Variety's Scores

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For 17,794 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 52% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.4 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 IMAX: Hubble 3D
Lowest review score: 0 Divorce: The Musical
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9,142 out of 17794
  2. Mixed: 7,015 out of 17794
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17794
17794 movie reviews
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  1. The Nines
    The Nines arcs from witty Hollywood insiderdom to a climactic metaphysical leap that may leave many viewers nonplussed. Nonetheless, there's more than enough intelligence, intrigue and performance dazzle to make this an adventuresome gizmo for grownups.
  2. The Last Thing Mary Saw
    Vitaletti’s storytelling, and ability to drum up tension or scares, is less potent here than his attention to evoking a general climate of close-minded religious hypocrisy.
  3. The Frighteners
    Story was originally conceived as an episode of Tales From the Crypt, and that is perhaps what it should have remained, as the thinness of the conceit shows throughout, painfully so in the first half.
  4. Safe House
    In contrast with the fragmented kineticism of Paul Greengrass' "Bourne" movies, there's no existential dimension to the shattered-glass aesthetic here; it's just raw, chaotic action, inelegantly shot and staged but no less unnerving for it.
  5. Janie Jones
    There's never any doubt where the picture is headed. If it finally achieves a modicum of poignancy, the impact surely would have been greater if the whole felt fresher.
  6. Peeples
    Peeples may appropriate its entire premise and plot structure from “Meet the Parents,” but its heart is suffused with French cinema.
  7. Hit So Hard
    Though stylistically incoherent at times, picture benefits from the percussionist's plainspokenness.
  8. Bilal: A New Breed of Hero
    The dialogue is very clear-cut, devoid of all contractions so that people speak in unnatural ways, though perhaps it makes the conversations clearer, especially to audiences whose native language might not be English. More problematic are the never-ending platitudes, all tied to spreading the message of equality.
  9. Labor Day
    To the extent that Adele’s hunger for affection resonates with audiences, what emerges is a powerful — if implausible — romance.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Hunger
    The Hunger [from the novel by Whitley Strieber] is all visual and aural flash, although this modern vampire story looks so great, as do its three principal performers, and is so bizarre that it possesses a certain perverse appeal.
  11. One Chance
    What keeps One Chance plugging along almost in spite of itself are the warmly engaging performances of Corden and Alexandra Roach.
  12. A Shine of Rainbows
    Irresistibly good-natured even when it's cheesy.
  13. The Interview
    An alleged satire that’s about as funny as a communist food shortage, and just as protracted.
  14. RoboCop
    It’s a less playful enterprise than the original, but meets the era’s darker demands for action reboots with machine-tooled efficiency and a hint of soul.
  15. Saint Laurent
    The upside for Saint Laurent’s admirers is that Bonello’s film reflects more of the designer’s tortured creative drive in its dark onyx surfaces; it’s the slightly deranged auteur portrait that a fellow artist and iconoclast deserves.
  16. Jerry and Marge Go Large
    The movie is a fable of winning, of beating the house every time, without much of a dark side. In that way, it’s fun; it allows us to coast along on our vicarious desire to get rich by beating the system
  17. Touching Home
    Despite the tale's real-life basis and a solid Ed Harris as their fictive equivalents' alcoholic dad, Touching Home emerges as a formulaic triumph-over-odds tale with too little distinguishing detail.
  18. Boris Without Béatrice
    A brittle, no-joke comedy of unchecked privilege that maintains the tone of social satire without ever alighting on a specific target.
  19. Linsanity
    Evan Jackson Leong’s film makes the most of its superior access and exciting basketball footage, overcoming repetitive stretches by sheer dint of a tremendous underdog story.
  20. Beautiful Creatures
    Fortunately, writer-director Richard LaGravenese has jettisoned most of the novel and refashioned its core mythology and characters into a feverishly enjoyable guilty pleasure.
  21. I Am Secretly an Important Man
    Given his due and more by Sillen's insightful and occasionally startling portrait, Bernstein is made a complicated, even morbidly fascinating figure in a film that will have limited theatrical exposure but, like the director's earlier work, will likely enjoy a cultish afterlife.
  22. The Main Event
    Even though the feature reflects WWE’s core values built on family, teamwork and inspirational aspirations, and contains healthy messages about proving one’s mettle using wit and wisdom, The Main Event sags far too frequently.
  23. Chantilly Lace
    An amiable, middle-brow entertainment, Chantilly Lace provides a knowing, bittersweet look at the complex lives of modern American women.
  24. William Tell
    William Tell is most confident when Bang is allowed to commit to pulpy bravado, with long bellows of “No!” and “Go!” and an impressive 6’4’’ frame. He’s the tallest man in all the Alps; in a movie as silly and simple-minded as this one, of course that makes him the hero.
  25. Rebels with a Cause
    Encapsulates the turbulent times of the Students for a Democratic Society.
  26. Haiku Tunnel
    While it plays more like stage or TV sketch-comedy shtick than film material, this modest, visually unimposing production remains entertaining thanks to its ironic observations and winning sense of folly.
  27. Seeing Other People
    While lacking originality, pic is a case of cogent moviemaking that really knows its business. Traces of early Steven Soderbergh and recent Larry David enhance one of the most satisfying comedies in a fallow season.
  28. 800 Bullets
    An uneven but exuberantly anarchic comedy homage to the spaghetti Western.
  29. Nothing Bad Can Happen
    Skillfully made first feature by writer-director Katrin Gebbe has some undeniably striking passages and performances, but ultimately spirals toward a gruesome third act that is no less monotonous for supposedly being based on true events.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    We're No Angels
    At times proceedings are too consciously cute and stage origin of material [a play by Albert Husson] still clings since virtually all scenes are interiors with characters constantly entering and exiting. However, Michael Curtiz’ directorial pacing and topflight performances from Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov help minimize the few flaws.
  31. The Intern
    It takes all the leads’ considerable combined charm to forestall the aftertaste of the pic’s smug life lessons and near-comically blinkered worldview.
  32. The Getaway
    The Getaway is a pretty good remake of a pretty good action thriller.
  33. Dangerous Beauty
    While there’s much to admire in the film, both its setting and tone seem out of touch with prevailing tastes.
  34. Doing Time for Patsy Cline
    Overall the charm of the film works its spell, and director Kennedy shows confidence in juggling understated comedy and gently sentimental drama.
  35. The Age of Adaline
    A sensitively directed slab of romantic hokum that wrings an impressive amount of emotional conviction from a thoroughly ludicrous premise.
  36. 96 Minutes
    Despite the over-familiarity of its once-trendy time-tripping plot structure, 96 Minutes maintains a brisk pace and generates a satisfying degree of suspense with its credibly contrived tale of disparate lives forever changed by a violent carjacking.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Grass Is Greener
    The Hugh and Margaret Wilson screenplay, adapted from their London stage hit, slowly evolves into a talky and generally tedious romantic exercise, dropping the semi-satirical stance that brightens up the early going.
  38. Girls of the Sun
    Clearly the director’s positive impressions from her research made her want to create something that would generate popular sympathy for the cause, but writing a glorified TV movie wasn’t the way to go.
  39. Final Cut
    It’s a messy and annoying one-joke movie that repeats the joke over and over again — and guess what, it was barely funny the first time.
  40. Kuso
    The referentiality of “Kuso,” its general snark, and even its defensive self-criticism (characters state “I hate this movie!” more than once) fail to make it any more funny or inspired, let alone any less of a shapeless chore to sit through.
  41. Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody
    “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” is the kind of lavishly impassioned all-stops-out biopic you either give into or you don’t — and if you do, you may find yourself getting so emotional, baby.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Hello, Dolly!
    An expensive, expansive, sometimes exaggerated, sentimental, nostalgic, wholesome, pictorially opulent $20 million filmusical [from the 1964 Broadway production, music and lyrics by Jerry Herman] with the charisma of Barbra Streisand in the title role.
  43. Woman Walks Ahead
    Woman Walks Ahead offers dimension to its leading lady, but holds its Native characters to the same old surface stereotypes. Such a movie is a step in the right direction, but farther behind than it seems to realize.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Uncle Buck
    John Hughes unsuccessfully tries to mix a serious generation gap message between the belly laughs in Uncle Buck, a warm-weather John Candy vehicle.
  45. The Golden Compass
    Impressively rendered but oddly uninviting adventure.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
    Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood is a Robin of wood. Murky and uninspired, this $50 million rendition bears evidence of the rushed and unpleasant production circumstances that were much reported upon.
  47. Skateland
    This wan, mundane coming-of-ager focuses on kids enacting a pale imitation of '50s car-centered, "American Graffiti"-style time-killing, with the impediment of exceptionally dull dialogue.
  48. A Walk in the Woods
    It’s pleasant enough cinematic comfort food, but even so, you may be hungry again soon afterward.
  49. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
    The first “Jurassic World” was, quite simply, not a good ride. “Fallen Kingdom” is an improvement, but it’s the first “Jurassic” film to come close to pretending it isn’t a ride at all, and as a result it ends up being just a passable ride.
  50. Poetic Justice
    Poetic Justice is a hermetic inner-city love story elevated by resonant social commentary.
  51. First Descent
    Pic displays filmmakers Kevin Harrison's and Kemp Curley's love of snowboarding, but suffers from an unjustifiably long running time, considerable repetition and a generally awkward structure.
  52. You're Cordially Invited
    Whether they’re playing naughty or nice, Witherspoon and Ferrell are two of the rare stars who can be charming even when trying to sabotage someone else’s most important moment, and You’re Cordially Invited is most fun when they’re on the warpath.
  53. Zizek!
    A little bit of Slovene philosopher Slavoj Zizek goes a long way. In the verbose profile documentary Zizek! there's a lot of esoteric, eccentric theories, and little context within his globetrotting life.
  54. Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America
    "Pathfinder" meets "Gerry" in Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America, a striking and virtually wordless story of two Vikings separated from their tribe and left to stumble through the North American wilderness.
  55. An American Rhapsody
    Calculated yet undeniably skillful melodrama.
  56. Windtalkers
    A powerful premise turned into a stubbornly flat, derivative war movie.
  57. Cherish
    Good performances and quirky humor make this slick if less than fully satisfying mix of romantic comedy and mystery an easy sit.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pretty Woman
    Roberts handles the transition from coarse and gawky to glamorous with aplomb.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Losin' It
    Director Curtis Hanson makes a commendable effort with a rather obvious story about three teenage boys who head for a wild weekend in Tijuana, hoping to trade hard cash for manly experience.
  60. Quiet Chaos
    Beautifully modulated, fluidly told film expresses pain with warm understatement.
  61. Mammoth
    A mixed bag, Mammoth is a good-looking, smoothly directed, continent-hopping drama about parents and children, globalization and the disconnect between rich and poor, but comes with too much repetitive exposition and lacks an emotional payoff.
  62. La Soga (The Butcher's Son)
    Made mainly by Yanks and New York-based Dominicans, the vibrant film bursts with local color and trades in very specific aspects of criminality, island-style.
  63. Sassy Pants
    Walking a sometimes wobbly line between charming and cloying.
  64. Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas
    Kleist’s direct language and straightforward storytelling are nowhere in evidence in Pallieres’ narratively challenged adaptation, featuring a French-speaking Mads Mikkelsen in one of his least impressive characterizations.
  65. Next Year Jerusalem
    Sure, some of these dames and geezers are fun, and it’s heartening to see them pushing themselves for what’s likely their last expedition, yet Gaynes forgets that even schmaltz needs salt and pepper.
  66. Detonator
    The filmmakers etch the character dynamics so astutely that we never doubt the credibility of even the most ill-considered actions.
  67. Boychoir
    Boychoir may be soft, but it’s not run-of-the-mill TV-movie treacle, offering just enough edge to lend credibility.
  68. The Suicide Theory
    An oddball male weepie whose curious mixture of sweetness and sadism is well anchored by two solid, character-rich lead performances.
  69. The Neon Demon
    The Neon Demon is a tease. It starts off as a relatively scannable, user-friendly thriller, but it turns out to be a movie made by a macabre surrealist gross-out prankster.
  70. This Beautiful Fantastic
    Everything about “Fantastic” is designed to charm, and its success in that respect will depend upon the viewer’s susceptibility to cuteness and contrivance ladled on with some proficiency but no subtlety whatsoever.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Top Gun
    Set in the world of naval fighter pilots, pic has strong visuals and pretty young people in stylish clothes and a non-stop soundtrack.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy
    Woody Allen’s A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy is a pleasant disappointment, pleasant because he gets all the laughs he goes for in a visually charming, sweetly paced picture, a disappointment because he doesn’t go for more.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Shocker
    At first glance (or at least for the first 40 minutes) Shocker seems a potential winner, an almost unbearably suspenseful, stylish and blood-drenched ride courtesy of writer-director Wes Craven’s flair for action and sick humour. As it continues, however, the camp aspects simply give way to the ridiculous while failing to establish any rules to govern the mayhem. The result is plenty of unintentional laughs.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Harper
    Some excellent directorial touches and solid thesping are evident in the colorful and plush production. Abundance of comedy and sometimes extraneous emphasis on cameo characters make for a relaxed pace and imbalanced concept, resulting in overlength and telegraphing of climax.
  75. Wanderland
    Real, inspired strangeness — not to mention laughs, and an actual point — prove elusive here, while the musical elements feel so inessential they might be excised entirely without notable loss. Wanderland deserves credit for trying something different. But such an effort shouldn’t end up so innocuous and inconsequential.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Eddie and the Cruisers
    A mish-mash of a film, combining elements of the ongoing nostalgia for rock music of previous decades with an unworkable and laughable mystery plotline.
  77. Oh Mercy!
    Although Desplechin claims his main interest is to get inside the two women’s characters, pushing away moral absolutes about guilt and innocence (yes, “Crime and Punishment” is a key influence), the couple come off as the least interesting people on screen.
  78. Alice and the Mayor
    A movie so enamored by its self-perception of cleverness that even policy wonks will find it hard to muster enthusiasm.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Frogs
    Cast is generally firstclass and Milland’s presence, though comparatively brief, is always commanding.
  80. The Last Full Measure
    No amount of marquee talent, however, can fully compensate for the inert melodrama peddled by this inspired-by-true-events film
    • 51 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Return from Witch Mountain
    Pic is loaded with the kind of visual hijinks juve audiences love, and appeal should hold for adults, as well. Playoff looks bright in most situations.
  82. Farming
    Unremittingly, bludgeoningly bleak in its portrayal of his own degradation and humiliation, and displaying only a passing interest in his eventual rehabilitation, the film is remarkable for its lack of self-pity, but it makes the experience of “Farming” a merciless one for the audience too.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Unfaithfully Yours
    Moore is right at home on the podium or behind the piano, and his comic invention results in a delightful performance.
  84. Padrenostro
    Padrenostro, or Our Father, is a handsomely made “inspired by” drama with a few powerful sequences studded within a less satisfactory screenplay, at its best when it sticks to the tense rapport within a family terrified they’ll be targeted again.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Beau Geste
    Third time out for one of the most memorable silent films still packs hardy entertainment. The production is an expertly-made translation of Percival Christopher Wren's novel of the French Foreign Legion in a lonely Sahara outpost, distinguished by good acting, fine photographic values and fast direction. Guy Stockwell delineates the title role.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Alphabet Murders
    Much of the suspence of Christie's writing is lost in converting to comedy, and as a result is no more than a parody of the original, insufficiently clever to be outstanding.
  87. Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia
    It’s a competent yet uninspired overview of events.
  88. Doin' It
    Doin’ It wants to preach sex positivity, but feels stuck in the immature, shock-comedy mode of “American Pie” and early Farrelly brothers movies.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Angel on My Shoulder
    Rains shines as the Devil, shading the character with a likeable puckishness good for both sympathy and chuckles. Anne Baxter is excellent as the troubled fiancee.
  90. Couture
    Jolie, drawing on a family history of cancer for which she herself underwent preventative surgeries, gives a vivid performance, endowing Maxine with cool-director verve and then a fear and sorrow we can’t help but respond to. Yet it never feels like the health-crisis movie and the portrait-of-the-fashion-world movie entirely go together.
  91. Contraband
    This solid if disposable genre exercise maintains a hard-driving line of action and a commitment to one-damned-thing-after-another storytelling that carries it past any number of narrative speedbumps and preposterous detours.
  92. Breathe
    This earnestly romantic biopic of odds-beating polio patient Robin Cavendish and his unwavering wife, Diana, keeps its eyes moist and its upper lip stiff to the last — but its sweeping inspirational gestures rarely reach all the way to the heart.
  93. Death of a Unicorn
    As first features go, Death of a Unicorn is considerably more ambitious and imaginative than so much of what studios greenlight these days, which goes a fair distance to excuse some of its flaws.
  94. The Brothers Grimm
    The tilt here toward a hyperactive, buddy-movie action-adventure with loud comic archetypes is a poor fit for a film that relies on fairy tale icons and themes.
  95. Bullet Head
    The result is a film that somehow manages to be fairly watchable, yet nonetheless really needed intervention from the conceptual stage onward.
  96. Cesar Chavez
    Neither Pena nor the pic itself delivers the necessary dynamism, strained by a modest budget and too few extras to sufficiently re-create a movement that found strength in numbers.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Leviathan
    It's a soggy recycling of gruesome monster attacks unleashed upon a crew of macho men and women confined within a far-flung scientific outpost.
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