun
    The movie raises disquieting questions, including a few that Mr. Mansky might not have meant to.
  14. The Innocents
    Blistering.
  15. Microbe and Gasoline
    Time and again, Microbe and Gasoline risks cuteness without going overboard. Too easily taken for granted, its accomplishment is its ability to gaze steadily with warmth but minimal sentimentality at the world through unjaded 14-year-old eyes.
  16. Roseanne for President!
    Fascinating.
  17. Marauders
    Marauders lays out a scenario in the first 40 minutes or so that, oddly enough, makes you think “this is not an entirely uninteresting premise for a thriller.” But after that, things devolve into “this is extremely far-fetched” and, finally, “this is goofy.”
  18. Life, Animated
    Belaboring the cartoon connection, the director leaves the family struggles that enrich Mr. Suskind’s 2014 book of the same title stubbornly veiled.
  19. Carnage Park
    Its dialogue would probably fit on a couple of sheets of paper. But it sure is creepy, in a throwback sort of way.
  20. The Purge: Election Year
    The Purge: Election Year takes itself just seriously enough to provide the expected measure of fun — a blend of aggression, release and relief. A lot of people die, but no one really gets hurt.
  21. Our Kind of Traitor
    The director Susanna White makes a lot of strange choices, including the dark, fussy visuals best described as stained-glass noir. As an Expressionist choice, it doesn’t make much sense. Then again, neither does much of Our Kind of Traitor, which has loads of twists and all the ritualistic pessimism you expect, but none of the political and moral outrage that might have elevated this genre story into a le Carré one.
  22. The BFG
    There are delights on display, but not many surprises...The BFG is a different kind of movie, and Mr. Rylance’s face and body have been enhanced and distorted by digital sorcery, but his unique blend of gravity and mischief imbues his fanciful character with a dimension of soul that the rest of the movie lacks.
    • The New York Times
      • Posted Jun 30, 2016
  23. The Legend of Tarzan
    The Legend of Tarzan has a whole lot of fun, big-screen things going for it — adventure, romance, natural landscapes, digital animals and oceans of rippling handsome man-muscle. Its sweep and easy pleasures come from its old-fashioned escapades — it’s one long dash through the jungle by foot, train, boat and swinging vine — but what makes it more enjoyable than other recycled stories of this type is that the filmmakers have given Tarzan a thoughtful, imperfect makeover.
  24. Independence Day: Resurgence
    The lackluster, at times abysmal writing wouldn’t much matter if Resurgence popped visually or featured a charismatic star who could lift a movie as effortlessly as Will Smith did in the first feature.
  25. T-Rex
    You don’t have to be a boxing fan to be awed by Claressa Shields, the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport. But if you are, you’ll still be knocked out.
  26. The Kind Words
    Humor creeps in from strange sources, including a seller of funeral packages and a march through a Paris graveyard. And while not every motivation is clear, subtext isn’t everything in a movie as complex and satisfying as this one.
  27. Yarn
    It isn’t perfect — it’s a little too airy and artsy in spots — but still, thread and string should be jealous.
  28. From This Day Forward
    In marriage and parenthood, one size doesn’t fit all. Marcia’s words at the wedding about surmounting differences speak volumes about love’s adaptability.
  29. Breaking a Monster
    What’s troubling is the film’s slow and steady exposure of a music business machine that gobbles up individuality and spits out a sellable package.
  30. Les Cowboys
    Unfolding with a reticence that’s occasionally confusing, Les Cowboys presents a suggestive, almost abstract take on terror and the generational toxicity of bigotry.
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