Variety's Scores

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For 17,765 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: 9,125 out of 17765
  2. Mixed: 7,004 out of 17765
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17765
17765 movie reviews
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  1. Baran
    A fine cast brings the believable, sometimes humorous characters to life and gradually draws the viewer into a well-crafted, well-paced story.
  2. Segunda piel
    Starts out slow but ends up engaging both heart and mind, despite occasional slips into straight melodrama.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Uprising
    It is a Holocaust story from a different angle, not the traditional depiction of a concentration camp or a rescue effort.
  4. Last Orders
    Delicately handled and superbly textured, this fine adaptation of Graham Swift's Booker Prize-winning novel deals with all the really big subjects: love, friendship, death, life.
  5. Eban and Charley
    Sometimes spare to a fault (especially scriptwise), low-key effort nonetheless holds attention with its naturalistic, nonsensationalized approach.
  6. The Business of Strangers
    While it could have used a punchier final act that distilled its themes more cogently and conclusively, this intelligently scripted drama about power and its many channels nonetheless delivers thanks to Stettner's stylish visual sense and, most of all, to the smart, commanding performances of leads Stockard Channing and Julia Stiles.
  7. No Man's Land
    As a tyro auteur, Tanovich has a heavy-handed way of delineating characters and situations that makes this well-meaning film awfully familiar at times.
  8. Ocean's Eleven
    An all-star remake of the all-star original, Ocean's Eleven is a lark for everybody concerned, including the audience. Breezy, nonchalant and without a thing on its mind except having a little fun.
  9. Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel
    Even in a more fluid package, this mix of camp comedy and bathos would seem artificial.
  10. B-52
    Filmmaker Hartmut Bitomsky needs nothing more than the cold facts surrounding this awesome weapon to get across a message about the importance of peace.
  11. Texas Rangers
    Has the frustrating feel of a rousing, epic oater sadly compromised.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Rain
    Richard Chamberlain is highly effective as a young lawyer caught up in a case of an aborigine murdered by some others in town.
  13. The Independent
    Would have worked better with a few more ersatz coming-attraction trailers and considerably less filler. More than likely, it would have worked best of all as an hourlong special on Comedy Central.
  14. The Affair of the Necklace
    A staggeringly misguided stab at making the past come alive by people who have absolutely no feel for period filmmaking. Banal at best and laughable at worst.
  15. Behind Enemy Lines
    An unembarrassed, high-octane demonstration of the virtues of a U.S. military with a mission, the latest war pic from 20th Century Fox -- a studio with a proud tradition in this field -- couldn't be better timed to fit the popular mood.
  16. Trouble Every Day
    Over-long, under-written and needlessly obscure instead of genuinely atmospheric.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Bangkok Dangerous
    Enjoyable in an undemanding way, and with a few interesting flourishes.
  18. In the Bedroom
    Beautifully acted by a diverse ensemble, this Good Machine production is carefully crafted and deliberately paced.
  19. Black Knight
    Arriving so soon after "A Knight's Tale" -- and the 25th-anniversary reissue of the classic "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," Black Knight is a textbook example of too much, too late.
  20. Sidewalks of New York
    Not just instantly forgettable, but beginning to fade from memory even as its images still play across the screen.
  21. The Devil's Backbone
    Though it fails in its final reels to capitalize on its early promise, picture is still stylish, accomplished and tremendously enjoyable fare.
  22. Spy Game
    Serves up a judicious blend of showy action, political intrigue, ticking-clock suspense and intramural CIA one-upsmanship for mainstream entertainment.
  23. Out Cold
    A few minutes of good snowboarding footage -- all in the first reel, alas -- after which it's strictly downhill, bunny-slope style.
  24. Così ridevano
    Problematically structured, overly protracted and lacking in narrative fluidity.
  25. Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy
    The Legend of Ron Jeremy is, at a brisk 75 minutes, long enough to get the job done.
  26. The Fluffer
    Distinguished by generally good performances and smart camerawork.
  27. Novocaine
    A Steve Martin vehicle that's not prankish or weird enough by half.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Simian Line
    Though picture is at times undermined by a lack of unifying perspective, its glimmers of greatness are a testament to the talent involved.
  29. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
    The script is faithful, the actors are just right, the sets, costumes, makeup and effects match and sometimes exceed anything one could imagine.
  30. Bombay Eunuch
    Flavorsome package vividly captures Bombay slum life, neither neglecting nor overemphasizing the bawdy, drag-queenish flamboyance hijiras bring to its mix.
  31. The Wash
    A sloppy and shoddy piece of work, filled with just about every cliche and caricature common to low-budget, low-brow comedies with predominantly African-American casts.
  32. Maze
    Morrow displays keen attention to physical detail, but starring both behind and in front of the camera looks to have been a mistake here.
  33. King of the Jungle
    Story's spurts of violence are designed to tear Seymour's world apart , but Rosenfeld's scripting and directing choices tend to lessen impact of a potentially gut-wrenching urban tale.
  34. Heist
    While staccato dialogue and edgy confrontations have always been the wordsmith's forte, the precision-tooled mechanics of an elaborate crime caper have not, and the physical direction here could use some muscle.
  35. Shallow Hal
    Could use a little extra comic poundage. The Farrelly brothers' latest sees the team tapping a sweeter, milder vein of humor than their outrageous norm.
  36. Otomo
    Not a cheerful watch: It's a shocking portrayal of rampant racism.
  37. Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV
    Any buyer who's had success with Troma fare in the past will find the makings to delight the self-selecting audience that generates grosses from gross-out humor.
  38. Tape
    Emphasis on its combustible emotions, suspense and surprising humor should help draw sophisticated audiences who, once lured, will quickly find themselves hooked for the duration.
  39. Domestic Disturbance
    Although decked out with a legitimate star and handsome production carpentry, pic takes no greater interest in creating three-dimensional characters or fleshing out a credible storyline than does the run-of-the-mill straight-to-video thriller.
  40. Everything Put Together
    Riveting, often haunting.
  41. Monsters, Inc.
    Clever and jokey in a vaudeville sort of way, but lacks the heart and sheer imagination of the company's best work for Disney, "Toy Story 2" and "A Bug's Life."
  42. Amélie
    Fresh, funny, exquisitely bittersweet tour de force.
  43. The One
    The combo of cheesy effects and martial arts choreographer Cory Yuen's unimaginative staging results in something that's martial artless.
  44. Punks
    Slick, ingratiating and high-spirited enough to win over gay men of all colors.
  45. Mysterious Object at Noon
    Result is a weird hodgepodge that has the audience doing mental somersaults in an attempt to keep up with this highly original festival head-scratcher.
  46. The Man Who Wasn't There
    The Coen brothers tread into James M. Cain territory with The Man Who Wasn't There, but with less tasty results than either Cain or the Coens themselves at their best.
  47. The Town Is Quiet
    Guediguian's seemingly sprawling but in fact quite precise picture takes a while to establish itself, but is eventually rewarding viewing.
  48. History Lessons
    Offers radical sexual politics in a jester's surprise package of impudent humor and Situationist-style found-footage monkeyshines.
  49. High Heels and Low Lifes
    An entertaining chick pic for all ages and sexes.
  50. Kill by Inches
    The atmosphere is properly bizarre and in moments even scary, but there's no involving story or characters to sustain the feature-length narrative.
  51. On the Line
    Perfectly harmless, often humorous, featherweight confection -- think "Serendipity" re-imagined as a teen-skewing Saturday morning sitcom.
  52. 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.
  53. Life as a House
    A family melodrama that becomes less authentic as it progressively takes itself more seriously.
  54. Better Than Sex
    Cheekily diverting, decidedly feel-good, tremendously sexy entertainment.
  55. Thirteen Ghosts
    The actors manage to keep from being upstaged by the sets, though just barely. Abraham goes over the top, then further still.
  56. Ginger Snaps
    A quietly subversive my-sister-is-turning-into-a-werewolf movie that doesn't wimp out at the end.
  57. Ouch
    Delightful comedy of manners.
  58. Donnie Darko
    Has plenty of problems. But most stem from a young filmmaker overswinging on his first time up to the plate and hitting a deep fly out rather than a home run.
  59. Bones
    A sly mix of haunted house melodrama, slasher pic mayhem and retro-blaxploitation iconography, spiced with dollops of grisly, dark comedy.
  60. Trembling Before G-d
    While seemingly insoluble divide between personal identity and collective belief lends the documentary an intense focus, it's also a narrow one.
  61. Dancing at the Blue Iguana
    An exercise in improv-derived filmmaking that simply proves once again that there's no substitute for a good script.
  62. Focus
    A stilted, heavy-handed parable about fascistic intolerance.
  63. Riding in Cars with Boys
    The result under Penny Marshall's direction is a film with genuinely serious intentions that falls considerably short of its intentions.
  64. Intimacy
    A tortured reflection on the complex relationship between love, sex, desire and obsession, distinguished by courageously raw performances from leads Mark Rylance and Kerry Fox.
  65. The Last Castle
    A disappointingly pedestrian prison meller that falls between stools artistically and politically.
  66. From Hell
    Surprisingly conventional Olde London Towne gaslight mystery, gussied up with some doctored visuals, and an eccentric performance by Johnny Depp.
  67. Waking Life
    Audiences looking for something fresh and different, not to mention a head trip, will find it in Waking Life.
  68. My Voyage to Italy
    Scorsese's heartfelt love letter to Italian movies up to 1961.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Operator
    A mostly slick, intelligent psychological thriller/modern morality tale flawed by occasional lapses of subtlety and a central performance that veers just to the wrong side of empathetic.
  70. My First Mister
    Lahti's feature directorial debut walks an innocuous middle line between the story's maudlin possibilities and its meaningful potential.
  71. Corky Romano
    Ranks as the most slapdash comedic star vehicle to hit screens since Harland Williams misfired with the career-stalling "RocketMan."
  72. Bandits
    The disparate but highly skilled leading trio of Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett keeps this road movie engaging even when it veers giddily onto the shoulder.
  73. Mulholland Dr.
    A genuinely ominous and suspenseful thriller.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop
    There is no denying Danny Hoch's talent. A monologist in the tradition of Eric Bogosian, Hoch assembles a cast of urban types and explores their dysfunctions and angst with a winning combination of sympathy, ironic point and dead-on mimicry.
  75. Sobibór, 14 Octobre 1943, 16 heures
    Has a terrible fascination that glues viewers to the screen. At the same time, audience patience is tested.
  76. The Human Body
    It's the soundtrack, as much as the opticals, which makes this brief Imax trip a thoroughly sensory experience.
  77. Werckmeister Harmonies
    A stunning feature -- another hypnotic meditation on popular demagogy and mental manipulation.
  78. Fat Girl
    Despite the disappointing conclusion, it's hard not to be affected by the film, because of the director's frank approach to her subject and the sheer skill with which she tells her story.
  79. Grateful Dawg
    The music is fine, but there's little else here to hold the attention of non-Deadheads.
  80. The Strange Case of Señor Computer
    A retro sci-fi tale that takes its time stoking a low-key absurdism to high silliness. Initial slow going pays off in cumulative laughs.
  81. Joy Ride
    Hot-wired, white-knuckle thriller.
  82. The Debut
    A pleasant and polished first feature for director Gene Cajayon.
  83. Serendipity
    Will serve as an excellent gauge of any viewer's tolerance level for schmaltzy contrivance and manipulation.
  84. The Hidden Half
    The confused script makes this a tough film for audiences to dig into.
  85. Training Day
    Ominously atmospheric study of police corruption dangles danger and sinister motives at every turn.
  86. Max Keeble's Big Move
    Surprisingly amusing.
  87. Chop Suey
    Bids to whip homoerotic iconography into something palatable for those suspicious of the cuisine.
  88. La Ciénaga
    An atmospheric and cumulatively impressive feature-length debut from Argentine writer-director Lucrecia Martel.
  89. Va Savoir (Who Knows?)
    An entrancing ensemble piece, directed with calm assurance, acted by a fine ensemble, and structured and scripted with wit and precision.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Jabberwocky (re-release)
    Long on jabber but short on yocks.
  91. Won't Anybody Listen
    Richly satisfying both as subversive, music-biz primer and as gritty, true-life underdog story.
  92. Dinner Rush
    "Big Night" meets "The Sopranos" in Dinner Rush.
  93. Born Romantic
    Highly enjoyable when all its gears are clicking, but rarely as good as it should be.
  94. Hearts in Atlantis
    The few who saw the embalmed adaptation of "Snow Falling on Cedars" will recognize the same stifling approach brought to this more accessible material by director Scott Hicks.
  95. Zoolander
    Misses its comic targets as often as it hits them but is endearing all the same for the good-natured cheer with which it skewers the eminently skewerable.
  96. Don't Say a Word
    Generates tension from the get-go, albeit of an increasingly unpleasant variety, on its way to a disappointingly generic climax.
  97. Liam
    This depiction of the trials and tribulations of a working-class Catholic family during the Depression is a far more intimate viewing experience than the similarly themed "Angela's Ashes."
  98. The Endurance
    Conveys enough of the stirring true-life drama recounted in Butler's other Shackleton docu to satisfy ticketbuyers who demand substance even in larger-than-life entertainment.
  99. Sorority Girls' Revenge
    Midnight moviegoers aren't so desperate that they will opt for such trailer trash.
  100. Go Tigers!
    Arguably the best sports-oriented documentary since "Hoop Dreams."
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