Village Voice's Scores

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For 11,162 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 40% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 56% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 7.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 57
Highest review score: 100 Hooligan Sparrow
Lowest review score: 0 Followers
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,708 out of 11162
  2. Mixed: 4,553 out of 11162
  3. Negative: 1,901 out of 11162
11162 movie reviews
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  1. The Gatekeeper
    The DIY approach entails significant limitations, including barely TV-quality visuals and the Seagal-like stiffness of Frey's performance, but the truly hellish portrayal of the workers' post-crossing indentured servitude in a meth lab makes up for a sluggish opening act.
  2. The Singing Detective
    The problems come in the shadow world, where everything's a jumble, where Dark's compositional strategy ("all clues and no solutions") eventually becomes wearing, and Gordon's direction can't hold it all together.
  3. Dr. Dolittle 2
    It's dispiriting to watch him (Murphy) stand patiently by and concoct reaction shots for quipping raccoons and dancing bears.
  4. Thirteen Conversations About One Thing
    Aspiring to evoke an unreal city stranded in the autumn of the soul, the film succeeds only when it peers up from the intro-philosophy book for the occasional glimpse of everyday beauty.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ed Park
    Real Women Have Curves
    The film stakes out a self-affirming Atkins-free zone that seems unobjectionable in theory, but its speechifying tendencies and familiar familial tensions overwhelm the more delicate scenes.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Center Stage
    Pays lip service to the seriousness of craft but won't let us watch the dancing.
  7. Under solen
    The kind of quotidian pastoral -- about a simple, honest peasant who finds the greatest love of all -- that the Academy invariably finds irresistible.
  8. Green Dragon
    Green Dragon's portrait of refugee angst is decidedly glossy; the grief and lostness are glimpsed rather than explored.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dopamine
    The premise (does modern neurochemistry debunk love?) is fresh enough, but too much would-be banter falls flat, and the story is woefully schematic.
  10. Intimacy
    Authentically British or not, Intimacy is squarely in the indigenous kitchen-sink style -- a far cry from the absurdly chic, sentimental pseudo-worldliness of something like "An Affair of Love."
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ed Park
    The Emperor's Club
    Club's inability to moralize saves it from kitsch.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Good Boy!
    Former SNL-ers Molly Shannon and Kevin Nealon play the kid's Stepford parents in this Jim Henson Pictures happy meal.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
    In its best moments, it has the qualities of a ribald folk tale. But it's a slight work, slackly directed, that gets a needed boost from Braga's endearing performance and Chico Buarque's intoxicating score.
  14. The Hidden Wars of Desert Storm
    Pegged to the 10th anniversary of the Gulf War victory celebration, a fiesta that lasted nearly three times longer than the fighting itself.
  15. The Missing
    However bogged down by predictable story rhythms, banally assembled shoot-outs, and climactic mano a mano, The Missing has an acidic period tone, a respect for the reality of violence, and a refreshing dearth of superhuman heroics and easy triumph. For that much, we should be grateful.
  16. Nowhere in Africa
    A straightforward epic, almost alarmingly quaint in the telling.
  17. Luster
    The climactic shocker is far too exacting, but Lewis nails the milieu, and has the sense to not spell out every motivation in capital letters.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Head Over Heels
    Head Over Heels is dopey but nontoxic. If you are 17, there are worse date movies.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Le divorce
    Entranced by the natives, Le Divorce reduces the knowing ditziness of Johnson's novel to vapid, exchange-student wonderment.
  20. Off the Lip
    Succeeds at being laughably highfalutin.
  21. Umberto D (re-release)
    It's too bad that the film is sporadically crude (a moment of suicidal angst is illustrated with a shove-zoom to the pavement), prone to mega-Italian extroversion, and far too in love with stupid pet tricks.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Tarzan
    Visually rich yet numbingly formulaic.
  23. Together
    Mawkishly clichéd as it is, Together is an odder hybrid than it first appears -- at once populist and deeply cynical about the price of popularity.
  24. The Mummy Returns
    First and foremost a trial run for a Universal Studios ride.
  25. 3 Women
    Today, the movie doesn't portend Altman's subsequent tailspin into irrelevance as much as it suggests a restlessness with the comic realism he had mastered.
  26. Music of the Heart
    Solid raw material, but the execution is overcooked.
  27. Men in Black II
    However cool, Smith's lovable braggadocio and Lee's practiced deadpan don't exactly make them Laurel and Hardy.
  28. By Hook or by Crook
    Long, inchoate scenes are burdened by overwrought plotlines -- But the film is buoyed by moments of pleasure, too.
  29. A Midsummer Night's Dream
    The early scenes whir and buzz along to create quite a pleasing clamor.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ed Park
    Better Luck Tomorrow
    Seeing BLT has been positioned as a political act. Alas: The film in question seems hardly worth the fuss.
  31. I Capture the Castle
    Sweet and sleepy, I Capture the Castle might feel most comfortable in a Sunday-afternoon slot on the BBC.
  32. Metropolis
    Metropolis is "A.I." without tears.
  33. Saints and Sinners
    There's an enforced squareness afoot as the directors contrast the couple with Pride-float revelers, as if testifying in front of a Massachusetts court that these two are as fuddy-duddy as the wholesomest het duo.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Star Trek: Nemesis
    As Shinzon, a sickly boy-emperor grown from Picard's DNA by scheming Romulans, Tom Hardy channels some of the verve of rich-Corinthian-leather-clad Khan villain Ricardo Montalban, although his real model seems to be Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator.
  35. Stepmom
    Loathsome though Stepmom is, the eternally coltish Roberts is always a pleasure to watch and Sarandon's mordant wit occasionally comes to the fore.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Torque
    Thankfully, Torque knows what it wants to be (which is more than you can say about other recent biker-boy flicks) and flashes a jocular self-awareness about its genre affiliation.
  37. The Intended
    A taut noirish thriller that unfolds in a fever of firelit ambience.
  38. Femme Fatale
    A tricksy meta-thriller that, replete with the requisite homage to "Vertigo," sustains its dreamlike glide through a succession of cheesy coincidences and voluptuous cheap effects.
  39. One True Thing
    Quindlen's book is wry and deeply sad in its prose, but watching actors run this very simple maze is significantly less entertaining, or convincing.
  40. Bread and Tulips
    A happy ending is never at issue here -- it's clear where she's going, but there's little clue where she's been.
  41. The Statement
    Ends up second-guessing its own high-minded strivings, not trustful enough of its audience to be sophisticated about history and ethics, and not pulpy enough to keep us awake.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Art of Amália
    De Almeida's latest hagiographic effort diminishes Amália's legend by purifying it.
  43. Son of the Bride
    In its details, though, Juan José Campanella's movie works beautifully: The actors are all superb when the florid demands of the story allow them elbowroom.
  44. The Company
    Not a farce, or comedy or drama, but essentially a doodle interrupted by nouveau ballet performances, the entire contraption assembled to please the ego of Neve Campbell.
  45. The Eye
    Given that The Eye plays out without so much as a single new idea or real surprise, it's a testament to the Pangs' knack for composition and editing -- or Orange Music's merciless Psycho-tronic score -- that the movie goes boo as effectively as it does.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Let's Get Frank
    Let's Get Frank is hardly frank enough.
  47. Word Wars
    Even the fast-motion effects and flashy graphics can't make this a spectator sport.
  48. Shattered Glass
    The Sarsgaard slow burn is only marginally more compelling than the Christensen simper; like its subject, the movie is self-important yet insipid.
  49. Hannibal
    Less monster than monstrosity—albeit, as superfluous sequels go, not on par with the memorably idiotic "Godfather III."
  50. Ghosts of the Abyss
    "Check this out, bro," James Cameron says as he returns to the site of the real Titanic, armed with robots, a 3-D Imax camera, and the same colossal hubris that necessitated a call for silence as he accepted his Oscar on behalf of those who perished.
  51. Orange County
    Hardly the idiosyncratic Mickey Finn you'd expect from the men behind 1998's underrated "Zero Effect" and 2000's discomfort-splooge "Chuck & Buck."
  52. Punch-Drunk Love
    As elegantly crafted as it often is, Anderson's movie is essentially a one-trick pony that, hampered by an undeveloped script, ultimately pulls up lame.
  53. Big Trouble
    Cute intentions and shaggy comedy only get you so far when the world is falling down around you.
  54. Harry Is Here to Help
    Moll's style is low-key and straightforward.
  55. Spartan
    David Mamet takes on the digi-tech, hard-Clancy-core intel thriller most often inflated by Tony Scott and like-minded plodders, and typically he elevates it, botches it, and exploits it for searing political comment.
  56. Girl on the Bridge
    Painless -- not particularly funny and not even remotely moving.
  57. The Widow of Saint-Pierre
    Far from terrible, Leconte's latest movie suggests the work of a slightly hip preacher.
  58. Love Object
    Utilizes horror movie jolts to plumb male control-freakishness.
  59. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
    With a premise this screwy, nobody has any choice but to follow the savvy lead of Bebe Neuwirth, who, as Hudson's "Composure" editor, hams her queen-bitch-mother-hen role to glazed perfection.
  60. Mayor of the Sunset Strip
    Engaging, if ultimately wearisome.
  61. The Italian Job
    Zesty in a workmanlike sort of way, providing supporting henchmen Jason Statham and Mos Def with pleasingly unsensational characters given to subtle twitches of idiosyncrasy.
  62. Gaudi Afternoon
    The trumped-up alley-to-plaza intrigue could use more smoke and less mirrors.
  63. American Psycho
    Lacking any equivalent to the Sadean excess of Ellis's prose, it is also further evacuated of purpose.
  64. The Battle of Shaker Heights
    The characters talk like smart, unpredictable people, and Kelly Ernswiler is one of a kind.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ed Park
    Bulletproof Monk
    Some reliably vertiginous fight sequences (rope bridge, rooftop signage) and modest flight experiments liven up the mix, but for all the leads' individual appeal, they seem to occupy slightly different films.
  66. Unbreakable
    Soggy mysticism, nagging inconsistencies, and coarse horror-playbook jolts.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Girl, Interrupted
    Contains some nicely restrained turns, like Clea Duval as Kaysen's Oz-obsessed roommate, but mainly it's a showcase for Ryder's winsome victim
  68. Undercover Brother
    Much of Undercover Brother plays as a funnier, if similarly addled, "Bamboozled."
  69. Veronica Guerin
    A pre-programmed mediocrity, a slave to its clichés.
  70. Rocco and His Brothers (re-release)
    Visconti's film remains a Euro-culture touchstone, though not nearly as convincing or visually stunning as its reputation insists.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ed Park
    Daddy Day Care
    Lighthearted if shy of a lark.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Bad Boys II
    Martin Lawrence's Marcus is the Costello to Smith's Abbott.
  73. Shadow Magic
    Properly picturesque but lacks subtlety and substance in blending Chinese and Western history, ideas, and cinematic conventions.
  74. Chasing Liberty
    Moore's lip-glossed petulance never catches fire with Goode's canned drollery.
  75. King of Hearts (re-release)
    As a movie, King of Hearts is more pageant than story. As a cultural artifact, however, the movie is less a relic than a symptom.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The 13th Warrior
    A well-marbled, albeit derivative, slab of action-movie man meat.
  77. Laws of Attraction
    Our counselors' lawyer-ese is illegally bland, and their committee-penned banter meticulously Botoxed.
  78. Bowfinger
    Never hits a note of high hilarity.
  79. Runaway Jury
    Not nearly enough time is spent in court--that is, on the movie's ostensible subject. (Besides, the down-to-the-wire deliberation scene is risibly unconvincing and abbreviated.)
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Detroit Rock City
    There's an awful lot of rocking out going on in Detroit Rock City, but then rocking out is this occasionally clever but lifeless movie's reason for being.
  81. Shallow Hal
    Not only light on laughs but discomfitingly didactic in its disgust.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Remember Me, My Love
    This sentimental movie is the simulacrum of an existential family drama. But the 48-year-old Morante is the real thing.
  83. Jesus' Son
    Though Maclean uses every trick available to make up for the missing inner voice, we never get into Crudup's mellow loser like we should. Maclean's got an incisive eye, but it's poised on the outside of the terrarium looking in.
  84. Auto Focus
    Auto Focus doesn't really go anywhere, but then neither does any form of obsessive-compulsive behavior -- which may be Schrader's point.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Bon voyage
    Relies on its considerable star power to conceal its even more considerable lack of substance.
  86. Brothers in Arms
    The less-is-more approach to Kerry's war heroics (the incident that led to his Silver Star is covered only briefly) allows the crewmen to dominate.
  87. Carandiru
    Carandiru's every scene is cut from factory-issue prison-genre cloth to fit jailhouse stock characters.
  88. Sweet November
    If the movie works on its own insipid level, it's because of high-gear star power -- 50 times the captivator Dennis ever was, Theron is terrific at creating adorable intimacy with little help from the script or director and exudes more guileless élan than any of the film's many puppies.
  89. A Civil Action
    A slick, shameless job that takes way too long to make its point.
  90. State and Main
    State and Main is a Hollywood satire as cynical and thickheaded as its supposed targets.
  91. Charlie's Angels
    The cheesy disco action scenes are topped only by the movie's ripe double entendres and continual cheesecake.
  92. Guinevere
    Except for Polley and Rea, the performances are heavy-handed.
  93. Lucía, Lucía
    It lacks the toughness and social insights of its Mexican new wave predecessors like "Amores Perros." And even as the story of one woman's midlife crisis, it's a bit lightweight.
  94. Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi
    A bit naive and formless.
  95. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
    The techies still can't manage to make two characters look convincingly into each other's eyes -- it's like watching Disney World animatronic figures do soap opera.
  96. The Jimmy Show
    Backed by a strong supporting cast, Whaley makes Jimmy a vivid character, but he never achieves anything like the tragic grandeur of a Willy Loman. He's at once too earnest and too unappealing.
  97. Reconstruction
    That Reconstruction is even remotely involving is due to the quality of its acting.
  98. Signs & Wonders
    Pretension looms, and for many the web of symbolism will be too thick. But Rampling, to her credit, helps hold the nuthouse together.
  99. Twin Falls Idaho
    Neither as weighty nor as weird as it would like to think.
  100. Ravenous
    Ravenous loses resonance as it proceeds.
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