USA Today's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
For 4,670 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 61% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 36% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1 point lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 64
Highest review score: 100 Fruitvale Station
Lowest review score: 0 Amos & Andrew
Score distribution:
4670 movie reviews
  1. Viewers should know that the film's resolution, though admirably restrained and unsentimental, is devastatingly sad. Parents should take this into account. This beautifully rendered family film is told in a classic and old-fashioned style, in the best sense, providing poignant and powerful teachable moments.
  2. More animals don't necessarily translate to more fun and laughter, at least not when it comes to animated sequels.
  3. The biggest mystery about Repo! The Genetic Opera is why the grisly Goth-horror musical is opening the week after Halloween. The second-biggest mystery is why this unfunny, unscary, preposterous bloodbath about organ transplants is opening at all.
  4. The material doesn't consistently do justice to their talents, but the movie is worth seeing for their chemistry and for the Motown-infused soundtrack.
  5. Splinter is no exploitative blood bath or torture horror like the "Saw" movies. It's more of a thriller along the lines of "The Thing" or "Alien." The scares are equal parts psychological jolts and gore. This is classic Halloween fun, with plenty of thrills and chills, surprisingly believable performances, and healthy doses of humor.
  6. Longs to be a smutty film with a heart of gold. Instead, it's a funny concept whose execution does not live up to its potential.
  7. It's déjà vu all over again. There isn't much more to say about "We Own the Night 2." Oops, make that Pride and Glory.
  8. Even if the refreshing gust doesn't stay with you long, it's fun while it lasts.
  9. Saw V is a terrible combination: grisly and tedious. Let's just call it bloody dull.
  10. While the neo-Gothic tale is inherently intriguing, the film should inspire strong emotion, but deliberate pacing and a contained sense of melodrama make it a surprisingly passive experience.
  11. Writer/director Philippe Claudel knows just how to structure a character study of this sort, so that key elements and important secrets are revealed over time, piquing our interest. The film is almost like a novel or short story, so one's curiosity is satisfied slowly.
  12. The film disappoints terribly, too. The directorial debut of such an imaginative and clever screenwriter was a highly anticipated event. His "Being John Malkovich" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" are two of the most innovative and intriguing movies of the past decade. Synecdoche is one of the most maddening.
  13. W.
    The performances are good (some scarily realistic), and the movie is enjoyable to watch. But as a probing analysis of the 43rd president, it falls short.
  14. Madonna's directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, feels more like a collection of scenes than a fully drawn film.
  15. Max Payne couldn't be more appropriately named. Sitting through this stylish-looking but derivative, vacuous and bullet-riddled movie inflicts maximum pain.
  16. The documentary is enjoyable, though it could have been edited more tightly. The ending, in which three of the contest participants write and perform a catchy pop song, is buoyantly fun.
  17. Hampered by over-earnestness and tugs too intently at the heartstrings.
  18. Sex Drive does not fully satisfy our comic desires.
  19. A tautly paced, well-acted espionage thriller with the requisite explosions and action sequences. Still, it ends up leaving the viewer rather cold.
  20. Despite appealing performances and kinetic football scenes, the storytelling is mostly conventional.
  21. At its best when sticking to a classic sci-fi-fantasy format. But when it tries to be a generic thrill ride, it loses its originality and peculiar charm.
  22. It is that rare film that is equal parts entertaining, life-affirming and thought-provoking.
  23. A well-acted and attitudinal action movie, a return to Ritchie's trademark "Mockney" style, which takes amusing and twisted turns.
  24. Those with a taste for irreverent humor and clear-eyed analysis will find it funny, enlightening and disturbing.
  25. Gets muddled in slapstick and crude humor.
  26. Though the movie rambles in the middle, it gets back on track when Nick and Norah have a sweet encounter in an unexpected place. The soundtrack is an excellent counterpoint to the film's quirky scenarios.
  27. Alpo is served with a burrito chaser in Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Disney's fish-out-of-water comedy in which the fish is … well, read the title.
  28. A brilliant idea that seems to lack the vision to be great.
  29. The courtroom scenes emphasize the movie's potency as a David and Goliath saga. But the film's strength lies in its fact-based story of a wronged man turned crusader, played with vigor by Kinnear.
  30. At its best in scenes featuring Hathaway's mercurial character. It's a triumphant and darkly nuanced role for her and a departure from the more lighthearted comedic performances she has given.

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