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. Solarbabies
    There are times when it appears that Solarbabies might be sending itself up. All of the time, it's an embarrassment.
  2. An American Tail
    An American Tail looks good but the tale itself, as conceived by David Kirschner for the screenplay by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss, is witless if well-meaning. It's mostly bland, though every now and then it rises to express its own brand of kiddie-bigotry.
  3. The Wraith
    Mr. Cassavetes is effectively black-hearted, and makes a striking figure, and Randy Quaid does a lot with the underdeveloped role of a local sheriff. Mr. Marvin directs at a brisk pace, but his screenplay, though lively, seems to be written in an alien language.
  4. Firewalker
    It stars Chuck Norris in what his associates describe as ''the first comedy role in his action-packed career.'' How can they tell? Certainly not from the film, which is lightweight without being lighthearted.
  5. Hoosiers
    This film's very lack of surprise and sophistication accounts for a lot of its considerable charm.
  6. The Decline of the American Empire
    Mr. Arcand's dialogue is not didactic. It's spontaneously funny and rueful and full of oblique revelations. Though highly intelligent, his characters are prone to self-delusion. They're nothing if not civilized, but they don't hesitate to lie and cheat in their own interests.
  7. Every Time We Say Goodbye
    Tom Hanks is utterly out of place in the Israeli romance Every Time We Say Goodbye...for at least two reasons: because there's something so innately comic about him, even in solemn surroundings, and because he has so much more energy than the film does.
  8. Something Wild
    Something Wild is often "Something Wrong."
  9. Sid and Nancy
    Sid and Nancy doesn't try to win its audience's sympathy in any conventional way, which is just as well, since that would have been a losing battle. But it does succeed in offering bleak, nasty and sometimes hilarious glimpses of life in the punk demimonde.
  10. Betty Blue
    Too often, Betty Blue has the posturing good looks of a fashion spread and nothing more.
  11. 52 Pick-Up
    ELMORE LEONARD'S thrillers leap so easily to the screen that it's astounding so few of them have gotten there. Even with the kind of slapdash, unsightly production that's been given 52 Pick-Up, Mr. Leonard's stories make terrific, unself-conscious B-movies of the sort that are more and more rare.
  12. The Sacrifice
    It may not be your glass of tea; it's a tall glass, through which events are seen murkily. Those who stay with it, however, may find rewards in burst after burst of beauty and even a glimmer of meaning.
  13. The Mission
    A singularly lumpy sort of movie. The film's most riveting sequence comes at the very beginning, when we see a crucified Jesuit missionary being tossed - cross and all - into the river and carried over the spectacular Iguassu Falls. Nothing that follows, including more pretty scenery and quaint costumes, comes close to equaling the drama of that one sequence - about a character who remains forever anonymous.
  14. Soul Man
    It has a breezy, unapologetic manner. And it also happens to be funny, which goes a long way toward making up for any underlying obtuseness or insensitivity.
  15. Trick or Treat
    It's genial, not too frightening and even rather sweet.
  16. From Beyond
    The symbolism here is dream-book basic.
  17. The Color of Money
    ''The Color of Money'' isn't ''Mean Streets'' or ''Raging Bull.'' It is, however, a stunning vehicle - a white Cadillac among the other mainstream American movies of the season.
  18. Peggy Sue Got Married
    Most of the time, Peggy Sue Got Married is either underdeveloped or simply not thought through. The way the film gets Peggy Sue into and out of the past is no less lame than the explanation for Bobby Ewing's recent resurrection in "Dallas." So much key information is missing or left uncertified or undramatized that the film appears to have been edited by termites.
  19. True Stories
    True Stories may well appeal more to those who don't know much about Mr. Byrne's music career than those who do. The soundtrack songs have the catchy simplicity of Talking Heads' most recent and least demanding compositions. And the film's imagery, expertly captured in bold, bright colors by Ed Lachman, will be even more striking to those who find it novel.
  20. Deadly Friend
    Deadly Friend is stylish and sardonic enough to offer horror fans some knowing laughs and a pleasant relief from shrieking.
  21. Children of a Lesser God
    Watching Children of a Lesser God, the screen adaptation of Mark Medoff's 1980 Broadway play, is like being on a cruise to nowhere aboard a ship with decent service and above-par fast-food. Everything has been carefully programmed so that there are no surprises, no discoveries, nothing to do except to sit -with eyes propped open - and applaud the crew's efficiency.
  22. Tough Guys
    The director, Jeff Kanew, does not have as steady a hand as the old-timers. What he does have is sense enough to let our memories of all those Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas movies work on us.
  23. 'Round Midnight
    The screenplay, by Mr. Tavernier and David Rayfiel, is both rich and relaxed, with a style that perfectly matches the musicians'. Some of the talk may well be improvised, but nothing sounds improvised, but nothing sounds forced, and the film remains effortlessly idiosyncratic all the way through.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Crocodile Dundee
    Paul Hogan is a delightful Crocodile Dundee. He has an easy, extremely likable screen personality -a mixture of warmth, sex appeal, disarming innocence and dry humor.
  25. Private Practices: The Story of a Sex Surrogate
    Sympathetic account of a sort of human frailty that is not easy to talk about, much less make a movie about.
  26. The Name of the Rose
    The movie is full of the kind of atmosphere that can be created by elaborate sets, dim lighting and misty landscapes, though it has no singular character or dominant mood.
  27. Down by Law
    The excitement of Down by Law comes not from what it's about. Reduced to its plot, it is very slight. But the plot isn't the point. The excitement comes from the realization that we are seeing a true film maker at work, using film to create a narrative that couldn't exist on the stage or the printed page of a novel.
  28. Blue Velvet
    As fascinating as it is freakish. It confirms Mr. Lynch's stature as an innovator, a superb technician, and someone best not encountered in a dark alley.
  29. The Men's Club
    Now and then, there is some horseplay involving the whole group or an angry exchange between a couple of them, but mostly we're watching a set of shticks, some amusing, some not. It's like being at an Actor's Studio showcase.
  30. Born American
    Comprised of so many derivative bits and pieces that it's not surprising the movie has too little narrative coherence or momentum to keep us going, and no characters we care about enough to root for.
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