The New York Times' Scores

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For 20,312 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: 9,400 out of 20312
  2. Mixed: 8,446 out of 20312
  3. Negative: 2,466 out of 20312
20312 movie reviews
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  1. The Thin Red Line
    One more film that could have been helped by excising repetition and focusing performances, but it wanders almost randomly instead. The heart-piercing moments that punctuate its rambling are glimpses of what a tighter film might have been.
  2. Forever Mine
    Everyone on screen is relentlessly gloomy, as if parched for a drop of wit, which isn't forthcoming.
  3. Affliction
    Succeeds in finding something larger than one man's misery. It turns dark truthfulness into the cinematic sentiment most worth celebrating this season.
  4. Hilary and Jackie
    One of the most insightful and wrenching portraits of the joys and tribulations of being a classical musician ever filmed.
  5. The Faculty
    This mediocre sci-fi horror film about an Ohio high school being taken over by thirsty space aliens intent on world domination breaks no new ground. But it has an engaging cast.
  6. Stepmom
    To its credit, the film doesn't sugarcoat its women too monstrously, and it lets real conflicts and opinions occasionally creep in.
  7. A Civil Action
    It tells a finely nuanced tale of right, wrong and the gray area in between.
  8. Patch Adams
    Low humor might count for more here if it weren't constantly overshadowed by the film's maudlin streak.
  9. Mighty Joe Young
    Mighty Joe Young, directed by Ron Underwood from a screenplay by Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner, is saddled with dialogue so wooden that Mr. Paxton and Ms. Theron almost seem animatronic themselves. Little children won't notice. In Joe, they can identify with the biggest, cuddliest simian toy a 6-year-old could ever hope to own.
  10. Down in the Delta
    The movie, which often threatens to disappear into a tub of soapsuds, is elevated immeasurably by the calm, stately performances of Mary Alice and Mr. Freeman.
  11. The Theory of Flight
    The novelty of hearing Ms. Bonham Carter spew four-letter words fades quickly. So does the sight of Mr. Branagh elaborately rehearsing how to rob a bank. This versatile actor has many strengths, but as his wooden turn in ''Celebrity'' has already demonstrated, comedy isn't one of them.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. A Simple Plan
    When you get the shivers watching this wintry tale unfold, it won't be from the cold.
  16. 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.
  17. Shakespeare in Love
    Shakespeare meets Sherlock, and makes for pure enchantment in the inspired conjecture behind Shakespeare in Love.
  18. Rushmore
    It's too smart to be maudlin.
  19. 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.
  20. Little Voice
    Horrocks's phenomenal mimicry of musical grande dames...makes a splendid centerpiece for the otherwise more ordinary film built around it.
  21. Psycho
    It remains the most structurally elegant and sneakily playful of thrillers. At least some things never change.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. A Bug's Life
    Makes jaunty, imaginative use of both extraordinary technology and bold storytelling possibilities within the insect world.
  25. 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.
  26. 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.
  27. 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.
  28. Central Station
    There's plenty of room for sentimentality here, but the wonder of Salles' film is all in the telling.
  29. The Rugrats Movie
    The pleasant surprise is that the film is a delight.
  30. 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.
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