The New York Times' Scores

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For 20,269 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 20269
  2. Mixed: 8,428 out of 20269
  3. Negative: 2,464 out of 20269
20269 movie reviews
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    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Black Christmas
    Considering the ersatz tension and plotting, Black Christmas is hardly worth the efforts of all concerned.
  2. The Front Page
    Even though the mechanics and demands of movie-making slow what should be the furious tempo, this Front Page displays a giddy bitterness that is rare in any films except those of Mr. Wilder. It is also, much of the time, extremely funny
  3. The Towering Inferno
    Movies like The Towering Inferno appear to have been less directed than physically constructed. This one is overwrought and silly in its personal drama, but the visual spectacle is first rate. You may not come out of the theater with any important ideas about American architecture or enterprise, but you will have had a vivid, completely safe nightmare.
  4. Young Frankenstein
    As played by Gene Wilder in Mel Brooks's funniest, most cohesive comedy to date, this Dr. Frankenstein is a marvelous addled mixture of young Tom Edison, Winnie-the-Pooh, and your average Playboy reader with a keen appreciation of beautiful bosoms.
  5. The Godfather: Part II
    The only remarkable thing about Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part II is the insistent manner in which it recalls how much better his original film was...Even if Part II were a lot more cohesive, revealing, and exciting than it is, it probably would have run the risk of appearing to be the self-parody it now seems.
  6. Messiah of Evil
    The film melds a “California Girls” sensibility (the Beach Boys song, to be clear) with boho fashion and depraved supernatural horror in a way that’s feminine, mesmerizing and lurid. There’s no other horror film quite like it.
  7. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
    Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is an American comedy of the sort of vitality that dazzles European film critics and we take for granted. It's full of attachments and associations to very particular times and places, even in the various regional accents of its characters. It's beautifully written (by Robert Getchell) and acted, but it's not especially neatly tailored. [29 Jan 1975]
  8. Lenny
    One-fourth of the film is so brilliant—and so brilliantly acted by Dustin Hoffman—that it helps cool one's impatience with the rest of the film, which is much more fancily edited and photographed but no more profound than those old movie biographies Jack L. Warner used to grind out about people like George Gershwin, Mark Twain and Dr. Ehrlich.
  9. Murder on the Orient Express
    Like the lovely, extravagantly overemphasized nineteen-thirties' costumes and production designed by Tony Walton, Murder on the Orient Express is much less a literal re-creation of a type of thirties movie than an elaborate and witty tribute that never for a moment condescends to the subject.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Woman Under the Influence
    The movie didn't need to be 2 hours and 35 minutes long: there's too much small talk, which doesn't really reveal character. Still, the most frightening scenes are extremely compelling, and this is a thoughtful film that does prompt serious discussion.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Earthquake
    For those who have a soft spot for calamity pictures, there's a sense of ritual cleansing afterward. And for some reason, it also made me hungry.
  12. Phantom of the Paradise
    Phantom of the Paradise is an elaborate disaster, full of the kind of facetious humor you might find on bumper stickers and cocktail coasters.
  13. Airport 1975
    A silly, jumbo-size sequel to the original film adaptation of Arthur Hailey's Airport.
  14. The Gambler
    Mr. Caan is generally convincing, except in those classroom scenes, but all of the other actors, with the exception of James Sorvino who plays a sympathetic bookie, seem defeated by the quality of the material.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Early Spring
    This modest classic also conveys the claustrophobia of office life better than any other film I've seen.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Big Bad Mama
    As Wilma McClatchie, the widow who, along with her two teenage daughters, heads into a life of crime with nary a trace of regret, Ms. Dickinson is at her most gloriously sexy.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Phase IV
    In making his feature directorial debut after a succession of distinguished film titles, graphics and short subjects, Saul Bass, with the aid of special insect photography by Ken Middleham (Hellstrom Chronicle), has fashioned a pictorially persuasive adventure.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Longest Yard
    Though The Yard is a terrible picture, I'll admit to having unwillingly enjoyed some of the football practice and parts of the final game —even though it's much too long.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Harry and Tonto
    The narrative of this sympathetic movie wobbles on the edge of sentimentality, though there are only a few sticky moments. But—unlike the novel, which moved swiftly—it has been directed at far too slow a pace, which means that the comic possibilities and the social comment have been diminished.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
    The movie's main problem is that the protagonist - the dead head - is a bore.
  21. Together Brothers
    Street-wise older children might find it to their taste; but all the new trappings cannot disguise the fact that "Together Brothers" is an old story, being retold perhaps wisely, but not exceptionally well.
  22. California Split
    A fascinating, vivid movie, not quite comparable to any other movie that I can immediately think of. Nor is it easily categorized.
  23. Death Wish
    Death Wish is so cannily fabricated that it sometimes succeeds in arousing the most primitive kind of anger. Yet it's a despicable movie, one that raises complex questions in order to offer bigoted, frivolous, oversimplified answers.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Where the Red Fern Grows
    There is nothing pretentious or particularly ambitious about Where the Red Fern Grows, but it is a nice film about a boy and his dogs in a peaceful time long ago. [17 Mar 1985, p.28]
    • The New York Times
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    That's Entertainment!
    The pleasures are abundant: Gene Kelly squelching sublimely through puddles in Singin' in the Rain; Judy Garland singing Get Happy over a series of clips of her faces at all ages—the result is a joyful obituary.
  26. Chinatown
    Mr. Polanski and Mr. Towne attempted nothing so witty and entertaining, being content instead to make a competently stylish, more or less thirites-ish movie that continually made me wish I were back seeing "The Maltese Falcon" or "The Big Sleep." Others may not be as finicky. [21 June 1974]
    • The New York Times
  27. The Parallax View
    The movie, which directed by Alan J. Pakula, never rewards the attention we give it with anything more substantial than a few minor shocks.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Terminal Man
    The picture moves as slowly as a glacier—an image that's reinforced by the repetitive shots of long, white hospital corridors, white bathrooms and home décor—in fact, it's a white-on-white movie. There's no suspense; the only frightening moments occur when you fear it may last forever, especially during the seemingly endless operation and an interminable manhunt.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Seduction of Mimi
    In "Mimi," politics and sex are so well balanced that all the raw emotions and the devastating jokes ring true.
  30. Herbie Rides Again
    The problem with comedies as witless as this is that the villains are much more appealing than the good guys. One winds up rooting for the fellows who would tear down the Plaza to put up a 100‐story, glass‐andbrass breadstick.
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