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 5.2 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 Jane Austen Book Club
    Everyone is given their due and dignity in this funny, sexy, humanist film that, if it is a chick flick, gives the genre a good name.
  2. Across the Universe
    A yawn and most unforgivably features some appalling arrangements of the Beatles' best-loved songs.
  3. December Boys
    Radcliffe is good at showing vulnerability but without the skills to give it gradation. The magic doesn't work for him this time.
  4. Eastern Promises
    Cronenberg's deeper purpose is to pull audiences into an affecting, powerful story about right and wrong.
  5. In the Valley of Elah
    Haggis also appears to have no respect for his audience. At its crudest, the film settles for agitprop...it's no Hollywood guy's call, particularly as he's extrapolating from a single case that could have occurred anywhere, at any time.
  6. Ira & Abby
    It's all too zany and madcap and Woody Allen-redux to be remotely credible, but Ira & Abby turns out to be witty and winning, in large part because of its cast.
  7. King of California
    There's so little authenticity between them, it destroys the story's most crucial element: the love between father and daughter. And finding the gold becomes our only reason to watch.
  8. Mr. Woodcock
    Mild pleasures are available in Mr. Woodcock.
  9. The Brave One
    It's hard to hate, because as a rabble-rouser it is superbly effective, driven forward by two powerhouse actors.
  10. The Rape of Europa
    Fascinating facts and testimony.
  11. 3:10 to Yuma
    The remake adds 24 minutes and subtracts most of the suspense.
  12. Fierce People
    When the tone goes from daffy to dour in the course of a harrowing plot point, the story becomes more forced than fierce.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    In the Shadow of the Moon
    Now, finally, we know what it was like to walk on the moon: unbelievably cool. Amazing. Fantastic. Scary.
  14. Romance & Cigarettes
    the movie comes on as a novelty item, meaning it's so full of disparate parts and so unable to approach coherence, it just sits there and burns out.
  15. Shoot 'Em Up
    It's just gunfights strung together, without a whisper of coherence or meaning. The fights are staged so that they all look the same, and the principle is always the same: The gunman's multiple antagonists never hit, and he never misses. John Woo at least had fun with this sort of thing 20 years ago. And Giamatti? What the heck is he doing here?
  16. The Hunting Party
    Truth be told, none of it is actual living, and all of it is secondhand re-spinning of such better movies as "The Year of Living Dangerously" and "Welcome to Sarajevo." To use an antiquated newsman's cliche: Get me rewrite.
  17. Milarepa
    What really reaches us is the collective presence of the cast, most of them monks and other acting amateurs. They seem uniformly imbued with inherent grace and effortless spiritual bearing. And their smallest of gestures exude the kind of un-self-conscious gravitas that constitutes all fables.
  18. I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
    The entire film carries a whiff of "vanity project," with several of Garlin's comedic buddies reporting for duty.
  19. Death Sentence
    Death Sentence, directed by "Saw" co-creator James Wan, swings the pendulum too far. One day Nick is a mild-mannered nerd who spends his days making (and loving) risk assessments for his company; the next, he's Travis Bickle from 1976's "Taxi Driver."
  20. Halloween (2007)
    A film that contains dialogue so nasty and stupid, you'd swear (right along with the characters) that the booker for "Jerry Springer" wrote it (Zombie did).
  21. Balls of Fury
    The nicest thing is the Asian American actress known as Maggie Q.
  22. Dedication
    Theroux and company could be said to be "Garden State"-ing, or trying to. Instead of that film's sheen of the touchingly weird, Dedication finds a whole lot of the coldly dumb.
  23. Deep Water
    The movie leaves us with greater things to contemplate than a mere tragedy of errors.
  24. Illegal Tender
    A throwback to 1970s blaxploitation flicks, with a Latin accent, Illegal Tender would be a brassy, sassy guilty pleasure if it were more, well, pleasurable.
  25. Mr. Bean's Vacation
    Do you Bean? If you do Bean, rejoice. Bean is back. If you don't Bean, here's a chance to start. Bean now, or forever hold your peace.
  26. The Nanny Diaries
    Linney -- this has happened too much to her -- is once again the best thing in a movie that at most achieves a certain mediocrity.
  27. Resurrecting the Champ
    Hardly anything feels real, but what feels even more unreal is Hartnett with a cloying, sentimental, self-pitying performance. The liveliest thing in the film is the great Jackson, slumming again in a role miles beneath him.
  28. Right at Your Door
    First-time director Chris Gorak is no Rod Serling, and in his hands the enterprise tends toward the lurid, especially after his nifty third-act twist.
  29. September Dawn
    It's a soap opera posing as moral outrage.
  30. Superbad
    Christopher Mintz-Plasse steals the movie in his screen debut as a nerd di tutti nerds, a kid whose fake I.D. reads "McLovin."
  31. Death at a Funeral
    Shows us how funny farce can be -- even with the hokiest of premises -- in the hands of the British.
  32. Them
    Them knows something the makers of the "Hostel" and "Saw" movies apparently don't: Subtlety and suggestion are every bit as terrifying as slashing and sawing.
  33. Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
    The subject is huge and worthy, and the film makes a noble effort to embrace some of its complexity.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The 11th Hour
    The picture almost beats its theme to death -- the first hour is enough -- but the imaginative designers dreaming up a cleaner future end this Cassandra cry on an upbeat note.
  35. The Invasion
    On the technical side, The Invasion has several first-rate, terrifying action sequences and grips totally from start to finish. But a subplot involving the Russian Embassy doesn't really pay off, and the relationship between Kidman and glum paramour Daniel Craig (another doc) isn't much.
  36. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
    It's a depressing little kingdom, even when Gordon tries desperately to goose the drama with the requisite "Eye of the Tiger" riffs and some junior high-level palace intrigue.
  37. 2 Days in Paris
    There is enough "hit" material to make this fun. Delpy is such an infectiously appealing personality, she almost wills this movie to work.
  38. Rocket Science
    Jeffrey Blitz's smart, deceptively lighthearted movie gives audiences an endearing nerd-messiah to revisit that angst for all of us and -- maybe, just maybe -- he'll end up in love and ahead.
  39. Rush Hour 3
    At the risk of eternal damnation on the Internet, I admit to laughing at -- even feeling momentarily touched by -- Rush Hour 3.
  40. Stardust
    Stardust has it all: sweetness, magic, lusty wenches, evil witches, tankards of mead, a gay pirate.
  41. Daddy Day Camp
    It's gotten to the point where Gooding's presence on a marquee practically guarantees we'll be bashing our heads against the seat in front of us. Bonk, bonk, bonk.
  42. In Paris
    Dans Paris will delight aficionados familiar with its myriad references, and there's no denying the appeal of Duris and Garrel. But once the source of the boys' primal wound is revealed, the whole enterprise comes to feel as mechanical as the Bon Marche window display that serves as one of the film's plot points.
  43. The Bourne Ultimatum
    It's frenetic to the point of crazy while achieving a mark that barely exceeds mediocre.
  44. The Ten
    An uneven, sophomoric and only fitfully funny omnibus of skits, The Ten is one of those silly-on-purpose ensemble exercises that must have been wildly fun to make.
  45. Becoming Jane
    So I expect the Janeites who love the author will feel themselves ill-served by the film, which appears to have even less basis in fact than "Shakespeare in Love." As for the rest of us, the question is simpler: Is it worth the eight bucks?
  46. La faute à Fidel!
    The result is a movie of deceptive lightness and powerful sweep. And what makes it truly work is the presence of Kervel, a first-time actor whose Anna is disarmingly self-assured and sweet. Without her, nothing else matters.
  47. Bratz
    This is a movie for a grade-schooler's -- a female grade-schooler's -- sensibility. It's earnest, silly and sweet, with just enough food fights and musical numbers to keep everyone else from gagging on the goo.
  48. Hot Rod
    Only fitfully amusing. More often, it feels like a mediocre attempt to reprise the central elements of the infinitely funnier "Napoleon Dynamite."
  49. El cantante
    A star isn't born in El Cantante as much as it's reconfirmed. She's still here, and she's still got it.
  50. No End in Sight
    Ferguson builds a compelling case of bad judgment, error, stubbornness and arrogance.
  51. I Know Who Killed Me
    Lohan brilliantly brings off her double turn and clearly believes in the picture, as do all who worked on it. These things used to be called B movies in the old days.
  52. Molière
    An extravagant and thoroughly irresistible story of intrigue, romance, comedy and artistic inspiration.
  53. No Reservations
    There's already a crazy behind-the-scenes restaurant movie out this summer, and it's got a better story, and it's a cartoon, and it stars a rat.
  54. The Simpsons Movie
    The genius is in the writing and in keeping all gambits created by the individual writers in sync, so the piece has a tonal consistency and a narrative flow. A lost art in Hollywood? It's really one of the best movies of the year.
  55. This Is England
    This Is England, set in the social dystopia of Margaret Thatcher's Great Britain, gives us something far more humane and complex than a culturally specific memoir about Doc Martens shoes, reggae music and mindless aggression.
  56. Who's Your Caddy?
    An offensive, comedy-free comedy.
  57. Arctic Tale
    As charming as it is instructive.
  58. The Devil Came on Horseback
    Incisive and possibly a bit melodramatic as it lays out the reasons and the results of the violent campaign and marshals indignation on behalf of the victims while crying out for Western engagement.
  59. Cashback
    Springs from that childhood fantasy of being able to stop time and wander freely among the temporarily frozen. If only writer-director Sean Ellis had done more than use the conceit for a functional romance.
  60. Goya's Ghosts
    Handsome but stilted.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hairspray
    When Hairspray is twisting and shouting and swiveling its hips, you can even dare to believe a great society is waiting in the wings.
  62. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
    Essentially, Chuck & Larry is an oafish chance for audiences to laugh at gay-bashing jokes and then feel morally redeemed for doing so -- courtesy of an obligatory wrap-up scene that reminds us that homosexuals are humans, too.
  63. Sunshine
    Beam yourselves aboard Sunshine, set 50 years in the future. The voyage works, beautifully.
  64. Falling for Grace
    Even though these characters are hogtied by the story's unimaginative conventions, at least their lively interactions feel genuine.
  65. Live-In Maid
    A vivid portrait of a society in the midst of wrenching change, but it transcends its immediate context to become a thoughtful, even unforgettable, chamber piece, performed with exquisite subtlety by two fine actresses.
  66. Interview
    Unfortunately, Buscemi's film conveys the spirit of its source material but doesn't make a satisfying transmogrification out of its homage.
  67. My Best Friend
    Leconte is always a deliriously clever director; his "Ridicule" and his "The Girl on the Bridge" stand out as vivid films on subjects no one in America would even consider. Possibly he's trying too hard here to be liked, just like Francois. But as long as he's merciless, he's great fun.
  68. Talk to Me
    Talk to Me, with two great actors, tells that story, and it makes you feel not only the joy people experienced in the wash of Greene's raucous, truth-saying humor, but also his wisdom and calm. And many mourned his death at 55 in 1984.
  69. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
    Screenwriter Michael Goldenberg and director David Yates have transformed J.K. Rowling's garrulous storytelling into something leaner, moodier and more compelling, that ticks with metronomic purpose as the story flits between psychological darkness and cartoonish slapstick.
  70. Joshua
    Harrowing, controlled and diabolically self-assured, Joshua leaves filmgoers teetering on their own emotional precipice, wondering just where pathos ends and pathology begins.
  71. Introducing the Dwights
    Amusing only for its performances, including those of Chittenden and Wilson. The cast cannot hide the movie's derivative shortcomings, which only remind us that we've seen better and funnier elsewhere.
  72. Rescue Dawn
    That such a masterful depiction of American heroism and can-do spirit has been created by a German art film director known for considerably darker visions of obsession is an irony Herzog no doubt finds delicious.
  73. Transformers
    It's a wonderfully playful experience.
  74. License to Wed
    Uneven but occasionally funny.
  75. Ratatouille
    Observed mostly from Remy's rat's-eye view, Gusteau's kitchen is a memorable world-in-miniature with its vivid old-fashioned stoves, bright, brassy pots and general air of frenzied industry; never did sliced red onions or simmering soup look so fresh and real.
  76. Sicko
    Ladies and gentlemen, I think we can agree on two things: The American health-care system is busted and Michael Moore is not the guy to fix it. His Sicko, an investigation and indictment of a system choking on paperwork, greed, bad policy and countervailing goals, turns out to be a fuzzy, toothless collection of anecdotes, a few stunts and a bromide-rich conclusion.
  77. Evening
    High-grade cheese, the sort of highly pitched melodrama that in the 1950s would have been the stuff of a lurid, lavishly staged Douglas Sirk picture.
  78. Vitus
    The cast is superb, especially the young actors who portray Vitus; Gheorghiu is a real-life piano prodigy, lending an extra frisson to the intoxicating music that plays throughout the film.
  79. Live Free or Die Hard
    At a time when the action genre has come to be dominated by sleek, matte surfaces and set-'em-and-forget-'em computerized effects, Live Free or Die Hard seeks to remind viewers of the simple, nostalgic pleasures of watching stuff get blown up and bad guys get smoked.
  80. 1408
    Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom creates a compelling ride of a movie. Every beat of the film is weighted with significance, and our mounting dread becomes almost intolerable.
  81. Evan Almighty
    In Evan Almighty, Mr. God goes to Washington. Frank Capra, stop rolling in your grave. At least they cared enough to steal from the very best.
  82. A Mighty Heart
    A taut, meticulously crafted police procedural.
  83. Broken English
    If Broken English occasionally falls prey to a bit too much self-conscious lethargy, it's still a welcome chance to see Posey at her flighty, edgy best.
  84. Lady Chatterley
    Director Pascale Ferran makes this a sort of opera of two bodies, as the characters discover not only each other but themselves. And the French filmmaker cannily turns their corporeal discoveries into a moral mission, two desperately lonely souls crying for spiritual freedom in a world of moral constriction.
  85. You Kill Me
    Frank (Ben Kingsley) meets Laurel (Tea Leoni), a woman who has been around the block a time or 200, and she likes Frank's directness, while he likes her unflappability. This is one of the greatest screwball relationships in years.
  86. Manufactured Landscapes
    Manufactured Landscapes makes an inelegant point elegantly. The point: Humanity is altering the landscape drastically and by implication irrevocably.
  87. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
    Surely the dullest of Hollywood's many comic-book-derived summer movies, "Silver Surfer" is drearier than corn dying in the Iowa sun, slower than molasses in Antarctica.
  88. Nancy Drew
    Manages to navigate the era of cellphones and Mean Girls with retro nostalgia and wholesomeness, making it a rare girl-powered outing for tweens in an otherwise guy-centric summer.
  89. Eagle vs Shark
    The movie isn't funny in any big way so much as recognizable in its patterns of dysfunction, delusion and futility. But you believe in it, because you believe in the small but decent lives of its characters, a rare experience for a hot weekend in June.
  90. When the Road Bends: Tales of a Gypsy Caravan
    Viewers are urged to grab an aisle seat, the better to dance when the music moves them -- as it surely will.
  91. Ocean's Thirteen
    Ocean's Thirteen is too complicated for its own mediocrity.
  92. Surf's Up
    It's cool but not too cool, and cute but not too cute. A neat trick considering its overexposed avian cast.
  93. La Vie en Rose
    Cotillard leaves you loving her Piaf, wishing you could reach through the screen and steer her life a bit differently.
  94. 12:08 East of Bucharest
    A remarkable film from Romania.
  95. Knocked Up
    Turns out to be not just rude, crude and outrageously funny but a deceptively sophisticated meditation on moral agency -- with pot jokes!
  96. Gracie
    Directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"), the movie is heavy on hokum but easy to like, thanks to the spunky Schroeder.
  97. Mr. Brooks
    What compels then isn't the overwrought plot, but the simpler things, the dynamics between the actors, the avuncularity between old pros Costner and Hurt and the class condescension between Costner and Cook. It has a fascinatin' rhythm.
  98. Crazy Love
    Now, they're together. You can't look at them, but you can't look away either. So it goes.
  99. Day Watch
    Like its predecessor, the movie is a joyous celebration of extravagant pulp and post-Soviet kitsch, joyously trafficking in gore, loud cars, ladies' stilettos and excess for its own sake.
  100. Ten Canoes
    Its mixture of wisdom and whimsy -- exemplified by the movie's unnamed and occasionally cheeky narrator -- makes this Australian movie feel as timeless as it is timely. And instead of feeling dutifully cultural as we immerse ourselves in this story, we're genuinely intrigued, touched and even amused.
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