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. Trolösa
    Liv Ullmann, directing her second Bergman screenplay (after 1997’s “Private Confessions”), extracts every nuance from the tantalizing material.
  2. The Wedding Planner
    This tale of mismatched lovebirds begins with considerable charm but eventually loses its winning ways with an excess of ridiculous elements.
  3. The Amati Girls
    Most discomforting of all is the sight of world-class actors stuck in such threadbare material.
  4. The Pledge
    Nicholson is outstanding as he gradually but tellingly sketches in aspects of a man driven by a mission that outstrips his instincts as a professional lawman.
  5. Antitrust
    Robbins is such a live wire that he's able to jumpstart his co-stars whenever they're interfacing onscreen.
  6. Double Take
    It's doubtful that anyone, even executors of Greene's literary estate, will be able to discern much of the source material in this frenetic trifle.
  7. Save the Last Dance
    Grounded in bedrock formula and earnestness.
  8. Traffic
    Enormously ambitious and masterfully made, Traffic represents docudrama-style storytelling at a very high level.
  9. All the Pretty Horses
    A half-broken adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's great modern Western novel. Neither dull nor exciting.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Vatel
    Vatel, a no-expense-spared costumer, is further proof that all the money and technical expertise in the world are no substitutes for a good screenplay and creative direction.
  11. Thirteen Days
    Reasonably intelligent, well-crafted and dramatically understated.
  12. An Everlasting Piece
    It's a film of myriad minor pleasures but scant compelling qualities.
  13. Malèna
    Combining a coming-of-age story with the sad odyssey of a woman punished for her beauty, the film ultimately has too little depth, subtlety, thematic consequence or contemporary relevance.
    • Variety
  14. Before Night Falls
    A dense, emotionally satisfying portrait of a man, a time and a place.
  15. The House of Mirth
    Visually detailed but emotionally dry.
  16. Dracula 2000
    Overall, though, the slapdash pic appears to be the work of folks who made things up as they went along; you might say they were, well, vamping.
  17. Miss Congeniality
    Stumbling its way down the comedy runway, Miss Congeniality is yet another miscalculated vehicle for the ever-feisty Sandra Bullock.
  18. State and Main
    A bona fide populist laugh riot.
  19. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
    A charming, if lightweight, Coen brothers escapade flecked by plenty of visual and performance grace notes.
  20. Cast Away
    Meticulous, sumptuous production design, and striking visuals compensate for the lack of dramatic momentum in a film that arguably stretches narrative form to its limits.
  21. The Family Man
    A slickly produced slice of sentimental hokum that borrows freely from a half-dozen or so other, better feel-good fantasies.
  22. Finding Forrester
    Provides a platform for Sean Connery to deliver a definitive, career-summation performance.
  23. The Gift
    A good, old-fashioned suspenser.
  24. Pollock
    Distinguished by its quiet, intelligent, admirably restrained approach and by two finely wrought performances from Harris and Marcia Gay Harden in the leading roles.
  25. South of Heaven, West of Hell
    A quasi-metaphysical revenge Western that remains as elusive as a distant mirage on a long, dusty trail.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Visit
    The top-notch cast never hits a false note.
  27. The Emperor's New Groove
    Light, taut and compact, the zippy adventure is sometimes much too hip for the room.
  28. What Women Want
    Sheer energy and audience allure to burn, even if numerous speed bumps cause many of the comic possibilities to go tumbling overboard.
  29. Dude, Where's My Car?
    Aimed squarely at adolescents who might find "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" too intellectually taxing.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Chocolat
    The most satisfying epicurean feast since "Big Night."
  31. Vertical Limit
    Remains exciting as long as it stays on the mountains.
  32. Dungeons & Dragons
    Stunningly bad sci-fi/fantasy hokum.
  33. Proof of Life
    A disappointingly routine thriller that prefers to lean on tired Hollywood conventions rather than to explore fresh dramatic and stylistic territory.
  34. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
    Brilliance of the action and effects are supplemented by a consistently superior and resourceful score by Tan Dun.
  35. Strippers
    Amateurish, undramatic and bereft of any sense of pacing.
  36. Poor White Trash
    At its best, in its early, more subdued passages, Poor White Trash provides a couple of pristine comic moments. At its worst, it spirals uncontrollably into an unfunny void.
  37. Boys Life 3
    A typical grab bag of works of varying depth, all of them breezy and entertaining.
  38. The Trench
    Soberly and intelligently examines the fear, frustration, anxiety, animosity and boredom of waiting to advance into the terrifying other world that lies over the lip of the trenches.
  39. 102 Dalmatians
    A pale reworking of its predecessor.
  40. Unbreakable
    Possesses sufficient intrigue to hook audiences and keep them on board much of the way.
  41. Quills
    Lacks an edge of danger or excitement that might have brought the subject alive in more than a cerebral way.
  42. Lies
    Has nothing much to say.
  43. Bounce
    Simultaneously contrived and genuinely felt.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Billy Liar (re-release)
    An imaginative, fascinating film.
  45. One Day in September
    Never less than gripping as an account of what happened and what went terribly wrong.
  46. Rugrats in Paris: The Movie - Rugrats II
    Though animated sequels of popular kids' fare tend to perform lower than their progenitors, this one should buck the trend.
  47. The 6th Day
    A mostly standard-issue latter-day Arnold Schwarzenegger actioner spiked with a creepily plausible cloning angle.
  48. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
    Shrill, strenuous and entirely without charm, Ron Howard's attempt at a Christmas classic is an elaborately wrapped empty box that will fool many people into buying it but will not greatly please its recipients.
  49. Rebels with a Cause
    Encapsulates the turbulent times of the Students for a Democratic Society.
  50. Restless
    A winning look at cross-cultural romance.
  51. Red Planet
    As dull and arid as a hike through the desert.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Men of Honor
    Those in search of positive role models and films detailing little-known aspects of black and military history, or stressing the value of tenacity and hard work, pic has something to offer.
  53. Little Nicky
    Sandler turns the joke around on his detractors and manages to lead a devilishly energetic vehicle that contains about as many laughs as his previous features combined.
  54. You Can Count on Me
    A sensitive, intimate, enormously touching drama.
  55. Suzhou River
    A compelling story of love and obsession whose progress mirrors the sinuous flow of the Shanghai waterway that supplies its title.
  56. The Weekend
    Despite some memorable high points, pic plays like "Love! Valour! Compassion!" -- without the laughs.
  57. Kippur
    A cumulatively devastating and visceral insight into the horrors of war.
  58. The Legend of Bagger Vance
    A lightweight, modestly engaging yarn sporting reductive mystical and philosophical elements that are both valid and borderline silly.
  59. Charlie's Angels
    This entertaining confection possesses the substance of the TV show, the pacing of a Hong Kong actioner and the production values of a James Bond thriller.
  60. Once in the Life
    A film that ultimately feels stagebound and excessively talky, but which showcases an exceptional performance.
  61. The Little Vampire
    A mildly entertaining but dramatically messy kidpic.
  62. A Room for Romeo Brass
    An easygoing kitchen-sink comedy with an unsettling final act.
  63. A Time for Drunken Horses
    It is all the more heart-wrenching for being realistic. Its portrait of child labor brooks no sentimentality and no cliches.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Stardom
    The irony is that this film about the superficiality of celebrity-crazed Western society is itself somewhat superficial.
  65. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
    Disappointing in every aspect.
  66. Lucky Numbers
    Strictly a minor-league late fall entry.
  67. What's Cooking?
    Though often enjoyable, it’s an old-fashioned, feel-good movie whose significance is more sociological than cinematic.
    • 14 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Sculptress
    While good to look at, is devoid of psychological depth or credibility, and further marred by weak, often risible performances.
  69. The Yards
    Entombs its characters so thoroughly in a prison of palpably predestined tragedy that one knows from the outset that the very worst that can happen most certainly will.
  70. The Legend of Drunken Master
    Well positioned to slake the thirst of action fans for world-class, slam-bang rough stuff.
  71. Calle 54
    Looks and sounds wonderful, and while more information about these giants of African-Latin music might have been welcome, the music's the thing.
  72. Pay It Forward
    An unusual film that intelligently avoids numerous potential pitfalls even if its central earnestness is ultimately inescapable.
  73. Bedazzled
    The 2000 version is louder, broader and much, much bigger.
  74. MVP: Most Valuable Primate
    A lark gone utterly awry.
  75. Just Looking
    It goes down as easy as a cherry Coke.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Whispers: An Elephant's Tale
    The unsophisticated, even crude result is not likely to win over too many tots.
    • 16 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Lost Souls
    The hallucination sequences are among the pic's creepiest.
  78. Dr T and the Women
    Gere breaks through with what may or may not be his best performance.
  79. The Contender
    The large, talented cast elevates the film above the trappings of its loquacious debates, particularly Allen.
  80. Billy Elliot
    Strikes a delicate balance of comedy and pathos with an uplifting final act that delivers a resoundingly satisfying emotional payoff.
  81. The Ladies Man
    The question isn't where is the love but where are the laughs?
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Animal Factory
    In one of his best leading screen turns, Dafoe makes a potentially unlikely construct into a fascinating, full-blooded figure.
  83. Ratcatcher
    There’s a light touch in evidence, balancing the bleakness with odd lyrical moments and unexpected humor and tenderness that infuse the gentle drama with a bracing freshness.
  84. Taboo
    Walks the line between conviction and camp with a not entirely steady step.
  85. CyberWorld
    An OK mishmash.
  86. Mercy Streets
    No mere crime drama, but rather the latest in the recent resurgence of independently financed, spiritually themed pics that seek to couch religious dogma within the shells of B-grade genre entertainment.
  87. Two Family House
    For all the pic’s sentimentality, De Felitta refuses to back away from some unpleasantly realistic touches.
  88. Bamboozled
    Occasionally biting but excessively melodramatic.
  89. Get Carter
    A useless remake of Mike Hodges' 1971 British gangland cult classic.
  90. Bootmen
    Feel-good quality fare.
  91. Digimon: Digital Monsters
    Voice work is weirdly awful and funny at the same time.
  92. Meet the Parents
    A flat-out hilarious mainstream comedy.
  93. Requiem for a Dream
    It’s technically striking filmmaking, to be sure, but what it’s presenting is nothing that many people will want to look at.
  94. Beautiful
    There's no particular reason to see this disappointingly trivial picture on the bigscreen.
  95. Girlfight
    Blends in a most satisfying manner the conventions of several genres, resulting in a coherent picture that is at once a poignant inner-city drama, a rousing sports movie, an emotional family yarn and, above all, a sweet romance.
  96. Remember the Titans
    Earnest and well-intentioned.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Barenaked in America
    An only occasionally interesting look at a rather ordinary bunch of musicians.
  98. Best in Show
    A barkingly funny new "mockumentary" that does for those canine pageants what the helmer's 1996 "Waiting for Guffman" did for smalltown theatrics.
  99. The Specials
    A vulgar, Z-grade variant on last year's "Mystery Men" for those who didn't get their fill the first time around.
  100. The Fantasticks
    The resulting film is one of too much reverence and not enough satire.
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