Washington Post's Scores

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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
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  1. The Little Vampire
    Very funny in a way reminiscent of "Babe: Pig in the City."
  2. The Brothers McMullen
    This knowing, low-budget comedy will appeal to men, who'll recognize their behavior, but also to women, who'll see it as goosing the gander.
  3. A Room for Romeo Brass
    Proceeds with an episodic pace, full of narrative twists and turns that clearly are not pretested by a Hollywood committee. Things feel sort of strange and original all at once.
  4. Made
    There are laughs -- lots of them, too -- but at some point the source of the laughs -- Vaughan's Ricky, a yammering loose cannon -- goes from entertaining to obnoxious.
  5. Innocence
    A sweet but labored love story.
  6. Vampire Hunter D
    If you appreciate fine animation and edgy material, this blood's for you.
  7. The Last September
    More interesting for the world it evokes rather than the drama that unfolds.
  8. Brown Sugar
    May not be the most nutritious movie on the table, but it lives up to its sweet promise.
  9. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
    The unexpected drama captured puts I Am Trying to Break Your Heart in the good company, if not quite the league, of "Let It Be" and "Gimme Shelter."
  10. Standing in the Shadows of Motown
    The film is a testament to art, life and survival like the similar but superior "Buena Vista Social Club."
  11. Harrison's Flowers
    The movie's still a solid "B," a workmanlike drama.
  12. The Trials of Henry Kissinger
    Damning legal brief against the former secretary of state.
  13. Aimee & Jaguar
    A surprisingly lush, well-produced film.
  14. Deterrence
    A surprisingly gripping experience.
  15. Last Resort
    Compelling, if sometimes grittily depressing, viewing.
  16. The Caveman's Valentine
    If anyone can sell the idea of ... some psycho "Sherlock Holmes," it's Samuel L. Jackson.
  17. The Five Senses
    Narratively club-footed but directorially assured.
  18. Lucky Break
    It's what the Brits themselves might call fair to middling.
  19. The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
    This sweet little tale is as informative as it is entertaining for its target audience, the very youngest of the Muppet franchise's fans.
  20. Mad Love
    A bodice-ripper for intellectuals.
  21. An Affair of Love
    Smells much more like real life than the immediate mating that occurs between expensive movie stars on Hollywood soundstages.
  22. Boiler Room
    As a piece of journalism then, Boiler Room is first class.
  23. Mumford
    A sort of thinking-person's cornball movie.
  24. The Lady and the Duke
    The effect, in this French period drama, is something like a moving pop-up book, in which characters seem to be two-dimensional cardboard cutouts come to life.
  25. A Housekeeper
    Even if the film is only moderately enjoyable, it can create a sort of exotic escapism.
  26. Laurel Canyon
    Thanks to the performances and the general looseness of the script, the movie is more appealing than it has any business being.
  27. Est - Ouest
    The two-hour film never feels a minute too long.
  28. Stuart Little
    The tale is propelled by its characters and buoyed by the film's warm and loving spirit.
  29. L.I.E.
    In a role that challenges our very notion of morality, Cox comes across as both predatory and fatherly, sometimes at once, in an acting turn as astonishing as it is stomach-turning.
    • Washington Post
  30. Fever Pitch
    If you don't operate on the premise that soccer is the most important thing in the universe, you might not go along with everything in Fever Pitch.
  31. Rollerball
    A turbo-charged remake that should alienate no fans of the adrenalized 1975 original.
  32. Big Fat Liar
    An innocent comedic revenge fantasy that somehow manages to be sweet and wickedly satisfying at the same time.
  33. Dr T and the Women
    If you skim along the surface of this movie, you'll have more fun than if you submit the movie to scrutiny.
  34. The Contender
    As entertainment of a tawdry but compelling sort, The Contender certainly delivers.
  35. Mondays in the Sun
    It's a long and relatively underdramatized film, but it's powerfully true.
  36. Cinemania
    It's too short, and it doesn't delve deep enough. But it's thoroughly enjoyable.
  37. U-571
    The real star of U-571 is its sheer visceral atmosphere.
  38. Ishtar
    Ishtar is an unabashed vamp for a pair of household names, and as such it works, often hilariously.
  39. Pleasantville
    Lacks the edge and depth of a truly inspired work.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Four Weddings and a Funeral
    A movie to cheer you up and on and help you feel that spring will, in fact, arrive before we are all too desiccated to enjoy it.
  41. Happy, Texas
    Along with a lot of 10-gallon laughs, Happy, Texas rustles up plenty of goodwill for its larcenous, sexually ambiguous leading men.
  42. Erin Brockovich
    It is a rabble-rousing cheerfest, based on a true story.
  43. Bulworth
    This is a great liberal movie, which is to say, it will be loved most passionately by great liberals, and despised by the conservatives it contemptuously fails to notice.
  44. The Tailor of Panama
    Despite a dissatisfying conclusion, a sense that things don't completely jell, The Tailor of Panama is lively and provocative.
  45. Jet Lag
    It's got a subtext but not a subplot.
  46. Only the Strong Survive
    Even with its flaws should be cheered for preserving the later years of these towering musical talents.
  47. The Shipping News
    It's worth seeing at the very least because it is so different from standard Hollywood fare.
  48. Repo Man
    It's a quirky film -- extremely profane and violent -- a respite from reverential sigh-fi. It's like visiting the bus depot late at night, and finding you kind of like it. [14 Sept 1984]
    • Washington Post
  49. La Femme Nikita
    Ludicrous. Its logic flies out the window like a rocket. It's unbelievable and ridiculous... But fascinating it is.
  50. Dead Ringers
    The movie is really almost tasteful considering [Cronenberg’s] stomach-churning capacities. He always does it for a higher purpose, though, which is why his films sometimes win wider audiences. This one probably won't cross over, because it's too queasy. [23 Sept 1988]
  51. Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
    Always predictable in its outcome, but it still retains a certain charm, mostly because of Meadows's cheerful sympathy and affection for his motley crew of characters.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Apollo 13
    The lean and efficient screenplay, based on the book "Lost Moon," by Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger, is full of the terse poetry and dry humor of people in crisis.
  53. The Last Days of Disco
    Eavesdropping on the glib conversations of witty urbanites can be a pleasant diversion, but after so much volubility, you might find yourself wishing that they would all just shut up and dance.
  54. Clay Pigeons
    Upon this fine mess shines Janeane Garofalo like a ray of sarcastic sunlight as FBI agent Shelby...With her gift for sweet bile, the sardonic Garofalo makes every second on screen a treasure to be cherished.
  55. The Glass House
    It is surprising that no matter how much we know what will happen, we never stop watching.
  56. Bollywood/Hollywood
    Will prove infectious to those audiences who find themselves sharing the director's frivolous frame of mind.
  57. Rana's Wedding
    Clara Khoury delivers a performance that is luminous, fierce and intensely focused as the title character of Rana's Wedding.
  58. The Gingerbread Man
    The trouble is that the picture is far from over when suddenly we find ourselves watching another movie -- a punishing, overly complex melodrama in which the Gingerbread Man receives his comeuppance.
  59. Smoke
    A celebration of buddies and butts, it's an unconventionally structured, wonderfully acted group portrait of the regulars at a Brooklyn cigar store.
  60. Swimming Pool
    Until the movie gets lost in its ultimately convoluted conceit, however, it's a superb modulation of menace, tension, mystery and eroticism.
  61. Quiz Show
    As taut, sleek and guiltily comfortable as the classic Chrysler automobile we see at the beginning, "Quiz Show" is built for entertaining road performance. The facts (at least, the dramatically inconvenient ones) are left on the side of the road. Redford retains the emotional engine of the Van Doren affair and drives this baby all the way—presumably—to the bank.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    My Life Without Me
    Not a gentle film. Insistent and unforgettable, it wounds on the inside, and the scars feel fresh for some time.
  63. Velvet Goldmine
    The film is a visually beautiful but clumsily plotted mishmash of "Citizen Kane," "Eddie and the Cruisers" and England's last overblown movie musical, "Absolute Beginners."
  64. Chuck & Buck
    A provocative and uncomfortable comedy.
  65. Snipes
    Highly watchable stuff (not to mention listenable, with a relentless but not overly obtrusive hip-hop soundtrack propelling the action).
  66. Butterfly Tongues
    The film's climax was only one of several moments that left me utterly verklempt, without ever knowing that my buttons were being pushed.
  67. Dopamine
    Shakespeare asked, "Or in the heart, or in the head?" It's not a new question by any means, but it's one that is given a fresh and refreshing adult twist by Decena's heady yet steady-handed Dopamine.
  68. Inspector Gadget
    The movie, based on the TV cartoon series, is exceptionally pleasant, and there's just enough humor to make it enjoyable for adults.
  69. Hard Ball
    Surprisingly brusque yet likable film.
  70. Good Boy!
    Surprisingly nimble and fun to watch, mostly thanks to the magnificent dogs Hoffman has found to portray his lead characters, and thanks to the actors he cast as the animals' voices.
  71. Zero Day
    The movie can't help but resonate with a ripped-from-the-headlines topicality.
  72. The Clay Bird
    The power of this quiet little film lies in the lyricism of its images of life on Bangladesh's waterways and in its towns...and in the naturalistic performances from its cast of mostly nonprofessional actors.
  73. Head of State
    Not the sharpest political humor I've ever heard, but it gets my vote for the stupidest fun I've had in a long time.
  74. Kingdom Come
    Manages to be profound without being pompous.
  75. Johnny English
    Delivered with the kind of English aplomb that PBS audiences around the country have come to know and love. It must be the accent.
  76. 54
    An entertaining and surprisingly serious look at the infamous New York discotheque, with a genuine nostalgia for the late '70s and early '80s.
  77. Enough
    Even the most hard-hearted critic will let out a sisterhood-is-powerful whoop.
  78. Die Hard
    A logistical wonder, a marvel of engineering, and relentlessly, mercilessly thrilling.
  79. Living Out Loud
    This is screenwriter Richard LaGravenese's directorial debut and now that he's in charge, he finally has his chance to give dialogue and character their due.
  80. Sliding Doors
    Sliding Doors is frothy stuff, far more complicated in structure than in content.
  81. With All Deliberate Speed
    Gets most of its juice from listening to groups of people who were students and activists in segregated Clarendon County, S.C., and Prince Edward County, Va., during the years leading up to the case.
  82. A Few Good Men
    About as understated as a 21-gun salute... What's missing is anything of Reiner himself.
  83. Trembling Before G-d
    Short but emotionally effective movie.
  84. Divan
    A charming and astute first-person documentary.
  85. Enigma
    First-class in all departments except clarity.
  86. The Jungle Book 2
    A cute sequel to the 1967 Disney classic, is likely to provide 72 minutes of enjoyment and a few scary thrills to tykes, as well as a pleasant diversion for parents.
  87. Spy Kids
    As a piece of almost dadaist filmmaking, Spy Kids is great fun with its continual spirit of invention.
  88. On the Line
    Harmless romantic and musical high jinks abound, and sentimentality prevails.
  89. Frailty
    May leave you more cold and stunned than enlightened.
  90. Twelve Monkeys
    A densely plotted, visually dynamic post-apocalyptic thriller.
  91. Men in Black
    Sonnenfeld, who demonstrated a knack for Gothic comedy in "The Addams Family," brings the same mischievous gleefulness to this deliriously macabre enterprise.
  92. A Midsummer Night's Dream
    Hoffman introduces a memorable sensuality to the movie.
  93. Below
    An ingenious hybrid of submarine movie and ghost story. And there's a wee bit of "Macbeth" in there too.
  94. Better Luck Tomorrow
    Although this movie shows Lin's promising moviemaking sensibilities, its point of view feels coldly amoral and dismissive.
  95. K-PAX
    Primarily, it's a warm, fuzzy and funny duet between Spacey and Bridges, one that brings to mind the interplay between Spock and Kirk.
  96. Confidence
    It's great to watch the cat-and-mouse of it all -- even when the movie might not be firing on all points.
  97. Die, Mommie, Die!
    It succeeds, with a big, false-eyelashed wink.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pi
    Pi may be the most engrossing piece of cyberpunk cinema yet.
  99. The Siege
    What a shame, therefore, that in its puritanical treatment of the only strong female character, the otherwise politically correct police story is blithely unaware of its own closet misogyny.
  100. Stepmom
    It's not without moments of wit and powerful emotion, but somehow Stepmom never feels either real enough to move us deeply or bubbly enough to make us forget our woes.
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