Time Out London's Scores

  • Movies
For 1,246 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 48% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 48% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 64
Highest review score: 100 Dark Days
Lowest review score: 20 The Secret Scripture
Score distribution:
1246 movie reviews
  1. Folman’s vision is just too personal and obtuse, and the result can feel rather like watching someone else drop acid, enjoying their giddy descriptions of all the pretty colours but unable to fully engage.
  2. A film with a fistful of memorable moments—most of them involving Bridges hurling insults at people—but not a great deal new to say.
  3. The relentless gloom can feel oppressive, but there’s plenty of ambition here, especially in the layered storytelling and woozy sense of time and place, with plenty of soaring aerial shots that nod quietly to the all-seeing eye of a computer game.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hallström's finally struck a chord with the Americans, though it's much the same cocktail of whimsy and worry, the eccentric and the banal, that he's been mixing all along.
  4. Mud
    It’s a broader, starrier project than either of Nichols’s previous films, and he handles the transition to the major league with relative confidence.
  5. You’ll be left scratching your head wondering what a naked girl draped in a purple net curtain in a cemetery has got to do with frocks. Not many revelations here.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The icky, well-teased, nightmarish climax is visually stunning for a low-budget project, though perhaps a touch too straight-up strange for some.
  6. Nobby is hardly a character for the ages. He's a basic fool. The movie, too, is chaotic and crude. But its lack of sophistication, like its odd mix of souped-up action and base comedy, ultimately feels like a badge of honour.
  7. Riz Ahmed is superb as Changez (pronounced Chan-Gez, not like the Bowie song),
  8. Even Dench, while adeptly highlighting the vulnerabilities of age and the loneliness of power, can’t distract from the soft treatment, which leaves little room for the harsh realities of prejudice which must have made this a more painful and ugly chapter for many involved than this film ever dares suggest.
  9. The 3D effects are dazzling, but the script creaks and the characters are thin.
  10. It has a rigorous, even unrelenting, grey, green and brown palette and, narratively, it’s tough to penetrate.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The opposition of good and evil is devoid of any subtle shading, so just sit back and enjoy the spectacular dogfight over downtown Los Angeles.
  11. It’s a wild, at times exhilarating watch – but an exhausting one.
  12. The film is frantic and silly and our biggest gripe is that all the penguins look the same.
  13. There's no escaping it: Money Monster is a basic, silly movie. But it has on its side a top-notch cast and an entire absence of self-seriousness.
  14. If you’re a fan of the classic streets-to-stardom formula, this is a solid rendition.
  15. It’s disappointing when Starred Up begins to lapse into soapy cliché.
  16. There are some funny-sweet observations about pets and our projections on to them. And the animation is expressive.... But the manic pace, piling on the action sequences, is exhausting.
  17. The plotting may be a little ropey, especially towards the end. But ‘ID2’ has smart things to say about identity and social class, and strides confidently through the minefield of British racial politics.
  18. A charismatic performance from Downey Jr and the growling presence of Duvall makes up for a multitude of sins in this big and brash family drama that puts the heavy emphasis on drama over family.
  19. This is a solid take on the material, but it could have done with a little less narrative incident and a little more cinematic sparkle.
  20. This is a thoughtful film, but one that's slightly limited by its own careful restraint.
  21. There’s enjoyably smutty comedy to spare... but the film’s bleakest segments are actually its strongest.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Low on documentary conviction and political context, but an intriguing exercise in concealing the obvious.
  22. How much you love this low-budget British effort will depend on your tolerance to quirkiness.
  23. There’s only so many times an audience will fall for the same manipulative editing tricks. Still, with fine performances and a rich sense of place, this is a promising start.
  24. Asking far more questions than it could ever answer, Exposed ends on a note so flat and predictable that it undermines all that went before. But there are strange and memorable moments here, and a mood of eerie foreboding that’s hard to shake.
  25. While it fascinates as much as it frustrates, the film’s saving grace is that it always feels honest and never cynical. It seems both relevant to us and personal to the filmmaker.
  26. While it’s often beautiful and moving, emotionally it never quite sticks.

Top Trailers