Charlotte Observer's Scores
- Movies
For 1,354 reviews, this publication has graded:
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55% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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42% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.9 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 64
| 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: 868 out of 1354
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Mixed: 233 out of 1354
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Negative: 253 out of 1354
1,354
movie reviews
- By critic score
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
The final sad joke is this: Weitz took a wonderful story about the danger of severing a soul from its otherwise empty body and did that very thing to his source. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
Lee sleepwalks through his part, even in romantic scenes with equally bland Cameron Richardson. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
The film is a saggy, oddly mean-spirited takeoff of "Walk the Line." -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
No movie this year will better embody Macbeth's description of life itself: "a tale ... full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
Of COURSE it's bad. It was always going to be. But it's worse than necessary. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
Director Doug Liman and a trio of writers eventually forget the rules they set up and hurl combatants to places they could never have seen or even known about: Who'd willingly project himself into the middle of a Chechnyan war zone? -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
Just Will Ferrell doing the same man-boy shtick he usually does. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
The script by Kristofor Brown and Seth Rogen and the direction by Steven Brill have a careless, never-gave-a-damn feel that's as insulting to viewers as the film is dull. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
Speed Racer is chaotic as a six-ring circus, gaudy as a transvestites convention and soullessly cute as a robot puppy. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
Sandler proves even a hardened Israeli secret service agent can be an imbecilic juvenile. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
It's neither dull nor stimulating, neither off-putting nor engaging. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
We waited 10 years for a sequel to the movie version of "The X-Files" – and the best Chris Carter could do is The X-Files: I Want to Believe? -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
Solace is especially frustrating when it moves down interesting paths, then stops. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
Allen's laziness is startling, even in so mechanical a filmmaker. He uses a monotonous narrator to tell us what the characters think and do, though he then shows them performing the actions that have just been described. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
The best way to sit through Max Payne is by using minimal brain. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
A feel-nothing movie – a series of disconnected, implausible incidents that end as arbitrarily as they began, in an effort to inspire emotions the picture never justifies. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
A brazen title card declares this " true story." (Wow, not even "based on.") However many facts may be accurate, the movie feels contrived, with climax piled upon climax. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
Reviewers sometimes insult actors by saying they don't vary their expressions across an entire movie. But until Knowing, I never thought that could literally be true. Nicolas Cage does widen his eyes with about 15 minutes left in the film. -
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Critic Score 38
It's a terrible muddle unless you take it as a satire on the Age of Ellis, the Jacqueline Susann for that Flock of Seagulls era. That way, the unintentional laughs seem almost ironic. -
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Critic Score 38
Naive but ambitious, it comes across as a "Battlestar Galactica" vetted by pacifists, "Clone Wars" neutered for Saturday morning kids' TV. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
The sequel to the 2008 hit “Twilight” makes no effort to satisfy outsiders. It's strictly for devotees who won't balk at plot absurdities, clunky dialogue and patchy characterizations. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
Ronan, however, transcends the script. She's innocent yet wise, gentle yet forceful. She's the one thing in this picture that shows how great a movie The Lovely Bones might have been, had the people who made it believed in the book with all their hearts. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
Angelina Jolie is definitely worth her salt as an action hero, but Salt is never worth its Angelina Jolie. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
An unmemorable, frenzied, characterless hodgepodge that delights the eyes while numbing the brain. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
The Critic's Code of Honor forbids me from explaining in detail why the storytelling is so inept, because I'd have to spoil the silly surprises. So I'll say only this: You can interpret the climax two ways, and both will probably infuriate you.- Posted Dec 9, 2010
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
The sequel doesn't develop the characters, interject any warmth into its frenetic story or take us anywhere we haven't been.- Posted Jun 23, 2011
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
The film's filled with inconsequential scenes and supporting characters who add useless atmosphere or by-the-book diversity.- Posted May 24, 2012
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
The worst thing about the picture is that the people involved all seem to realize it's generic.- Posted Aug 9, 2012
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
The movie that's meant to be his (Apatow) most personal turns out to be his most dully generic.- Posted Dec 20, 2012
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
I hope his life was less dull than the movie he's made from it.- Posted Jan 4, 2013
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 38
It begins as energetic, clichéd nonsense and ends as irritating, clichéd nonsense.- Posted Jan 10, 2013
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Like the Big E himself. It starts out fast, dangerous, sexy, confident, funny with an edge. It ends up confused, bloated, unable to leave the stage when it should. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
The picture lasts 111 minutes, partly because of numerous false endings. Now, that constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
The movie's weirdness isn't organic; it's imposed, like barber-pole stripes painted on a prison wall. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Mostly, you get a pain in the head from the assault on your senses and déjà vu as thick as heartburn after an anchovy pizza. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Atmosphere goes only so far in a story where the major characters fade from memory. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
"I didn't write this." In heaven, Graham Greene is mumbling those same words over and over right now. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
And what of Roger Avary, the writer who shared the Academy Award for writing with Tarantino? He continues to plummet toward oblivion with The Rules of Attraction, which ranks with the Great Pyramid of Khufu as a monument to self-indulgence. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
It's as French as a half-smoked Gauloise and, like a half-smoked Gauloise, it stinks. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
I think this camp classic is an accident along the lines of "Showgirls": howlingly funny, filled with gratingly earnest performances, riddled with dialogue that will be quoted at parties. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
It's the cheapest looking, least exciting, least funny Chan project I've ever seen. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
It's the poster child for bad taste, not to mention bad construction. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Self-respecting filmgoers will find this a "Walk" to dismember. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
A three-hour-and-10-minute exercise in slight characterization, pointlessly showy editing and vapid plotting. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Director Ivan Reitman used to know how to tell a silly story, back around the time of "Stripes" and "Ghostbusters." -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Let me say, in my desire always to be positive, that Serving Sara is the funniest film I know where a man sticks his arm up a bull's rectum to massage its prostate. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Embodies all that's wrong with the sellout culture of Hollywood. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Affleck simply wasn't meant to play action heroes or tough guys. He's about as tough as tapioca pudding. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Spike Lee's films have been provocative, blunt, thoughtful, misguided, daring, sentimental, funny, honest and silly. But 25th Hour earns the director two new adjectives: irrelevant and tedious. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Designed to appeal to people who thought "She's All That" was too mentally demanding. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
I don't know if Nispel and Scott Kosar, who make their feature film debuts here, are the worst director and writer in the world, though they might well represent the United States if anyone holds a competition. I do know they deliver a total of zero laughs, scares or surprises in this remake of the infamously creepy 1974 picture. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Campion has no clue how to sustain suspense and no actress of the caliber of Holly Hunter, Nicole Kidman or Kate Winslet (her recent leading ladies) in the main role. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
As a British politician said of a corrupt but articulate peer, "The Cat in the Hat" is like a rotten mackerel seen by moonlight: It shines as it stinks. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Studios can release movies even more insultingly dumb, crudely assembled and cheaply produced than this one, though such an achievement will require some effort. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Does David Arquette have a career? If so, what's he doing in this unintentionally hilarious gangster movie? -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
You won't see a single joke here you haven't encountered before, all in funnier forms. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Writer-director Reverge Anselmo has created a movie of ineptness so perfect and unified as to boggle the mind. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Represents everything that over-budgeted Hollywood can possibly get wrong in a period piece: It feels both long and slow, it's unfocused and self-contradictory, its generic characters are played too broadly, it's anachronistic.. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Pitof can be blamed for the 89-cent digitized sets, the jerky or rubbery special effects, some clunky performances and more continuity errors than I could count. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Birth, which should never have been conceived, is obscure in every way: visually, philosophically and psychologically. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
This movie is an act of hubris so huge that, in Alexander's time, it would draw lightning bolts from contemptuous gods. Today it will get sniggers from stunned critics and a collective yawn from a public unlikely to share Stone's egomania. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Slater narrates as if reading a restaurant menu. Reid seems to have learned each long sentence in segments, so she wouldn't be overtaxed. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Messing may simply be one of those actresses who's the right size for TV and the wrong size for the big screen. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Everything here has been done better in other books, other movies. The lone remarkable thing is the level of violence, which exposes the cowardice and hypocrisy of the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings system. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Weak, obligatory stabs at humor make it more generic than it might've been. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Even if we leave aside the obvious time travel paradoxes, we can have a good horse laugh at the rest of the plot's inanities. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Not even the repeated sight of Jessica Alba in a bikini, the camera caressing her like the eyes of a strip-club patron, can lift this leaden refuse off the ocean floor. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Goes awry within moments and never gets on track. The scripters and director Harold Ramis have no idea whether to aim for cynical humor, film-noir romance or post-crime tension, so they miss all three targets completely. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Its main feature is incessant, unimaginative profanity...Take out the cursing, and you're left with a plebeian drama about angry, aimless potheads, sloppily directed by the man who wrote it. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Once again, something that might have been a faintly amusing sketch on "Saturday Night Live" -- maybe even a tolerable 30-minute short, had the writing been more clever -- gets tortured into the shape of a feature film. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 25
Bertino directs at a funereal pace. Speedman remains comatose, though Tyler flickers fitfully to life. The mournful look on her face suggests she's remembering the days when she was given more psychologically complex scripts, such as "Armageddon." -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 12
I do have one overpowering Y2K fear: that Hollywood will keep belching out movies as excruciatingly dull, brutal, mindless and overlong as End of Days. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 12
Whenever the music subsides and the characters speak the Coens' lines, the film turns back into mush. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 12
About 45 minutes into Swordfish, the picture degenerates permanently from drivel to sleaze (only a short drop). -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 12
Just when the story reaches its idiotic nadir, Neil (Diamond) shows up to save the day with a song and a smile. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 12
The worst horror sequel of this or many another summer. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 12
It's bombastic, chaotic, plodding, visually dreary and patchily written. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 12
Zomboid, convoluted excuse for a thriller is among year's worst. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 12
It's an uncoordinated, flailing hodgepodge of music videos, chases, crashes and moronic plot twists. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 12
This script by the husband-and-wife team of Leora Barish and Henry Bean is hopelessly contrived and takes forever to get to the point. (I warn you: The film does not absolutely identify the killer.) -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 0
Bad actors, bad music and bad plot make it a hellish bummer. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 0
It's well-shot and well-edited by Hollywood standards, though special effects don't reach the top Hollywood level. The stars have their hearts in their work: Cameron and Johnson don't have great depth but give their all. Currie makes a subtle villain. -
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman 0
Director Vondie Curtis-Hall has managed to top (or should I say "bottom"?) his last theatrical release, Mariah Carey's "Glitter," with a movie that offers not one praiseworthy moment: not a scene, not a performance, not a technical achievement, not even a line of dialogue. -