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 5.4 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. America: Imagine a World Without Her
    America is less successful as a debate, since it isn’t one. D’Souza controls the conversation, and thus goes unchallenged when he tries to make real-world points with make-believe scenarios.
  2. Hector and the Search for Happiness
    There are no surprises here, only blandly reassuring homilies.
  3. The Perfect Wave
    The movie’s transition from surfer flick to a story about faith is swift and not particularly smooth.
  4. Horns
    Heedless of purpose, Horns charges full speed ahead anyway, ramming its high-concept hooey down your throat until the only heat you feel is from indigestion.
  5. Ben-Hur
    Bekmambetov and Co. have created a redesigned product that is at once inferior to the original and a slavish imitation.
  6. Rudderless
    Rudderless is a competent, well-acted melodrama, yet in scope and ambition it has the modest and serviceable scale of the small, not silver, screen.
  7. Innocence
    It’s a lazy piece of work, even by the low standards of Hollywood horror movies.
  8. The Pyramid
    The air inside the pyramid isn’t the only thing that’s stale in this ludicrous yet mildly likable horror film.
  9. The Gambler
    It’s John Goodman who steals every scene. As a scary loan shark who might cough up cash to get Jim out of his pickle, Goodman elevates the material, showcasing the dark humor that Wyatt was clearly going for. But, overall, that comedy just doesn’t land.
  10. Cake
    There’s no doubt that Aniston deserves more roles like this one but, with luck, in less maudlin, more surprising movies.
  11. Inferno
    Say what you will about Dan Brown’s books. They may be, as some have noted, poorly written, formulaic and pretentious. But at least they hold a reader’s attention, in ways that this excursion — as sleep-inducing and rigidly predictable as a train ride — does not.
  12. Suicide Squad
    Sadly, Suicide Squad feels like a watered-down version of what could have been a stiff drink.
  13. Aquaman
    On the plus side is the eye-popping production design, although that is also, like the plot, too, too much, dazzling the eye with more fantastical Atlantean technology and — inexplicably — underwater fire than a Las Vegas edition of Cirque du Soleil. Like the frequently shirtless Momoa, it’s pretty at first, then it just hurts.
  14. Southpaw
    Southpaw may be rote, predictable and mawkish, but none of those faults lie in its star. Even when he looks like an unholy mess, he transcends the movie he’s in.
  15. Little Boy
    Little Boy is a as phony as a game of three-card monte.
  16. No Escape
    Every Asian character is either a ruthless murderer or anonymous collateral damage. A lot of locals have to die, the film suggests, in order for one white family to survive.
  17. Unfriended
    At times, Unfriended really clicks — but ultimately, it’s a drag.
  18. The Divergent Series: Allegiant
    Everything is needlessly tangled and bewildering.
  19. Kill Me Three Times
    Although Kill Me Three Times includes a few murders, it does nothing to justify its title. Mostly, it just shoots itself in the foot, over and over.
  20. The Boss
    Although her charisma is still undeniable, there’s also no denying that McCarthy is capable of much more than she’s allowing herself to do here. There comes a point when every force of nature starts to look just plain forced.
  21. The Purge: Election Year
    Even DeMonaco seems bored by the sieges, escapes and gun battles. Silly one-liners are the only saving grace, and that's because such acting veterans as Williamson know how to sell them.
  22. A Girl Like Her
    Weber’s main point — that bullies are often victims of bullying themselves — gets lost in a tsunami of sorrow and sadism.
  23. The Bronze
    The Bronze is just another movie about overcoming arrested development. It’s not as funny as it tries to be, but, for a few, fleeting minutes, it leaves an impression.
  24. Nasty Baby
    Ultimately, Silva’s uneven command of tone undoes whatever goodwill his actors have managed to generate. They — and we — deserve much better than this.
  25. Best of Enemies
    Best of Enemies exists mainly as an occasion to replay the footage of Vidal’s smug taunt and Buckley’s seething response. It’s great television, but it has been available on YouTube for some time now.
  26. 5 to 7
    This calculatingly adorable coming-of-age tale has its delights — chiefly in a modest, endearing lead performance from Anton Yelchin and an amusing two-handed turn by Glenn Close and Frank Langella as his parents — but feels more constructed than lived.
  27. Beyond the Reach
    There are goofy, primal pleasures to be had in the first two-thirds of the film. But Beyond the Reach exceeds even its humble grasp in the final act, collapsing in a clatter of blockheaded manhunter-movie cliches. Crazy is one thing, but dumb is unforgivable.
  28. Queen of the Desert
    Though Kidman delivers a workmanlike performance, the story manages to be soppy and ploddingly dull, told via a screenplay that drives home the fact that it’s not really about momentous events, but momentous feelings.
  29. Road Hard
    You can make a movie that’s both sweet and crass; just look at Judd Apatow’s comedies. But the mix doesn’t work here, maybe because both the vulgarity and the cheesiness are so amped up.
  30. Secret in Their Eyes
    As the movie wears on, the plot points become increasingly far-fetched, and what started out as a moody if by-the-book thriller becomes increasingly silly. All the while, Roberts gives her all.
  31. See You in Valhalla
    See You in Valhalla, which is being released simultaneously in select theaters and on demand, is as deadly as its funereal subject matter.
  32. Keeping Up with the Joneses
    Mottola and LeSieur seem to have actively avoided the pursuit of wisdom, settling for broad gags — and the occasional explosion — instead.
  33. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
    Pride and Prejudice and Zombies delivers what its title promises: a little romance and some undead villains, plus a bit of comedy. But this overly busy riff on Austen’s winning formula doesn’t justify all the tinkering.
  34. Survivor
    Director James McTeigue frequently collaborates with the visionary Wachowski siblings, and he directed V for Vendetta. How the man who blew up Parliament in such memorably spectacular fashion can’t add some originality to Philip Shelby’s script is the movie’s only real mystery.
  35. Where Hope Grows
    The Christian-themed Where Hope Grows wears its heart on its sleeve, hawking its message of salvation through faith to anyone who’s in the market for cheesy uplift and saccharine sentiment. It’s a soft sell, to be sure, but it’s salesmanship all the same.
  36. Gemma Bovery
    The movie winks and nudges its way through a lighter, modernized variation of the classic, proud of its own cleverness every time Gemma’s life mirrors Madame B’s. But imitation for the sake of itself isn’t brilliant, especially when the elements most worthy of copying — Flaubert’s precise narration and telling details — don’t make the cut.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    We Are Your Friends
    By the end, though, the original bits fade as easily as one song bleeds into another.
  38. Freedom
    In the world of Freedom, slaves and the people who help them are Christians, and the bad guys don’t believe in God.
  39. By the Sea
    By the Sea is dazzlingly gorgeous, as are its stars. But peeling back layer upon layer of exquisite ennui reveals nothing but emptiness, sprinkled with stilted sentiments.
  40. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
    "Valerian” is an expensive, handsome but dozy invalid of a movie.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    A Tale of Love and Darkness
    Unfortunately, darkness seems to have prevailed over love in a tale that falls flat.
  42. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
    With so many warmed-over jokes, you’d think that the delivery would at least be on point. But everything, including the timing, feels off.
  43. Lila & Eve
    In the end, Davis ends up a wasted resource. She does her best to elevate the material, but the story fails to live up to her considerable talents.
  44. Call Me Lucky
    Ironically, Call Me Lucky, a worshipful new documentary profile of Crimmins by comic-turned-filmmaker Bobcat Goldthwait, has a little too much reverence for its irreverent subject.
  45. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
    Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom finds another way to grow: by making its plot much, much bulkier. In doing so, it commits the worst possible sin: It makes dinosaurs boring.
  46. Freeheld
    A lugubrious cloud of mediocrity sets in early in Freeheld, a dreary dramatization of a pivotal gay rights case that paved the way for marriage equality.
  47. The Dressmaker
    Overplotted, undercooked and extremely well-dressed, The Dressmaker has style to burn, but it has a mean streak as wide as the Outback.
  48. I Saw the Light
    I Saw the Light isn’t just incohesive, but ultimately — and far more frustratingly — incoherent.
  49. Francofonia
    The director Alexander Sokurov is a visual virtuoso. So it’s odd, not to mention a bit disappointing, to find that the Russian filmmaker’s latest project, Francofonia, is so talky and, with rare exceptions, visually dull.
  50. Fist Fight
    The slapsticky, sight-gag-heavy yukfest, which is filled with the kind of phallic humor you may have sniggered at when you were 16, floats like a dead butterfly and stings like a B-movie.
  51. The Book of Henry
    It’s the filmmaking equivalent of a monkey with the head of a goat, the tail of a fish, wings and teeny-tiny rat claws.
  52. The Girl on the Train
    Even viewers who are mildly diverted by the whodunit angle are unlikely to find themselves emotionally engaged in the outcome.
  53. Alien: Covenant
    Presumably, Scott is giving the audience what it wants, but purists may wonder whether simply re-watching “Alien” would have provided scarier, more genuine jolts.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    The Fencer
    Finnish Director Klaus Haro has a sharp eye, and his shots deftly juxtapose the delicate beauty of the Estonian lowlands with the harsh reality of life under Soviet rule. But the script, written by Anna Heinamaa, gives him little more than an aesthetic landscape to work with.
  55. The Bye Bye Man
    The Bye Bye Man had a relatively modest budget, and it shows in the special effects, which tend to be more funny than scary.
  56. Monster Hunt
    Monster Hunt has visual appeal to spare, but the allure ends there.
  57. War Dogs
    War Dogs stays at arm’s length from the subjects, afraid to implicate us in the pleasures and prosperity of their rise, thus making their fall seem distant, puny and unaffecting.
  58. Eisenstein in Guanajuato
    Fans of Greenaway’s work — a mix of the brainy, the controversial and the grotesque — won’t necessarily be surprised by any of this. They may, however, be disappointed at how little of it actually works.
  59. The Invitation
    The filmmakers keep trying to make Will appear paranoid, but he’s not fooled for long — and most viewers won’t be, either.
  60. Miracles from Heaven
    Stretched across nearly two hours, it tells a story that would have been adequately laid out in a 30-second television spot.
  61. Creative Control
    There’s a whiff of autoerotic indulgence that carries over to the entire film, which despite its handsome black-and-white aesthetic and gloss of social critique seems a bit too smugly self-satisfied for its own good.
  62. Monday at 11:01 A.M.
    Monday at 11:01 a.m. would probably work well as a half-hour television episode or a short story. As a feature film, unfortunately, it feels a bit like clock watching.
  63. Hands of Stone
    The drama stars Edgar Ramírez as Roberto and Robert De Niro as his legendary coach. The two are exceptionally well cast, but they can’t save an unfocused jumble of a movie that doubles as a cautionary tale about the importance of film editing.
  64. Rio, I Love You
    There are more than 6 million potential love stories in Rio de Janeiro. Unfortunately, none of the 10 that have been assembled in the anthology film Rio, I Love You is any good.
  65. Papa: Hemingway in Cuba
    On paper, this is an extraordinary story. But the careless production values blunt its impact. The score is obtrusive and generic; the sound editing makes a shootout sound reminiscent of an old Western; continuity errors abound.
  66. Sold
    Sold is maudlin in a way that makes its audience, paradoxically, feel good, albeit superficially. A story of human trafficking should move us on a deeper, more uncomfortable level.
  67. Kicks
    Kicks is gritty to the core, and its commitment to verisimilitude is its undoing. All of the characters are selfish, and their sense of loyalty is purely circumstantial.
  68. The Wild Life
    A few minutes of excitement can’t compensate for an hour and a half of unimaginative storytelling and dull characters.
  69. The Congressman
    Mrazek, who certainly knows the workings of this city from his 10 years in office, has written a script that feels accurate in its depiction of the mudslinging, lobbying chicanery and constituent grumbling that come with the job of politician. It’s just that little of it is terribly fresh or funny, and it draws no blood.
  70. Dough
    Dough never leaves any doubt about where it’s going or what it’s trying to say, serving up a recipe that we’ve not only had many times before, but we’ve had enough of.
  71. Pali Road
    Pali Road toys with some interesting questions about the line between romantic love and fantasy. In the end, however, it’s no more than a mildly scenic ride.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero
    Teetering precariously between satire and base humor, “Jimmy Vestvood” squanders opportunities for both.
  73. Almost Christmas
    Is it a good movie? Not particularly. But if you’re a forgiving filmgoer in need of a smile, it’s a reasonable diversion, one that ties up its message of love — if a bit too neatly — into a holiday bow.
  74. The Pickle Recipe
    Despite a solid central performance by film veteran Lynn Cohen and a Detroit setting that will please expats and current residents of the Motor City, there is little here to lift this film beyond its regional appeal.
  75. Tomb Raider
    Norwegian director Roar Uthaug has had past success with nail-biting suspense, as in his well-received 2015 disaster movie “The Wave.” He can’t quite replicate that same tension here, however. Watching a tiny-but-tough woman survive one danger after another tests not only our credulity, but our patience.
  76. Operation Chromite
    Director John H. Lee isn’t big on John Le Carré-style intrigue and introspection. (The dialogue comes in only two flavors: blustering and sentimental.) He’s better at the shootouts and chase scenes, which are loud, lively and well-choreographed, if sometimes outlandish.
  77. Table 19
    The story takes a couple of sharp turns, ultimately revealing that it isn’t a romantic comedy after all, but a shambling drama with a few mildly amusing pratfalls.
  78. Mary Poppins Returns
    I mean, homage is one thing, but this reeks less of nostalgia than sweat. There is so little tolerance for spontaneity, in a film that feels calibrated to the millimeter to be magical, that reactions like delight and surprise — when they occur at all — feel manufactured.
  79. All I See Is You
    The secrets that are revealed, to the extent that a viewer is able to make out what they are, remain murky, even to the end of the movie.
  80. Pete's Dragon
    "Dragon" was apparently meant to be a big, rousing musical comedy-fantasy, but it's staged and photographed without musical-comedy energy, flair or coordination. [17 Dec 1977, p.D7]
    • Washington Post
  81. Blair Witch
    Blair Witch runs only eight minutes past the original, yet it feels about a half-hour longer. The new toys — especially the drone — allow for fresh situations, and there’s more blood and supernatural affliction than before. Mostly, though, the filmmakers just repeat familiar moves and expand established locations
  82. Rock Dog
    Intermittently diverting as it may be, the movie bears all the earmarks of a cobbled-together, made-by-committee product, poorly aimed at its tween-and-younger target audience in look, tone, music and story.
  83. The Eyes of My Mother
    The Eyes of My Mother looks marvelous.... But that’s about all this absurd, illogical and underwhelming thriller has going for it.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 37 Critic Score
    Phantasm II
    After interminable delays and unresolved digressions, we finally get to see some decent special effects, but hardly enough to warrant sitting through the entire film. [12 July 1988, p.D6]
    • Washington Post
  85. The Comedian
    The real problem, when all is said and done, isn’t the movie but the man with the microphone in its spotlight. Despite two comedy consultants who worked on the film, De Niro’s Jackie never comes across as especially funny on stage (or especially likable off).
  86. Bitter Harvest
    There ought to be no lack of firepower in telling this shameful tale. Too often, however, Bitter Harvest is guilty of overkill.
  87. Wilson
    There’s a story here, all right, but it’s a heartless and bitter one.
  88. The Duelist
    The Duelist will leave viewers scratching their heads over any number of questions, but the most gnawing one might be: Why did everyone get so dressed up for a bloodbath?
  89. Everything, Everything
    Stenberg and Robinson are enormously appealing young actors, but charisma only goes so far in a story that manages to be, as directed by Stella Meghie (“Jean of the Joneses”), sterile and wildly far-fetched.
  90. The War with Grandpa
    In lieu of genuine high jinks, a series of escalating slapstick pranks ensues between Peter and Ed, including mishaps with a drone, a snake and a human corpse. None of them is especially amusing.
  91. Friend Request
    Despite a few well-timed jump scares, Friend Request never really builds much tension.
  92. The Ottoman Lieutenant
    Morality is hardly the main concern of The Ottoman Lieutenant. Instead, it’s content with hackneyed romance and soaring strings.
  93. The Hitman's Bodyguard
    Despite all the mayhem, The Hitman’s Bodyguard is a surprisingly bland dish.
  94. Victoria and Abdul
    Victoria and Abdul might have aimed for poignancy — and at times it almost strikes that tone — but for the most part, it plays like broadly clownish comedy, treating crusty British prejudice with all the subtlety of “The Benny Hill Show.”
  95. The Commuter
    The story (by Byron Willinger, Philip de Blasi and Ryan Engle) does not exist to serve the needs of logic, but those of Neeson, who, as has become his habit in this sort of thing, delivers, at minimum, a modicum of guilty pleasure as the middle-aged, tender-but-tough Everyman in a tight spot.
  96. Churchill
    Biography, at its most useful, disabuses us from myth, but Churchill has no such ambitions. As both history and entertainment, it’s a drag.
  97. Wonder Wheel
    Wonder Wheel may be scenic, but it goes nowhere — and slowly.
  98. Weekend at Bernie's
    Weekend at Bernie's is an unfettered but uninspired one-joke movie.
  99. Annette
    For audiences who prefer their movies to be as weird and even off-putting as possible, Annette comes fully wrapped as a pretentious, arty, occasionally breathtaking, ultimately misbegotten midsummer gift.
  100. Gemini
    The real problem isn’t an overabundance of potential killers. Rather, it’s the fact that the film, from writer-director Aaron Katz (“Land Ho!”), does so little to make you care about the crime, or its victim, that the whole thing feels like an academic exercise.
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