Variety's Scores

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For 17,825 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: 9,159 out of 17825
  2. Mixed: 7,029 out of 17825
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17825
17825 movie reviews
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  1. TMNT
    Munroe's script denies fans the satisfaction of a decent story or amusing interactions. Rather than waiting for a screenplay that warranted their bigscreen return, TMNT feels like an attempt to exploit the phenomenon further.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    She's Having a Baby
    She's Having a Baby is an oddly uneven and quasi-serious look into the angst of the early years of a contemporary marriage that parallels TV's thirtysomething. There are many comedic setups which, if they were with less architypically drawn characters, might have delivered the laughs with the refreshingly innocent joy that has been the hallmark of other John Hughes pics.
  3. Consecration
    In Consecration Jena Malone doesn’t just sport a casually impeccable British accent. She becomes British — her mood and manners, the way she rocks the sweaters and bangs and debonair politeness. She creates a compelling character, only to see the film’s director, Christopher Smith, swallow her up in all the ecclesiastical gothic malarkey.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hardware
    Hardware veers loonily out of control and becomes a black comic exercise in F/X tour-deforce that’s ceaselessly pushing itself over the top.
  5. Battleship
    Overlong and underwritten even by the standards of summer f/x extravaganzas, this Battleship will nonetheless float with many on the strength of its boyish, eager-to-please razzle-dazzle.
  6. What a Girl Wants
    It feels much more like a shameless reshuffle of "The Princess Diaries."
  7. Torque
    A spectacularly trashy and aggressively flashy motorcycle melodrama in which computer-enhanced action scenes, unbound by gravity or logic, are choreographed, photographed and edited to resemble video-game stratagems.
  8. 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.
  9. Stella Street
    A hip comic curio.
  10. A Castle in Italy
    Bruni Tedeschi holds all of pic’s myriad tangents in a delicate balance, no single one ever rising to the fore, no pressure felt to wrap everything — or anything — up in a tidy package at the end.
  11. Our Little Secret
    You watch Our Little Secret, seeing through the paper-thin contrivances, tittering at the imbecilities, and somehow that all becomes part of the experience. It’s mainstream fodder as downgraded camp. It’s pablum so numbing it makes you feel good.
  12. Home Again
    Once Nancy Meyers went out on her own, she became a wittier and more nimble filmmaker. So maybe Hallie Meyers-Shyer will follow in her footsteps and improve. Right now, she’s got nowhere to go but up.
  13. A Man's Gotta Do
    A cut above the average Aussie crazy-clan comedy.
  14. Venom: The Last Dance
    As you watch “The Last Dance,” the film obliterates any distinction between shooting the works and jumping the shark and just saying, “WTF, let’s do it!”
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Smokey and the Bandit II
    Sally Field tells Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit II that he is no longer having fun doing what used to come naturally. This stale sequel seems to be evidence of going through the motions for money instead of fun. Ironically, the best part of the film is the unusual end credit sequence, which shows the actors having fun when they blow lines in outtakes.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Tango & Cash
    Tango & Cash is a mindless buddy cop pic, loaded with nonstop action that's played mostly for laughs and delivers too few of them. Inane and formulaic, the film relies heavily on whatever chemistry it can generate between Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell, who repeatedly trade wisecracks while facing life-or-death situations.
  17. Marlowe
    A phony, flimsy attempt at vintage noir.
  18. Little Ashes
    For much of its running time, Little Ashes wavers between the polite, stuffy style of a "Masterpiece Theater" production and the more pointed agenda of gay indie cinema, with real Spanish locations classing up the otherwise low-budget affair. Acting is stagy and hindered by thick Spanish accents.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Rookie
    Overlong, sadistic and stale even by the conventions of the buddy pic genre.
  20. Zerophilia
    Plays like a throwback to such transformative adolescent anxiety romps as "Teen Wolf" and "Just One of the Guys," this time aiming at a slightly less innocent crowd.
  21. The Purge
    The film’s thudding shocks and predictability dull its edge.
  22. Resident Evil: Extinction
    Unfortunately, the new pic never really achieves maximum velocity as a full-throttle action-adventure opus, despite game efforts by returning star Milla Jovovich, still a lithe and lethal dynamo when it comes to butt-kicking, zombie-slicing derring-do.
  23. Stand Up Guys
    Veering between buddy movie and action-thriller, Stand Up Guys is a mildly raunchy, modestly entertaining geriatric comedy.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    At First Sight
    Although it's notoriously difficult to play a romance involving one partner's disability or illness without resorting to sentimentality, Kilmer acquits himself admirably.
  25. Good Burger
    A ruthlessly clever yarn about small fries vs. big biz, this winning comedy serves up a hearty helping of fun and wholesome values that will ring up appetizing sales at the box office.
  26. Tonight You're Mine
    Picture may not be Scots helmer David Mackenzie's best effort, but it's easily his most lighthearted, a cheery trifle that reps a contrast to his recent pictures, the apocalyptic "Perfect Sense" and U.S.-set comic misfire "Spread."
  27. Permanent
    Apart from casting (which is just OK here, as Wilson resorts a bit too much to shtick, while Arquette reaches for sincerity), regionally- and period-specific details are the ingredient that make otherwise-interchangeable stories like this appealing.
  28. The Lightkeepers
    Such predictable pap is generally better suited for romance novels or Lifetime movies. Here, it's elevated somewhat by a decent cast.
  29. Bodyguard
    Indian helmer Siddique delivers a middling melange of action, romance, music and slapstick in his hotly anticipated Hindi version of "Bodyguard."
  30. Found
    Although not entirely successful, this intriguing, above-average genre effort still reps an ambitious and resourceful debut for helmer/co-writer Scott Schirmer.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Prophecy
    Director John Frankenheimer has made a frightening monster movie that people could laugh at for generations to come, complete with your basic big scary thing, cardboard characters and a story so stupid it's irresistible.
  32. Blue Hill Avenue
    Writer-director Craig Ross Jr. offers both rigorously effective dramatic sections and terribly pedantic and melodramatic strokes of overkill.
  33. 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.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hellbound: Hellraiser II
    Hellraiser II is a maggotty carnival of mayhem, mutation and dismemberment, awash in blood and recommended only for those who thrive on such junk.
  35. Child 44
    Part serial-killer thriller, part old-school anti-Soviet propaganda, Child 44 plays like a curious relic of an earlier Cold War mindset, when Western audiences took comfort that they were living on the right side of the Iron Curtain, and relied on movies to remind them as much.
  36. Love Wedding Repeat
    It unfolds, more or less, in real time, which gives it an existential comedy-of-suspense element that trumps the usual Styrofoam rom-com plotting. The classical music playing in the background doesn’t make the film stodgy; it creates a sustained operatic flow. And the actors are simply terrific.
  37. Never Been Thawed
    Comes off as lame and unfocused as its draggy dramatis personae.
  38. Ride Along
    A lazy and listless buddy-cop action-comedy that fades from memory as quickly as its generic title.
  39. Jumanji
    The screenplay, however, denies the film a solid foundation. Jumanji is diverting in a splashy , eye-catching manner, but is about as substantive and durable as filigree.
  40. Mr. Woodcock
    There's more genuine humor to be gleaned from saying "Woodcock" over and over again than from watching Mr. Woodcock, a wan comic effort barely elevated a few notches by Billy Bob Thornton's passive-aggressive villainy.
  41. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
    A frenetic but undeniably funny follow-up that offers twice the number of singing-and-dancing rodents in another seamless blend of CGI and live-action elements.
  42. Priceless
    The screenplay by Chris Dowling and Tyler Poelle is, at best, predictable pulp with a smidgen of religion. Indeed, the characters are so thinly written that they are defined entirely by the actors portraying them. But director Ben Smallbone (brother of the movie’s lead player) is adept at generating suspense.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Iron Eagle
    Director Sidney J. Furie fills in the rest with breakneck action and some dandy dogfights. Much of the dialog is simply laughable.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hate Crime
    An apt follow-up to the two Matthew Shepard-themed movies that aired on TV in 2002.
  45. Dragon Blade
    The writer-director has overcome his tendency to weave florid plots that quickly run out of steam, here forging a coherent narrative that’s strong on physical and emotional drive.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Wildcats
    Michael Ritchie’s direction lacks his usual bite and eye for detail. There is nothing spontaneous about the action and football footage is also surprisingly dull.
  47. Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse
    Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse is a lively formulaic action-hero origin story, dunked in combat grunge, that demonstrates how a resourceful lead actor can bend and heighten the meaning of a commercial thriller.
  48. Parallel Tales
    The movie manages to be rigorously muddled despite not being all that complicated. Maybe that’s because the tales it tells are parallel in such a sodden way. It feels like they’re competing to underwhelm you.
  49. Sarah Palin: You Betcha!
    Shovels enough dirt on the Tea Party guru and self-described hockey mom to satisfy her haters, but lacks sufficient humor and insight to make it a must-see for anyone outside the Brit muckraker's fan base.
  50. Where Hope Grows
    Neatly avoiding temptations toward mawkish excess, writer-director Chris Dowling hits a solid double with Where Hope Grows, his intelligently affecting faith-based drama.
  51. The Sonata
    It’s Looks 10, Personality 4, however, as director Andrew Desmond and collaborator Arthur Morin’s screenplay doesn’t quite provide enough incident to properly milk its own premise, making for a supernatural thriller that ends just as it’s beginning to work up a sweat.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Waterboy
    This yahoos-on-the-bayou farce is neither inventive nor outrageous enough.
  53. 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.
  54. Simpatico
    An unbeatable cast lends satisfying emotional texture.
  55. Thorns
    An involving, often kinetic 2½-hour ride for auds who can accept their entertainment overboiled as well as just hardboiled.
  56. Woman on Top
    A fantastical romp with a buoyant pace, exotic locations, a finger-popping score, appealing leads and spicy cooking demonstrations.
  57. Agent Cody Banks
    As a spy pic, it has more pizzazz than the last few Bond adventures, "The Sum of All Fears" or "The Recruit."
  58. Meet the Fockers
    Te laughs "Fockers" generates are the type you feel embarrassed about almost immediately afterward.
  59. Jesus Henry Christ
    Too deliberately eccentric to attain quite the level of wigginess it aspires to, Jesus Henry Christ does feature some standout performances and a refreshingly unconventional approach to telling its slight story.
  60. Moonfall
    Sure, Moonfall is all kinds of stupid, but it’s a heckuva lot funnier than Adam McKay’s all-star satire. I had a blast, and would gladly saddle up for a second viewing.
  61. The 9th Life of Louis Drax
    For Aja, who has demonstrated an appetite for truly twisted material in the past, it all adds up to a disappointingly tame outing.
  62. La Mujer de Mi Hermano
    Soapy melodrama and a small-screen cast undermine the first-time director's efforts.
  63. First Sunday
    A near-claustrophobic comedy that manages to be both predictable and preachy. Solid actors in supporting roles offer minor redemption.
  64. Olympus Has Fallen
    A North Korean terrorist may be responsible for taking the president hostage, but it’s Bulgarian-made CGI that does the most damage in Antoine Fuqua’s intense, ugly, White-House-under-siege actioner Olympus Has Fallen.
  65. Kick-Ass 2
    As diverting as this action-packed caper often is, it feels not just weightless but emotionally and morally stunted whenever it veers into grown-up dramatic territory.
  66. Cthulhu
    The acting is so emotionally unhinged and erratic it borders on camp, diluting any suspense.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    Hell Baby
    Tedious and tasteless in equal measure, the lazy horror parody Hell Baby gives grossout comedy a bad name.
  68. Free Ride
    The script’s autobiographical roots tend to substitute for a well-constructed dramatic throughline, giving the film an open-endedness that feels more dismissive than ambivalent.
  69. Feral
    This isn’t a dull film, but it lacks personality as well as originality.
  70. Edie
    An uneven dramedy from U.K. commercials helmer Simon Hunter, working from a screenplay by Elizabeth O’Halloran that has a big problem in tone and beaucoup clichéd contrivance.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Stay Tuned
    Hyams’ lensing and Philip Harrison’s production design are slick, and Peter E. Berger’s editing works hard to simulate the zapping effect of cable remote control, but technical cleverness can’t overcome the deadly lack of intellectual invention on display in this mechanical exercise.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Substitute
    Though the setup is largely preposterous, the filmmakers go whole-hog for the idea and provide a kinetic entertainment.
  73. The Truth About Emanuel
    Played flatly head-on with some poetic pretensions, the concept never becomes particularly credible or appealing.
  74. Stay
    An ultra-arty "The Sixth Sense" that deliberately inhibits comprehension of the story until the very end -- and arguably continues to inhibit it even then -- pic features certifiably talented people on both sides of the camera collaborating on a project that probably shouldn't have been undertaken in the first place.
  75. Stage Mother
    There’s much about Stage Mother that’s slightly stale, but like yesterday’s donut, the icing on top makes it both look inviting and go down easily enough.
  76. Finding You
    Effervescent performances from an ebullient ensemble make Finding You a palatable and compelling female coming-of-age tale.
  77. The Curse of La Llorona
    An efficiently formulaic shocker.
  78. Being Frank
    Being Frank isn’t very amusing, which normally would be the most damning thing one might say about an ostensible comedy. But that really isn’t the worst thing about it. There is something ineffably creepy about this contrived and mirthless farce.
  79. Freshman Orientation
    With intermittently amusing glee, writer-director Ryan Shiraki's tyro film, Freshman Orientation, frolics through the political minefields of a typical college campus.
  80. Yes Nurse! No Nurse!
    Pic maintains a likable, breezy tone throughout but looks increasingly threadbare of real inspiration or originality as it proceeds.
  81. Spun
    Outrageously grungy and whacked-out walk on the wild side.
  82. Sal
    While Sal means to honor its subject, it’s too clunky and amateurish to really illuminate him.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Police Academy
    Police Academy at its core is a harmless, innocent poke at authority that does find a fresh background in a police academy.
  84. Village of the Damned
    Awful scripting and an unimaginative approach to re-imagining material's potential have left Universal with a theatrical in-and-outer on its hands.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Career Opportunities
    Writer-producer John Hughes' followup to Home Alone lacks the spit-polish and magic of the blockbuster but still has plenty of absorbing characters, smart, snappy dialog and delightful stretches of comic foolery.
  86. Drillbit Taylor
    A junior-league "Superbad" with an aftertaste of "The Pacifier," Drillbit Taylor is a just passable pubescent comedy with a modest laugh count by Apatow factory standards.
  87. Desperados
    The “raunchy” set-pieces feel like road bumps en route to a too obvious and disappointingly tidy conclusion. Do yourself a favor and spend five minutes — and as many dollars — researching something else to watch instead.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dumb and Dumber
    A flat-out celebration of stupidity, bodily functions and pratfalls. Yet the wholeheartedness of this descent into crude and rude humor is so good-natured and precise that it's hard not to partake in the guilty pleasures of the exercise.
  89. Pompeii
    While more coherent than much of Anderson’s recent work, the film proves less successful at combining destruction and damsel-in-distress storytelling within the same frame, serving up blurry images of Milo trying to rescue Cassia while the city crumbles around them.
  90. Stoned
    The film's sputtering dramatic engine, underwhelming perfs, and absence of music by the Stones themselves may leave the key younger demographic wondering what all the fuss is about.
  91. The Perfect Match
    An attractive and appealing cast helps this formulaic pablum go down easy, but the genial tone buffs the edge out of every element.
  92. The Woman in the Window
    The Woman in the Window would like to be a contempo “Rear Window,” but it’s so riddled with things you can’t buy that it plays like a bad Brian De Palma movie minus the camera movement.
  93. One to Another
    A bland, perverse round-robin of teen angst.
  94. When the Game Stands Tall
    An inspirational sports drama that goes long on rectitudinous sermonizing but comes up short on gridiron thrills or genuine love for the game.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Comes a Horseman
    Alan Pakula’s Comes a Horseman is so lethargic not even Jane Fonda, James Caan and Jason Robards can bring excitement to this artific- ially dramatic story of a stubborn rancher who won’t surrender to the local land baron.
  96. Jiminy Glick in Lalawood
    Too often depends on salty, adolescent one-liners that provide shock value guffaws but grow cumulatively wearisome.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hard to Kill
    It ain’t pretty, but it gets the action fans off.
  98. Sahara
    Saddled with more industry/celebrity baggage than a high-class safari voyage, Sahara is a rousing and only occasionally ridiculous adventure yarn.
  99. Silk Road
    A fervently topical, at times intriguing, but ultimately rather sketchy drama about the online black market.
  100. I Still Believe
    Thanks to the immensely appealing performances by Apa and Robertson, it’s easy for the audience to take a rooting interest in the sometimes awkward, sometimes amusing development of the budding romance between Jeremy and Melissa.
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