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 3.1 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. Ready or Not
    There is an elegance to the premise – an otherwise straightforward cat-and-mouse chase around a gothic mansion – and a satisfying clip to the rewardingly gory action.
  2. Elvis
    It’s a riotously audacious work.
  3. Pick of the Litter
    In a tussle between the appeal of the subject and the plodding banality of the approach, the pups are ultimately the losers.
  4. Napoleon
    A man, even a man as combative as Napoleon, amounts to more than the battles he has fought. And it is in this respect that the film is less successful.
  5. Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar
    The sci-fi stuff is tedious, but Wiig and Mumolo are bawdy and brilliant as ever, their effortless chemistry bolstered by years of collaboration.
  6. The Lost King
    Whatever its inconsistencies, The Lost King is an underdog story that proves a perfect vehicle for Hawkins’s reliably winning screen presence.
  7. Notre-Dame on Fire
    What the film does best is capture the daunting rage of the fire: Annaud combines muscular action sequences with actual footage of the event to eyebrow-scorching effect.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cross of Iron
    James Mason as the commanding officer and David Warner as his adjutant are both first rate, as are Coburn and Schell. This was Peckinpah's last important work and his only war movie.
  9. Vivarium
    There’s enough visual and thematic invention to keep viewers gripped and unsettled, particularly in these unprecedented, isolated times.
  10. 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.
  11. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
    Classic rock needle drops and showy, snaking, single-shot action sequences – both GOTG trademarks – abound in a picture that balances a slightly overstuffed storyline with mischief, humour and the biggest of hearts.
    • 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)
  13. 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.
  14. Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg
    Catching Fire is more concerned with the mercurial essence of its subject than it is with the nuts and bolts of her life. We learn little, for example, about her family background.
  15. The Man Who Sold His Skin
    Provocative and challenging, if not the most subtle piece of political commentary, the film certainly cements Kaouther Ben Hania as a name to watch in Arab cinema.
  16. Downton Abbey
    It’s lighthearted stuff and mostly benign too, save its unashamedly effusive stance on the monarchy.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Train Robbers
    Enjoyable traditional western. [26 Apr 2009, p.18]
    • The Observer (UK)
  18. Gladiator II
    This sequel is so derivative of its predecessor, it’s practically a remake.
  19. Nobody
    It’s a blast.
  20. Greenland
    A first-rate B-picture, and a timely reminder of the delights of well-crafted popcorn thrills.
  21. 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.
  22. Sebastian
    It’s tender, thoughtful film-making from Finnish director Mikko Mäkelä, exploring the bond between two men separated by generations but joined by literature and love.
  23. The Apprentice
    Most intriguing is Strong’s slippery portrayal of Cohn – a man full of sharp edges and wide, swinging contradictions.
  24. Maya and the Wave
    Leaning heavily on a wealth of breathtaking slow-motion surf footage, Stephanie Johnes’s crowd-pleasing documentary tracks Gabeira’s triumph over industry sexism and a catastrophic wipeout that nearly cost her career and her life. Stirring stuff.
  25. The Bad Guys
    It’s sharp, silly and frequently very funny.
  26. Dora and the Lost City of Gold
    The result is goofily charming and a rare, age-appropriate children’s film in which the adults are silly and the kids, especially the girls, are smart.
  27. Gwen
    As a genre exercise, the film starts promisingly enough, contrasting claustrophobic, dimly lit interiors with atmospheric wides of the landscape composed like moody paintings. Worthington-Cox is compelling, by turns twitchy, tentative, stoic and bold. Still, something isn’t clicking.
  28. The Creator
    Minor quibbles aside, this is a remarkable achievement, and a persuasive argument in favour of carte blanche creative freedom for Edwards in whatever he chooses to do next.
  29. Misha and the Wolves
    A puzzle box of a structure reveals fresh angles to the story with each new contributor, but the woman at its core – the discredited author Misha Defonseca – remains silent and unaccountable, to the film’s detriment.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Bridge Too Far
    First-rate blockbuster preaching an anti-war message but laying on grand battle sequences as it recreates, coherently and convincingly, Operation Market Garden, the Allied Forces' airborne assault on Arnhem in 1944 that was intended to end the Second World War by Christmas. [19 Nov 2006, p.2]
    • The Observer (UK)
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