Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
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For 977 reviews, this critic has graded:
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50% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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47% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 3.3 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Ann Hornaday's Scores
- Movies
| Average review score: | 62 |
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| Highest review score: |
Critic Score
100
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| Lowest review score: |
Critic Score
0
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 579 out of 977
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Mixed: 218 out of 977
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Negative: 180 out of 977
977
movie reviews
- By critic score
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Ann Hornaday 80
If the zombie genre steadfastly refuses to die, we can be grateful to Shaun of the Dead for breathing fresh, diverting life into the form, with subtle visual humor and a smart, impish sense of fun. -
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Ann Hornaday 80
Rarely have the dangers of drifting apart been given such a visceral and genuinely upsetting emotional wallop. -
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Ann Hornaday 80
What makes Wilbur worth watching are its smaller bits: Mads Mikkelsen's hilarious performance as a taciturn psychiatrist and Julia Davis's equally funny portrayal of a needy group therapy counselor. -
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Ann Hornaday 80
Smith makes it look easy, but underneath the physical high jinks and slick veneer of I, Robot lies a performance of real discipline and intelligence. -
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Ann Hornaday 80
Not to be missed, if only for an unforgettable leading performance by Kevin Bacon. -
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Ann Hornaday 80
It doesn't take a screenwriter, for example, to point out the uncanny fact that, when two parent penguins perform a neck-curving pas de deux above their tiny chick, they resemble nothing so much as a perfect heart. -
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Ann Hornaday 80
Visually dazzling, epic in its sweep and deeply romantic in its sensibility, The House of Sand is one of those films whose images and ideas linger long after the lights come on, having been burned into the viewer's consciousness. -
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Ann Hornaday 80
Block, an experienced documentarian, does an outstanding job walking the knife-edge between personal and self-absorbed. -
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Ann Hornaday 80
Deeply absorbing and moving with the caffeinated speed of Smith's own feisty campaign, Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? is at once a celebration of small-d democracy and an elegy to it, a portrait that will surely inspire and infuriate viewers. -
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Ann Hornaday 80
Designed to educate, outrage and finally spur viewers to action. That it does so with vibrant visual style and an engaging narrative makes it that rare consciousness-raising film that's not only good for you, but a joy to watch. -
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Ann Hornaday 80
If Fighting for Life is propaganda, it's the best kind, largely avoiding editorialization and instead focusing on simple human drama. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
Invictus, which features outstanding performances from both its lead actors, succeeds wonderfully on its simplest level, as a portrait of political genius. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
By presenting Avatar in 3-D, Cameron is staking his claim and building a fence around his own precious resource, making it unobtainable on any but his own terms to increasingly emboldened and technologically savvy natives. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
Fantastic Mr. Fox imparts lessons as profound as "The Road's" about love and gratitude and awareness of others. It just has more fun doing it. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
Shot through with a bold, extravagant generosity of spirit, this journey behind the literal and figurative looking glass marks a gratifying return to form for Gilliam. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
How fitting that Firth should carry A Single Man, a movie of quiet but potent emotional power, perfectly suited to his singular gifts. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
Grounded in the direct, disarming truth of their experience, the movie has a straightforward lack of cheap sentiment that saves it from being either too maudlin or saccharine-sweet. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
For filmgoers whose tastes run to pulp genre frissons, auteurist brio and Nicolas Cage at his most luridly over-the-top, Bad Lieutenant scores a kind of freaky-deaky home run. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
At one point, Frank contemplates a wheeled suitcase and infuses in that one moment the sweetness and vulnerability of E.T. See Everybody's Fine, but one piece of advice: Phone home first. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
Joins such wonderful recent films as "The Lives of Others" and "The Baader Meinhof Complex" as a clear-eyed portrait of a highly charged chapter in Germany's history, a history that once again proves rewarding fodder for an alert artistic imagination. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
The new Karate Kid brings fresh life and perspective to the classic tale of perseverance and cross-generational friendship, thanks to Harald Zwart's sensitive direction and two exceptionally appealing stars. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
Burton finely balances excess and restraint to create an absorbing, visually rich world of his very own. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
A delicate, if slightly smoggy, feeling of regret hangs over Greenberg, a quietly funny portrait of grown-ups growing up. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
A soaring, sympathetic ode to the outlaws, subversives and insurgents who occupy the edges of popular culture, making them safe for everyone else's dreams. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
The raunchy, guy-centric comedy Hot Tub Time Machine makes a vertiginously high-concept bid to be this year's version of "The Hangover" and darned if it doesn't succeed. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
McPherson has managed a rare hat trick in genre mash-up, fashioning a deeply absorbing movie that balances horror, romance, comedy and observant humanism with surprising finesse. -
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Ann Hornaday 75
It's popcorn pulp that collided -- at 100 mph, natch -- with a far more sober and crafty grown-up movie. -