Variety's Scores

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For 17,760 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 2.3 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: 9,121 out of 17760
  2. Mixed: 7,003 out of 17760
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17760
17760 movie reviews
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  1. Postmen in the Mountains
    Too slim to make much impression outside fests, this nevertheless reps another solid outing by former art director Huo Jianqi.
  2. The Machinist
    An intense, precision-controlled psychological mystery built around a very creepy lead performance by Christian Bale.
  3. The Grudge
    Viewers of this Sam Raimi-produced, sub-"Amityville" scarefest are likely to hold the real grudge.
  4. Surviving Christmas
    An almost mirth-free, poorly conceived comedy destined to offer Ben Affleck bashers satchels full of new ammunition.
  5. Celsius 41.11: The Temperature at Which the Brain... Begins to Die
    Preaches purely to the converted.
  6. Sex Is Comedy
    A not terribly creative movie about the creative process.
  7. The Dust Factory
    A muddled metaphysical allegory that isn't nearly sunny enough to camouflage its darker undercurrents.
  8. P.S.
    Laura Linney’s beautiful performance is most of the story in p.s.
  9. Riding the Bullet
    A ponderous, incoherent horror mishmash that turns King's short story into utter nonsense.
  10. The Final Cut
    Striking visuals help, but pic won't make the final cut with either genre fans, who've seen it all and better before, or the arthouse crowd, who will sneer at pic's cliches.
  11. Moolaadé
    This richly textured parable feels every inch the work of a master.
  12. Eulogy
    Nine very good actors are wasted, if not embarrassed, by the thoroughly unconvincing shenanigans perpetrated by first-time writer-director Michael Clancy, while a tenth -- Zooey Deschanel -- somehow manages to float ethereally above it all with her dignity intact.
  13. Being Julia
    A minor affair, a confection based on dalliances and the way a set of sophisticated theater people handle them, that lacks true distinction.
  14. Hair Show
    An anemic sitcom pilot dragged out to an excruciating 108-minute running time.
  15. Saints and Soldiers
    Well mounted, frequently gripping.
  16. Shall We Dance
    An unabashedly old-fashioned entertainment loaded with traditional dancing and music.
  17. Team America: World Police
    Goes the extra mile to piss off everybody -- which includes gleefully destroying renowned Hollywood liberals, literally and figuratively.
  18. In the Face of Evil: Reagan's War in Word and Deed
    Archival material -- especially rare B&W Soviet footage -- is a knockout, though the assembly of talking heads, nearly all Reagan loyalists, is predictable and uninspired.
  19. The Scandal
    A 10-course treat for the eyes and ears.
  20. Vera Drake
    Mike Leigh is at the peak of his powers with Vera Drake, a compassionate, morally complex drama that stands easily alongside his best work, "Secrets & Lies" and "Topsy-Turvy."
  21. Around the Bend
    Self-consciously mannered yet fitfully interesting, Around the Bend gets the most mileage it can from the eccentric, low-key charisma of Christopher Walken.
  22. Vodka Lemon
    A little gem that takes a potentially grim subject and mines it for maximum humor and insight.
  23. Yes Nurse! No Nurse!
    Pic maintains a likable, breezy tone throughout but looks increasingly threadbare of real inspiration or originality as it proceeds.
  24. Go Further
    Unquestioning agitprop for vegetarianism, hemp fiber, solar energy, sustainable organic living and other causes espoused by actor-activist Woody Harrelson.
  25. The Hillside Strangler
    Plays as a blackly comic slice of mock '70s-style exploitation that flirts with the viewer before applying its chokehold.
  26. Silent Water
    Worthy intentions are drowned by schematic scripting and only OK direction in Silent Waters, an achingly PC drama on how Islamic fundamentalism wrecks families and oppresses women.
  27. Stage Beauty
    This skillfully acted, handsomely crafted frock piece toys cleverly with gender confusion and sexual identity.
  28. Friday Night Lights
    Friday Night Lights is the "Black Hawk Down" of high school football movies. As exclusively as Ridley Scott's picture was about combat, this film concerns football and nothing but.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Raise Your Voice
    Duff makes an engaging heroine, but her immaculately coifed blonde locks and undiminished lip gloss remind viewers just how much of a star vehicle this actually is.
  30. The Child I Never Was
    Though Pieck is to be admired for the rigorousness in telling this chilling story (on what looks like a near zero budget), the film itself remains resolutely unlikable.
  31. Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate
    Unmistakably sympathetic but mostly even-handed documentary.
  32. Arna's Children
    Must-see docu penetrates a Jenin refugee camp to follow several Palestinian children from laughing little kids in a theater group to grim actors on a grislier world stage.
  33. The Card Player
    Argento fans lusting for a classy slasher movie of the "Suspiria"/"Opera" variety are headed for a disappointing rendezvous with an old-fashioned police thriller, upgraded by serious actors in the main roles.
  34. Tarnation
    Getting so close to real-life mental illness, via footage that spans many years, renders Tarnation a uniquely potent experience.
  35. Taxi
    Commits any number of comedic violations during an aimless pursuit of laughs.
  36. Tying the Knot
    A lively, cogent documentary, Tying the Knot fortuitously examines same-sex marriage at precisely the moment the issue is making headlines all over.
  37. Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry
    Butler is in no way a hot-headed or contentious piece of agit-prop, unlike so many other election year documentaries; like Kerry himself, the film speaks to the mind, not the emotions.
  38. Woman Thou Art Loosed
    Notable for Kimberly Elise's ferocious lead performance and for the bigscreen exposure pic affords the charismatic Bishop T.D. Jakes, who plays himself and upon whose works the film is based.
  39. Dig!
    The terrific DIG! offers a unique chance to watch two classic rock band scenarios unfold simultaneously.
  40. Shark Tale
    With the combination of mobster characters and heavily R&B, hip-hop and disco/soul tune orientation of the soundtrack, pic has a more streetwise feel than most animated fare, which is not to say that it has street smarts.
  41. I Heart Huckabees
    Clever but distancing, this existential comedy bounces along on the backs of its tasty cast, witty writing and stylistic verve.
  42. Ladder 49
    It plays, rather, like an old-fashioned, by-the-numbers drama that solidly connects with most of its well-worn cliches.
  43. The Cloud of Unknowing
    In service of an eerie Japanese ghost story, the spooky atmospherics prove surprisingly compelling.
  44. The Yes Men
    Sometimes feels like an extended pilot for a smarty-pants broadcast series in the tradition of Michael Moore's "Awful Truth" and "TV Nation" skeins.
  45. Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed
    Solid, straightforward docu should prove a durable broadcast and educational item for years to come.
  46. Blissfully Yours
    A rare example of indie filmmaking produced outside the Thai studio system, Blissfully Yours takes the good-humored nonsense of director Apichatpong Weeasethakul's first feature, "Mysterious Object at Noon," several steps further into the realm of non-communicative minimalism.
  47. The Raspberry Reich
    This ostensible spoof of "radical chic" is, like his previous works, at once amusingly outrageous and slightly dull.
  48. First Daughter
    There are stiff politicians and there are stiff political movies, but the rigidity of the White House-based fairy tale that is First Daughter is in a category even pollsters may have a hard time assessing.
  49. A Dirty Shame
    Frequently hilarious but ultimately is a protracted one-joke affair that strays into undisciplined chaos.
  50. Rick
    A noxious little tale of Wall Street types whose amorality knows no limit, Rick takes smarmy knowingness to ludicrous extremes.
  51. Mind the Gap
    Warm-hearted but clear-eyed indie effort richly repays audience patience during deliberately paced and provocatively allusive early scenes with a cumulative emotional impact that is immensely satisfying.
  52. The Last Shot
    Contains most of the elements of a "Get Shorty"-type romp without the character depth and wit.
  53. The Forgotten
    A spare, streamlined thriller for the conspiracy-minded, Area 51 crowd, The Forgotten perhaps wisely leaves more questions than it answers and for the most part manages to maintain its suspense.
  54. Infernal Affairs
    Pic is superbly honed at both script and performance levels, with character taking precedence over action.
  55. Shaun of the Dead
    A classic example of a clever idea that could easily have run out of steam halfway. However, co-scripters Pegg and Wright structure it as a classic three-acter (set-up, journey, finale) with enough twists, character development and small set pieces to keep the comedy boiling.
  56. Anatomy of Hell
    Compact, ultra-explicit two-character pic about what transpires when a beautiful straight woman hires a handsome gay man to "look" at her is gloriously mannered, proudly pretentious and undeniably compelling.
  57. The Motorcycle Diaries
    This intelligently made picture is artful but not arty, political without being didactic.
  58. September Tapes
    Gritty, engaging.
  59. Hollywood Buddha
    A refreshingly unpretentious cocktail of karmic serendipity and a tongue-in-cheek look at Hollywood values vs. ecumenical verities.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Take
    Makes its points effectively, but could have benefited from a burst of creativity.
  61. Story of the Eye
    Evaluating this project in conventional feature terms is a lost cause; relevant contexts are purely avant-garde and pornographic. Suffice it to say that helmer's careful attention to framing camera, music and content signal primary allegiance to Art rather than Smut.
  62. Cowboys & Angels
    Pic drifts onto a familiar obstacle course for its wide-eyed hero, but displays a spirited, open-hearted goodness along the way. Combination of warmth, humor, danger and a cosmopolitan take on young, urban Eire sets pic distinctly apart.
  63. Merci Docteur Rey
    A disastrous stab at contemporary farce.
  64. Goodbye, Dragon Inn
    This feels like short film material stretched exasperatingly thin but nonetheless casts a certain sad spell, graced by moments of droll observational humor.
  65. Particles of Truth
    A believable romantic comedy.
  66. Head in the Clouds
    A lively, plush but unconvincing potboiler cobbled from familiar pieces of better films (and TV miniseries).
  67. Zelary
    Managing to be at once epic and intimate, Zelary matches a resilient urban woman against a compassionate rural man in the spectacular Moravian countryside during World War II. Results rep a triumph of regional filmmaking, but in the David Lean tradition.
  68. Mr 3000
    Never generates enough laughs to escape the infield. It doesn't help that this is a sports movie that lacks any suspense or dramatic tension about what transpires on the field, and Mac plays such a self-absorbed jerk through most of the film that rooting interest is minimal.
  69. Incident at Loch Ness
    Constructed Chinese-box style as a series of films within films, with a faked one about the Loch Ness monster at the center, "Incident" will have maximum impact for the first auds to catch it before its sly central joke gets out.
  70. National Lampoon's Gold Diggers
    By turns pointless and pointlessly mean-spirited.
  71. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
    Arresting at first but gradually trails off under the weight of its hyper-derivativeness and anxiety to please.
  72. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
    Talky, repetitive and largely covering the same ground with no new thoughts, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is a major let-down.
  73. Wimbledon
    A fanciful tennis-themed romance that compounds the old dilemma of "Will he get the girl?" with "Will he get the trophy?" But the answers are too predictable and laughs too scattered for this middling Universal release to generate much in the way of humor or suspense.
  74. Silver City
    As both political satire and noirish murder mystery, this Newmarket pickup may be too meandering and unemphatic for wide consumption.
  75. Reconstruction
    Valiant attempt to innovate in the well-trod realm of Boy Meets Girl doesn't quite coalesce despite a thoughtful and distinctive visual approach.
  76. Criminal
    More a tribute than a remake, Steven Soderbergh-approved take on Argentine hit "Nine Queens" isn't quite as sharp or surprising as the original, one of the best scam pics of the past decade.
  77. Testosterone
    This obsessive love story about a guy seeking closure after being dumped by his Latino boyfriend awkwardly juggles screwball and noir elements with macabre black comedy in a mix that calls for a far lighter, more stylish touch than the obvious one at work here.
  78. Cellular
    Because plot is the sum total here, the alarming holes, inconsistencies and impossibilities in Chris Morgan's script corrode this drama of distress.
  79. When Will I Be Loved
    Campbell's performance is attuned to the extremes of unnerving calm and intensely erotic; unlike the pic, she pulls it off.
  80. Resident Evil: Apocalypse
    Calamitously uninspired and borderline incoherent, new pic lacks even those fleeting pleasures (namely, a sense of humor) that made the first film a passable popcorn attraction.
  81. Evergreen
    Land gives the drama some poignancy, revealing the pain, anger, envy and longing of a girl burdened by life's imbalances. But her character exists in a vacuum, surrounded by stock figures and unconvincing actors.
  82. Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire
    Goes beyond simple Bush-bashing to paint a horrifying portrait of organized U.S. imperialist expansion and public deception stretching back to the early Reagan era.
  83. A Letter to True
    Gorgeously lensed, photographer-turned-helmer Bruce Weber's heartfelt docu tribute to his dogs, his friends and his friends'dogs.
  84. Virgin
    The film is never quite as startling or mysterious as it seems to want to be, leaving it in an uncertain cinematic limbo.
  85. Remember Me, My Love
    While Muccino has refined his technique over four features and has developed greater insight, his characteristic tendency toward hysteria remains. This keeps the drama fast and compelling, but also makes it slightly wearing at times.
  86. The Cookout
    Loosely plotted and wildly uneven farce.
  87. Big Girls Don't Cry
    A moderately successful attempt to ape the standard Hollywood teen movie.
  88. Warriors of Heaven and Earth
    A handsome although dramatically muddled Noodle Western.
  89. Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War
    Kang remains a superb technician, but somewhere the movie forgot to pack any genuine emotion along with its ordnance and K rations.
  90. Wicker Park
    All of this was more enjoyable when Bellucci, Cassel and Bohringer were the stars. Hartnett is overly methodical here as Matthew, and Kruger, as in "Troy," is beautiful but lacking in dramatic intensity.
  91. Paparazzi
    Visually uninspired and dramatically overheated, Paparazzi has overall look and feel of generic direct-to-video production.
  92. Persons of Interest
    Seldom boring but also rarely electrifying.
  93. Vanity Fair
    Nair's approach never entirely convinces, and the adaptation of the 900-plus-page book becomes increasingly episodic, making this Vanity Fair more a collection of intermittent pleasures than a satisfying emotional repast.
  94. Brothers in Arms
    Respectfully modest effort.
  95. Suspect Zero
    A plodding and familiar "cop sees what the killer sees" riff that plays like a poorly inflated "The X-Files" episode.
  96. The Brown Bunny
    An astonishing improvement on the original version. With 27 minutes excised, pic emerges from its mind-numbing undergrowth as a memorable -- if still highly specialized -- exercise in personal, '70s-style American filmmaking, with a cohesive feel and rhythm that marks Gallo as a distinctive indie talent.
  97. Bush's Brain
    By turns darkly comical, seriously scary and purposefully incendiary, Bush's Brain may seem, depending on your politics, either a shamelessly one-sided assault on a popular U.S. president or a justifiably harsh critique of a politician who personifies the Peter Principle.
  98. Hero
    A dazzlingly lensed, highly stylized meditation on heroism.
  99. Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
    Sublimely trashy, this conceptual sequel to 1997's surprise hit, "Anaconda," doesn't expect to be taken any more seriously than its schlock predecessor, and keeps its tongue-in-cheek thrills flowing rapidly.
  100. Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
    Falls short on nearly every level, from production values to an inexplicable cameo by Whoopi Goldberg.
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