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. Dancer in the Dark
    A 2½-hour demo of auteurist self-importance that's artistically bankrupt on almost every level.
  2. Twilight: Los Angeles
    The camera's closer scrutiny doesn't flatter this unique theatrical reportage.
  3. Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
    Heartbreaking yet truly inspirational.
  4. A Piece of Eden
    A collection of sentimental and emotional moments in search of a movie.
  5. Duets
    Lack of much substance or dramatic payoff makes the whole significantly less than sum of its parts.
  6. Urbania
    A darkly intriguing drama that probes the very nature of love and the lasting effects of loss.
  7. Human Resources
    A cogent human drama.
  8. Goya in Bordeaux
    Feverish, elegant movie.
  9. Bait
    A B movie in A-grade clothing.
  10. The Price of Air
    Wallows in the deviant proclivities of the rich, wearing its rancor like a merit badge.
  11. Paragraph 175
    The definitive screen chronicle to date of homosexual persecution under the Third Reich.
  12. Almost Famous
    More gentle and modestly insightful than it is exhilarating or revelatory.
  13. Pola X
    An often intriguing, sometimes hypnotic work, but one that quickly starts to unravel in the final hour as it becomes clear there’s not much beneath the emperor’s clothes.
  14. The Watcher
    Emerges as a formulaic thriller that plays more like direct-to-video fare than a megaplex-worthy feature.
  15. Backstage
    Lacks sufficient appeal beyond niche aficionados of its featured performers.
  16. Nurse Betty
    Few actresses can convey the kind of honesty and humanity that Zellweger does here -- it's hard to imagine the film without her dominant, thoroughly credible performance.
  17. Ça commence aujourd'hui
    A warm, often invigorating and ultimately moving ode to community values.
  18. Anatomy
    A fantastical romp with a buoyant pace, exotic locations, a finger-popping score, appealing leads and spicy cooking demonstrations.
  19. The Way of the Gun
    Each of the talented thesps has some good moments, but, ultimately, none can rise above the limitations of the material and filmmaking.
  20. Turn It Up
    Patently absurd in both the details and larger aspects, the ultraserious pic is undermined by poor casting.
  21. Highlander: Endgame
    The sheer raggedness of the plotting -- and the pic's cynical disdain toward audiences -- is staggering.
  22. Whipped
    Grotesquely smutty and obnoxiously overbearing, this is a pitiful excuse for a comedy.
  23. Titanic Town
    Walters brings real heart to the role.
  24. Dark Days
    Intimate and engrossing.
  25. The Art of War
    Almost every element in Art of War is slightly off.
  26. Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God... Be Back by Five
    Though intermittently engaging and decently acted, the movie suffers from a repetitive format, with too many shifts in time that prove disruptive.
  27. Smiling Fish & Goat on Fire
    Boasts a perceptive script, rich performances and date-movie appeal.
  28. The Crew
    The sentimentality is gently but firmly restrained in a potentially treacly subplot.
  29. Bittersweet Motel
    Well-made if not particularly insightful docu should be catnip to Phishheads, while the previously unconverted are likely to stay that way.
  30. Love & Sex
    Valerie Breiman’s exceedingly slick feature is one of those cutesy items in which the characters talk about nothing but relationships and themselves.
  31. Bring It On
    Succeeds in displaying the physical drive and demands of cheerleading.
  32. The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack
    An unbeatably colorful life story.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Place Vendôme
    Taut and nuanced from start to finish, with memorable, lived-in central characters and an appealingly melancholy tone, helmer/co-scripter Nicole Garcia’s third feature has what it takes.
  34. The Cell
    A slender story that's not particularly suspenseful or involving, resulting in a movie that's a feast to the eye but not much for the intellect.
  35. Godzilla 2000
    A classically low-tech monster mash.
  36. Steal This Movie
    A valiant but seriously flawed attempt to belie the notion that if you remember what you did in the '60s, you weren't there.
  37. The Original Kings of Comedy
    Consistently hilarious.
  38. Sunset Strip
    Interesting structure provides pic with plenty of opportunities for social satire, human comedy and chance encounters, but few setups are ever dramatically fulfilled.
  39. Autumn in New York
    Not a bad picture, just utterly banal.
  40. Bless the Child
    Combines the most rudimentary of Catholic-inspired good vs. evil plots with visual effects that would barely pass muster in episodic TV.
  41. Cecil B. DeMented
    Diverting but uneven.
  42. The Replacements
    A frankly formulaic but agreeably funny comedy about has-beens, wannabes and never-weres.
  43. Paperback Hero
    Charismatic leads and a promising screwball-comedy premise are sadly frittered away by a weak second half in Antony J. Bowman's third feature, Paperback Hero.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Better Living
    Vibrant, snappy and surprisingly fresh.
  45. Saving Grace
    Harvests a bumper crop of laughs.
  46. Coyote Ugly
    The latest and most calculated re-do on the formulaic fantasy of an innocent conquering Gotham.
  47. Hollow Man
    Pic's future as a cult item is a sure bet.
  48. Mad About Mambo
    Lacking the kind of fire and energy that the best youth movies demand, leads Ash and Russell display skills better tuned to the small screen.
  49. Space Cowboys
    Good escapist entertainment, and the effect is ingratiating.
  50. Catfish in Black Bean Sauce
    Too mild-mannered and fuzzily focused for its own good.
  51. Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
    Be prepared to laugh less at a lot more of the same thing in this overbearing but underwhelming sequel.
  52. Girl on the Bridge
    The gleefully assured tale of a professional knife-thrower who finds a quirky new target... hits the bull's-eye.
  53. The Wind Will Carry Us
    Takes the refined work of Iranian helmer Abbas Kiarostami up another notch to ever more metaphoric ground.
  54. Thomas and the Magic Railroad
    All mish-mash.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    $pent
    Covers familiar territory unevenly, but Gil Cates Jr. directs his freshman feature with a mostly assured hand.
  56. Alice et Martin
    All the main characters make a telling contribution to the claustrophobic web of feelings the drama comprises.
  57. Loser
    This tepid comedy-drama is, lamentably, aptly titled.
  58. Pokémon: The Movie 2000
    A much more intense action vehicle for hero Ash Ketchum and his band of pocket monster trainers than its leaden, sometimes claustrophobic predecessor.
  59. What Lies Beneath
    A thriller that tries aggressively, but not entirely successfully, to deliver the goods of three genres -- suspense, supernatural and horror.
    • 14 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    The In Crowd
    Murky, unappealing The In Crowd is a femme-centered melodrama that makes an awkward stretch into thriller territory.
  61. The Wisdom of Crocodiles
    Starts intriguingly but ends up thrashing around as a toothless wonder.
  62. X-Men
    Plays like a so-so middle chapter of an epic series rather than a fitting kickoff.
  63. But I'm a Cheerleader
    A shallow, only mildly entertaining satire
  64. The Kid
    Director Jon Turteltaub's insistence upon hammering every point home with giant closeups and relentless musical underlining makes this insufferably cloying and sickly sweet.
  65. Scary Movie
    Manages an impressively huge score in the hit-or-miss gag ratio.
  66. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
    Scarcely seems worth the expenditure of time, money and talent.
  67. The Perfect Storm
    The yarn's emotional undercurrents never take hold, resulting in a picture that leaves one thinking less about the fates of the characters than about how the actors had to spend most of their working days soaking wet.
  68. The Patriot
    Has some emotional pull and isn't stuffy and dull.
  69. Me, Myself & Irene
    Funny as much of the action is, however, the approach feels rather less fresh, and the gross-outs seem more gratuitous.
  70. Praise
    A feature debut that packs a knockout punch.
  71. Chicken Run
    Technically superb and witty in an old-fashioned, veddy British way that will delight many adults but will sail over the heads of young audiences.
  72. Boricua's Bond
    At the most basic level, Boricua's Bond is at war with itself.
  73. Marcel Proust's Time Regained
    Engrossing despite its chaotically fragmented form.
  74. Titan A.E.
    Despite occasional awkwardness in character motion, viewers will be swept away by the luxuriant creation of alternate universes.
  75. Shaft
    Samuel L. Jackson instantly takes the mantle from Mr. Shaft himself, Richard Roundtree, and runs with it on pure style and charisma.
  76. Boys and Girls
    As generic as its title.
  77. Jesus' Son
    An intermittently compelling and occasionally hilarious road movie.
  78. Sunshine
    Well-intentioned but never entirely engaging chronicle.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Gone in Sixty Seconds
    Perfectly dreadful in every respect.
  80. Big Momma's House
    The sight and sound of Lawrence in fat-lady drag remains engaging throughout; script may often let him down, forcing him to keep things afloat almost single-handedly.
    • 22 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    Running Free
    A profoundly disappointing attempt to reinvigorate the animal movie genre with the classic ingredients of physical poetry and mythical storytelling.
  82. American Virgin
    Ambitious but flawed comedy.
  83. Passion of Mind
    This small-scale, chamber piece, which boasts good acting from Moore, Skarsgard and Fichtner, has a strong built-in appeal for women but may experience harder times in going beyond the specialized arthouse circuits due to the narrowly-scoped, undernourished script.
  84. Shanghai Noon
    This enjoyable East-meets-Western likely will succeed on its own terms as a sure-fire, long-legged crowd-pleaser.
  85. Mission: Impossible II
    Even more empty a luxury vehicle than its predecessor, M:I 2 pushes the envelope in terms of just how much flashy packaging an audience will buy when there's absolutely nada inside.
  86. Small Time Crooks
    Breezy, enjoyable romp gratifyingly zigzags in directions that aren't apparent at the outset and features some intriguingly personal subtext for longtime Woody watchers.
  87. Road Trip
    Be forewarned: After you see Road Trip, it may be months, if not years, before you can order French toast with a straight face and a settled stomach.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man
    Tech elements, including music, lensing, costumes and production design are blazingly impressive and strikingly evocative on all levels.
  89. Dinosaur
    An eye-popping visual spectacle that serves up a vivid picture of what the planet might have looked like when reptiles ruled the Earth.
  90. Held Up
    A shoddy vehicle for Jamie Foxx to ride into the summer season on.
  91. Center Stage
    Unfortunately, Center Stage is directed and shot (by Geoffrey Simpson) in a way that doesn't let the audience feel the exhilarating pull of the dance world.
  92. Hamlet
    This slacker prince (Hawke) comprises a sinkhole at the center of adaptor-helmer Michael Almereyda's otherwise compelling contempo update.
  93. Screwed
    Latenight cable TV filler disguised as a feature film.
  94. Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000
    Yet the overall look, though derivative ("The Matrix," "Blade Runner," "Waterworld," etc.), rates as Battlefield's one non-guilty pleasure.
  95. Gladiator
    John Mathieson's widescreen cinematography is magnificent, and the pacing across 2½ hours is well modulated.
  96. I Dreamed of Africa
    Visually gratifying but dramatically weak, the film falls short of its aspiration to be a sweeping romantic epic.
  97. Up at the Villa
    This least affected of their (Haases) movies is also the most dramatically and emotionally convincing.
  98. Human Traffic
    Well cast, engagingly played and directed with a stylistic pedal to the metal, Human Traffic is a lot of energy adding up to very little.
  99. Michael Jordan to the Max
    Arguably the finest athlete in living memory deserves better than Michael Jordan to the Max, an honorific but unmoving portrait of the Chicago Bulls' No. 23.
  100. Into My Heart
    So understated as to sometimes lack a pulse.
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