Variety's Scores

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For 17,786 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: 9,137 out of 17786
  2. Mixed: 7,013 out of 17786
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17786
17786 movie reviews
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  1. Snipes
    Unremarkable but competent in stylistic terms, with good use of Philadelphia locations, sharp casting and the requisite marketable hip-hop soundtrack adding up to a fun genre package.
  2. Dopamine
    A dweeby and unenchanting concoction as romantic comedies go, Mark Decena's debut feature also juggles enough storylines to fill five or six movies in barely 80 minutes of screen time, ending up with a whole distinctly less than the sum of its parts.
  3. The Scoundrel's Wife
    A bland gumbo of wartime intrigue and home-front soap opera in the bayou country of Louisiana.
  4. Manna from Heaven
    This family affair is a squeaky-clean cable-ready comedy, unabashedly retro fluff.
  5. The Emperor's Club
    A rather stodgily directed pic by Michael Hoffman which extols the virtues of Greek and Roman thinking in the guise of Kevin Kline's classics teacher.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
    A no-frills, workmanlike picture.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Field of Dreams
    In spite of a script hobbled with cloying aphorisms and shameless sentimentality, Field of Dreams sustains a dreamy mood in which the idea of baseball is distilled to its purest essence.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Good Boy!
    Passable kiddy fare that, although it strenuously underscores its message of friendship and loyalty, doesn't revitalize the genre.
  9. Sacred Planet
    Respecting Mother Earth should never be as dull as watching Sacred Planet, a repetitive, globe-hopping Imax project that dresses up well-known ecological truisms with pretty nature photography.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
    Has a certain raw charm but does not quite achieve the needed cohesion and directorial finesse it calls for. (Review of original release)
  11. Wild Wild West
    As impressive as the industrial-style special effects may be, they're both too much and not enough for this mild mild West.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Kingdom Come
    Uneven but generally well-acted.
  13. Antitrust
    Robbins is such a live wire that he's able to jumpstart his co-stars whenever they're interfacing onscreen.
  14. The Code
    Gallic gangster actioner fuses many disparate generic and stylistic conventions, but, although script by co-star Samy Naceri's brother was purportedly pared down from several hundred pages, it still bears the weight of its pretensions.
  15. Le divorce
    This supposed comedy of manners about Americans in Paris feels artificial at every turn, its characters so devoid of backstory and nuance their behavior often makes little sense.
  16. 54
    Director Mark Christopher gives the picture a brisk pace and a colorful, party-like mood that makes the experience painless and sporadically even enjoyable.
  17. Off the Lip
    Rich in its love of surfing but curiously short on such footage, well-meaning directorial debut by producer Robert Mickelson is boosted by winning performances, but ultimately about as memorable as a day of 3-4 foot swells.
  18. Crazy/Beautiful
    The significant potential of its premise is squandered by an increasing reliance on teen movie cliches, silly plotting and the urge to be upbeat rather than to communicate life lessons.
  19. Together
    The plucky music student who overcomes adversity is a staple subgenre of mainland cinema and, though Chen Kaige directs with greater slickness and more finesse and humor, there's still little to differentiate Together from any other state-studio pic.
  20. Lost in Space
    A pic that provides one hour's decent, eye-filling ride, then crashes and burns amid some of the worst writing since ... well, since scenarist/co-producer Akiva Goldsman's last effort, "Batman & Robin."
  21. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
    In its animated work, DreamWorks has repeatedly flip-flopped between the hip and the square. This time out, it's as if the company tried to apply a hip approach to a square subject, with unresolved results.
  22. S21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine
    There's no shortage of existing docus on the subject, and Panh's doesn't bring either a fresh enough angle or enough new material to the table to justify its length.
  23. Hey Arnold! The Movie
    Has surprising hipness and good humor to spare, all put across with a funky, low-tech vibe.
  24. With All Deliberate Speed
    In choosing to cover the smaller picture of what has been little publicized, alongside the larger picture of what is generally known, pic loses momentum but gains depth.
  25. No Turning Back
    Competently made but unconvincing melodrama.
  26. Hollywood Homicide
    An attempt to merge a semi-jokey buddy movie with a more realistic account of cops' messy private lives, Hollywood Homicide falls short on both counts.
  27. The Jungle Book 2
    The feel of a direct-to-video title that's been upgraded to theatrical status in the hopes of wringing a few extra bucks out of it and improving its not-too-distant homevid marketability.
  28. Sorority Boys
    A cut above most youth-skewed sex comedies of late, with bouncy execution and an unsophisticated but positive gender-sensitivity message elevating a so-so script.
  29. The Grey Zone
    Staccato, Mamet-style dialogue exchanges, breathless pacing and remarkably healthy, well-fed-looking actors create a cumulative sense of artificiality that seriously undercuts the devastating effect clearly being sought.
  30. Great Expectations
    Beautifully made production lacks the emotional depth and dramatic tension needed to command audience attention beyond the level of a talented curiosity.
  31. K-PAX
    Frustratingly fritters away what fascination it develops and bows to the basic conventions of a standard detective story mixed with the theme of a physician healing himself.
  32. Very Annie Mary
    A half-klutzy, half-engaging eccentric comedy.
  33. Senseless
    Created as a comic vehicle for the lead actor, pic depends entirely too much on Wayans to carry the day, but at this point he is far more eager and willing than he is funny.
  34. Titus
    Taymor makes the action clear and easy to follow with her bold physicalization of the story and forceful direction of an astutely chosen cast.
  35. What a Girl Wants
    It feels much more like a shameless reshuffle of "The Princess Diaries."
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Walk on the Moon
    Despite strategic references to Joan Baez and pot, pic's sense of time and place feels synthetic.
  37. S.W.A.T.
    Coming in the wake of the physically astonishing "Bad Boys 2," S.W.A.T. seems square.
  38. The Piano Teacher
    Whatever valid points are being explored are hopelessly clouded by the film's unwavering earnestness as it descends into silliness and excess.
  39. For Love of the Game
    Costner is as uneven as the storytelling itself, stone cold at moments, shimmeringly real in others.
  40. Life as a House
    A family melodrama that becomes less authentic as it progressively takes itself more seriously.
  41. The Intended
    Another ferocious perf by Janet McTeer and an atmospheric Malaysian jungle location are nearly lost in the DV muddiness of period drama The Intended.
  42. The X Files
    Falls somewhere in between standing on its own feet as a real movie worth the price of a ticket and merely being a glorified TV episode refitted for theaters.
  43. The Statement
    Lackluster pic fails both as suspense and as character study.
  44. Double Parked
    The picture is stronger the closer it sticks to the streets and raw emotions and the more it avoids routine dramatic crutches and forced comedy.
  45. Carlos Castaneda: Enigma of a Sorcerer
    Though interviews here are primarily with former camp followers and pic was made by one, overall perspective is just critical enough to satisfy both New Age types and curious skeptics.
  46. Ash Wednesday
    Burns' films are invariably better directed and scripted than they are performed, and Ash Wednesday is no exception. Pic's biggest drawback is that the helmer has again cast himself in the leading role.
  47. The Bone Collector
    Entertaining but never fully engrossing.
  48. Shade
    In the end, under-realized direction and characters deliver less than a full deck.
  49. Scream
    Though the material is more intelligent than the norm and has an unusual third-act twist, it also employs some very clunky stereotypes.
  50. Dark City
    What they have done is taken a few second-hand ideas from noir and speculative fiction and mixed them in occasionally striking ways, even if, in the end, the result isn't all that much fun.
  51. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
    Desperately uncertain in tone and able to generate only sporadic laughs, pic decks out its meager story of revenge and comeuppance with a vulgar, flashy shimmer that will no doubt attract teenage girls, or the core "Clueless" audience.
  52. Word Wars
    There's a pronounced lack of emotional pay-off that likely will derail any attempts to position Word Wars as an aud-friendly crowd-pleaser with breakout potential comparable to "Spellbound."
  53. Make a Wish
    Enough to keep pic entertaining, though not enough to ultimately make it more than a routine genre effort.
  54. Left Behind
    Might be extremely effective while preaching to the converted, but it's no great shakes as secular entertainment.
  55. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
    Script just doesn’t have it in terms of fresh narrative developments or individual gags.
  56. A Rumor of Angels
    Despite good acting from the entire cast, yarn is a bit dull and predictable, straining too hard to convey its spiritual message.
  57. Cats & Dogs
    This comically intended battle of the species is family entertainment for families that will buy anything.
  58. Johnson Family Vacation
    Mostly squanders some very gifted performers. Guided by a slapdash script, this vehicle for Cedric the Entertainer is tantamount to embarking on a cross-country journey without a map, making the ride predictably uneven.
  59. Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back!
    Girls -- a big part of the Pokemon crowd and what makes it such a humongous commercial success -- will feel left out in the cold.
  60. Angel Eyes
    Darts back and forth from being a psychological thriller to a vaguely metaphysical drama to a fate-driven romance -- it all becomes a blur.
  61. Cold Creek Manor
    A woefully predictable imperiled-yuppie-family-under-siege suspenser that hardly seems worth the attention of its relatively high-profile participants.
  62. Hotel
    Though Hotel has brilliant moments, and an energetic first half, it falls away badly in the later stages.
  63. Wasabi
    An acceptably entertaining but borderline bland vehicle for Jean Reno.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Kate & Leopold
    A time-travel romantic comedy whose best elements -- Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman -- overcome distracting plot holes, loose threads and assorted contrivances to make for a mostly charming and diverting tale.
  65. Hollywood Ending
    For those always on the lookout for the "funny" Allen, this one definitely has its moments, but too much of the picture is flat, dispiriting and frankly unbelievable in fundamental ways that defy the granting of poetic license.
  66. Left Luggage
    A well intentioned but uneven and overly sentimental film.
  67. Virgil Bliss
    Two superb, nervy and delicately nuanced performances by newcomers Clint Jordan and Kirsten Russell enliven and momentarily elevate writer-director Joe Maggio's Virgil Bliss above the familiar post-prison-drama cliches to which it so strenuously adheres.
  68. Bamboozled
    Occasionally biting but excessively melodramatic.
  69. Katakuri-ke no kôfuku
    An unexpected departure off the map, flinging together elements of Alpine musical, ghoulish Jan Svankmajer-style claymation and a family portrait so hokey it makes the Brady Bunch look hip.
  70. Ichi the Killer
    Completely over-the-top yakuza actioner -- featuring nonstop mayhem, gore, torture and S&M -- duly reflects its comic book origins in both style and barely coherent narrative frenzy.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ghost
    An odd creation - at times nearly smothering in arty somberness, at others veering into good, wacky fun.
  72. Looney Tunes: Back in Action
    A not-inventive-enough romp that belches out gags at a rapid-fire clip but connects so sporadically as to leave the audience enervated but only sparingly entertained.
  73. Showboy
    It's a rich idea for a comedy, even if the filmmakers seem timid about making the pic the full-on satire it might have been.
  74. Daughters of the Sun
    A plea for attention to despicable conditions of female servitude in contempo Iran.
  75. En la ciudad sin límites
    The pluses outweigh the minuses: Pic is thought-provoking, visuals are spot-on, and the heavy-duty cast pulls the film round even in its wobblier moments.
  76. Barbershop 2: Back in Business
    A less raucous and more serious-minded neighborhood comedy than its entertaining predecessor.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Other Sister
    A sweet, at times cloying confection enlivened by strong performances in the central roles.
  78. Meet Joe Black
    What might have been an effective fantasy if handled with sophistication and insouciance is instead weighed down by ponderous pacing, overstuffed production values and an instance of miscasting.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Waterboy
    This yahoos-on-the-bayou farce is neither inventive nor outrageous enough.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Predator
    A slightly above-average actioner that tries to compensate for tissue-thin-plot with ever-more-grisly death sequences and impressive special effects.
  81. Bus 174
    A tense documentary with multiple layers of meaning.
  82. Anatomy
    A fantastical romp with a buoyant pace, exotic locations, a finger-popping score, appealing leads and spicy cooking demonstrations.
  83. This Old Cub
    More a slavish tribute than objective portrait. As a result, competent but innocuous Feature begins to overstay welcome at the 60-minute mark.
  84. Anatomy 2
    A no-holds-barred, thoroughly generic follow-up to the medical horror-chiller that wowed German wickets in 2000.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Princess Bride
    It also doesn't help that Cary Elwes and Robin Wright as the loving couple are nearly comatose and inspire little passion from each other, or the audience.
  86. Nicotina
    Yields up plenty of opportunities for heated confrontations, wild and woolly dialogue and startling violence, which prove diverting in a shallow way.
  87. Owning Mahowny
    Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Hurt give compelling performances... But the coldly unrewarding drama is as distant and joyless as its protagonist, representing a disappointment for director Richard Kwietniowski.
  88. Anaconda
    A silly and plodding "Jaws" rip-off about a 40-foot man-eating snake on the prowl in the Brazilian rain forest.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Freddy vs. Jason
    The basic formula of iconic supernatural beings slaughtering plucky teenagers continues with even more graphic violence.
  90. Final Destination
    Generates a respectable amount of suspense and takes a few unexpected turns while covering familiar territory.
  91. Solaris
    Despite its undeniably pure and earnest intent, Solaris is equally undeniably an arid, dull affair that imposes and maintains a huge distance between the viewer and what happens onscreen.
  92. Death to Smoochy
    Pushes its dark, smart, clever, cynical, satirical, nasty, provocative and sarcastic instincts to the point of heavily diminished returns -- to the point where the very amusing premise just isn't funny anymore.
  93. Laws of Attraction
    While slight comic concoction is so airy it seems in danger of floating right off the screen, the pleasant retro vibe and a handful of effervescent moments carry this film no self-respecting heterosexual male would dare see except on a date.
  94. The Princess Diaries
    Exudes a pre-fab quality.
  95. Virgin
    The film is never quite as startling or mysterious as it seems to want to be, leaving it in an uncertain cinematic limbo.
  96. The Debut
    A pleasant and polished first feature for director Gene Cajayon.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Urban Legend
    Before long, however, the suspense becomes repetitious and predictable. In its denouement, the film breaks faith with its audience, violating credibility in an attempt to deliver a surprise villain.
  98. Brothers in Arms
    Respectfully modest effort.
  99. Snake Eyes
    Cage supplies beaucoup energy, but his highly compromised hustler cop character provides little else in which he can invest his talent. Sinise wears an increasingly grim demeanor in a part that comes to make no sense, and John Heard's role as a local power broker gets lost in the shuffle.
  100. Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi
    Sweet if slight Israeli comedy.
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