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. In the Pit
    What Rulfo needs, unfortunately, is what too many trendy directors forsake: some social context, some succinct voice-overs and some talking heads to put the serious issues (urban poverty, urban stress, environmental degradation, corruption) into perspective.
  2. Diggers
    Never quite breaks out of its talky inertia.
  3. Something to Cheer About
    This is a modest documentary, actually made in 2002 but only now gaining national release, which celebrates Attucks and that particular team, but most important Coach Crowe, by all accounts a remarkable man.
  4. The Treatment
    The Treatment gets this year's Rip van Winkle award.
  5. Provoked: A True Story
    Unfortunately, Provoked possesses the tiny production values and schmaltzy music of a prime-time special, despite its ensemble of terrific actors.
  6. 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.
  7. Holly
    An emotional thriller that is by turns contrived and impassioned.
  8. CJ7
    Its use of minor expletives and a depressing chapter late in the movie will not satisfy parents seeking something sweet and lively for their children; nor will it charm art house audiences up for a smart adult fairy tale.
  9. Planet B-Boy
    For all the energy and personality of its subjects, Planet B-Boy tends to drag, especially toward the competition finals.
  10. Smart People
    It's impossible to tell whether the film's ending is happy because it's happy or because it's ending.
  11. Irina Palm
    It is, however, a baby boomer's treat to see Faithfull, romancer of Mick Jagger back in the day and a pop siren in her own right, show her qualities as an actor. One is hopeful she'll find her way to other, better projects.
  12. Finding Amanda
    A slight, modestly funny comedy.
  13. What We Do Is Secret
    You are left with the feeling that either Grossman hasn't done justice to the Germs or the justice they deserved was to spend eternity as a historical footnote.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Brothers at War
    There are much better Iraq documentaries than this one, but Brothers at War distinguishes itself by peering out over the emotional chasm between soldiers and their families.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Shall We Kiss?
    It is as if the director had studied the comedies of Eric Rohmer and Woody Allen from top to bottom and come away with all the wrong lessons.
  16. Big Fan
    Siegel's depiction of the film's supporting characters too often borders on caricature. By the movie's strained, overheated climax, it's clear that Siegel, in his directing debut, is less interested in his protagonist as a character capable of transformation than as a human petri dish of futility and pathology.
  17. Mesrine: Killer Instinct
    Much of it plays like an unintentional mash-up of the numerous wrong-side-of-the-law sagas that preceded it.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
    Less weird than "Spellbound" and less fun than your average episode of "America's Top Model," Ten9Eight shoots for the moon, but scans like the background noise at a philanthropic retreat.
  19. Blood Done Sign My Name
    Despite its earnestness and valuable lessons, however, "Blood" feels a little like preaching to the choir.
  20. The Last Song
    Hews closely enough to the Sparks pattern of romance and bathos that tears will flow as copiously in the audience as they do on screen.
  21. Why Did I Get Married Too?
    Plays like an empty but diverting beach read. Your brain recognizes that the dialogue, for example, doesn't come from any place that remotely resembles relationship reality.
  22. Warlords
    There's a visceral, albeit somewhat goofy, satisfaction to this stuff.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Oceans
    But for all Oceans does to please the eyes and ears, it does nothing to engage the brain.
  24. Iron Man 2
    "Everything is achievable through technology," a character says more than once in Iron Man 2. Not so.
  25. Just Wright
    Telegraphs its every move. There are simply no surprises.
  26. Casino Jack and the United States of Money
    Gibney's documentary strains to make sense of the minutiae without losing the audience's attention over its formidable, two-hour length.
  27. Mother and Child
    Garca brings his finely calibrated sense of drama to the subject of adoption, which he handles with characteristic restraint and insight -- at least until the film's maudlin, too-pat finale. That sharp melodramatic turn is a shame, because so much of what has gone before in Mother and Child is of real quality.
  28. Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
    Igor may be the most important composer of the 20th century, but he is a mere human. Coco, in this beautiful but indulgent French film, is a work of art.
  29. Jack Goes Boating
    All in all, Jack Goes Boating is an auspicious -- if slightly ostentatious -- debut by Hoffman, one of today's greatest actors. Maybe next time his performance in front of his camera will be as subtle as his performance behind it.
  30. Stonewall Uprising
    For a movie about a groundbreaking gay rebellion, Stonewall Uprising plays it much too straight.
  31. The Extra Man
    Swifter comedic timing and a clearer narrative thread might have helped center this peculiar adaptation of Jonathan Ames's 1998 novel of the same name.
  32. What's the Matter with Kansas?
    Funny? Scary? Entirely logical? It all depends on your point of view, of course, and "What's the Matter With Kansas?" isn't likely to move viewers one way or another.
  33. The American
    An action thriller that adamantly refuses to deliver action or thrills, instead engaging in a brand of arty, self-conscious formalism rarely seen outside repertory theaters or cinema-studies classrooms.
  34. Legendary
    Despite the hackneyed script by John Posey, Legendary is not without merit, and the story works fairly successfully as a family drama between Cal, Mike and their single mother, played by the dependable Patricia Clarkson.
  35. Let Me In
    Let Me In wants to make your flesh crawl, and it probably will. But it's unlikely to ever get under anyone's skin, the way "Let the Right One In" did.
  36. Nowhere Boy
    Even with all this talent and earnestness, though, Nowhere Boy still feels indulgent, slight and almost instantly forgettable.
  37. Stone
    Say this about Stone: When it's good, it's very good. And this twisty, atmospheric drama is at its best when Edward Norton takes center screen as the title character.
  38. TRON: Legacy
    There are worse things than being trapped inside a computer game with Olivia Wilde. In Tron: Legacy, the loud, long and less than wholly satisfying sequel to "Tron," that's the bittersweet fate of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), the computer-nerd hero of both the 1982 sci-fi cult classic and its high-tech, 3-D update.
  39. I'm Still Here
    The movie is as damnably perplexing as the subject himself.
  40. My Dog Tulip
    It's hard not to feel a certain affection for a tale that is so unapologetic about just that: affection.
  41. Morning Glory
    Even Mary Tyler Moore's sunny but vulnerable Mary Richards or Tina Fey's Liz Lemon seem more fleshily real than Becky.
  42. The Next Three Days
    It plods along dutifully, with the occasional zigzag into contrivance, tidy coincidence and outright preposterousness.
  43. Hereafter
    It starts out with a tsunami - and ends up standing in a puddle.
  44. Red Dawn
    Ultimately, the problem with this Red Dawn is the same problem with the first one. Despite the more realistic battle scenes, nothing in it feels more fateful than a football game.
  45. GhettoPhysics: Will the Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up?
    Like "What the Bleep," this movie is a bit of a hodgepodge, blending an interview-driven documentary with a less remarkable story-based drama.
  46. The Dilemma
    Vaughn is the film equivalent of a well-known novelist that no longer gets a good edit. He has the charismatic salesguy shtick down, but he needs a director who can rein him in.
  47. Restless
    Restless is saved from movie-of-the-week soppiness by its plucky lead actors; by now we assume (correctly) that Wasikowska will infuse her character with lucid, clear-eyed warmth.
  48. Sanctum
    This is a movie that features not one, but two graphic mercy killings. Forget "127 Hours": Sanctum makes sawing off your own arm look like a minor penalty for the crime of spelunking while clueless.
  49. Drive Angry 3D
    "Drive Trashy" would be a more accurate title for the first 45 minutes of this gore-spurting, sex-flaunting romp. And that's the good part.
  50. Sucker Punch
    An extremely boyish ode to girl power.
  51. Frankie & Alice
    Berry’s performance, although less campy and histrionic than the trailer makes it look, is still outsize in proportion to the material, which feels slight and insubstantial despite its basis in a true story.
  52. Summer Wars
    Considering it's anime, Summer Wars starts out more like a bad romantic comedy.
  53. Thor
    The effects are effective. The humor is humorous and just self-referential enough to let you know the film doesn't take itself too seriously.
  54. Prom
    Nor will you find much excitement, tension or resemblance to actual teen culture in this whitewash of the quintessential rite of passage.
  55. Paul
    The derriere-flashing, dope-smoking, potty-mouthed antics of this antisocial E.T. justify every bit of the rating that the MPAA has slapped on him.
  56. Hop
    A piece of fluff as artificially sweetened as a fuchsia Peep, rises above these low expectations - but only barely.
  57. Your Highness
    While the chemistry between characters is impressive and the comic delivery spot-on, the jokes feel unoriginal.
  58. Friends with Kids
    Any resemblance to last year's breakout comedy hit "Bridesmaids" is purely intended in a film that seeks the same kind of liberated raunch but too often succumbs to talky, edgy-for-its-own sake glibness.
  59. Kung Fu Panda 2
    And, yes, Kung Fu Panda 2 is a little darker and a little more intense than the first film, especially for very young viewers.
  60. Cedar Rapids
    Like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton before him, Helms plays a lamb trotting hopefully through the abattoir, blessedly unaware of the blades hanging just above his head.
  61. The Help
    As affectionately as Taylor has brought The Help to the screen, and as gratifying as it is to watch Davis and Spencer bring Aibileen and Minny to palpable, fully rounded life, their narrative, like "The Blind Side" a few years ago, is structured largely around their white female benefactor.
  62. Green Lantern
    It's neither amusing nor exciting enough to ensure a long-running franchise.
  63. Mr. Popper's Penguins
    During the movie's awww-inducing conclusion, those of you who are allergic to cuteness - or to Jim Carrey - might want to look away.
  64. Larry Crowne
    It's a light and breezy, recession-themed romantic comedy; "Up in the Air" without all the angst and introspection.
  65. Monte Carlo
    Dependable entertainment for young girls.
  66. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
    Dark of the Moon is capable of having a little fun with itself. In one scene, mini-Autobots watch "Star Trek'' on TV, not noticing that Spock has the same voice as Sentinel Prime, the formerly moon-stuck 'bot who's rescued and revived in order to play a major role in this installment.
  67. Crazy, Stupid, Love
    With its contrived setups, preposterous coincidences and calculated sentimentalism, Crazy, Stupid, Love seems beamed from the same alternate reality as "Larry Crowne." We might enjoy the ride while we're on it, but it will seem like a visit to another planet once we're home.
  68. The Grace Card
    Powerful lead performances and the filmmaker's noble attempt at holding a magnifying glass over the Deep South's still-contentious race relations help The Grace Card edge closer to the realm of mainstream entertainment. It's not just a dry sermon in feature-length form.
  69. Colombiana
    Colombiana, though, doesn't quite qualify as a chick flick. The filmmakers were surely thinking of the guys when they arranged for Saldana to play many of her scenes in a cat suit, a bikini or lingerie.
  70. The Rum Diary
    The weakest link here is Heard, who possesses the icy cool of Kim Novak but whose character never quite comes into fuller focus than as a hyper-sexualized object of desire.
  71. Contagion
    Plays less like a conventional medical thriller - think "Outbreak" - than like a dramatic reading of a "Nova" episode, performed by Hollywood's elite.
  72. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
    Now for the bad news. The filmmakers seem to have spent so much attention and, presumably, money on getting the primates right that they completely forgot about the people.
  73. Straw Dogs
    Does Lurie have an ax to grind? And how. Yet if, to some ears, its high-pitched whine nearly drowns out the underlying story at times, why did so many in that preview audience seem deaf to it? Maybe that's Lurie's real point: A culture that feeds on violence -- in real life and on film -- has also inured us to it.
  74. Damsels in Distress
    A movie sure to reward the filmmaker's most die-hard fans, while doing little to quiet critics who found his work self-conscious to the point of insufferability.
  75. Real Steel
    A slightly soggy tale of father-son bonding, crossed with an action-adventure flick about high-tech battle-bots.
  76. Anonymous
    With Anonymous, director Roland Emmerich gives us "Shakespeare in Luck." Make that "Dumb Luck": In this alternately entertaining and wildly ham-handed speculative romp.
  77. Brighton Rock
    There's a lovely moment with Mirren and John Hurt that helps send Brighton Rock toward its final note of tenderness. With so much style to burn, Joffe handles the tinge of Greene-ian ambivalence just right.
  78. The Big Year
    Somehow, the comic chemistry never seems to ignite in The Big Year.
  79. Jeff Who Lives at Home
    With its shambling, felicitously contrived structure and Fellini-esque climax, it's some kind of Jungian slacker fable.
  80. Wanderlust
    Between this film and last summer's "Horrible Bosses," Aniston's coyness - starring in explicit movies without having to be explicit herself - seems to be becoming her stock in trade. It's not a particularly commendable one, and Wanderlust does little to disprove that she's still a star more suited to TV rather than the big screen.
  81. Iron Man 3
    A frantic, occasionally funny, finally enervating bricolage of special effects, explosive set pieces, sardonic one--liners and notional human emotions, this branch of the Marvel franchise tree feels brittle and over--extended enough to snap off entirely.
  82. Joyful Noise
    Despite some mawkish dialogue, there's something to be said for leaving the theater with a smile. Can I get an amen?
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Safe House
    Swedish director Daniel Espinosa isn't as adept at chase scenes as "Bourne" director Paul Greengrass: We sometimes lose track of who's supposed to be where and which direction the bullets are flying.
  84. The Vow
    The romantic drama The Vow looks like the kind of annual Valentine's Day staple that arrives just as calls start flooding flower shops and chocolate bonbon displays invade your local CVS.
  85. Ouija
    Though Ouija starts off evoking a nicely eerie atmosphere of dread, it ultimately goes too far, making the liminal space between the spirit world and this one all too eye-rollingly literal.
  86. Prometheus
    All the God-talk and philosophical musings about morality and "meeting our makers" aside, Prometheus is primarily about delivering those visceral, terrifying jolts. That it does so without generating the taut suspense and moody atmosphere of its antecedents qualifies as one of its greatest failings.
  87. Here Comes the Boom
    What's missing from this color-by-numbers screenplay is the bizarre touch of eccentric humor Sandler often lets creep into his comedies.
  88. Total Recall (2012)
    So what makes this 2012 Total Recall superior to the Arnie model? For starters, there's an actual actor in the starring role.
  89. Mirror Mirror
    As Snow White, actress Lily Collins is a washout.
  90. Our Idiot Brother
    There are times when Our Idiot Brother possesses a loping, genial sweetness. But it lacks conviction, and it doesn't hold a beeswax candle to such similarly themed films as "You Can Count on Me" and "Momma's Man."
  91. Wreck-It Ralph
    Emphasizes action and eye-popping visuals over emotion.
  92. The Devil's Double
    In the end, The Devil's Double is one long balance sheet. On the plus side are the dueling performances of Cooper, which anchor the film. On the minus side is a seemingly interminable litany of violence, abuse and degradation. They cheapen the film by nudging it in the direction of a splatter flick.
  93. Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny
    Still, what separates Walking With Destiny from a run-of-the-mill war documentary isn't necessarily its insights into its main subject but its tangential stories about fascinating nobodies.
  94. Another Earth
    As large as Earth Two looms - literally - in the frames of Mike Cahill's film, so do its implications. It's one big, honking metaphor, as much as a special effect. As a symbol of second chances, it's as intriguing as it is frustratingly obvious.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Forks Over Knives
    Forks is a plate of vegetables. It's high on nutritional value but absent any pleasure.
  96. Seven Days in Utopia
    With all due respect to Cook's novel, another book - the Bible - teaches us that on the seventh day, God gave it a rest. Seven Days in Utopia should have followed His lead.
  97. Upside Down
    In Upside Down, writer-director Juan Solanas takes the gimmick about as far as it can go, rendering the metaphor of longing and separation in effective, and richly visual, terms. If anything, however, he goes too far.
  98. What to Expect When You're Expecting
    The movie turns out to be a little of everything yet succeeds only occasionally at anything.
  99. The Campaign
    Tends toward the broadest possible takes on slapstick, sophomoric sexuality and post-"Hangover" raunch.
  100. Empire of Silver
    The movie is occasionally muddled and always melodramatic, yet it's pictorially compelling, thanks to dramatic locations and exacting art direction.
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