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. She's the One
    She’s the One, Edward Burns’s swift follow up to "The Brothers McMullen," may not have the primitive charm of its predecessor, but it retains the humorous spirit. It’s also graced with returning cast-members Burns, Mike McGlone and Maxine Bahns, whose bright comic interplay makes an enjoyable family reunion.
  2. Eat Drink Man Woman
    The movie’s main appeal—beyond stomach yearnings caused by its cuisine—comes from the actors, who infuse their archetypal roles with comedic appeal.
  3. Multiplicity
    Director Harold Ramis, who managed to stop time in the sunny comic masterpiece "Groundhog Day," tries a different tack in this lesser though nonetheless hilarious caper.
  4. If Lucy Fell
    Given these flaws, If Lucy Fell should be a chore, and yet I kept catching myself having a good time.
  5. Mulholland Falls
    An impressive but nonetheless obvious imitation has sprung up in the shadows of two brilliant movies-I refer to 1955's "Kiss Me Deadly" and 1974's "Chinatown."
  6. Johnny Handsome
    Walter Hill's "Johnny Handsome" feels like a shiv jammed between your ribs in a prison-yard fight. It's clean and brutal and so ruthlessly efficient that it's opened a hole in you almost before you've realized it.
  7. Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.
    In Just Another Girl on the I.R.T., Ariyan Johnson seizes the camera's attention like no other performer since John Travolta strutted into "Saturday Night Fever."
  8. The Secret of Roan Inish
    JOHN SAYLES has a filmmaking style that's often closer to leaden than lyrical. But his plodding manner works somewhat to advantage in "The Secret of Roan Inish," a modern-mythic drama set in Ireland that explores the special relationship between Irish seaside dwellers and Selkies -- seal-like creatures said to be part human.
  9. Candy Mountain
    Though much of "Candy" is a clumsy sprawl, there's more than enough human spirit in the tank to keep it going.
  10. Sommersby
    If you're looking for a picturesque romance -- with a little intrigue on the side -- you could do worse than "Sommersby."
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Wedding Banquet
    This intriguing but somewhat overlong (at two hours) comedy is mostly concerned with the melancholy and frustrating aspects of gay life in Japan, where taboos remain deeply entrenched and there is next to no privacy in puritanical society.
  12. How to Get Ahead in Advertising
    It vaults over rationality and tidy manners, over taste and proportion and, for that matter, the rules of dramatic structure. It's nuts, but nuts to an end.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Little Buddha
    Untouched by cynicism and irony, "Little Buddha" has the wide-eyed, innocent feel of a fable, perhaps because Bertolucci has set out to explicate Buddhism to skeptical Westerners as if to an audience of children. Bertolucci's audaciously campy casting coup succeeds, and not just because Reeves's presence will lure Sassy readers and curiosity-seekers.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything
    If the point of the documentary is to make clear to viewers how special Walters was and how dynamic she was and how influential she was, it also made clear how irreplaceable she was, at a time when her talent at extracting information and confessions is needed more than ever.
  15. Backbeat
    The film conveys the raucous energy that fueled the music, which is delivered with lip-sync abandon to tracks recorded by an alternative rock coalition under the guidance of Don Was.
  16. The Book of Eli
    A hyper-violent, post-apocalyptic Western in the mold of "Mad Max" that can't make up its mind whether it wants to be corny or misanthropic.
  17. The Road
    The Road possesses undeniable sweep and a grim kind of grandeur, but it ultimately plays like a zombie movie with literary pretensions.
  18. The Last Station
    At its best, The Last Station vividly illustrates the enduring Russian gift for iconography, whether spiritual, secular or something in between.
  19. The Men Who Stare at Goats
    Content to be sparkly when it should be sharp-edged and shrewd; it has the potential to roar like a lion, but instead it lays lambs at our feet.
  20. 44 Inch Chest
    The best reason to see 44 Inch Chest is simply to behold some of the finest actors working today, especially Winstone -- who can embody winsomeness and menace in one sweaty, unkempt glance -- and the woefully underemployed Dillane.
  21. The Twilight Saga: New Moon
    Despite melodrama that, at times, is enough to induce diabetes, there's enough wolf whistle in this sexy, scary romp to please anyone.
  22. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
    Levine brings a lot of visual style to “Mandy,” in addition to coaxing subdued, believable performances from his young cast.
  23. We Live in Public
    The title of Ondi Timoner's Sundance award-winning documentary about the loss of privacy in the Internet age says it all: "We Live in Public." Don't believe it? Just try Googling "Tiger Woods" or "Michaele Salahi."
  24. Wonderful World
    Broderick, for his part, is playing a role solidly in his late-career wheelhouse: a middle-age disappointment, Ferris Bueller gone to seed. So affecting is Broderick in these parts -- at this point, only Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a better schlub.
  25. Tooth Fairy
    Tooth Fairy is cute. Which is to say that Dwayne Johnson is cute. How could anybody with the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger (circa 1984) and the smile of Cameron Diaz not be, especially when dressed -- albeit briefly -- in a pink tutu?
  26. The Secret of Kells
    Not nearly as accomplished narratively as it is visually.
  27. Green Zone
    The jittery, scattershot camerawork of Greengrass's longtime cinematographer, Barry Ackroyd, was used far more coherently in Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar-winning "The Hurt Locker," and the constant blurry close-ups of computer screens and street-level scrums lose their power with each successive cut.
  28. Repo Men
    Repo Men grafts moral ambiguity onto the action thriller, and the result is a weird but likably misshapen beast.
  29. Diary of a Wimpy Kid
    Kids who realize they're fully ordinary -- that is, pretty much all of them -- will be pleased to see a world they recognize on the big screen.
  30. Salaam Bombay!
    Nair and screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala aren't really great storytellers, but they are streetwise. Shot on a low budget, down and dirty and on location, "Salaam Bombay!" is like being there, if there is where you want to be.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Step Up 3-D
    The main reason to see Step Up 3D is for the high-energy dancing and innovative camerawork, and on those points it delivers.
  32. Eat Pray Love
    Eat Pray Love finally settles into its own cinematic destiny as an attractive escapist love story, in which the romance is more with the I than with the guy.
  33. Dinner for Schmucks
    Dinner for Schmucks has already raised hackles in the Yiddish-speaking community for the breathtakingly offensive epithet in its title (and it's not "dinner"). But it turns out that this comedy of humiliation, starring Paul Rudd and Steve Carell, isn't nearly as off-putting as it might have been.
  34. The Joneses
    Unfortunately, the movie's second half drags, never again achieving the first half's level of narrative dexterity.
  35. The Back-up Plan
    A not-as-bad-as-you-think-it-is romantic comedy.
  36. Collapse
    Think of Collapse as the anti-"2012." Not because this dour doc is any more optimistic about the future than that recent apocalyptic spectacular but because its vision of disaster is delivered not through expensive special effects but by a talking head.
  37. Toe to Toe
    Resourceful, if occasionally forced, teen melodrama.
  38. The Expendables
    A super-stoked action thriller
  39. Predators
    It's hard to take Predators terribly seriously.
  40. Winter's Bone
    A tough movie to love.
  41. Never Let Me Go
    Epitomizes the kind of somber, aesthetically refined and morally engaged film that commands deep respect without inspiring much affection.
  42. Buried
    A well-made, excruciating exercise in containment and sustained suspense. It's a breakout moment for Reynolds. Is it a fun hour and a half? No. But it succeeds within its own straitened contours. It's an intriguing squirm. Now, please get me outta here.
  43. The Girl Who Played with Fire
    All too often, the second movie of a trilogy is a bridge. ("The Matrix Reloaded," anyone?) As often as not, it feels more like the first half of the last movie than a film in its own right. The Girl Who Played With Fire is no exception.
  44. The Other Guys
    For the most part, The Other Guys is seriously silly stuff, in the best sense.
  45. Nanny McPhee Returns
    It can take a miracle to create a movie that's fun for kids and their parents. Luckily, Nanny McPhee has a little magic up her sleeve.
  46. Going the Distance
    It's filthy, funny and kind of sweet, if not quite up to the level of Judd Apatow's oeuvre in the burgeoning field of R-rated comedies with heart. You will laugh and blush in equal measure.
  47. RED
    Unlike "Wild Hogs" or last summer's "The Expendables," this adaptation of the "Red" graphic novel series gets into a cool, sophisticated swing.
  48. Machete
    Despite broad satire about racism and border fences that will appeal to some liberals, the movie doesn't line up neatly along party lines -- except in that other sense of the word "party." It's a movie that just wants to have fun.
  49. Last Train Home
    It's depressing enough to watch this family's struggles with life. But their pain really hits home when you think that the pants you might be wearing could have contributed to it.
  50. Due Date
    Due Date isn't pretty; in fact, it gets kind of ugly. But, at least in the eyes of certain beholders, therein lies its peculiar, bent beauty.
  51. Burlesque
    Burlesque delivers eyeful after eyeful of rapid-fire opulence and spectacle. But its most memorable sight is the indelible image of one star taking flight, and another triumphantly staying put.
  52. All Good Things
    All Good Things is creepy and weird and sad, and little else.
  53. How Do You Know
    It's the kind of movie that succeeds as a culmination of moments that ring true and sweet.
  54. Cool It
    Some of it sounds, quite frankly, nuts. And a few of Lomborg's enemies have said as much. But throwing tons of money at the problem with little result? That also sounds kind of crazy.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
    It's a fluffy, mildly inspiring, celebration of the hero leading up to his big moment.
  56. The Mechanic
    Despite a certain emotional chill, what holds this Mechanic together is - no surprise - the core Carlino story.
  57. Water for Elephants
    Big, slick and showy. It is also undeniably effective entertainment.
  58. Hanna
    The single most compelling reason to see Hanna is Hanna herself. As played by Saoirse Ronan, who made her first big splash as another morally challenged youngster in Wright's 2007 "Atonement," the character is a fascinating and frustrating cipher.
  59. The Tree of Life
    At its best, The Tree of Life makes the viewer lean forward, eager to enter Malick's own dreamy, poetic consciousness. At worst, it leads to the vague feeling that we're listening to the meanderings of someone who's not sure we're smart enough to keep up.
  60. Cowboys & Aliens
    A loving throwback to the classic westerns and sci-fi adventures of yore, this celebration of two of cinema's most revered genres doesn't stint in lavishing their most cherished conventions with even-handed affection and respect.
  61. Friends with Benefits
    If Kunis gets the showier role in Friends With Benefits, Timberlake proves a quietly charming stalking horse, finally claiming and fully owning the spotlight with a hilarious homage to the 1990s rap duo Kriss Kross.
  62. The Beaver
    In a triumph of cinema over celebrity gossip, The Beaver mostly makes us forget about Gibson's madman persona and simply draws us into the story that he and director Jodie Foster, who also plays Walter's wife, Meredith, want to tell.
  63. Super 8
    All too often the plot feels calculated rather than organic, the result of a time-tested formula rather than genuine innovation.
  64. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo may want it both ways, getting its tawdry kicks while tsk-tsking those who deliver them in real life, but Mara's bristling, unbridled performance gives the film the ballast it needs to pull off that curious, undeniably engrossing, balancing act.
  65. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
    This sequel is just as profligate as its 2009 predecessor with explosions, anachronisms and quick cuts. But the dialogue is a little sharper, and Holmes gets a worthy opponent in Professor Moriarty.
  66. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
    There's a place in the movies for wish fulfillment, no doubt, including the wish for it all to be over.
  67. The Adventures of Tintin
    Sadly, Herge isn't around to see The Adventures of Tintin, Spielberg's crisp, richly rendered animated adaptation, which could be counted as both a success and a failure. Spielberg has brought Tintin to the big screen all right, but not quite to life.
  68. The Amazing Spider-Man
    The good news is that Garfield and Stone whip up a warm, convincing froth as two teenagers caught up in a beguiling case of puppy love. The not-so-great news is that by "reboot," the studio means taking audiences once again through every step of Peter's transformation into Spider-Man.
  69. The Hunger Games
    If the series's legions of fans miss a detail here or a sub-plot there, they'll still recognize its bones and sinew, especially in Jennifer Lawrence's eagle-eyed heroine Katniss Everdeen.
  70. Limitless
    A heck of a ride. On the way to its unpredictable (if less than wholly satisfying) conclusion, it is entertaining, a little silly and visually dazzling.
  71. The Conspirator
    In The Conspirator, Wright announces in no uncertain terms that she is back and more than ready for her close-up.
  72. Cars 2
    Unfortunately, the sequel shortchanges the very relationships that gave the first movie its surprising heart.
  73. Zookeeper
    Pratfalls and agonizing tumbles appear to be James's business, and man, business is booming.
  74. The Ides of March
    The Ides of March is cynical when, with political figures and institutions at all-time lows in public opinion, cynicism is the last thing we need; worse, that cynicism isn't spiked with any new or incisive insight.
  75. Footloose
    Footloose never needed to be dragged into the 21st century, but Brewer has made it look and sound a little bit more like the real world.
  76. A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
    The humor is even more wildly inappropriate, with a running joke about getting a baby stoned on pot, coke and ecstasy, and a scene inspired by the famous incident in "A Christmas Story" where the kid gets his tongue stuck to a frozen flagpole.
  77. The Skin I Live In
    I'll say one thing for The Skin I Live In, Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar's ambitious, crazy, even a-little-bit-infuriating new film: I did not see it coming.
  78. The Possession
    Anyone who actually believes in dybbuks and other ghoulies will find The Possession terrifying. For the rest of us, the movie is a cleverly constructed, well-paced piece of hokum.
  79. In Time
    All in all, In Time is not just stylish but surprisingly substantial. From now on, you'll think twice every time you hear the phrase "rollover minutes."
  80. Horrible Bosses
    Scorchingly raunchy - and yes, pretty funny.
  81. Submarine
    For much of the film, this is very funny and fairly original stuff, though Submarine starts to run aground about the time that Jordana and Oliver's relationship does.
  82. Tower Heist
    An improbably satisfying action comedy.
  83. Everything Must Go
    If it sounds wholly bleak, it isn't. Remember, this is a movie about a yard sale. Over the course of the film, Nick struggles with the idea of, as he puts it, "selling all my crap" - he means that both literally and metaphorically - and getting on with his life. That sentiment, and Ferrell's refusal to sentimentalize it, is reason enough to smile.
  84. Jane Eyre
    While qualifying as the most gorgeously appointed and finely detailed version of the novel so far, still lacks the element of essential fire to make it come fully, even subversively, to life.
  85. My Week with Marilyn
    At one moment, Marilyn turns to Colin and asks, "Shall I be her?" And, instantly, she is - effortlessly bewitching a crowd with movie-queen poses. If only the movie could turn it on so reliably, My Week with Marilyn might be profound rather than simply pleasant.
  86. Potiche
    Fortunately, for both Ozon and the viewer, the title character is played by Catherine Deneuve, who can very nearly carry a film by herself.
  87. Dolphin Tale
    It's a whale of a tale, made more special by being predominantly true.
  88. Big Miracle
    As the minutes tick down, the sentimentality picks up. But chalk that up to the enigmatic creatures, which grab hold of human hearts no matter one's politics or affiliations. Whales just have a way of bringing people together.
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