Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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For 566 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 60% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 36% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 7.2 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Joe Williams' Scores

  • Movies
Average review score: 67
Highest review score:
The Amazing Spider-Man
Critic Score 100
Lowest review score:
New Year's Eve
Critic Score 25
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 421 out of 566
  2. Mixed: 102 out of 566
  3. Negative: 43 out of 566
566 movie reviews
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    • Metascore: 61
    • Joe Williams 63
    Trollhunter
    Trollhunter has a lot of down time as the crew treks to the fjords, but it's also got dryly subversive humor and, eventually, some impressive special effects.
    • Metascore: 64
    • Joe Williams 63
    A Better Life
    Unfolds like a fable instead of a believable slice of life. Mexican TV and film star Bichir gives a poignant performance, but he's distinctly more European than the cholos and Chicano laborers on the sketchy edges of the hero's plight.
    • Metascore: 63
    • Joe Williams 63
    Friends with Benefits
    A bait-and-switch comedy. It poses as a naughty "no-mance" about friends who use each other for casual sex, but at the moment of truth it goes limp.
    • Metascore: 68
    • Joe Williams 63
    Crazy, Stupid, Love.
    Directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra were weaned on earthy comedies like "Bad Santa," and every moment of mature insight in Crazy, Stupid, Love is answered by a scene of formulaic farce.
    • Metascore: 59
    • Joe Williams 63
    Sarah's Key
    Although this sober film spares us some of the grim, survivalist details, the harrowing adventure from a girl's perspective is so compelling that Julia's simultaneous sleuthing seems like an unnecessary distraction.
    • Metascore: 39
    • Joe Williams 63
    The Change-Up
    I still think it's a funny movie, but given its genes, it's a bit of a slacker.
    • Metascore: 62
    • Joe Williams 63
    The Help
    It's a credit to the cast and to the worthiness of the idea that this overlong movie works at all. But those of us who already know that racism is bad could use a little more challenge and a little less help.
    • Metascore: 67
    • Joe Williams 63
    The Future
    July is a provocative and honorably independent filmmaker, but given the meager rewards of investing our time, The Future wasn't worth the wait.
    • Metascore: 59
    • Joe Williams 63
    The Whistleblower
    It's hard to imagine a better movie about corporate-sanctioned sex trafficking than The Whistleblower. But whether you're ready to confront this true story is a trickier question.
    • Metascore: 64
    • Joe Williams 63
    Dolphin Tale
    A true story of animal rescue, and it even stars the sea creature to whom it happened. But it's the humans who do the cutesy tricks that make it a mixed blessing.
    • Metascore: 35
    • Joe Williams 63
    What's Your Number?
    It does induce a few giggles like cheap champagne.
    • Metascore: 43
    • Joe Williams 63
    Machine Gun Preacher
    If you'd pay to see a film called "Hotel Rwanda: Maniac Manager," you might be receptive to this mixed-message movie, but skeptics should keep one eye on the exit.
    • Metascore: 60
    • Joe Williams 63
    Happy, Happy
    Happy, Happy has the makings of a Norwegian "Ice Storm," but it goes out with a whimper.
    • Metascore: 49
    • Joe Williams 63
    The Thing
    A solid sci-fi/horror hybrid, but this iceman doesn't deliver enough to chew on.
    • Metascore: 49
    • Joe Williams 63
    The Mighty Macs
    This true story fills a needed niche, spotlighting women's basketball in the era before Title IX promoted equal treatment.
    • Metascore: 47
    • Joe Williams 63
    Restless
    If you haven't seen a wasting disease in real life, you might think Restless is romantic. If you have, you might diagnose it as terminally cute.
    • Metascore: 57
    • Joe Williams 63
    Toast
    Toast is lovely to look at, evoking both the gray-green milieu of Midlands life and the sensuality of good food, but it's like a whipped topping with no base.
    • Metascore: 80
    • Joe Williams 63
    Melancholia
    Like a newborn planet, Melancholia is magnetically beautiful, but it's also an unformed mass of hot air.
    • Metascore: 57
    • Joe Williams 63
    Albert Nobbs
    The double deception of suppressed personality and repressed sexuality could have been the basis for a rewarding character study, but after Albert meets a kindred spirit and dares to dream of a happy ending, her denial and naivete become too much to swallow.
    • Metascore: 62
    • Joe Williams 63
    The Woman in Black
    There's little that's new, revealing or stylish about this basic-black horror story, but if you've got a Goth sensibility, it might suit you.
    • Metascore: 56
    • Joe Williams 63
    In the Land of Blood and Honey
    With its broad strokes, this invitation to an important discussion is hard to ignore, but the blood and honey on the table is an unpalatable mix.
    • Metascore: 40
    • Joe Williams 63
    Act of Valor
    Act of Valor is a competently directed action movie, but forcing the audience to wear such narrow goggles is a dereliction of duty.
    • Metascore: 55
    • Joe Williams 63
    Friends with Kids
    Like an acquaintance couple's baby pictures, Friends With Kids induces coos but isn't as cute as they think.
    • Metascore: 67
    • Joe Williams 63
    The Hunger Games
    The Hunger Games is dressed as a dark satire of soulless entertainment, but like Katniss' adversaries in the PG-13 hunting scenes, it doesn't have a distinctive identity or go-for-the-throat.
    • Metascore: 49
    • Joe Williams 63
    American Reunion
    There's some laughing gas left in the cupboard, but this series may require an infusion of new blood to last until "American Funeral."
    • Metascore: 74
    • Joe Williams 63
    Bully
    Bully is a good start to a necessary conversation, but its loving voice is likely to be drowned out by haters who hide their own wounded hearts behind Internet pseudonyms and broadcast microphones.
    • Metascore: 73
    • Joe Williams 63
    The Raid: Redemption
    Built on shaky and blood-soaked ground, but if towering technique is all you want from an action movie, then yippee-ki-yay.
    • Metascore: 50
    • Joe Williams 63
    Elles
    Elles is provocative company, but it leaves us feeling hustled.
    • Metascore: 69
    • Joe Williams 63
    The Avengers
    The fiery finale is good enough to leave the legions smiling. But when a movie is expected to lift an entire industry, "good enough" shouldn't be good enough.
    • Metascore: 58
    • Joe Williams 63
    Men in Black III
    It still has cool creatures and 1960s set design, and the 3-D is the best of the season, but if you try to remember the story or jokes, you'll find that you've been hit by a neuralyzer beam.
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