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. Spartan
    Is Spartan a perfect, or even a great, movie? Probably not. But in its prickly irascibility and deeply unsettling intelligence, it makes for a very, very good one.
  2. The Agronomist
    Has important things to tell viewers about global politics, and in an eerily resonant way.
  3. The Widow of Saint-Pierre
    A compelling French Canadian drama.
  4. The Full Monty
    Along with witty, appropriately rough-hewn repartee and genuine poignancy, writer Simon Beaufoy manages to sustain suspense to the last gyration.
  5. Miracle
    Reproducing every bruise, blowup and body-check and getting right up on the ice and into the fray, the movie brings the audience back to 1980 with bone-crunching verisimilitude.
  6. Seabiscuit
    Although nowhere near the class of its equine hero, is quite a satisfying ride.
  7. The War of the Roses
    Director DeVito, who never did know when to quit, manages to be as clever as he is vicious. His first movie, "Throw Momma From the Train," seems almost lyrical in comparison to the ruthlessness of this vehicle.
  8. Monty Python's Life of Brian
    Given the current heightened tenor of religious rhetoric and paranoia, it may well wind up pushing brand-new buttons today. To quote Michael Palin quoting Jesus, "There's just no pleasing some people."
  9. Looney Tunes: Back in Action
    Delightful, delicious and destructive.
  10. Mayor of the Sunset Strip
    An elegy for an aging rock pixie.
  11. The Italian Job
    It is, as with any cinematic joy ride, not the destination that matters, but the rush of getting there.
  12. The Business of Strangers
    The dynamic between Channing and Stiles is as compelling as a freeway wreck.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Manhunter
    Based on the ingenious novel "Red Dragon" by Thomas Harris, it keeps the nerves racing on fear-fuel until its oddly anticlimactic climax. [15 Aug 1986, p.N29]
    • Washington Post
  14. Wonderland
    Grim, yes, and great viewing.
  15. The Anniversary Party
    Although the movie -- falls occasional prey to pretension, it's a classic guilty pleasure.
  16. The Guru
    A joyous genre-blender guaranteed to crank up your karma.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Raising Victor Vargas
    As fresh -- and as restorative -- as a lemon ice on a hot day.
  18. October Sky
    It makes a great point: Love, honor and respect your father, but then get the hell out of town.
  19. In & Out
    Hilarious ... It's dishy, but not swishy.
  20. Unbreakable
    I was hooked from beginning to end.
  21. The Vertical Ray of the Sun
    There are scenes that simply ask the audience to drink in the details, to enjoy the repast, just as much as follow the plot.
  22. Spellbound
    Could hardly be more suspenseful if it were scripted.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Secretary
    Initially cold and perverse to its core, the film transmutes into something warm and uplifting. Normal, even.
  24. Undercover Brother
    May well wind up being the smartest bonehead comedy of the summer.
  25. Tom Dowd & the Language of Music
    Moormann deserves credit, not only for choosing a wonderful and deserving subject for a film, but for doing him proud.
  26. Anger Management
    Miller time for the funny bone.
  27. Barbershop 2: Back in Business
    It's a warm, often funny reunion of the sassiest, chattiest characters ever to buzz a brother's head. You'll like this one more than you'd expect.
  28. A Beautiful Mind
    A greatly ambitious undertaking, but from the commercial point of view quite insane. The movie is ridiculously fragile: It's like a Faberge egg, and even a twitch of foreknowledge will destroy the magic of the movie utterly.
  29. Matchstick Men
    Let it swindle you; it's part of the fun. In fact, it's all of the fun.
  30. The Terminator
    When Terminator is not taking itself seriously -- and sometimes even when it is -- it's lots of fun. And filmmakers James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd don't drown us in blood, though it's not for the squeamish.
  31. Identity
    Something fresh, clever and confident.
  32. The Story of the Weeping Camel
    Strangely moving film.
  33. El mariachi
    This brilliantly naive, low-budget shoot-'em-up presents every action as if it were brand spanking new.
  34. Desperado
    The commercial transition has been remarkably successful. This is primarily thanks to Rodriguez, who not only retains the original movie's kinetic flair, but takes it further.
  35. Jeepers Creepers
    It may stir you, it may make you laugh. I am of the stirred variety. I do not want to meet this guy in the dark, though I've been meeting him in my dreams for years. We all have.
  36. Joy Ride
    In noir, everybody's guilty, and that's one of the pleasures of Joy Ride. The three youngsters aren't exactly innocent.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Dog of Flanders
    A beautiful, sad, spiritual story with joy and delicacy, visual chops and emotional depth.
  38. Enemy of the State
    An enormously entertaining visit to planet paranoia, but its escapist pleasures titillate only in direct proportion to the degree of persecution complex that you bring into the theater with you.
  39. The Princess Bride
    A percolating comedy. The laughs may not tear your belly up, but they're constant and they dovetail with the story.
  40. Owning Mahowny
    Kwietniowski has managed to create a surprisingly engrossing and suspenseful narrative without resorting to cosmetics, melodrama or hype.
  41. Iron Monkey
    Not only visually brilliant, it's funny, too.
  42. Shadow Magic
    It's a film about culture clash, the generation gap and the loss of tradition that inevitably accompanies the arrival of anything new.
  43. Bright Leaves
    We are hooked into a low-tech but compelling dynamic -- between relatively static images and McElwee's sensitive, connective narrative.
  44. Pretty Woman
    Roberts and Richard Gere costar in this bubbly scamper, which goes to the head like champagne -- the cheap, sweet kind that leaves you with a throbbing head. And yet this monstrously derivative romance is great giddy fun.
  45. Glengarry Glen Ross
    All the performances are exceptional.
  46. Runaway Jury
    Efficient, precise, carefully calibrated and terrifically entertaining.
  47. A Song for Martin
    August, who also made "Pelle the Conqueror" and "House of the Spirits," steers this story to its stirring conclusion with firm lack of sentimentality.
  48. Me Without You
    Michelle Williams turns in a performance that is seamless, canny and artistically mature.
  49. Rat Race
    Even though this will not go down as a great Zucker comedy, he has made Rat Race funnier than it could reasonably hope to be.
  50. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
    What a superb job director Marcus Nispel has done re-creating, yet also revising, 1974's grisly, gristly, protein-centric masterpiece.
  51. Jesus' Son
    Crudup gives a performance that is by turns scary, heartbreaking, grotesque and funny as hell.
  52. Buffalo '66
    Personal and private almost to the point of self-absorption, the film is ultimately saved from neurotic narcissism by the director's self-deprecating humor and unapologetic honesty about his own dysfunction.
  53. Monsieur Ibrahim
    A movie suffused with a warm glow of nostalgia for times and music and movies gone by.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Terminator 2: Judgment Day
    Visceral to the point of overkill (and beyond), a berserk blizzard of kinetic images, it doesn't even give you time to be scared.
  55. Tomorrow Never Dies
    Tomorrow Never Dies isn't one of the great Bonds, by any means. But it's familiar, flashy and enjoyable in all the right places.
  56. Army of Darkness
    Few American directors would dare to show as much over-the-top glee in their chosen craft as Sam Raimi does in Army of Darkness. [19 Feb 1993, Style, p.c7]
    • Washington Post
  57. Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
    Preserves and resuscitates the hard-boiled genre.
  58. Carandiru
    The movie is powerful, if numbing. What movie about a massacre isn't?
  59. State and Main
    Relentlessly funny satire.
  60. Beyond the Mat
    You don't have to love WWF scrapping to appreciate this movie.
  61. Charlie's Angels
    The gals are fab. And so's the movie.
  62. Sex and Lucia
    It's still pretty darn good, despite its smarty-pants aura.
  63. The Sweet Hereafter
    The chronological looseness is part of the pleasure of the piece, which magically reassembles in the last reel into something strong, lucid and compellingly powerful.
  64. Guinevere
    Affecting, gloriously acted.
  65. Two Girls and a Guy
    Cerebral, frenetic and funny, this chamber piece from filmmaker James Toback provides a timely if inconclusive comment on monogamy.
  66. A Fish Called Wanda
    It'll keep you amused enough to sit still and even remember it fondly.
  67. Il Postino: The Postman
    An enchanting Italian serio-comedy about the most unlikely of cinematic subjects-the origins, structure and reach of poetry.
  68. Antwone Fisher
    Blessedly free of the self-righteous histrionics and sentimentality that so often cheapen powerful personal stories.
  69. Love Liza
    Hoffman's touchingly fractured performance gives the picture a warm dimension.
  70. Blue Car
    Certainly no feel-good flick of the summer. But it's always tough and honest.
  71. Japanese Story
    Like a haiku, it is not what is said, but what is unsaid, that leaves the most lasting echoes.
  72. Monster
    An okay movie made nearly great by one great thing: the bravura, mercilessly watchable performance of Charlize Theron.
  73. Reconstruction
    It is a fascinating dance between style and substance.
  74. Va Savoir (Who Knows?)
    It gets frenetic, in the French way, but it never stops getting amusing. This is what happens when you let grown-ups make movies.
  75. What Time Is It Over There?
    The story that emerges has elements of romance, tragedy and even silent-movie comedy.
  76. Lone Star
    The most enjoyable John Sayles movie in recent memory.
  77. Sunshine State
    Part of the joy of watching a John Sayles film is to see how he knits together so many people and stories into a densely layered, always absorbing whole.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Fast and the Furious
    Along with the cast's charm, they provide enough fuel for a fun one (movie).
  79. Divided We Fall
    Based on a true story, the movie takes us through some harrowing times.
  80. Central Station
    A touching and unusual road movie-cum-buddy film.
  81. Pecker
    It's also sweet, sentimental, rather funny and, as John Waters films go, surprisingly gentle.
  82. Lilo & Stitch
    Fresh and rainbowy as a midday Hawaiian sun shower.
  83. Drumline
    Shakes, rattles and rolls the house, building to a climax that makes you almost forget you're in a movie theater and not a football stadium at halftime.
  84. The Exorcist
    A museum piece, something to be enjoyed for its historical value. [2000 re-release]
  85. Aberdeen
    It's clean and transparent, with no movie director tricks. The characters, not the montages, speak the loudest.
  86. Con Air
    Preposterous, predictable, but excessively entertaining, this frenzied thriller draws both story and characters from such action classics as "The Fugitive," "Die Hard," "The Dirty Dozen" and "The Silence of the Lambs."
  87. Mean Creek
    That rare movie that manages to be not only an adroit, carefully observed study in character and suspense, but important.
  88. Black Hawk Down
    You're drawn in, like it or not. You can't get away from the immediacy. Or the feeling that you're getting sucked in, too.
  89. The Devil's Backbone
    This film is much more atmospheric; it builds, not so much logically as viscerally, until you feel you can't escape. Lurid and overdone as it is, it's still a real disturber of the peace.
  90. The Rainmaker
    Coppola, who both wrote and directed this entertaining adaptation, follows the well-thumbed scenario, but with the help of his winning cast he disguises the absence of invention.
  91. My Dog Skip
    I had to beg my 8-year-old to stop laughing.
  92. Max
    Fascinating story.
  93. Intolerable Cruelty
    Smart, silly, splenetic and a bit smug, it's a movie that might put a viewer's teeth on edge were it not for its winning lead performances.
  94. eXistenZ
    A triumphant return to the icky, otherworldly eerieness that graced such earlier Cronenberg works as "Scanners," "Videodrome" and "Dead Ringers."
  95. Next Friday
    Hilarious.
  96. Shaolin Soccer
    Shaolin Soccer is "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" with soccer balls, a touch of Sergio Leone and not one microsecond of seriousness.
  97. Gosford Park
    It's a very funny movie in that sniffy Brit way.
  98. The Original Kings of Comedy
    There's nothing stodgy about these court jesters or their humor, even though their act is a decidedly grown-up affair.
  99. Barbershop
    It's funny as hell, and I am proud to say that as a card-carrying white guy, I got three, or possibly even four, of the 239 jokes.
  100. The Rundown
    There've been dozens of shotgun movies, most of them directed by Sam Peckinpah ("The Wild Bunch," "The Getaway") but Berg is inventive...All this, and Christopher Walken too? What more could a fella ask for?
  101. Cruel Intentions
    The original was about social manipulation as blood sport. Amazing how easily it transports, themes intact, to our blighted decade, and to our children.
  102. Such a Long Journey
    There's a refreshingly unusual spirit at work.
  103. Panic Room
    The movie, which suggests a combination of "Wait Until Dark" and "Rear Window," not only takes your breath away on an aesthetic level, it eloquently evokes the mother's and daughter's vulnerability.
  104. S1m0ne
    Writer-director Niccol (who wrote and directed "Gattaca" and scripted "The Truman Show") uses disarming, but wicked lightness to damn the celebrity-worshiping culture and Hollywood's beyond-the-looking-glass filmmaking.
  105. Ride with the Devil
    In its quiet way, Ride With the Devil is terrific.
  106. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
    As a Coen brothers fan I hate to say this, but the movie's a collection of great bits and pieces rather than a complete work.
  107. Sense and Sensibility
    Lee, who made the upbeat "Eat Drink Man Woman," plays this double love story as brightly as possible. There's peppy social satire in the smallest of gestures.
  108. America's Heart and Soul
    This is Disney at its live-action best and brightest.
  109. Saving Private Ryan
    Its relatively minor imperfections seem more glaring when compared to the near flawlessness of the film's lyrical, scorching start.
  110. P.S.
    Even though the story ultimately doesn't match the intensity with which it began, the movie's extraordinary for its two main performances.
  111. Dirty Dancing
    It's a wonderfully corny story, performed exuberantly by Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze. When these two get together, you practically have to get out the fire extinguishers.
  112. Spy Game
    With its cast of back-stabbing functionaries and desk jockeys, Spy Game makes the sport and hard work of espionage seem chillingly real.
  113. Blind Shaft
    Powerful yet ambiguous.
  114. Deconstructing Harry
    A provocative, but extremely profane work, it is surely Allen's bawdiest since "Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex."
  115. Goya in Bordeaux
    The camera, freed to glide, flows as if through the old man's memory, discovering both the glory of his life and the tragedy.
  116. Spider
    An eensy-weensy movie sustained by two utterly gigantic performances.
  117. Next Stop Wonderland
    Shot with a shaky hand-held camera, Wonderland is a sentimental fairy tale with a gritty documentary feel.
  118. All the Real Girls
    It's a movie of deft impressions and telling human moments. Whether or not those impressions and moments add up to anything is almost beside the point.
  119. A Dirty Shame
    John Waters may not be a great filmmaker, but he's usually onto something, and A Dirty Shame is onto something big.
  120. Saved!
    Bears the unmistakable stamp of authenticity, even at its most outrageous.
  121. American Wedding
    If you do not bring pride, good taste or sense to this third American Pie installment, you'll have a good time.
  122. Cellular
    This unpretentious little bit of superior craftsmanship will be utterly mesmerizing to two kinds of people in particular: those who love cell phones and those who hate them.
  123. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
    Absorbing, funny, exhilaratingly entertaining ride through two years in the life of the most successful heavy metal band in history.
  124. Facing Windows
    The film is slick, beautifully acted and completely entrancing.
  125. 25th Hour
    Lee has created that rarity in filmmaking: a movie we need, right now.
  126. The Cooler
    Still, it's difficult to hold his whoppers against him. In creating characters of such spirit and life, and in imagining such a vibrant, imaginative homage to the transformative powers of love, Kramer, more than most, has earned the right to push his luck.
  127. Mostly Martha
    Sweet without being saccharine and funny without being forced, the closely observed romantic comedy treats the culinary arts as a metaphor for personal healing.
  128. Mallrats
    The movie is a piece of junk...However, it's also immensely likable and hysterically, irreverently funny.
  129. The Other Side of the Bed
    Peppy, funny and sensual. If you have to see any romantic comedy that's not directed by Billy Wilder, or written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, this wouldn't be a bad choice.
  130. Shanghai Knights
    Far from great but greatly entertaining.
  131. THX 1138
    Testament to the emergence of a visually masterful filmmaker, capable of ingenious, low-tech special effects.
  132. Seducing Doctor Lewis
    So disarming, it's hard to say anything but good things about it. So get in line. The doctor is in.
  133. The Iron Giant
    Still, the movie -- as beautifully drawn, as sleek and engaging as it is -- has the annoyance of incredible smugness.
  134. Sexy Beast
    A Molotov cocktail of a movie, an engaging conflagration of British B-flick, cockney wit and gallows humor. There's even a delicate little love story in there.
  135. Notting Hill
    So the film has this weird postmodernist taint: It has a self-aware script that cleverly plays off the reality of its own cast and their famous real-life contretemps. It's smart and knowing.
  136. Changing Lanes
    Far richer than you'd ever think possible.
  137. Selena
    The film's many musical scenes can be riveting. But Selena is less concert film than family drama, particularly focusing on Selena's struggles with her father after she falls in love with, and eventually marries, her guitarist Chris Perez (heartthrob Jon Seda).
  138. We Were Soldiers
    Gibson may get top billing, but it's Sam Elliott who steals all the scenes. As Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley, a man who fires with his own .45 revolver rather than the standard M-16 rifles, he's full of hilariously colorful comments.
  139. Undertow
    The movie builds slowly to its grinding climax, and the suspense -- the standard by which a thriller must primarily be judged -- is first-rate.
  140. Before Sunrise
    Though Linklater allows the movie to wander, he never allows the pace to slacken, and more often than not he finds some unexpected bit of found poetry or cultural kitsch to make the digressions worthwhile.
  141. Father and Son
    If the setting is claustrophobic, it's also bracingly beautiful, a contradiction that is every bit in keeping with Sokurov's preference for ambiguity over clarity.
  142. I'm Not Scared
    Deliberate disorientation keeps the audience constantly off balance, and it's brilliantly effective.
  143. The Bourne Identity
    There isn't a dull or dumb moment in this movie.
  144. Open Range
    It's a fine, old-fashioned 2 1/4 hours at the Bijou.
  145. Training Day
    As exhausting as it is exhilarating to watch, the film in the end is less than fully satisfying.
  146. Dancer in the Dark
    You may leave this movie exhilarated by its no-holds-barred boldness or annoyed and bewildered at the unpredictable course it takes.
  147. The Last Seduction
    A steely neo-noir thriller with a nasty comic veneer.
  148. Antz
    Sorry, stinging fire ants couldn't make me reveal the outcome of this witty and, yes, surprisingly suspenseful adventure.
  149. Amadeus
    Amadeus isn't meant to be a biography of the composer's life, but a bawdy, black fantasy, a fiction based on a few curious facts. [21 Sep 1984, p.23]
    • Washington Post
  150. Magnolia
    As intoxicating as the flower it's named for, and its characters, most of them as flawed and fascinating as the film itself, seem intoxicated by the overpowering scent.
  151. Cast Away
    If there's anyone who can make this ordeal -- and when you're plumb out of characters, it can be an ordeal -- tolerable, and even entertaining, it's Hanks.
  152. Monsters, Inc.
    Whatever its ultimate position on the greatest hits list, Monsters, Inc. is supple and technologically sophisticated entertainment.
    • Washington Post
  153. Galaxy Quest
    The wisecracks fly fast and furious
  154. The Usual Suspects
    This thriller is like a game of life-and-death chess, with quick double-crosses and wild gambits.
  155. An Everlasting Piece
    The movie finds charming humor in a world full of sectarian strife between Protestant and Catholic.
  156. Bandits
    As for Billy Bob, they all steal the money, but he steals the show.
  157. The Boxer
    If you view it passively, as a well-crafted melodrama set in danger among passionate antagonists, The Boxer is rewarding enough. If you attack it intellectually, you see the degree to which it is informed by ideas and realize the power of its argument.
  158. Bridget Jones's Diary
    Grant is casually fabulous and very amusing, but all power to Firth the actor. He's the compleat Darcy, and he never wavers.
  159. The Sweetest Thing
    That cameraderie is bound to appeal to women looking for a howlingly trashy time.
  160. Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
    This is cinema as oral tradition. And one heck of a cheap-seat deal.
  161. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
    Star Wars had all the right stuff, and unlike its confounding progenitor, "2001: A Space Odyssey," it was fairy-tale simple: "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," good met evil. [Special Edition]
  162. Gods and Monsters
    Eminently watchable thanks to strong performances from its three leads (McKellen, Redgrave, Fraser).
  163. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
    The spare and unsparing tone of I'll Sleep When I'm Dead makes it as existential -- and as original -- a whodunit as they come.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fear and Trembling
    This quietly odd and hilarious tale is a bit like a Japanese version of the popular BBC comedy series "The Office" or perhaps the "Dilbert" comic strip at its peak.
  165. Strayed
    Strayed has the strange clarity of a fable. It strips everything away until only instincts and emotions are left.
  166. The Inheritance
    The cast, all classically trained on the stage, is simply commanding.
  167. Something's Gotta Give
    Generally quite amusing, with a brilliant cast.
  168. Hearts and Minds (re-release)
    Davis, who won an Oscar for Best Documentary, may not have agreed with presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon on the war, but he heeded Johnson's call to fight for hearts and minds. His aim was dead on target.
  169. Zhou Yu de huo che
    It's a terrific film because each of the characters is so fiercely felt.
  170. My Flesh and Blood
    Poignant, heartbreaking proof that, sometimes, love is just not enough.
  171. All About My Mother
    It's enough to make your head spin, but Almodovar, whose mastery of the medium has never been more assured, gives you plenty to think about, ultimately grounding the dizzy whirl of his idiosyncratic fictional world in a story that feels not just true but universal.
  172. Under the Tuscan Sun
    The cliches are obscured by the sheer fun of it all.
    • Washington Post
  173. One Swallow Brought Spring
    The movie, which Carion wrote with Eric Assous, has a calming quality. The story moves slowly but, given the milieu and pace of life, this seems perfectly appropriate.
  174. Intermission
    Very, very funny, thanks to a lively first script by Mark O'Rowe, who has a good ear for earthy dialogue and a sense of life's absurd little synchronicities.
  175. The Barbarian Invasions
    A movie that, in the story of one man dying, shows us all how to live.
  176. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
    Sharp, lively, funny and ultimately sobering film.
  177. Pieces of April
    Belongs, wholly and completely, to Clarkson, who delivers Joy's mordant asides and withering observations with a flawless balance of tartness and vulnerability.
  178. Vengo
    Feels like a song you may have heard before, but one whose aching beauty makes it endlessly listenable.
  179. Batman
    The Batblast of the summer.
  180. Enduring Love
    It's the best kind of movie: so alive in its storytelling that only in retrospect do you realize that the ideas represent a metaphysical inquiry.
  181. The Triplets of Belleville
    Overflowing with madcap visual flair and following a rambling thread of a plot that seems, at times, more the product of free association than an actual script, The Triplets of Belleville is a triumph of animated style over substance.
  182. America's Sweethearts
    Terrifically funny romantic comedy, is a slam-dunk for Julia Roberts, the Michael Jordan of cuteness.
  183. Bread and Roses
    There's every reason to watch Bread and Roses for what Loach really does best: He involves us directly in the desperate lives of his characters, who are forced to live without security and who have to compromise to make ends meet. And, above all, who feel as real as moviemaking allows.
  184. Suzhou River
    A Chinese film whose simple surface belies greater mysteries.
  185. Alien: Resurrection
    So drippy and slippery you'll feel that you're hiding in Kevin Costner's nasal passages during the filming of "Waterworld."
  186. A Knight's Tale
    Savvy without being smug, cute without being saccharin, and funny without slipping into over-the-top goofiness, this is a 14th-century good time.
  187. Postmen in the Mountains
    It's a love letter to the myriad ways, large and small, that mail handlers change lives the world over.
  188. Primary Colors
    Its palette isn't primary at all: It's full of secondary shadings.
  189. Bruce Almighty
    Carrey is so gifted a physical comedian that even mediocre material shines in his talented hands, not to mention his talented feet, face, elbows, ears, hair and, ahem, derriere.
  190. Treasure Planet
    Boasts the purest of Disney raptures: It unites the generations, rather than driving them apart.
  191. Girlfight
    Luminously understated.
  192. Dreamcatcher
    I think you can say that almost everyone watching this will be spellbound, whether they're stupefied by its insanity, more conventionally compelled by the various horrors in store or a combination of both.
  193. Eyes Wide Shut
    It's painstakingly paced, but it's also entrancing.
  194. In America
    In Sheridan's warm and glowing treatment, the moral of the story feels less like a reheated fable than like something utterly, indescribably original.
  195. Shadow of the Vampire
    Diabolically amusing without plunging into the Mel Brooks zone, and it's smart without being pedantic. And it's genuinely scary at times.
  196. Being Julia
    Bening makes the movie into something finer still.
  197. The Devil's Advocate
    Unlike so many pagan entertainments that seem to have no moral center as they blow things up, this one in fact does. It's very small, but it's there.
  198. Jackpot
    It's a movie full of quietly assured flourishes: elegant camera compositions, wonderful uses of silence and an entertainingly eclectic cast, including Peggy Lipton as a sensitive bartender.
  199. Nico and Dani
    Touching, funny, unflinching and true.
  200. Liar Liar
    Carrey is not only under control, but funnier than ever.
  201. The Game
    It's formulaic, yet edgy. It's predictable, yet full of surprises. How far you get through this tall tale of a thriller before you give up and howl is a matter of personal taste.
  202. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
    Start lining up now, bring a bullwhip -- and maybe some d-Con. Indiana will do the rest.
  203. Minority Report
    Spielberg's dark side may not be where everyone wants to live, but it's somehow encouraging to know that he has one.
  204. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
    A considerable kick, though it would have helped if one of the boys had wiped off the lens of the camera once in a while.
  205. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
    Pirates of the Caribbean moves easily from sunny 18th-century seafaring adventure to creepy zombie flick and back again.
  206. Super Size Me
    This is a compelling cautionary tale hot-wired to your gag reflex.
  207. The Take
    It never smirks or condescends as does, say, a Michael Moore; it never seems smug and superior, only committed and compassionate.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Freaky Friday
    Terrific at capturing what teenage behavior would look like on a grown-up.
  209. Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids
    Doesn't just bring you to the edge of the hopeless zone, it takes you right into its homes where the children play.
  210. Almost Famous
    This is wonderful stuff, as far as it goes.
  211. The Clearing
    It stays in character, small, human, bitter and sad.
  212. Control Room
    May be most valuable for its depiction of the strength of democratic ideals, even in the most precarious and contradictory of circumstances.
  213. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
    The strongest magnet in this psychedelic morass is Johnny Depp who, as the story's antic, disgusting and seductive spirit guide, is impossible to look away from.
  214. Ed Wood
    Making a movie about the life of Ed Wood certainly qualifies as an impossible dream, but Burton has pulled it off with wit, imagination and something amazingly close to grace.
  215. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
    Retains (and in many cases, boosts) as much of the spirit [of the book] as you could reasonably expect. And it makes a worthy attempt to duplicate Rowling's engaging sense of humor.
  216. Old School
    In terms of sheer belly-laugh count, this one's in the same plentiful company as "There's Something About Mary" and "Road Trip."
  217. Never Been Kissed
    Drew Barrymore has figured out what works, and what works for Drew Barrymore is this: Cinderella stories.
  218. The Perfect Storm
    As a movie, this is exciting stuff.
  219. Rush Hour
    A sturdily entertaining vehicle, easily the little guy's best American-made film.
  220. Signs
    For filmgoers whose idea of a good time is getting the stuffing scared out of them (who are you guys, anyway?), Signs should prove to be time well spent.
  221. The Royal Tenenbaums
    This is not a movie that wraps up its story in a tidy bow, but it's a lot more fun than most of the ones that do.
  222. Dawn of the Dead
    The movie has many of the elements that made the first "Dawn" so darkly entertaining.
  223. Leaving Las Vegas
    Doesn't go down smooth, but it doesn't promise to.
  224. The Matrix
    One big, fat, honking comic book of a sci-fi-martial-arts adventure flick.
  225. The Way of the Gun
    It's good fun for bad boys.
  226. Wonderland
    A film whose effects are as hard to wash away as blood.
  227. Spirited Away
    Old myths and wonder tales spun afresh.
  228. The Taste of Others
    Though its attitudes are decidedly French, this intelligent film goes a long way toward explaining America's obsession with Martha Stewart Living, fake designer labels and TV talk show makeovers.
  229. Blade II
    Ghastly yet wonderful at the same time.
  230. City of Angels
    Though far from a seamless work, the film is gorgeously crafted, and Silberling obviously has a passion for angels. But then these days, who doesn't?
  231. Ocean's Eleven
    Soderbergh won't hit the Oscar jackpot with Ocean's Eleven, but he has come up with a stylish winner.
  232. Blood Work
    Eastwood's instinct for creating efficient, adult, mainstream entertainment is virtually unerring. He's still a class act, not to mention craggy, suave, laconic and very, very cool.
  233. The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
    Kitano the filmmaker makes sure that everything is beautiful, from the wonderful colors and passing tableaux to the intricate fighting choreography. This blind swordsman, you realize, has vision to spare.
  234. The Price of Milk
    Like nothing else that's played in months.
  235. The Age of Innocence
    Though lovely to behold, this film isn't meant to send you home with a song in your heart.
  236. The Big Lebowski
    The movie is as visually inventive and wildly eccentric as the Coens' earlier movies, but it lacks the emotional maturity and moral clarity of 1996's "Fargo."
  237. Clueless
    Ultimately, [Heckerling's] portrait is affectionate and, in places, even sweet, enabling us to laugh at them and embrace them at the same time.
  238. Notre musique
    A film about war and reconciliation, is deeply Christian, a study in humility and the moral uncertainty at the core of the Christian message.
  239. We Don't Live Here Anymore
    The movie may leave its audience feeling a little battered (some might say betrayed) as well. Still, the film's honesty, along with its refusal to pander to Hollywood happy endings, is well worth the beating.
  240. Kitchen Stories
    May, at times, be deadpan to the point of stiffness, but it's far from dead.
  241. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
    Proves to be a whiz-bang kick in the pants.
  242. Behind Enemy Lines
    War is hellishly entertaining, especially in Behind Enemy Lines, a 21-gun salute to the commitment and preparedness of the U.S. military.
  243. The Others
    A tantalizing spine-tingler.
  244. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
    The movie's a treasure of small gems.
  245. Jackie Brown
    The film occasionally drags -- a money transfer scene set in a department store lasts longer than several geologic epochs -- but it's so funny and the plot twists are so sudden and violent it's great fun.
  246. The Merchant of Venice
    To watch this movie is to not only appreciate the majesty of Shakespeare's poetics but to engage in a profound, subtextual dialogue with bigotry.
  247. Meet the Parents
    Roach knows to play to the movie's twin strengths: Stiller and De Niro. Throw these guys together, turn up the intensity.
  248. Dead Poets Society
    It's a literate though strained uplifter.
  249. The Lizzie McGuire Movie
    Doesn't try to be more than what it is: a romantic fantasy caper.
  250. 40 Days and 40 Nights
    It's funny! It's not Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" or anything, but it's pretty darned good!
  251. Akira
    The most expensive animated feature ever made in Japan (over 1 billion yen) and it's easily the most impressive, as well.
  252. Before Sunset
    Anything that inspires that many whoops, gasps and groans with only two actors and a few choice words has earned its place at the summertime box office trough.
  253. Baadasssss!
    Does a terrific job of capturing the outlaw energy of the original production.
  254. Coffee and Cigarettes
    Jarmusch's use of yin/yang, dark/light and good/evil symbolism makes glorious if goofy sense.
  255. Flight of the Phoenix
    This is high-carb filmmaking at its finest. When it's all over, you'll have a knot in your stomach.
  256. Ice Age
    Full of visual dazzle, engaging characters and a reasonably sprightly narrative.
  257. Kinsey
    If it lacks a certain fuzzy warmth, Kinsey makes up for the shortfall with spirited and (for a commercial movie) amazingly candid vigor. It's an alert, lively movie with a crackling performance by Liam Neeson.
  258. Mean Girls
    Smart, funny, well-acted and visually lively.
  259. Mulholland Dr.
    Lynch's new movie, Mulholland Drive, is a trip and a half: It's like playing Twister and Scrabble simultaneously while high on LSD. Oh, and it's dark out.
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