The Seattle Times' Scores

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For 1,951 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 63% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 34% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.8 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Gladiator
Lowest review score: 0 It's Pat: The Movie
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,401 out of 1951
  2. Mixed: 293 out of 1951
  3. Negative: 257 out of 1951
1951 movie reviews
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  1. RoboCop 2
    Kershner never succeeds in creating anything more than a well-done carbon copy, self-consciously recycling themes and visual ideas from the first film while adding very little that he can call his own. If you've seen Verhoeven's RoboCop, there's no compelling reason to rush out and catch this talented imitation. [22 June 1990, p.22]
    • The Seattle Times
  2. Betsy's Wedding
    What gives Betsy's Wedding distinction is the writing and casting of an initially peripheral figure, an unnervingly polite young gangster played by Anthony LaPaglia, a television and off-Broadway veteran making his big-screen debut. [22 Jun 1990, p.25]
    • The Seattle Times
  3. Dick Tracy
    It's a pointless, $30 million mediocrity with a disengaged star-director at its center. [15 Jun 1990, p.3]
    • The Seattle Times
  4. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
    What lends it novelty and makes it such wicked fun is the change of locale from a Capra-esque small town to rude, hectic New York City.
  5. Fire Birds
    Fire Birds reduces it all to kiss-kiss-bang-bang, and the implication that a few theater-rattling explosions will turn the enemy to toast forever. The only blessing is that it runs less than 90 minutes.
  6. Cadillac Man
    An indigestible blend of sentiment and gross-out humor, Cadillac Man is an appalling choice for Robin Williams to have made at this stage in his career. [18 May 1990, p.28]
    • The Seattle Times
  7. Bird on a Wire
    Cynical, over-hyped and enthusiastically brainless, Bird on a Wire demonstrates the programmed, soul-less bankruptcy of the Hollywood hit-making system in the early 1990s. [18 May 1990, p.28]
    • The Seattle Times
  8. Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
    Harrison is more interested in teasing than frightening an audience to death, but he still manages to deliver several strong jolts. So does the cast of first-rate actors, who obviously had a marvelous time turning themselves into goons, cannibals, gargoyles and ghouls. [04 May 1990, p.28]
    • The Seattle Times
  9. Last Exit to Brooklyn
    An oddly overblown, semi-operatic adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr.'s once-banned 1964 novel about life among the abused prostitutes, lonely sailors, lonelier drag queens, repressed homosexuals and gay-bashing pimps along the hellish waterfront district of Brooklyn in 1952. [11 May 1990, p.22]
    • The Seattle Times
  10. Wild Orchid
    The year is still young, but it's not likely to yield a more profoundly vacuous movie than Wild Orchid. [28 Apr 1990, p.C5]
    • The Seattle Times
  11. The Guardian
    As recent horror movies go, The Guardian isn't terrible - it's more suspenseful and coherent than Nightbreed or Leatherface, and Friedkin's flair for the genre does surface here and there. But it's hard to care about the outcome when the people are such sticks. [27 Apr 1990, p.20]
    • The Seattle Times
  12. Q & A
    On a visual level, Lumet states this case so well that he doesn't need to hammer it home verbally. [27 Apr 1990, p.3]
    • The Seattle Times
  13. Spaced Invaders
    The special effects are quite impressive for a low-budget production, although the classiest thing about it is the voice of Welles, whose verbal dramatization of the Martian invasion still chills. [27 Apr 1990, p.20]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 72 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Miami Blues
    Tight, hilarious and - in its final shots - strangely moving, "Miami Blues" is a marvelously invigorating piece of work. [20 Apr 1990, p.3]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Crazy People
    The romance falls dismally flat - Hannah and Moore often appear in the same frame, but there's nothing going on between them. [12 Apr 1990, p.F6]
    • The Seattle Times
  16. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
    Greenaway keeps his wits about him. His vision of human evil is as droll as it is unrelenting. Trained as a painter, he can't help making this particular hell look gorgeous. "The Cook, the Thief, etc." is, paradoxically, a beautiful, drily witty film about monstrous vulgarity and ugliness. [6 Apr 1990, p.22]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 40 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ernest Goes to Jail
    Last week, it was Ninja Turtles. This week, it's Ernest. And Ernest, quite frankly, is an improvement. It's more colorful, cartoonish, imaginative. And it feels like a movie, not just an advertising ploy. [07 Apr 1990, p.C5]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 35 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The First Power
    No matter what its virtues are, this Satanic gobbledy-gook still tastes like gobbledy-gook. [09 Apr 1990, p.E3]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Cry-Baby
    It all adds up to zany, wide-eyed, quintessential Waters havoc - the ``kinder, gentler'' 1990s brand, perhaps. But the genuine article, nonetheless. Enjoy.
  20. The Fourth War
    Maybe there's a serious movie to be made about professional soldiers who can't thaw out now that the Cold War is melting. But The Fourth War plays like Laurel and Hardy's Tit For Tat in slow motion. [23 Mar 1990, p.24]
    • The Seattle Times
  21. A Shock to the System
    The character is manipulative, unsympathetic and quite depraved, but Caine plays him with such wicked glee that it's impossible to resist watching and vicariously enjoying his descent into corruption. [23 Mar 1990, p.26]
    • The Seattle Times
  22. Blue Steel
    Neither the actress nor her director disgrace themselves, and Curtis does suggest a commitment to her character that goes above and beyond the limitations of the script, but they've both done more interesting work. [16 Mar 1990, p.26]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lord of the Flies
    Like its predecessor, this new screen version of the book may work well enough for those happy with a simple story, simply told. But for Golding fans, it can only feel like another opportunity missed. [16 Mar 1990, p.3]
    • The Seattle Times
  24. Blind Fury
    Blind Fury is cheerfully stupid, deliberately cartoonish and always self-mocking. [17 Mar 1990, p.C5]
    • The Seattle Times
  25. Joe Versus the Volcano
    Shanley demonstrates a fresh, giddy talent for visualizing his eccentric comedy ideas. [9 Mar 1990, p.20]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 63 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Bad Influence
    Bad Influence is easy on the eye and snazzily scored by Trevor Jones. But it never really rises above genre. [09 Mar 1990, p.24]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 53 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The Handmaid's Tale
    Taut, powerful, brilliantly lit, The Handmaid's Tale casts a spell, even as it spells out its dire warning. [09 Mar 1990, p.20]
    • The Seattle Times
  28. Glory
    Glory ultimately offers a stirring answer to the historical distortions of Mississippi Burning, by presenting African Americans as people who aggressively participated in their own struggle for freedom. [12 Jan 1990, p.22]
    • The Seattle Times
  29. Revenge
    Hardly anyone comes off looking good in this glitzy and faintly ludicrous melodrama. [16 Feb 1990, p.34]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 41 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Hard to Kill
    Steven Seagal should go into a seven-year coma more often. It suits his acting ability. A coma is what happens to him in Hard To Kill, his latest hard-to-swallow and dull-to-sit-through formula vigilante movie. [10 Feb 1990, p.C7]
    • The Seattle Times
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