Time Out's Scores

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For 6,370 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 41% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 56% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.4 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 61
Highest review score: 100 Pain and Glory
Lowest review score: 0 Surf Nazis Must Die
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,473 out of 6370
  2. Mixed: 3,422 out of 6370
  3. Negative: 475 out of 6370
6370 movie reviews
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    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lord of the Flies
    The film, simplistically assuming the book's central metaphor to be imperialism - hence the military slant - retains the bare bones of Gollding's narrative, but that's all. There's little attempt to hint at the deeper issues.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blind Fury
    Hauer's Parker, shambling, shrewd and powerful, is humorous and appealing, and Noyce skilfully orchestrates a hilarious army of gurning baddies. It thunders along admirably, if rather unbelievably, and to counter the sickly moments with the cute kid (Call), there's plenty of pleasurable ass-kicking.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Handmaid's Tale
    Sadly, the faults in the film lie in Harold Pinter's uncharacteristically bland script, and often woefully inadequate design and direction: the latter often missing opportunities in key scenes, the former full of rather tacky and silly uniforms, symbols, vehicles, and particularly crass watchtowers.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Nightbreed
    Barker calls his shambolic, uninvolving narrative 'scattershot'; put less kindly, it's as explosive and directionless as a blunderbuss.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Glory
    Voice-over narration makes effective use of the real-life Shaw's correspondence, but in terms of authenticity the battle sequences are truly impressive. Marching across open fields amid cannon-shot, or plunging into hand-to-hand combat, the stark clarity of Freddie Francis' cinematography combined with Zwick's intimate style evokes immediacy and fear.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Revenge
    Scott manages the shift from tremulous romance to violent retribution very well, but his efficient handling of some surprisingly tough action scenes is compromised by a surfeit of pop promo clichés: billowing net curtains, clouds of fluttering doves, an excessive use of coloured filters.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Madhouse
    A standard extremist farce, lazily written and fumblingly directed.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Hard to Kill
    While Seagal is spraying bullets, breaking bones and throwing interchangeable bad guys through windows, this has a certain mindless appeal. But Malmuth's flaccid direction lacks the vicious muscularity and authentic edge of Seagal's previous feature.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Stella
    Robert Getchell's script milks the story for maximum tears, but wrestles unsuccessfully with the inherent absurdity of Stella's predicament, delivering clichéd situations and dialogue. And Midler's larger-than-life performance is daunting against the subtler approaches of Alvarado and Mason.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
    A relentlessly sadistic and worryingly amusing movie, which will entertain and offend in equal measure.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Internal Affairs
    Figgis (in his first American feature) handles the explosive action and the psychological undercurrents with equal assurance. Dark, dangerous and disturbing.
    • 13 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Ski Patrol
    Why do these 'zany' comedies fall back on the corniest situations and the most predictable stereotypes?
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Plot Against Harry
    It may sound frantic, but in fact the plot takes a back seat to ironic observation.
  14. Sidewalk Stories
    An ambitious but sadly misguided attempt to make a contemporary silent comedy which opts for simplistic plotting, sentimentality and mime as it tells of a homeless, black New York street artist's attempts to trace the mother of a baby girl whose father's murder he has witnessed.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Akira
    It’s a towering achievement of imagination and the detail of each frame is a miracle of film artistry.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tango & Cash
    Konchalovsky handles the slam-bang action with robust efficiency, but what makes this shoot-'em-up nonsense surprisingly watchable is Randy Feldman's rapid-fire dialogue, which constantly undercuts the macho posturings while parodying Stallone's screen image...even though the spectacularly empty finale eschews character-based comedy in favour of Bond-style megabuck explosions and gadgetry.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    We're No Angels
    De Niro's gift for pantomime, glimpsed in his plumber for Brazil, is a non-stop bombardment of mugging on the silent screen scale. There isn't much left for Penn, which is okay by me. Very entertaining.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Family Business
    While everyone is proficient, this uneasy mix of comedy, thriller and melodrama fumbles its way through a forest of clichés and contrivances.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    She-Devil
    Streep's tentative foray into comedy is deliberately mannered, but the breathy delivery and constant fluttering of hands are nevertheless excessive. And in her film debut, Barr just isn't imposing enough to inspire notions of devilish vengeance. The film-makers have opted for frothy satire, but as comedies go this is lamentably short on laughs.
  20. Mapantsula
    It gets far closer to the sights, sounds, smells and rhythms of Soweto life than an entire Attenborough of white liberal movies. Needless to say, it's banned from SA cinema screens.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Steel Magnolias
    Thanks to Field's no-nonsense performance, this potentially maudlin scenario is briskly handled...With all the male characters kept strictly functional, it makes a shameless bid for your heart, aiming to have you smiling one moment, sniffling the next.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Little Mermaid
    This return to traditional Disney territory is geared to captivate children while allowing them to maintain their street cred, largely by combining extravagant animated technique with ranging musical styles.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Best of the Best
    This surprisingly heavyweight cast - Louise Fletcher and Sally Kirkland lend spiritual support - manages to lower itself to the exploitation level material without apparent strain; indeed the performances are all truly atrocious.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Dad
    The film does assert there are some things positive thinking won't conquer, like sickness, senility and death. But it smothers any serious intent in cheap homily, modern mythology and sickly sentimentality.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Shocker
    Problems arise from an uncharacteristically loose structure, which frequently brings the movie to the brink of narrative collapse; Craven's visual flair and enthusiastic pacing nevertheless deliver ample (if sometimes frustrating) rewards.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Kill Me Again
    Derived from assorted Hitchcocks and noir classics, the tortuous storyline of writer-director Dahl's determinedly sordid thriller has its moments, but the whole thing is fatally scuppered by the Kilmer pairing.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Next of Kin
    Together with Hamburger Hill, this illustrates that Irvin probably couldn't stage an action scene if you held a gun to his head. Even more turgid and unconvincing are the quieter 'dramatic' scenes, which serve only to arrest the plot's minimal momentum and prolong the agony.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Fat Man and Little Boy
    On one level, the film compels through force of intellect, but ultimately it lacks the cohesive emotional force, the ferocity, to consistently nurture its conviction over two hours.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Fabulous Baker Boys
    With more than enough witty, well-observed details, it's a little charmer.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    An Innocent Man
    With the exception of Abraham's world-weary performance, and a couple of nicely nasty cameos from David Rasche and Richard Young as the crooked cops, this is a disposable affair. Yates' ham-fisted direction cranks the film up into melodramatic hyperbole, but Selleck is the real villan, portraying his transformation from wide-eyed innocent to hardened man of the world by changing from clean-shaven mop top to stubbly slicked-back, with reflecting shades to boot. Laughable.
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