Washington Post's Scores

Select another publication »
For 11,478 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 52% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 5.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 Oppenheimer
Lowest review score: 0 Dolittle
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6,014 out of 11478
  2. Mixed: 3,069 out of 11478
  3. Negative: 2,395 out of 11478
11478 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. Alexandra
    The frequent, mundane talks -- which Alexandra engages in with her grandson, Malika and the base camp's enlisted men -- are not so much about politics as they are about people.
  2. My Brother Is an Only Child
    Although the movie never quite dispels the sense of being dated (it could have been made anytime in the past 40 years), it's a memorable, often moving timepiece.
  3. Stop-Loss
    It's a remarkably entertaining movie, thanks in part to a first-rate cast and a director who knows you can't make a point without calling everyone to attention.
  4. Meduzot
    An interlocking ensemble piece in the tradition of "Crash" and "Babel," but with welcome dashes of whimsy and magical realism.
  5. Nim's Island
    Even as the derivative roots of Nim's Island are clearly visible, kids will no doubt vicariously enjoy Nim's adventures and Edenic existence. And how refreshing, for once, to see a girl embark on derring-do that, in Nim's own words, makes her the hero of her own story.
  6. Young@Heart
    Here are old people in all the magnificence of their elderliness. The movie doesn't pretend like getting old is any fun. But it's about the transcendental power of -- well, yes, music; and each of these folks has a talent whose expression is a fuel to survive.
  7. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
    A refreshingly tender treatment of love gone wrong -- we mean, for a movie that's got enough lowdown sexual content to start its own Kinsey Report.
  8. The Life Before Her Eyes
    Uma Thurman delivers a mesmerizing performance in The Life Before Her Eyes, a film that, once seen and fully digested, exerts the same haunting pull as the shattering events it chronicles.
  9. Roman de gare
    The movie is more entertaining than it is logical; its narrative leaps are sometimes ahead of our ability to believe them. But as the compellingly enigmatic Pierre, Pinon keeps us rapt.
  10. Up the Yangtze
    The disparity between Cindy and Jerry is itself obscene, but less so than that illuminated by the customers of Farewell Cruises, whom Yung shows to be almost parasitic in the way they feed off the misery (albeit without knowing it) of those who serve them.
  11. Mister Lonely
    What engages us is Korine's revolutionary way of telling stories. It's as though he's downloading his dreams directly onto the screen.
  12. Redbelt
    What is memorable is the film's portrait of a man of honor in a sleazy world, possibly a metaphor for the struggle of the artist to stay honorable in a world of backbiting, betrayal and hunger for easy money.
  13. Son of Rambow
    A crowd-pleasing combination of buoyant spirit and occasionally dark humor.
  14. XXY
    XXY is, in the best possible sense of the word, an awkward film.
  15. Surfwise
    Insightful, free-roaming but tautly constructed.
  16. What Happens in Vegas
    An exceedingly bright comedy that never makes you feel stupid for enjoying its brisk pacing, smart lines, sound construction and superb comic acting, not only from Ashton Kutcher but from Cameron Diaz and well-chosen No. 2 bananas Rob Corddry and Lake Bell.
  17. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
    It's romantic manliness at its purest, almost but not quite schmaltz, ideally calculated to please true believers and ironic snorters at once.
  18. Bigger Stronger Faster*
    He treats jocks like humans, not stars or superheroes, and in the end has managed something unique for documentaries these days: It's as entertaining as it is fair.
  19. Sex and the City
    It's less a movie than a delivery system for sensory pleasures, sunny romance and designer-label stuff that in real life would result in diabetic shock (or at least a ruined credit rating).
  20. The Incredible Hulk
    The result is a classic comic-book hero quest that, while not entirely novel, hews to its own rules and conventions with dignity and artfulness.
  21. Get Smart
    As for Hathaway, she's a revelation. Those eyes are still as big as Beamer hubcaps, but she's able to show more edge than her previous goody-goody roles have allowed.
  22. Wanted
    With its pounding, bloody violence, foul-mouthed language and putrid worldview, Wanted isn't comic book-y on a par with "Iron Man" or "The Incredible Hulk." Rather it's an example of revenge of the nerds at its nastiest and most vulgar.
  23. Trumbo
    What becomes clear is that Trumbo's humor is only one thing that helped him survive the professional and personal hardships of the blacklist, which drove more than one of his Hollywood friends to kill themselves and took a toll on Trumbo's children.
  24. The Wackness
    The dopest thing about The Wackness is Thirlby, who, after supporting turns in "Juno" and "Snow Angels," is quickly becoming reason enough to see any film she's in.
    • Washington Post
  25. Giorni e nuvole
    Sometimes art imitates life; sometimes it is life. If the market gets any worse, Days and Clouds could kill realism outright.
  26. Brideshead Revisited
    The real question is whether the film moves the "Brideshead" ball down the playing field in any meaningful way since the acclaimed miniseries. And I'd have to say that it doesn't so much advance it as it shrinks it into a golf-ball-size nugget.
  27. The Order of Myths
    Gracefully explores Mobile's Mardi Gras celebrations and profiles the young people playing at royalty at these ceremonies' hearts.
  28. Bottle Shock
    Whatta movie: booze, unhappy French people, Alan Rickman and really cool pickup trucks.
  29. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
    This is pure, escapist fun -- skepticism and naysaying are best left at home.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Red
    Its earnest, always incomplete quest haunts us in ways stock imagery cannot.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Trouble the Water
    Weaker in its second half than its mesmerizing first, as the story moves away from the intensity of the storm to follow the Robertses in their efforts to resettle.
  32. Mister Foe
    Thanks mainly to Bell's abundant charisma, Hallam makes for a strangely likable antihero.
  33. Save Me
    Save Me is a particularly flattering showcase for Gant, best known for his work on the TV show "Queer as Folk" and ready for a big-screen breakout.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Towelhead
    It's clever and original with an excellent cast. Ball's script catches a lot of the novel's pop, often word for word. I laughed a lot.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Appaloosa
    Harris and Mortensen may not have the combined star power to push Appaloosa to the level of popularity of last year's "3:10," but the film is every bit as enjoyable, and, for traditionalists, more measured.
  36. The Secret Life of Bees
    Keys isn't given much to do except look as though she's posing for an album cover, but Okonedo's face is a marvel. Every thought, every emotion flickers across it like clouds obscuring the sun.
  37. Beverly Hills Chihuahua
    Okay, the concept for the movie is admittedly lame, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with watching a passel of adorable pooches wrinkle their brows and bark while human voices come out of their mouths.
  38. Flash of Genius
    That movie is not half bad, either. The trial, by comparison, will feel familiar to anyone who has ever watched any David take on any corporate Goliath before a court of law ("Erin Brockovich," "A Civil Action," etc., etc.).
  39. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
    Like the mix tapes that obsess its main characters, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist builds into something of infectious joy.
  40. Body of Lies
    With its urgent post-9/11 context and often brutal violence, it seems off-key to describe Body of Lies as a nifty political thriller, but that's what it is.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    City of Ember
    It's not an entirely convincing trip, but it is the sort of satisfying movie you wished they would make more often.
  42. The Express
    The Express finesses a cinematic hat trick: It's entertaining, deeply moving and genuinely important.
  43. Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
    Combines the derring-do of classic adventure tales with far more serious issues of moral agency. And it serves as a haunting reminder to seek joy and beauty, even in the depths of despair.
  44. High School Musical 3: Senior Year
    Exudes genuine appeal, thanks to director Kenny Ortega's brilliant choreography and a gifted cast.
  45. JCVD
    Inventive, insightful and utterly surprising movie. It takes you places you're not prepared to go: namely, into the soul of a performer best known for flying back kicks. Who, by the way, can act.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pray the Devil Back to Hell
    "Peace is a process, not an event," one unnamed activist says toward the end. Amen, sister.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Transporter 3
    Overall, the production has the polish and pace that producer/co-writer Luc Besson's work is known for. Any complaints about the lack of substance are pointless.
  48. Doubt
    Just when you begin to think you know who the cat and mouse really are, in steps Viola Davis to steal not just her scene but the entire movie from Streep.
  49. The Reader
    Bernhard Schlink's highly regarded novel "The Reader" receives a graceful, absorbing screen adaptation by director Stephen Daldry.
  50. Moscow, Belgium
    What's universally hilarious is the way the inhabitants of "Moscow" come so close to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
  51. Last Chance Harvey
    Winds up being a touching portrait of that rarity in the movies: a recognizably human couple with recognizably human problems and quirks.
  52. Valkyrie
    A brutally efficient bit of storytelling, and it makes no unforced errors. It is admirably free of any Spielbergian effort to squeeze sentimentality or inspirational lessons out of what is a complicated and morally complex story.
  53. Defiance
    It's impossible to watch Defiance without experiencing a vicarious thrill of resistance and revenge.
  54. Cherry Blossoms
    Thanks to an accomplished cast, anchored by Elsner and Wepper, and observant filmmakers, very little in Cherry Blossoms is lost in translation.
  55. Inkheart
    For the young people in its demographic wheelhouse, Inkheart packs a welcome amount of entertainment value, creating a genuinely original world of enchantment.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Push
    As fantastical as all that sounds, the pleasure of Push comes from its glamorized grit, its no-nonsense pacing and the committed performances of the actors roughhousing in the gray area between heroism and villainy. It's pure popcorn, popped fresh, doused in butter and sprinkled with soy sauce.
  57. The International
    The compulsively watchable Owen makes for an ideal leading man of both action and angst. The film's eye-popping set piece, a shootout at the Guggenheim Museum, is an extravagantly choreographed valentine to philistines everywhere.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Ugly Truth
    Pleasingly glossy, refreshingly snarky and startlingly sexy.
  59. Everlasting Moments
    There's another satisfying benefit to Everlasting Moments. It's gloriously absent of the hyper-speed anxiety that passes for storytelling on our multiplex screens.
  60. Fados
    The movie, set entirely on a beautifully lit soundstage filled with musicians, dancers, mirrors and projection screens, presents some of the country's most acclaimed fadoistas, singing tributes to the art form and some of its greatest legends.
  61. Fast & Furious
    The reunion is fun and frantic, like the original on double nitro.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Song of Sparrows
    At times tedious but ultimately beguiling, Song of Sparrows morphs from a sly dramedy about running a household into a fable about two ways of life (urban and rural) that can't coexist.
  63. American Violet
    What sticks in my craw -- just a bit -- is the way the film doesn't fully trust the true story's inherent power.
  64. Lemon Tree
    Riklis has made a powerful film, but can a powerful film change anything about the fatalistic culture of powerlessness that is felt throughout Palestine and Israel? The irony of Lemon Tree is that what it achieves adds, in the end, to the sense that nothing can unravel this mess.
  65. Earth
    A gorgeously photographed storybook.
  66. The Soloist
    Hollywood loves the heroics of good intentions, but this movie is just as interested in the road to hell.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Outrage
    A crisp, efficient, sometimes petty but often infuriating documentary about alleged gay politicians who actively campaign and vote against gay rights.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    O'Horten
    Depending on your patience for oddball mood pieces, you will either sleep through O' Horten or be oddly captivated. Either way, it'll be like dreaming.
  69. Management
    Zahn is the single biggest reason why Management is a delightfully screwball romantic comedy and not a crazed-stalker film. And why it works. Like watching a puppy chase its own tail, it's a pleasure watching Mike try to win Sue over.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pressure Cooker
    Pressure Cooker may not get the royal, Conde Nast-magazine hype accorded that upcoming Julia Child movie (starring, who else, Meryl Streep), but it merits a place of honor at the table.
  71. Imagine That
    It's refreshing that in effects-happy Hollywood, Evan and Olivia only imagine their travels, rather than run a gantlet of computerized hallucinations. This may turn out to be one of the more endearing aspects of Imagine That to its younger audiences.
  72. $9.99
    A charming, poetic and at times surreal stop-motion animation co-written with Etgar Keret and based on the Israeli writer's short stories.
  73. The End of the Line
    The movie does present solutions, including its urging of consumer demand for more accountability from restaurants and the building of marine reserves.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
    As is, this generally excellent portrait does much to fill the void, restoring an unfortunately forgotten figure to her rightful place among broadcasting's trailblazers.
  75. Adam
    At its best, Adam makes the viewer understand the frustration of living in a world in which everyone is a stranger -- not least by making us work as hard to understand its hero's feelings as Adam himself must work to understand Beth's.
  76. Earth Days
    Feels like a prolonged campfire conversation, filled with weathered, measured talk about holistic thinking and finding a new perspective.
  77. It Might Get Loud
    One needn't have a Stratocaster moldering in the closet at home to get a kick out of It Might Get Loud.
  78. No Impact Man: The Documentary
    You know what they say: Behind every successful, self-flagellating environmental activist is a woman. And that's what saves both Beavan and the movie.
  79. The Brothers
    A lively, affectionate and well-acted romantic comedy, takes a raunchy look at relationships from the black male perspective.
  80. Armageddon
    It might make you tense, it might make you nauseous, and its clangorous roar could well give you a migraine headache.
  81. Cowboys & Angels
    It's a sweet but slight film whose undeniable appeal is largely due to the performances of its flat-out adorable leads.
  82. Skins
    As coherent storytelling, Skins isn't that tightly wrapped, but as an excoriating look at the plight of the modern American Indian, it bites hard.
  83. The Same River Twice
    If you can get past the "Big Chill" setup, there is a fine piece of moviemaking here.
  84. The In-Laws
    This is a movie that starts silly and just gets sillier -- at one point Candice Bergen shows up with a Buddhist monk -- but its laughs are sweet-natured, and Heaven knows the lead players earn every one.
  85. All the Pretty Horses
    Thornton, writer-director of the superb "Slingblade," has a gift for depicting down-and-dirty scenes among men. And when our three principal characters go riding from Texas to Mexico, this is the best part of the movie.
  86. The Cider House Rules
    The movie is pure pro-choice agitprop, as it tracks Homer's conversion to the cause of choice and posits the heroism of the abortionist. Pro-lifers will hate it on that point alone.
  87. Biker Boyz
    It will all look pretty ridiculous to grown-ups, but to 13-year-old boys (and adults with well-tended inner versions thereof), Biker Boyz will be the perfect testosterone-fueled, flash-edited, music-driven joy ride.
  88. Just Visiting
    If you saw the French version, well, here it is, in Disney language, with John-Hughes-style slapstick.
  89. Down to Earth
    Rock is such a consistent delight, and so powerfully amused at the profound pleasure of being Chris Rock, that he shares the wealth with all of us.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
    There are entertaining little anachronisms, amusing lines and enough wacky frenzy to please the little ones. The movie clearly comes from a Christian perspective, but without being overly preachy.
  91. The Wild Thornberrys Movie
    Pleasant enough and its ecological, pro-wildlife sentiments are certainly welcome.
  92. Big Night
    Big Night, a scrumptious tale of great food and grand passions, belongs on the menu with such mouth-watering movie fare as "Babette's Feast" and "Like Water for Chocolate."
  93. Stolen Summer
    The performances take the movie to a higher level.
  94. Cotton Mary
    Serves as a fascinating exploration of racial and social prejudice; and an indictment of cultural miscegenation.
  95. Tortilla Soup
    It's not as good as "Eat Drink Man Woman," for no imitation ever surpasses its original; but it's so brimful of life you can't say no.
  96. Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
    Fluidly edited, subtle.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Best Man
    Tapping into the Zeitgeist of young black professionals starving to see themselves on film, it hits all the right cultural touchstones.
  98. Return to Never Land
    Even if you tap only a little of the magic of "Peter Pan," you'll come away with some pixie dust.
  99. Shanghai Ghetto
    Despite the film's shortcomings, the stories are quietly moving.
  100. Piglet's Big Movie
    Sure it's slight, but also as cute as the curly tail on its tender protagonist.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »