Village Voice's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
  1. The Human Race
    One test for movies like this is whether they bemoan the inevitable gore or revel in it; The Human Race too often falls into the latter, amplifying and focusing on the bloodshed.
  2. Fired Up!
    We're light years away from "Animal House," sure, but who ever thought we would long for the richer, funnier dignity of "American Pie?"
    • 31 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Don't Tempt Me
    Imagines Heaven and Hell as places so deeply mired in the business-as-usual hassles of earthly life that the battle between good and evil becomes a downright dull affair.
  4. Just 45 Minutes from Broadway
    In an overlong sequence shot to resemble an actual play, the acting feels so forced, the staging so wooden, that it's impossible to be fully engaged in what's actually going on. The actual story is, if not quite rote, certainly nothing new.
  5. Dying of the Light
    It's sort of a fascinating mess, a jagged, dark jumble of a thing anchored by Cage's anguished, moony-eyed obsessiveness. It's not bad enough to be fun, but maybe just bad enough to be intriguing.
  6. Charlie Countryman
    LaBeouf and Wood don't clang, but they don't quite click, either. That's not enough for the film to persuade us of its message, that love is worth any sacrifice.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 10 Reviewed by
      Ed Park
    Dog Run
    Dog Run mistakes milieu for meaning; its succinct title's at least a word too long.
  8. Venus and Mars
    Painfully contrived, Venus and Mars's dialogue tends toward banal (as opposed to quotably bad), and the rhythm at which lines are read is definitely alien.
  9. Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club
    As ever, he has the last laugh. This is How Stella Got Her Groove Back, for the Pop-Tart crowd, a wish-fulfillment weepie that not only narrowly clears Perry's low bar, thanks mostly to McLendon-Covey and Brown, but has already sold the TV sitcom rights to Oprah.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Jolene
    Throughout, Chastain delivers a full-bodied debut performance, but she's ultimately stuck taking her wandering-soul protagonist far more seriously than it-or the film-deserves.
  11. Surveillance
    Surveillance is the work of a director who has made significant strides in both storytelling and control of the medium, deftly interweaving a grisly thriller, a sicko "Rashômon," a switcheroo, a psychotic love story, an imaginative paean to children, and an inspired resurrection of Julia Ormond.
  12. Fifty Shades Freed
    Those seeking out some titillating times would be better satisfied by Googling “feminist porn” and clicking randomly. But if you relish a mindless soap operatic story that leans into the silliness of the genre, Fifty Shades Freed might do the trick.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Silent Hill
    Stuffed with cheap effects and devoid of tension, this French-Japanese-U.S. co-production contributes exactly zilch to the rich film history of those three nations; the most horror-crazed teen may be hard-pressed to find any authentic thrills here.
  14. The Lazarus Effect
    Death may not be the end in The Lazarus Effect, but it should be.
  15. The Honeymooners
    John Schultz's wan, unfunny The Honeymooners is unlikely to tickle devotees of Jackie Gleason's archetypal yuk-fest.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 20 Reviewed by
      Ed Park
    Green Card Fever
    Though it's high time for a probing drama that illuminates the labyrinth of America's immigration system, those responsible for Green Card Fever should have their artistic licenses revoked.
  17. Lucky Numbers
    From the auteur who assaulted us with "Sleepless in Seattle" comes a more punishing film.
  18. Cursed
    The scariest thing in the movie is a cameo by Scott Baio.
  19. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    This TMNT is bigger and emptier, a wasteland of pixels.
  20. Battlefield America
    Although it's grotesque to see pre-teens stomping in underground warehouse-battle settings, at least Battlefield America's racial politics are interesting.
  21. Murder of a Cat
    Murder of a Cat has an off-kilter charm, with Greene prizing humor over menace, and Clinton's maturity over plot resolution
  22. Black November
    Oddly, that extra star power makes Black November look cheap. It's threadbare for an action flick... The story Amata wants to tell is much simpler, and he might have been more successful sticking to his own guns and staying with his sturdy, empathetic heroine.
  23. Perfect Stranger
    Perfect Stranger derives some novelty value from its colorblind casting and from being the most ludicrously silly Hollywood f----fest since the Willis-starring "Color of Night" (minus that movie's comic self-awareness). But as a thriller, it's so by-the-numbers that it's hardly worth keeping count.
  24. Your Highness
    Your Highness plays like a dirty-joke blooper reel made by the cast of a junky sword-and-sorcery epic.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    House of 1000 Corpses
    Straining to put his own stamp on this stale-from-the-crypt material, Zombie falls back on the twitchy visual grammar of his videos, splicing in dream sequences and grainy porno-snippets apparently purchased at Bob Crane's estate sale. The violence eventually becomes more inhuman than human.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ed Park
    They
    Efficient, suitably anonymous chiller.
  27. This Means War
    The cocky presumption of charm that isn't actually there is precisely the problem with action-comedy This Means War.
  28. Gray Matters
    Coming from the strangely vacuous Graham, in a Manhattan this preposterous, the staid social message is as ludicrous as its surroundings.
  29. New Rose Hotel
    What's on the screen is so dreadful that it inspires the ontological question "What are films and why is this not one of them?"
  30. Pootie Tang
    Weirdest, funniest studio release of the summer so far and a bona fide cult object in the making.
  31. Antitrust
    It's a kick to see the Tim Robbins version of the man recently described by the Microsoft trial judge as "Napoleonic" installed in a disgustingly opulent Bond-villain HQ/pad, and the overwrought Boiler Room-meets-The Game scenario is not without its own schlocky pleasures.
  32. 5 Days of War
    Taking the vantage point of civilians rather than combatants allows 5 Days of War to show the toll of the terror and of the relentless, exhausting pursuit of war with unexpected force. Had it rejected the genre's romantic trappings and false heroics more consistently, the movie might've been worth the ride.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Reuniting the Rubins
    What happens when you put a rabbi, a Buddhist monk, a high-strung capitalist, and a lesbian humanitarian together in the same room? Not comedy, it turns out.
  34. The Road Within
    This is, of course, a movie about affliction, and it ultimately succumbs to the bland, sentimental uplift we've come to expect from such outings.
  35. High School
    John Stalberg Jr.'s dismal stoner comedy does little to inject any sense of joy or laughter into its depiction of teenage pot antics.
  36. Garden Party
    Trivial, commercially calculated ensemble drama (porn! pot! rock music!), which plays like a non-musical "Rent," or a faux-edgy "Shortbus" for kids raised on "American Pie."
  37. An American Affair
    Only Noah Wyle, as Adam's unreadable dad, rises above the muck; he deserves his Tarantino-aided resurrection sooner rather than later.
  38. The Curse of Downers Grove
    The Curse of Downers Grove coasts on pulpy fumes thanks to its creators' effective emphasis on circumstantial peril over character-driven drama.
  39. Oxygono
    Curiously, Blackmail Boy's alternate title is "Oxygen"--and by film's end, you'll be gasping for it.
  40. Hounddog
    In the wake of the inadvertent betrayal that leads to her now-notorious rape (a sequence that, ironically, seems to have lost the horrific impact it needs), the film turns listless.
  41. Envy
    Ultimately more amusing than hilarious, and sometimes less than that.
  42. Hit by Lightning
    It's a black-comedy plot without any blackness or actual comedy, unless mugging and bro-heiming by Mad TV's Will Sasso counts as hilarious.
  43. Monster-in-Law
    "Legally Blonde" director Robert Luketic bumbles along with typically clumsy blocking and framing, and the misogyny inherent in the three-ring spectacle of bitch slaps, barbiturate covert ops, and wedding plan hysteria does rankle.
  44. Fathers and Daughters
    While Fathers and Daughters has a strong cast (including a brief appearance by Jane Fonda), it largely saddles them with one-dimensional roles and too-obvious emotional cues.
  45. Hangman
    Even with all its grisly, gory absurdity, Hangman actually tries to be a sincere salute to all the badge-wearing men and women who risk their lives on the regular to catch bad guys. But you may not take a single frame of this movie seriously.
  46. The Weekend
    Bloodless, lip-biting psycho-carnage.
  47. Life or Something Like It
    Cloaks a familiar anti-feminist equation (career - kids = misery) in tiresome romantic-comedy duds.
  48. Red Dawn
    Single-mindedly action-oriented to the point where Milius's film seems relatively ruminative.
  49. First Daughter
    First Daughter is less amusing than Jenna and Barb at the RNC, and dumb enough to make last January's presidential scion, Mandy Moore, look electable.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Skeptic
    Though a few scary skeletons (and one doll) rattle in and out of the film's closet, Bardwell is a slave to television lexicon, allowing Bryan and his lawyer buddy (Tom Arnold) to brave the banter of shrill detective comedies, and framing his images with all the brio of your average "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" episode.
  51. Pornography
    Ambitiously layered and almost completely incoherent, Pornography: A Thriller is a somber thesis film buried under a host of nightmarish, Lynchian conceits.
  52. In Search of God
    Purportedly about a quest for spiritual enlightenment and the question of what binds global religions, In Search of God is instead defined by simplistic philosophizing and rampant narcissism.
  53. 186 Dollars to Freedom
    On every level this production - from Robinson's callow performance to Vila's hackneyed handheld camerawork, punching beats in the stead of the actors - remains firmly on the level of the obvious.
  54. The Black Waters of Echo's Pond
    Bloody and gory, but in a friendly way, this is a movie for old-school horror fans who understand that, sometimes, bad is good.
  55. Serving Up Richard
    Glory's inconsistent characterization defeats rather than builds tension, and the tepid soon gives way to the ridiculous.
  56. November Criminals
    What follows is something like Veronica Mars, only set in snowy D.C. and on heavy sedatives.
  57. Sonny
    Amid the cliché and foreshadowing, Cage manages a degree of casual realism.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    National Security
    As the two cop manqués overcome their dearth of common sense to save the day, the film achieves a comic playfulness.
  59. Some Fish Can Fly
    Some dogs can bark.
  60. Kill Switch
    Kill Switch is an ungainly hybrid of two totally disparate mediums that have been Human Centipede-d together: film and first-person-shooter video games. Film is not the front end of this configuration.
  61. Love the Coopers
    What a difference a comma makes — or would make, in the case of Jessie Nelson's lumpy, wretchedly unfunny Love the Coopers, whose title commands us to love people it's impossible even to like.
  62. Texas Chainsaw 3D
    Discredit director John Luessenhop for giving us 3-D visuals reminiscent of "Jaws 3-D": That slab of meat's coming right for us! Try as he might to honor the original - flashbulb transitions, a skeevy (yet buff) hitchhiker, metal doors, and meat hooks - there's little of its mounting dread.
  63. Hot Pursuit
    Hot Pursuit is a quiet triumph of tone and timing. Nearly every scene is cut at just the right point, often topped off with a fantastic kicker of dialogue.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Cop Out
    Working with a full-on studio budget for the first time in his decade-and-a-half career, Smith is still making movies about guys just like him.
  65. House at the End of the Street
    Working from a story by all-around genre specialist Jonathan Mostow, director Mark Tonderai steers the story cleanly around its queasy hairpin turns, perversely toying with one of pop cinema's most cherished clichés: the audience's inculcated desire to side with the underdog.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    6 Month Rule
    As with the latest Kate Hudson comedy, it's a formula for irrelevancy pretty much as a rule.
  67. Lovesick
    LeBlanc and Larter carry the day with a spectrum of charm missing from too many entries in this shaky, persistent genre.
  68. The Book of Henry
    The Book of Henry is just a lunkheaded tearjerker that you’ll wish was even half as smart as its allegedly gifted protagonist.
  69. Crazy Eyes
    The exuberant editing and puke-into-the-camera edginess indicate a film more interested in boasting of hell-raising than in exorcising it.
  70. Vampire Academy
    For smart, strong girls and the guys who like them, Vampire Academy will hit a vein.
  71. Get a Job
    A wretched excuse for a comedy.
  72. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
    Strange how dreary it all is, and how tired Fraser seems.
  73. Dark Summer
    Eventually succumbs to the weight of plot contrivance.
  74. The Life of David Gale
    Going through the motions of a liberal-Hollywood polemic with the sweaty, mounting hysteria of a bad liar, The Life of David Gale is foremost an overheating gotcha machine, scripted by first-timer Charles Randolph with seams showing and red herrings stinking up the joint.
  75. A Dark Truth
    The film's heart is in exactly the right place, but there's not a brain in its pretty little head.
  76. Winter's Tale
    Winter's Tale, however imperfect, is that rare beast on the movie landscape: an unapologetic romance (for the first two-thirds, anyway), with attractive stars and special effects designed to give audiences something other than the experience of watching worlds get blown up.
  77. A Fantastic Fear of Everything
    For all its comic panache, A Fantastic Fear of Everything too often feels forced rather than funny — the strain evident in the setup is rarely worth the payoff, and the result simply proves exhausting.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Slutty Summer
    First-timer Casper Andreas approaches his subject with the subtlety of a wrecking ball. Tired jokes are repeated over and over.
  79. Let Them Chirp Awhile
    It's lively and funny, if unbalanced.
  80. Come Back to Me
    The film's clumsy script elicits groans, but it's the plot that infuriates.
  81. Inside the Mind of Leonardo
    [A] goof/stunt of a movie.
  82. Harry + Max
    A swirl of messy boundaries and loony dialogue.
  83. The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll
    The phoniness of their cross-country saga is compounded by a gaggle of cipher sidekicks.
  84. Seventh Son
    Jeff Bridges's abysmally campy performance may be the worst thing about disposable sword-and-sorcery fantasy Seventh Son, but it's also the only memorable thing.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Cave
    Spare and single-minded, The Cave is an insistently entertaining piece of pulp.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Alex Cross
    There's not a moment in Alex Cross that doesn't function splendidly as comedy. Which means that for all his cool-cat preening and heroic soul-searching, Tyler Perry must have felt right at home.
  87. Playing It Cool
    Proving that its chosen genre is best when its tropes are treated with a balance of sincere sweetness and wink-wink absurdity, Playing It Cool thrives through sheer liveliness, as well as the chemistry of its perfectly paired stars.
  88. Punisher: War Zone
    The script isn't what matters here: This is a slasher movie with guns, and, uh, huh-huh, that's pretty cool.
  89. Off the Lip
    Succeeds at being laughably highfalutin.
  90. 30 Days
    Thuds away at the now familiar New York turf of Jews and their mating habits.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    My Way
    Perhaps the most charitable thing that can be said about the 143-minute marathon My Way - with a reported budget of almost $25 million, the costliest Korean motion picture ever produced - is that it does nothing by halves.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    CBGB
    CBGB's biggest problem is that it's taken such electrifying source material and done absolutely zilch with it.
  93. Badland
    Writer-director Francesco Lucente's overconfident, emotionally forced 160-minute opus offers trite antiwar platitudes--at best--in chronicling the anguished existence of a soldier who can't shake the horrors he experienced in Fallujah.
  94. The Spirit
    The fanboys will find room in their heart to forgive the desecration. Everyone else won't care at all.
  95. The Babymakers
    The zippy screwball energy - and fantastic roster of cameos - that mitigated the fratty humor of Broken Lizard's last movie, the restaurant send-up "The Slammin' Salmon," is missing here, resulting in generic, feeble laffs and an ending as sticky as the pilfered substance.
  96. Live at the Foxes Den
    Live at the Foxes Den's heart is certainly in the right place, but its content is culled from so many different movies that it seems the end product of a particularly unfocused pitch meeting.
  97. Jake Squared
    More enervating than it is ambitious, Jake Squared is partly a romantic comedy and mostly a pseudo-philosophical apology for self-absorption.
  98. The Hangover Part III
    With The Hangover Part III, director Todd Phillips continues to occupy an apt (and very lucrative) niche, casting rich, entitled fraternity dicks as underdog heroes beset by shrewish women, foreigners with funny accents, and even animals-often cute animals with big, dewy eyes.
  99. The Pacifier
    Disney misfire.
  100. Love in the Time of Money
    Mattei is tiresomely grave and long-winded, as if circularity itself indicated profundity.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »