The New York Times' Scores

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For 20,280 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: 9,381 out of 20280
  2. Mixed: 8,435 out of 20280
  3. Negative: 2,464 out of 20280
20280 movie reviews
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  1. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
    The New Blood only wishes it had something really new to add to the formula...There is a lot less blood, less screaming, less energy in this installment, as if Jason has become rather bored with his job.
  2. Maniac Cop
    The acting is stiff, the dialogue is stiffer and the action scenes are laborious. Even the presence of professionals like Sheree North and Richard Roundtree, in small roles, tend to diminish them rather than improve the film.
  3. Wings of Desire
    Startlingly original at first, Wings of Desire is in the end damagingly overloaded. The excesses of language, the ceaseless camera movement, the unyielding whimsy have the ultimate effect of wearing the audience down. (Review of Original Release)
  4. My Best Friend Is a Vampire
    My Best Friend Is a Vampire does manage to come up with a few witty scenes.
  5. Critters 2
    Critters 2 piles up every stock movie idea you can remember about small-town heroism, macho sheriffs and alien invaders. But whenever it shows a glimmer of wit about those cliches, it leaps back to its safe, dull, derivative style.
  6. Two Moon Junction
    A breast-and-buttock show for the soft-porn set...What these repellent people have in common are their great chests and abundant hair. ''You excite me so much I can't help myself,'' says Perry. ''This has never happened to me before,'' says April.
  7. Powaqqatsi
    Powaqqatsi, which is the second part of a planned trilogy, reaffirms Mr. Reggio's diligence and sincerity, though it does not signficantly advance his achievement.
  8. Bagdad Cafe
    Bagdad Cafe is too slow-paced to work as a comedy, and its screenplay manages simultaneously to be both shapeless and pat.
  9. Above the Law
    Come the end of the year, Above the Law may well rank among the top three or four goofiest bad movies of 1988.
  10. Lady in White
    Here are the bones of an ordinary ghost story. But the writer and director Frank LaLoggia brings them to life with exceptional vitality.
  11. Brain Damage
    Written and directed by Frank Henenlotter, this oozer specializes in unspecial effects and unspeakable acting. Strictly for the brain damaged.
  12. My Neighbor Totoro
    When My Neighbor Totoro, which was written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, is dispensing enchantment, it can be very charming. Too much of the film, however, is taken up with stiff, mechanical chitchat.
  13. Colors
    Though it all comes together, most tragically, at the conclusion, Colors is less notable for its plot than for its chilling urgency and its sense of pure style.
  14. Tokyo Pop
    You don't have to be a fan of rock music to get a kick out of Tokyo Pop, a wedding of American and Japanese youth cultures as seen through a fun-house mirror.
  15. 18 Again!
    References to Harry Truman and the Roaring Twenties are perhaps meant to appeal to an older audience, as is Red Buttons as Jack's friend, but ''18 Again'' isn't successfully aimed at anyone in particular.
  16. Bright Lights, Big City
    It may not capture Mr. McInerney's novel completely or even succeed in standing on its own, but it does go a long way toward bringing the book to life. If Mr. McInerney's readers think it incomplete, they should also find it enjoyably familiar.
  17. Beetlejuice
    Elaborate as this sounds, there really isn't much plot here, only a parade of arbitrary visual tricks to hold the film together.
  18. Biloxi Blues
    Biloxi Blues, carefully adapted and reshaped by Mr. Simon, is a very classy movie, directed and toned up by Mike Nichols so there's not an ounce of fat in it.
  19. Johnny Be Good
    But mostly the satire is as dated as the recruiters' plaid jackets, as lame as the Johnny Walker joke.
  20. Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach
    But the formula is pretty long in the tooth by now, and all the extra turns of plot can't disguise that.
  21. Little Nikita
    Richard Benjamin's strategy in directing Little Nikita seems to have been to paper over the holes in the plot with routine moves from spy shows past, in hopes of making the improbable passable.
  22. Stand and Deliver
    Mr. Olmos seems to be living and breathing this role rather than merely playing it, and his enthusiasm really catches on.
  23. Vice Versa
    The film's best scenes are those between the goofily nonchalant Mr. Reinhold and the precociously stern Mr. Savage, however bluntly these moments call attention to the craziness of the premise.
  24. Prison
    Prison has a generic, low-budget name, and for once you can judge a movie by its title. This prison-drama-meets-ghost-story turns out to be an object lesson in how cheaply and badly a film can be made.
  25. Moving
    Moving isn't anything out of the ordinary, but those who have shared at least some of these experiences ought to find it amusing.
  26. Babette's Feast
    All of this is by way of being the prelude to the film's extended, funny and moving final sequence, a spectacular feast, the preparation and execution of which reveal Babette's secret and the nature of her sustaining glory.
  27. Hairspray
    The actors are best when they avoid exaggeration and remain weirdly sincere. That way, they do nothing to break the vibrant, even hallucinogenic spell of Mr. Waters's nostalgia.
  28. Frantic
    Frantic generates its suspense precisely because it appears so reasonable, because it takes such a calm, methodical approach to the maddening events that lure Dr. Walker into the maelstrom.
  29. Hope and Glory
    Hope and Glory has an invitingly nostalgic spirit and a fine eye for the magical details that a little boy might notice.
  30. School Daze
    Neither this anger nor Mr. Lee's daring is ever given free rein. Instead of a sharp satire or even an "Animal House" variation (since fraternity life is central to its story), School Daze is a collection of musical numbers, dramatic episodes, attempts at parody and cinematic wild cards, bound together only loosely by Mr. Lee's prevailing sense of outrage.
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