Wall Street Journal's Scores

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For 3,944 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 44% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 54% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 Les Misérables
Lowest review score: 0 The Limits of Control
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,102 out of 3944
  2. Mixed: 1,197 out of 3944
  3. Negative: 645 out of 3944
3944 movie reviews
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  1. Home of the Brave
    Starts well with the stirring spectacle of young men and women, members of a National Guard unit stationed south of Baghdad, struggling to do their duty in an alien land of unfathomable danger. Once they return, however, wounded physically or shattered spiritually, the film turns didactic, contrived and occasionally ludicrous.
    • Wall Street Journal
  2. The Man Who Wasn't There
    Ordinary moviegoers, on the other hand, may wonder what they're supposed to feel, apart from bored.
    • Wall Street Journal
  3. The Iron Lady
    Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher is the main reason to see The Iron Lady, which was directed by Phyllida Lloyd - not just the main reason but the raison d'être of an otherwise misconceived movie.
  4. Constantine
    Constantine is yet another studio extravaganza that's all aswirl with atmospherics, though empty at its center. The invasion of the soul snatchers proceeds apace.
    • Wall Street Journal
  5. A Wrinkle in Time
    If there’s a secret to a successful screen adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, it’s still secret. Disney’s version of the Madeleine L’Engle young-adult novel is a magical mystery tour minus the magic and mystery, and a great disappointment, since there were so many reasons to root for the film’s success.
  6. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
    I won't pretend that I had a great time watching G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
  7. Return to Oz
    The makers of Return to Oz say that their rather bleak, nonmusical fantasy is more faithful to Mr. Baum's vision than "The Wizard of Oz" was. What's appropriate, however, isn't always what's right. All Ms. Balk can do is look earnest and young; Ms. Garland opened her mouth and out came Dorothy's soul.
    • Wall Street Journal
  8. The Terminal
    The Terminal is a terminally fraudulent and all-but-interminable comedy.
    • Wall Street Journal
  9. Letters to Juliet
    (It doesn't hurt that Ms. Redgrave gets to play opposite Franco Nero, who was once the love of her life and is the father of her son.) Not even she can transform lines like "Destiny wanted us to meet again."
  10. Jesus Camp
    A snapshot, to be sure, but scattershot as well.
    • Wall Street Journal
    • 35 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Star Wars: The Clone Wars
    Clone Wars will appeal only to the most tolerant, galactically minded children and their parents.
  12. The Personal History of David Copperfield
    Truth be told, though, the film, which Mr. Iannucci directed from a screenplay he wrote with Simon Blackwell, is blissed out on its own cleverness and ultimately exhausting.
  13. Cocaine Bear
    The title is by far the most noteworthy element of this lumpy horror-comedy.
  14. Hudson Hawk
    Despite all of its failures of wit, sense, and pace, the film does most effectively flaunt the millions spent on it. The inane action takes place in splendiferous settings. [23 May 1991]
    • Wall Street Journal
  15. Treasure Planet
    Comes briefly to life, after many longeurs -- many large longeurs in IMAX -- with the discombobulated entrance of B.E.N., a dysfunctional, hyperverbal robot voiced by Martin Short.
    • Wall Street Journal
  16. The Fourth Kind
    Mr. Osunsanmi's chutzpah exceeds his skill.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Little Black Book
    "Working Girl," is also heard in Little Black Book; it serves only to remind audiences of that far more winning story of triumph in the office. But there are many reminders of what a tiresome effort this is.
    • Wall Street Journal
  18. Mary Reilly
    Since Mary rarely gets to see any of the good stuff, neither do we; Dr. Jekyll hides most of his switcheroos behind closed doors. [23 Feb 1996]
    • Wall Street Journal
  19. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
    Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill inflicts intolerable cruelty on its characters, and on its audience -- though I'd like to believe that there is no mainstream audience for what has already been described, quite correctly, as the most violent movie ever released by an American studio.
    • Wall Street Journal
    • 49 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
    Although packaged as a movie, is in reality a clever 106-minute promo for Sony's PlayStation II games.
    • Wall Street Journal
  21. The Invention of Lying
    In the spirit of that world, I cannot tell a lie: The Invention of Lying, which the English comedian both directed and wrote with Matthew Robinson, soon loses altitude and eventually falls flat.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    License to Wed
    The inert License to Wed shambles along one lame scene after another.
  23. The Roses
    As the Roses start to become increasingly hostile to each other in front of others, the tone is meant to be hilariously nasty. Instead it’s merely monotonously vulgar, as a long string of one-liners relies more on the supposed shock value of profanity than on wit.
  24. Emma.
    What’s missing is nuance (the idea of Mr. Nighy’s performance, like others in the film, is wittier than what’s actually on screen); connective tissue (the story is semicoherent at best, a jumble of characters rushing to and fro); and depth of feeling.
  25. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
    What was once thrilling, inventive and funny is now desiccated and limp. The pertinent question, it turns out, is not “Who you gonna call?” but “Why did they bother?”
  26. The Contractor
    This film is what it is, a particularly generic genre piece that the bean counters at a once-great studio must have had reason to believe would turn a profit, mostly in the foreign market. Very possibly it will.
  27. Champions
    As the runtime lumbers on to the two-hour mark, with one scene after another fizzling out, its warm nimbus of niceness seems to be the sole reason for its existence.
  28. Beautiful Creatures
    What a peculiar production this is. Up to a certain point, it really does promise to be romantic.
  29. This Is Where I Leave You
    This is one of those overworked and generally airless comedies with a sitcom premise that can't sustain life.
  30. About My Father
    The entire film feels like an exceedingly stale stand-up comedy routine, which is to say it’s exactly like one of Mr. Maniscalco’s stand-up comedy routines.
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