The Observer (UK)'s Scores

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For 1,641 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 51% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.2 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Enys Men
Lowest review score: 20 Book Club: The Next Chapter
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 894 out of 1641
  2. Mixed: 714 out of 1641
  3. Negative: 33 out of 1641
1641 movie reviews
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  1. Atlantics
    It’s silkily enigmatic and unpredictable, and certainly unlike anything else you will see this year.
  2. Bird Box Barcelona
    With Bird Box: Barcelona, as with any film of this outlandish ilk, suspension of disbelief and an appreciation of propulsively destructive action sequences is key. Just don’t expect too many fresh ideas.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Destination Tokyo
    Best-known for his westerns, screenwriter Daves made a considerable impression with this patriotic World War II movie about the hazardous mission by a submarine to gather information inside Tokyo Bay to prepare the way for the first US air-raid on Japan. Cary Grant gives an authoritative performance as the cool commander. [05 Mar 2000, p.10]
    • The Observer (UK)
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    I'll See You in My Dreams
    Engaging, occasionally downbeat monochrome biopic of pop-composer Gus Kahn (Danny Thomas) and his devoted wife (Doris Day) who stood beside him through his affairs, the Wall Street Crash and his subsequent breakdown. [15 Dec 2002, p.8]
    • The Observer (UK)
  5. Mandy
    There are many things to enjoy here, not least the force of Cage’s performance as incensed lumberjack Red (and, it must be said, his scream).
  6. Charlie's Angels
    The picture comes armed to the teeth with slick action sequences . . . and genuinely funny lines. It’s just a pity that both the action and the dialogue are occasionally obscured by the frenzied editing.
  7. An American Pickle
    Millennial self-interest and performative liberal politics are contrasted with “authentic”, let-it-all-hang-out conservatism. It’s a simplistic critique. Still, the frequently charming Rogen brings enough of his affable, nice guy credibility to each character to ground both loose cannon Herschel and his straight man foil.
  8. The Two Popes
    It doesn’t all work; the flashbacks are unwieldy and the pacing falters in the second half. It’s also rather coy in addressing some of the more damning elements in recent Catholic history. But there’s something disarming about a scene of papal bonding over beer and footy.
  9. Gladiator II
    This sequel is so derivative of its predecessor, it’s practically a remake.
  10. The Universal Theory
    An impenetrable plot doesn’t entirely hold together, but the film is worth a look for fans of wigged-out sci-fi, gorgeous framing and lush, orchestral, Bernard Herrmann-inspired soundtracks.
  11. Spies in Disguise
    What keeps it from top-tier animation status is that, while the relentless killer drone army usually hits its targets, the jokes don’t always connect.
  12. Joy
    Given the emotive subject matter, the film chooses to keep the potential mothers at arm’s length as characters, losing tear-jerking opportunities as a consequence.
  13. Men
    It’s a playfully twisted affair – not quite as profound as it seems to think, perhaps, but boasting enough squishy metaphorical slime to ensure that its musings upon textbook male characteristics are rarely dull, and sometimes deliciously disgusting.
  14. Give Me Pity!
    Kramer’s vision is distinctive: playful and jarringly lurid. Give Me Pity! is a one-off – and that’s probably a good thing.
  15. My Rembrandt
    My Rembrandt is at its most interesting when struggling to reconcile the slow, careful work of art restoration with the crass, instant gratification on acquiring such rarefied objects.
  16. Scarborough
    Southcombe deftly threads together the two stories with echoes in the dialogue and in the location.
  17. Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
    It’s not uninvolving. The picture takes its own sweet time getting going, but a satisfying momentum builds through the multiple, interlinked storylines.
  18. Kinds of Kindness
    It’s impossible to endure all this – the film is sporadically funny but it’s also emotionally arid, mannered, and overlong – without making a link between the power plays on screen and Lanthimos’s approach as a film-maker.
  19. Elizabeth: A Portrait in Part(s)
    Although it may not bring revelations, there’s an informality and intimacy to this portrait that is unexpectedly pleasing.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    A Lion Is in the Streets
    An effective, superficial film, much inferior to All the Kings Men, which was also based on Louisianas governor Huey Long. [30 Jan 2000]
    • The Observer (UK)
  21. CODA
    The film is a meticulously, perhaps even cynically crafted crowd-pleaser. Even those alive to its tactics might find themselves wiping away a tear or two.
  22. Nightbitch
    Nightbitch would have worked better if it had been pushed further in either direction – as an intimate interrogation, or as a full-bore bestial freakout. This uneasy middle ground feels like a missed opportunity.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Brannigan
    Amiable thriller merging Fabian of the Yard with Dirty Harry. [21 Mar 2004, p.91]
    • The Observer (UK)
  24. It: Chapter Two
    It adds up to a peculiar mix of the crowd-pleasing and the patience-testing, veering wildly between the entertaining and the frustrating, built round a story that ventures inexorably underground without ever getting to the heart of what lies beneath.
  25. Pain Hustlers
    It’s predictable but glossily watchable. The main redeeming feature is the crackling charisma of Emily Blunt, in the central role of a down-on-her-luck single mum turned pharma marketing genius.
  26. Foe
    Mescal and Ronan are captivating: her watchful, raw-nerved longing; his stinging sense of betrayal. It almost eases us past an overwrought final twist. Almost, but not quite.
  27. MaXXXine
    Gore addicts will be sated – the prosthetics and makeup are robustly grisly – but the story feels rather too glib and predictable to be fully satisfying.
  28. Article 15
    Ayushmann Khurrana, playing the good cop who can’t bring himself to look away to preserve “society’s balance”, combines soulful Bollywood heartthrob charisma with an arrestingly intense performance.
  29. Mulan
    It’s a film that cries out to be seen in the cinema. Disney’s decision to bypass a theatrical release in favour of streaming does a disservice to both the film and its audience.
  30. Fever Dream
    The film’s actual pay off – the truth exhumed from this tainted earth – is ultimately not quite as satisfying as the picture’s elegantly constructed mood.
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