Variety's Scores

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For 17,847 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: 9,172 out of 17847
  2. Mixed: 7,036 out of 17847
  3. Negative: 1,639 out of 17847
17847 movie reviews
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  1. School of Rock
    Combined with hilarious physical business and perfectly overearnest delivery of pseudocool lines like, "Let your fingers do the rocking!," he (Black) pretty much single-handedly keeps the formulaic progress funny.
  2. Southlander: Diary of a Desperate Musician
    A slackly paced but modestly diverting trifle, with cameos by recording artists Beck, Beth Orton and Hank Williams III to elevate the hipper-than-thou quotient.
  3. Camera Obscura
    Unable to blend artfilm with psychological thriller, writer-director Hamlet Sarkissian makes something opaque indeed out of Camera Obscura.
  4. Bollywood/Hollywood
    Depressingly parochial.
  5. My Life Without Me
    With a glowing performance by Sarah Polley as the doomed woman, this Spanish-Canadian co-prod, filmed in English, is surprisingly adept at avoiding the worst cliches and most manipulative elements inherent in such a story.
  6. Prey for Rock & Roll
    Emerges as an engaging, upbeat saga of an all-girl band on its way to nowhere in particular. Helmed by ace music supervisor Alex Steyermark and written by punk rocker Cheri Lovedog, pic feels authentic from first frame to last.
  7. Duplex
    Somewhere along the line, the comedy turned from dark and playful to mean-spirited and sophomoric. A waste of the considerable appeal and comic talents of leads Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Rundown
    Cements the Rock's status as a contempo action hero with a bigscreen future.
  9. Under the Tuscan Sun
    Lane transforms this seriocomic saga of a devastated American divorcee who impulsively purchases a Tuscan villa, thereby changing her life, into a spellbinding display of emotional transparency.
  10. Bubba Ho-tep
    Mismatched marriage of offbeat character study and unimaginative horror riffs. Most compelling element by far is Bruce Campbell's inspired performance as a nursing home patient who insists he is the real Elvis Presley.
  11. Luther
    Proceeds like a stultifying history pageant rather than a movie with a pulse of its own.
  12. Yossi & Jagger
    It's a very small pic but engagingly played by a fine cast.
  13. Demonlover
    Sure to turn off general viewers due to its emotional inaccessibility, multitude of narrative problems and preoccupation with a torture Web site.
  14. Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion
    The film is, at times, emotionally riveting -- yet also has an institutional feeling, largely because it attempts to cover too much ground in too little time.
  15. Cold Creek Manor
    A woefully predictable imperiled-yuppie-family-under-siege suspenser that hardly seems worth the attention of its relatively high-profile participants.
  16. Mambo italiano
    The broad comedy is somewhat strained and obvious, and the hyper-real atmosphere encourages the cast to slice the prosciutto a little thickly. But the film's sweet-natured ingenuousness proves reasonably contagious.
  17. In This World
    Makes engrossing viewing for much of the way...but stumbles dramatically in its final leg.
  18. Anything Else
    The younger casting brings a freshness to the material and, with Allen as the weird mentor, there are plenty of laughs, even if the pacing's slow and the running time over-extended.
  19. Blue Hill Avenue
    Writer-director Craig Ross Jr. offers both rigorously effective dramatic sections and terribly pedantic and melodramatic strokes of overkill.
  20. Casa de los babys
    An entirely schematic treatise on maternity and conflicting cultures. A subject perhaps far more suited to documentary treatment, this numbingly earnest effort will be a laborious delivery for IFC.
  21. To Be and to Have
    Any negative stereotypes viewers might harbor about education in rural communities are sent packing by this magnificently lensed and cumulatively touching account from documaker Nicolas Philibert.
  22. Secondhand Lions
    May score higher with parents than the kids they bring in tow. Writer-director Tim McCanlies' ("Dancer, Texas Pop. 81") feel-good celebration of youth and old age enriching each other is carefully leavened with humor.
  23. The Fighting Temptations
    Paper-thin plot serves as a pretext for rousing gospel numbers in The Fighting Temptations, which straddles styles and eras to get everybody's toes tapping.
  24. Underworld
    Takes itself so seriously that it never has fun with its shopworn genre elements.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Year That Trembled
    Fails to generate much excitement, due to the blandness of the characters and some murky storytelling.
  26. Millennium Actress
    Contains some brilliant invention between duller stretches.
  27. Dummy
    At this stage, Pritikin shows considerably more aptitude for writing than for directing, and the exuberant eruptions of humor lead one to suspect he should try for outright comedy next time and forget the sentiment.
  28. Luster
    An ensemble seriocomedy that's initially loose to a fault, but gradually wins one over with its shaggy charm -- and by the close has grown more ambitious, and poignant, than initial reels lead you to expect.
  29. So Close
    Slickly packaged, unashamedly exploitative popcorn movie.
  30. Matchstick Men
    Odd mixture of ultra-sleek visuals, psychological probing, "Paper Moon"-like father-daughter swindling, self-improvement efforts and abrupt tough-guy stuff keeps the picture percolating, even if it seems too artificial to genuinely convince on an emotional or dramatic level.
  31. Cabin Fever
    Uncertain whether to go for straight suspense or gross-out effects, genre in-joking or schlock cinema-of-parodic-excess, Eli Roth's backwoods horror opus Cabin Fever seldom sticks with any one tactic.
  32. Lost in Translation
    The film's unhurried pace will target it for discerning audiences only, but its wry humor and coolly amused observation of contemporary Japan should score with smart urbanites.
  33. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
    Evokes the mythic feel of Sergio Leone Westerns. Despite a convoluted plot that begs for cleaner lines, the wild shoot-outs, cartoonish violence and charismatic cast should lure action fans to theaters.
  34. Warrior of Light
    Universally embraceable subject matter, coupled with helmer's sterling rep as benevolent booster of humanistic pioneers.
  35. The Same River Twice
    Has the built-in curiosity value of watching real people evolve on camera -- a fascination increased by subjects' original, variably sustained commitment to countercultural ideals.
  36. Where's the Party Yaar?
    The most affable and endearing of the recent wave of films about Indian immigrants assimilating in the West.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Grisbi (re-release)
    Jeanne Moreau turns in a neat bit as a moll and Dary as the inarticulate aging Romeo friend is memorable.
  38. Carnage
    Audience patience undergoes a far more brutal butchering than anything onscreen in Delphine Gleize's wildly over-reaching feature debut, Carnage.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Order
    Commits the first cardinal sin of cinematic horror -- it's boring and doesn't have a single scary moment.
  40. Home Room
    Writer-editor-director Paul F. Ryan makes the mistake of focusing on an ungainly and, finally, unplayable verbal match between two high schoolers.
  41. Party Monster
    A colorful, lurid and ultimately so-what look at obnoxious personalities careening down their own road to ruin.
  42. Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star
    Offers a largely satisfying mix of broad slapstick, seriocomic sentimentality and mostly amusing satirical thrusts at easy targets.
  43. Taking Sides
    Its soul rests in Skarsgard's performance, a powerful mixture of buttoned-down anger and personal disappointment that combines the filmmaker's self-questioning with the real-life character's conflict.
  44. The Backyard
    This underground scene makes other "extreme sports" look as harmless as tiddlywinks.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (re-release)
    Good action caper.
  46. Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
    Marvelously involving family saga.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Civil Brand
    Film explores the abuses rampant in woman's prisons and the powerlessness of the inmates, while telling the uplifting story of one inmate, Frances (LisaRae).
  48. The Other Side of the Bed
    A nicely contempo mood, engaging characters energized by solid perfs from a good-looking, high-profile young cast, and genuinely witty scripting are let down only by over-length and some generally turgid tunes.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jeepers Creepers II
    Substantially better than its predecessor, even while staying strictly within the genre's well-defined boundaries.
  50. Suddenly
    A delightfully unpredictable sleeper that proves new Argentine cinema really exists, Suddenly, by 26-year-old Diego Lerman, starts scary, moves through deadpan comic and comes out with a whimsical tenderness for its characters.
  51. My Boss's Daughter
    Director David Zucker, a master of whacked-out visual comedy during his “Airplane!” era, drops the ball here.
  52. Dust
    It's too arty to cut it as a violent action pic and too gore-spattered to appeal to the arthouse crowd.
  53. The Medallion
    At times plays as if it were aimed at children, but more often simply seems to be aiming blind at whatever genre cliche the five credited writers fix upon in any given scene.
  54. Babí léto
    The trio is so individually and collectively charismatic that the film eventually neglects fully fleshed-out narrative in favor of sublime characterization.
  55. Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator
    It's a pungent study of fads, trends and the way everything once genuine ends up being homogenized and exploited beyond recognition by corporate America -- a fine companion piece to Stacy Peralta's "Dogtown and Z-Boys," but with a more raw, punkish aesthetic.
  56. Rana's Wedding
    Though shot from the Palestinian P.O.V., the Dutch/Palestinian Film Foundation co-production is remarkably balanced, offering a convinced message of hope for the future.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Adventures of Robin Hood (re-release)
    Film is done in the grand manner of silent-day spectacles with sweep and breadth of action, swordplay and hand-to-hand battles between Norman and Saxon barons.
  58. Venus Boyz
    An utterly fascinating, beautifully crafted exploration of the world of drag kings -- women who dress, perform and/or live as men.
  59. The Battle of Shaker Heights
    Although Erica Beeney's script beat out more than 7,000 entries, the screen version dulls her potentially distinctive voice with deadly doses of sentimentality.
  60. Marci X
    Plays like an overextended variety-show sketch.
  61. Dog Days
    An acid portrait of contemporary Austria (and by extension, the whole middle class) as unspeakably dull, violent and stupid. The film itself, miraculously, is just the opposite: vibrantly inventive, aesthetically rigorous, sardonic and occasionally quite brilliant.
  62. Thirteen
    Deliberately unvarnished shock piece designed to give pause to anyone with a daughter approaching teenhood.
  63. Catching Out
    Rambles into unexpected places, some more interesting than others, but it stays on track long enough to take auds somewhere special.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Uptown Girls
    Light, occasionally charming and reasonably well-crafted.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Passionada
    A lovely, albeit imperfect fable marked by strong performances and infused with glorious bursts of soulful fado folk music.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Johnny Guitar (re-release)
    Love, hate and violence, with little sympathy for the characters, is stirred up during the overlong film.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Freddy vs. Jason
    The basic formula of iconic supernatural beings slaughtering plucky teenagers continues with even more graphic violence.
  68. American Splendor
    Sad, tender, wise and beautiful film... It's a profound tribute to lives lived on the fringes of society -- to the introspective loners who are the most observant chroniclers of our times.
  69. Open Range
    An intensely scenic, refreshingly humanistic oater that dares to be sincere and open-hearted.
  70. Grind
    A textbook example of the charm-free ephemera dumped by studios during the waning days of summer.
  71. OT: Our Town
    The evolving drama of the amateur, crisis-strewn production creates its own tensions, internal structure and time frame. Pic constantly surprises.
  72. 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.
  73. The Princess Blade
    A martial arts fantasy in modern dress, but set in an unidentified country and era, The Princess Blade is a tough toasted sandwich with a soft filling.
  74. Step Into Liquid
    An awe-inspiring survey of global surf culture, with the power to crush the post-"Gidget" decades of Hollywood stereotyping of surfers and surfing.
  75. S.W.A.T.
    Coming in the wake of the physically astonishing "Bad Boys 2," S.W.A.T. seems square.
  76. Seaside
    The whole endeavor pleases with its wealth of tiny observations that add up to an affecting whole.
  77. Freaky Friday
    Genuinely clever switched-identities romp.
  78. Zero Day
    Consistently riveting. Anything but sensationalistic, pic powerfully illuminates the banality of evil, as realistically ordinary kids (played brilliantly by non-professional high schoolers) prepare to wreak havoc.
  79. And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen...
    A good-looking but slim confection that's short on the multi-characterisation and sense of entwined destinies that mark the great Lelouch sagas.
  80. The Secret Lives of Dentists
    Director Alan Rudolph achieves fresh as well as humorous insights into family life and strategies for keeping a damaged relationship from expiring. But a tiresome final act proves trying.
  81. Enemies of Laughter
    Indie comedy about an unsuccessful playwright who very nearly talks himself out of his last best chance for happiness recalls the early work of Woody Allen. But pic stands on its own merits as witty and well-observed grown-up fare.
  82. The Magdalene Sisters
    Mullan's increased maturity as a director is evident in his skill at manipulating light and dark dramatic tones, and shifting between moods of anger and plaintive melancholy.
  83. American Wedding
    The funny stuff continues for a quite satisfying conclusion during the wedding prep and ceremonies, which Stifler single-handedly transforms into his own personal gross-out comedy masterpiece.
    • 18 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Gigli
    Arrives carrying more baggage than a Greyhound bus, which may distract moviegoers from what is a silly but still an enjoyably written and performed romantic comedy.
  85. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
    Jolie is even hotter, faster and more commanding than last time around as the fearless heiress/adventuress, plus a little more human. The less welcome news is that most of the same shortcomings that cramped the first installment are still dogging the sequel, which delivers on action but dawdles through downtime.
  86. Mondays in the Sun
    A tough-but-tender movie driven by perfectly modulated performances, an accomplished script and naturalistic dialogue, all at the service of an oft-told message about overcoming circumstances.
  87. Buffalo Soldiers
    Had the young Jack Nicholson played such a character during the height of the Vietnam War, it would have been easy to go along for the ride. But skilled as Phoenix is at pulling off the individual scenes of Elwood's shenanigans, the actor doesn't come across as embodying rebellion to the marrow of his bones, which renders his scams arbitrary and disagreeably irresponsible.
  88. Hotel
    Though Hotel has brilliant moments, and an energetic first half, it falls away badly in the later stages.
  89. Seabiscuit
    Respectable when it should be thrilling, honorable when it should be rough and ready.
  90. Lucía, Lucía
    In a brilliant and precise reversal of Hollywood's current casting game of matching older male stars with younger female starlets, Roth takes hold of the mature end of a love affair with the ultra-handsome Becker and steers a course of vivid sexual and emotional power.
  91. Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
    It's hard to dislike a movie this light-hearted, but there's something terribly ephemeral about it as well; it's a film of complete weightlessness.
  92. Camp
    A big-hearted, exuberant, compassionate film with a wicked sense of humor and terrific songs performed by some preternaturally talented kids.
  93. Masked and Anonymous
    Evinces no interest in such niceties as credible dialogue, character motivation or forward momentum.
  94. Cuban Rafters
    Noteworthy for its detail and evenhandedness.
  95. Johnny English
    An extremely silly but effective enough romp for family audiences.
  96. The Embalmer
    Director Matteo Garrone's measured approach and soulfully humane focus combine to dignify the characters, allowing the tale of solitude, longing and sorrow to inch quietly under the viewer's skin.
  97. How to Deal
    A bland romance that suffers from choppy development, dramatic overload and dearth of personality.
  98. Dirty Pretty Things
    An intelligent and extremely well-made romantic drama that tells an intriguing story with economy and insight.
  99. The Anarchist Cookbook
    An ill-conceived effort that starts OK but quickly goes off the rails.
  100. Bad Boys II
    As overblown as it is overlong, Bad Boys II is an enervating case of more is less.
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