The Times' Scores

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For 250 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 41% higher than the average critic
  • 1% same as the average critic
  • 58% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Pride & Prejudice
Lowest review score: 0 The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 120 out of 250
  2. Mixed: 110 out of 250
  3. Negative: 20 out of 250
250 movie reviews
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  1. A House of Dynamite
    The film rarely draws breath. It barrels bleakly, with effortless aplomb, to the end. You might need a stiff drink.
  2. The Running Man
    It all ends with a grossly emetic monologue about how evil mass media is trying to “make us hate each other so they can steal from us”. And The Running Man is not part of the mass media how? Still, who doesn’t love Shaun of the Dead?
  3. Frankenstein
    It is not the greatest Frankenstein ever. It’s not even an especially good one. It’s just, in the end, serviceable.
  4. Earwig and the Witch
    Ultimately, bar some tedious spell-making scenes, nothing happens. Harrowingly poor.
  5. Hedda
    There’s only one thing worse than being trapped in a theatre watching a badly staged play: being trapped in a cinema watching a badly adapted stage play. And so it is, frequently, with this Ibsen update that’s pulled in too many directions at once by its ambitious director, Nia DaCosta, and the producer-star Tessa Thompson.
  6. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
    Winstead, in her most fruitful role since 2012’s Smashed, is a powerhouse, while Monroe, though never camp, is frequently and fabulously boo-hiss.
  7. Anemone
    It’s mostly a dirge, but the younger Day-Lewis has an artful eye and his indecently talented dad is clearly crying out for better material.
  8. Good Fortune
    In the end Good Fortune is perhaps too ambitious, and indulges in too much sermonising, especially when Gabriel also joins the human workforce and, like Jeff, experiences financial hardship. Reeves is good value as the clueless angel but an unfortunate sense of repetition sets in.
  9. Christy
    Sweeney is also surrounded by a plethora of ace character actors, especially Merritt Wever as Christy’s sanctimonious mother Joyce, who compound the sense of a lead protagonist trapped within a hopeless, claustrophobic milieu. It’s a proper movie.
  10. The Perfect Neighbor
    I’m not convinced that we have the moral right to watch some of these scenes and to witness a tiny traumatised boy at his most bereft and alone. Still, it’s an outstanding, provocative film that is bound to inspire debate. Watch it and discuss.
  11. Is This Thing On?
    [A] warm and hilarious comedy drama.
  12. Hamnet
    The ending, set in the Globe during a production of Hamlet, is harrowing, meaningful and magnificently sad. You might want to yell out, “Make it stop!” This is, instantly, the essential Shakespeare movie.
  13. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
    It delivers first giggles, then twists and gasp-inducing rug-pulls, courtesy of standout performances from a cast that includes Josh Brolin, Glenn Close and a never better Josh O’Connor. Not just that but Johnson’s probing script also explores the biggest conundrum of them all: God, faith and religion.
  14. Brides
    Fall is an instinctive visual storyteller, the two leads have a winning chemistry, and the location shooting in Istanbul is vivid and authentic. Just a shame the film is less so.
  15. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
    It’s always compelling, and a powerful first feature.
  16. The Smashing Machine
    It’s all too obvious that The Smashing Machine has been conceived, among other things, as another Safdie-branded career boost for a pair of charming, charismatic actors who could do with a dash of Oscar magic. It’s just a shame that their film is a fugazi.
  17. One Battle After Another
    I’m not sure if it’s Anderson’s masterpiece, and though Penn is funny in the role of the crazed colonel, he frequently veers towards cartoonish and almost ruins his scenes. Still, it’s an easy best picture Oscar nomination in the bag.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl
    It could be seen as a cynical capitalist move by the best businesswoman in the game. And it definitely is — at least partly.
  19. Dead of Winter
    A thrillingly tense game of kill-or-be-killed.
  20. Islands
    It’s a classy, glossy production that’s frequently bathed in stunning crepuscular light (the Canary Islands’ tourist board should be thrilled). And thankfully it’s one that refuses to patronise the audience.
  21. The Man in My Basement
    It’s a discomforting film and a potentially eerie experience for all viewers. The villain appears to be personal compromise and the moral lapses ignored on a daily basis in the name of getting by.
  22. Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
    It just coasts, with breathtaking laziness, on the power of nostalgia, and it seemingly hopes that the sight of our beloved trio gathered together, mostly on chairs and improvising badly, will be enough in itself.
  23. Megadoc
    Far too much time is spent with the tedious off-camera histrionics of the brattish co-star Shia LaBeouf, and the admission that Figgis was hand-chosen (“invited”) by Coppola for the documentary renders it slightly toothless.
  24. No Other Choice
    There is, initially, some heavy slapstick here (the first murder is a calamitous mess) but the bite of the film resides in the richness of its characters and how it delves into the protagonist’s home life.
  25. The Testament of Ann Lee
    The film, alas, and it pains me to say it, is not very good. It’s overwhelmingly, unfortunately, self-serious, and thus accidentally very Monty Python. There’s little dramatic tension and the music is close to agony.
  26. Honey Don't!
    It doesn’t hang together as well as its predecessor, Drive-Away Dolls, it still offers some throwaway wickedness.
  27. The Cut
    The poster might as well read “come see Orlando Bloom get put through the wringer”. It’s awesome on some level but it’s not much else.
  28. Bugonia
    In short, Yorgos, move on.
  29. The Voice of Hind Rajab
    It is deliberately punishing material, channelled through unapologetic, galvanising film-making. Politicians should see it. Decision-makers should see it.
  30. The Conjuring: Last Rites
    A suitably shiver-inducing farewell to the Warrens.
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