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. We Live in Time
    We Live in Time is let down by the jarring product placement (take a bow, Weetabix and Jaffa Cakes) and by the aggressively anodyne score, which sounds like the kind of reassuring, hand-holding mulch that might be played in a dentist’s waiting room.
  2. All Is True
    I like Branagh’s eye for landscapes too; space is used elegantly, while widescreen canvases glow green and orange.
  3. Godzilla vs. Kong
    The spectacle is more involving than the plot, especially the dazzling image of Kong floating skyward, serene and surrounded by purple glowing rocks.
  4. What's Love Got to Do with It?
    The sparky chemistry between James and Latif leaves few surprises in how it all pans out, but it’s an unexpectedly, disarmingly sweet film.
  5. No Hard Feelings
    The unstoppable force of Lawrence’s charisma notwithstanding, this is not so much tasteless, just a bit bland.
  6. Doctor Sleep
    The new material is fresher and considerably more fun.
  7. Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno
    Kechiche is quite brilliant at using stretches of time to create space for actors to let their characters breathe. It’s a sleight of hand that makes the intimacy on screen seem as though it’s unfolding organically, deployed to particularly dexterous effect in one sequence that takes place in a bar.
  8. Lizzie
    Most irritating is the murder scene itself, which sees both women stripping nude, seemingly in order for the camera to leer more effectively at their bodies rather than to spare them getting their petticoats bloodied.
  9. On the Basis of Sex
    This brilliant original thinker is crowbarred into a stolidly conventional “triumph against the odds” narrative. It’s not an entirely terrible film. It’s just not the film that RBG deserves.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Finian's Rainbow
    The 1947 Broadway hit (which flopped in the West End) is an uneasy blend of Irish blarney, American whimsy and social satire (directed against Southern racists), but it's handled with freshness and vigour by Francis Coppola in his first job for a Hollywood major. [08 Mar 1988, p.13]
    • The Observer (UK)
  11. Good Grief
    Levy, who also wrote the screenplay and stars in the picture, has made a satisfyingly adult, bittersweet drama which argues that even a seemingly gilded life can be painfully messy.
  12. Dating Amber
    As Amber becomes more comfortable with her queerness, the taciturn Eddie retreats inwards. Their parallel journeys dispense with a one-size-fits-all coming-out narrative and are handled with a lightness of touch by Irish writer and director David Freyne.
  13. The Forgiven
    Lorne Balfe’s sparsely used music leaves plenty of open spaces for the drama to breathe, as if inviting the audience to fill in the blanks with an internal accompaniment (tragic? Comedic? Ironic?) of their own choosing.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Mack
    Incoherent, idiotic and exhilarating. [28 Apr 1996, p.16]
    • The Observer (UK)
  15. Dalíland
    The great missed opportunity of this film, with its glossy, handsome design and cinematography, and its genteel orchestral score, is how polite and unadventurous it is – something that could never be said of Dalí himself.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Memphis Belle
    Skilfully crafted account of the final bombing raid over Germany in 1943 of a Flying Fortress, inspired by William Wyler's wartime documentary of the same title. Produced by David Puttam it avoids the worst cliches and gets affecting performance from its young all-American aircrew. [16 Jan 2005, p.87]
    • The Observer (UK)
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Summer of '42
    A self-consciously nostalgic piece, with Oscar-winning music, immaculate detail, and made while soldiers were dying in Vietnam. [05 Aug 2007, p.8]
    • The Observer (UK)
  18. Those Who Wish Me Dead
    Unfortunately, the second half is over-reliant on flashy disaster set pieces, blazing towards a predictable, melodramatic conclusion.
  19. Joker
    Subtlety is not Phillips’s strong point. What he does have is an eye for a well-chosen location, an ear for a provocative line of dialogue and a finger on the pulse of very marketable, confrontational (if also “cynical”) entertainment. Add to this an incendiary central performance by Phoenix and Joker looks set to have the last laugh.
  20. The Little Mermaid
    It’s functionally good-natured rehash fare, bogged down by some watery CG and a few uncomfortable dips into “uncanny valley”, yet buoyed up by Bailey’s winning titular performance.
  21. Natural Light
    In theory, natural light is more forgiving than its artificial counterpart: in photographs, it makes the subject look less harsh. Less so here.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Magician
    It's amusing and weirdly convincing.
  23. What Happens Later
    It’s a tonal mess, a film that aims to be an adorably quirky romcom but plays out as such a surreally purgatorial ordeal.
  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. F9: The Fast Saga
    Prior acquaintance with the eight previous instalments of this colossal action movie franchise isn’t necessary for enjoyment of this one – the film’s muscle cars and maximalist approach continue to serve it well.
  26. Freaky Tales
    With its VHS bargain-bin aesthetic, this is scuzzily enjoyable stuff.
  27. 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.
  28. High & Low: John Galliano
    Given the vested interest that the business has in the industry and its highly lucrative maverick son, it’s surprising and refreshing that High & Low is as nuanced and thought-provoking as it is.
  29. The Mule
    It’s perfectly watchable but a film with this puttering pace is never going to get the blood racing.
  30. The Midnight Sky
    Set pieces . . . are thrilling and judiciously spaced. The performances Clooney draws out are even better.
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