Variety's Scores

Select another publication »
For 17,782 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 2.4 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: 9,136 out of 17782
  2. Mixed: 7,010 out of 17782
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17782
17782 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    A Family Thing
    The handful of powerful speeches here do little, however, to offset story weaknesses that also include soft-edged characterizations, a faintly patronizing air regarding the black characters and a general avoidance of the issue most viewers will want to see addressed.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mrs. Winterbourne
    As calculated as the cries of 'Go Ricki!' on its star's talkshow, Mrs Winterbourne is a sappy, old-fashioned and predictable vehicle for actress-turned-talk maven-turned-actress-again Ricki Lake that delivers requisite warmth but few laughs. Lake's ebullient charm and solid performances by Shirley MacLaine, Brendan Fraser and Miguel Sandoval provide some highlights.
  3. Unstrung Heroes
    A coming-of-age piece that is slight to the point of anemia, Unstrung Heroes sports a willful eccentricity that almost immediately becomes annoying.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Hair
    The spirit and elan that captivated the Vietnam protest era are long gone, and what Forman tries to make up with splash and verve fails to evoke potent nostalgia.
  5. The Hudsucker Proxy
    The Hudsucker Proxy is no doubt one of the most inspired and technically stunning pastiches of old Hollywood pictures ever to come out of the New Hollywood. But a pastiche it remains, as nearly everything in the Coen brothers' latest and biggest film seems like a wizardly but artificial synthesis, leaving a hole in the middle where some emotion and humanity should be.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Flashdance
    Watching Flashdance is pretty much like looking at MTV for 96 minutes. Virtually plotless, exceedingly thin on characterization and sociologically laughable, pic at least lives up to its title by offering an anthology of extraordinarily flashy dance numbers.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Shining
    The crazier Nicholson gets, the more idiotic he looks. Shelley Duvall transforms the warm sympathetic wife of the book into a simpering, semi-retarded hysteric.
  8. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
    Pic stays on the surface, without attempting any exploration of painful depths. Result is at best amusing; at worst, uninvolving, often confusing, and sometimes a little boring.
  9. Wyatt Earp
    If you're going to ask an audience to sit through a three-hour, nine-minute rendition of an oft-told story, it would help to have a strong point of view on your material and an urgent reason to relate it. Such is not the case with Wyatt Earp, a handsome, grandiose gentleman's Western that tries to tell evenhandedly more about the famous Tombstone lawman than has ever before been put onscreen.
  10. Friday
    Rather like a cross between "Up in Smoke" and an episode of "The Jeffersons, Friday is a crudely made, sometimes funny bit of porchfront humor from the 'hood.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Conan the Barbarian
    Director John Milius does a nice job of setting up the initial story.... But for whatever reasons, [Schwarzenegger] has a minimum of dialog and fails to convey much about the character through his actions.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    First Blood
    Director Ted Kotcheff has all sorts of trouble with this mess, aside from credibility. Supposedly, the real villain here is society itself, which invented a debacle like Vietnam and must now deal with its lingering tragedies. But First Blood cops out completely on that one, not even trying to find a solution to Stallone's problems.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Deathtrap
    Despite its intermittently amusing dialog, however, Deathtrap comes across as a minor entertainment, cleverness of which cannot conceal its essential artificiality when blown up on the big screen.
  14. Demolition Man
    A noisy, soulless, self-conscious pastiche that mixes elements of sci-fi, action-adventure and romance, then pours on a layer of comedy replete with Hollywood in-jokes.
    • Variety
    • 38 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Uncommon Valor
    All of the top talent involved - especially Gene Hackman - is hardly needed to make Uncommon Valor what it is, a very common action picture.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Boomerang
    The film might have worked if the thoroughly selfish characters were striving after something.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Kindergarten Cop
    The polished comic vision that gave Twins, Arnold Schwarzenegger's comedy breakthrough, a storybook shine completely eludes director Ivan Reitman here. Result is a mish-mash of violence, psycho-drama and lukewarm kiddie comedy.
  18. Renaissance Man
    Marshall has tried to do too much, dealing with certain subplots too sparingly to deliver on their promise.
  19. The Secret Agent
    A dour study of terrorism, 1880s style, The Secret Agent represents an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's only London-based novel, the fidelity of which to the original text does not yield a terrifically exciting film.
  20. The Disappearance of Finbar
    Brit filmmaker Sue Clayton's muddled feature bow is full of intriguing ideas and incidental charms that fail to come together into a cohesive whole.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Annie
    In an effort to be more 'realistic' Annie winds up exposing just how weak a story it had to start with [stage play book by Thomas Meehan], not helped here by the music [songs by Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin].
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Lock Up
    Lock Up is made in the same, simplistic vein as most other Sylvester Stallone pics - putting him, the blue-collar protagonist, against the odds over which he ultimately prevails.
  23. Jonah Hex
    The film's noisy, slam-bang approach and lack of imagination in all nonvisual departments will keep it from rounding up a fresh generation of thrill-seekers.
  24. Beastly
    A kiss may cure the monster, but not even campy performances from Mary-Kate Olsen and Neil Patrick Harris can save this ugly snarl of cliches.
  25. Marmaduke
    With extended closing credits, Marmaduke clocks in at 88 minutes and feels longer.
  26. Too Much Sleep
    The material is slender, the characters not sufficiently engaging or eccentric for a feature-length movie.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Barenaked in America
    An only occasionally interesting look at a rather ordinary bunch of musicians.
  28. Leela
    Succeeds only as a cultural exchange of cinematic cliches.
  29. Some Body
    Has a quasi-verite, improvisational feel that appears truthful. But it doesn't lend much sympathy, or depth, to characters who never seem worth knowing.
  30. A House on a Hill
    Pic's air of connoisseurist homage overwhelms a haphazard screenplay and characters who are hard to warm up to.
  31. Red Trousers: The Life of the Hong Kong Stuntmen
    An awkward blend of documentary and genre pic.
  32. Rhinoceros Eyes
    Not sufficiently compelling.
  33. Foreign Sister
    Unfortunately, Wolman's flat direction accentuates the predictable course of his soft narrative.
  34. Jersey Guy
    The unfocused writing makes the film increasingly less convincing as it stumbles toward an awkwardly structured resolution -- closing on a conga line that makes "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" seem cutting-edge.
  35. Anonymous
    Although occasionally witty, even with its abundant lashings of sex, both pic and selfish, narcissistic hero grow tiresome over surprisingly brief running time.
  36. Planet Earth: Dreams
    Mendel's visuals consistently fall short of the strange oneiric quality of Foreman's strategically normal-seeming dialogue, with its subtly irregular pauses and repetitions, its austere ellipses and enigmatic insistences.
  37. Ghostlight
    Neither fish nor fowl, slick yet strangely rudderless Ghostlight sounds interesting in description but lacks fascination in actual viewing.
  38. Flavors
    Likeable, credible actors, snappy dialogue and a determinedly upbeat tone should work well on cable and score with Indian diaspora auds. But pic lacks density and spontaneity necessary to lift it out of its carefully posed and plotted set-ups and onto a bigscreen.
  39. Clockstoppers
    A blandly conceived youth adventure lacking zing or style.
  40. Evergreen
    Land gives the drama some poignancy, revealing the pain, anger, envy and longing of a girl burdened by life's imbalances. But her character exists in a vacuum, surrounded by stock figures and unconvincing actors.
  41. Chop Suey
    Bids to whip homoerotic iconography into something palatable for those suspicious of the cuisine.
  42. The Burial Society
    Screen chemistry and production crackle are lacking from this "Usual Suspects" wannabe.
  43. Ciao America
    Never less than pleasant and genteel, but rarely more.
  44. In the Face of Evil: Reagan's War in Word and Deed
    Archival material -- especially rare B&W Soviet footage -- is a knockout, though the assembly of talking heads, nearly all Reagan loyalists, is predictable and uninspired.
  45. Ticket to Jerusalem
    Attempts to meld reality and artifice but to uninspiring results.
  46. Way Off Broadway
    Both extremely familiar and, despite frequent references to Stanley Kubrick and Orson Welles, cinematically and dramatically dull.
  47. Ae Fond Kiss...
    The flatness of several of the key performances badly lets down this promising material.
  48. Master of the Game
    There's a provocative premise at the heart of Master of the Game, but uneven acting, indifferent direction and melodramatic dialogue blunt pointed ironies.
  49. Bandido
    The filmmakers seem split between doing it straight and gleefully ripping up the genre, and never make up their minds.
  50. Freak Weather
    Fiction writer and debuting helmer Mary Kuryla is clearly after a Big Statement on abuse and strength of character, but falls short by creating a self-destructive monster in lieu of a sympathetic protagonist.
  51. The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam
    Lofty ambitions and unaffected sincerity are not quite enough to sustain The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam, a reverentially pokey drama that plays less like a conventional movie than a lengthy series of hagiographic historical tableaux.
  52. God's Sandbox
    The serious subject of forced female circumcision becomes the stuff of predictable melodrama in God's Sandbox.
  53. Piggie
    Pic's quirky-for-quirky's-sake antics are neither particularly coherent nor enjoyably incoherent.
  54. Moonlight
    Menacing atmosphere created by Dutch helmer Paula van der Oest ("Zus & Zo") does not make up for the weak script's multiple improbabilities, flat dialogue or the discomfort of watching children, the handicapped and even animals being abused onscreen.
  55. Neal 'N' Nikki
    Fluff is hardly the word for Neal 'n' Nikki, a mismatched romantic comedy that makes most Bollywood twosomes look like art movies.
  56. The Tollbooth
    Lack of perspective and shaky comic tone plague Tollbooth -- sinking it in a morass of whiny cliches.
  57. Surge of Power
    There are potentially funny ideas, but the barely-there script, performances and direction go for a deadpan tenor that's not supported by much actual wit.
  58. In Her Line of Fire
    With Mariel Hemingway a credible Sapphic Stallone, this passable action trash should satisfy as fun original programming for gay-targeted Here! cable net.
  59. Highway Courtesans
    Earnest but prosaic.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams
    Central performance by Mirjana Karanovic is instantly endearing. Unfortunately, film coasts on thesp's ability to evoke sympathy and leaves her stranded in this yarn that's all setup and little payoff.
  61. Full of It
    Hormonally charged comedy is bound to make parents uncomfortable, as writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore add a sexual dimension to the kind of after-school-special premise that might appeal to 10-year-olds (but is here twisted to suit older teens).
  62. American Cannibal: The Road to Reality
    Fails to draw any conclusions and, thanks to legal issues, leaves too many questions unanswered.
  63. Goodbye Momo
    Nocturnal settings and musical interludes create their own kind of allure, but picture feels like an art film imitation, not an authentic art film itself.
  64. Fakers
    Despite engaging performances from a cast led by Matthew Rhys and Kate Ashfield and pro direction by first-timer Richard Janes, yarn about art grifters lacks real snap, which ultimately stems from the so-so script and lack of real coin.
  65. El cantante
    A virtual template of every imaginable cliche of the musical biopic, picture suffers from a lack of narrative and character focus
  66. Macbeth
    Something indeed wicked this way comes in a mangled Macbeth set in contempo gangland Melbourne.
  67. Beauty Remains
    An unappealing, stiff melodrama.
  68. Badland
    A strenuously solemn film that wants to create some kind of American pastoral tragedy out of the nation's current angst with the war.
  69. Spiral
    The film toys with audience expectations and perceptions by playing fast and loose with circumstances and clues, while leading to an almost unavoidable and dismayingly obvious conclusion.
  70. City with No Mercy
    Plainly disappointing as a well-sustained kick-butt thriller, and politically toxic.
  71. Jack and Jill vs. the World
    Parise no doubt intends the pic's attention to the disease -- plus animal adoption and fair trade coffee -- to be socially enlightening, but it feels suspiciously like sympathy-mongering.
  72. Deal
    Public fascination with Texas Hold 'em and other poker variations will likely bolster B.O., though more discriminating auds may choose to pass.
  73. Sangre De Mi Sangre
    Ochoa is such a masterful actor that he makes things fairly interesting despite the script, with Hernandez and Espindola well-cast as two young men operating by different moral compasses.
  74. Irina Palm
    Astonishingly, pic reaped hearty guffaws at Berlinale press show, suggesting this might play best in Europe, but Anglophone auds are more likely to give Palm the thumbs down.
  75. Red Roses and Petrol
    It all rings particularly hollow in light of several recent pics ("Last Orders" and "The Barbarian Invasions" chief among them) that have explored similar terrain with much greater emotion and intelligence.
  76. Year of the Fish
    That the film is animated gives it an appropriately magical feel, but it can't save the story from being drowned in devices and stereotype.
  77. August Evening
    Although guided by considerable empathy toward its small circle of kinfolk eking out a living in southern Texas, Eska's tale of a woman's unconditional support of her father-in-law is told with a faux-poetic sensibility that never really connects with his characters' lives.
  78. Shoot on Sight
    A disappointingly stilted melodrama masquerading as a political thriller.
  79. The First Basket
    A humorless, relentlessly ethnocentric docu about Jews in basketball.
  80. How About You ...
    Comedic and sentimental beats are as predictable as the storytelling is sloppy.
  81. Delhi-6
    Admirably ambitious but ultimately frustrating musical dramedy.
  82. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
    It's a very academic movie about academics that belongs in academia, not movie theaters.
  83. Afterschool
    Unsettles without illuminating, marred by narcotic pacing and a blank lead performance.
  84. From Mexico with Love
    There's scarcely a boxing-movie cliche left unrecycled by the end of From Mexico With Love, an inaptly titled and thoroughly predictable indie drama directed by vet stunt coordinator and fight choreographer Jimmy Nickerson.
  85. The Little Traitor
    Sentimental and a bit too cute in evoking a child's-eye view, the picture, nevertheless will please its target Jewish auds.
  86. Oh My God
    Compacts nearly three years' worth of globe-trotting interviews into an often visually vibrant but rhetorically muddled package. So intent on giving (almost) every perspective a fair shake that it winds up saying little of consequence.
  87. Uncertainty
    Half formulaic and half simply unimaginative.
  88. Loot
    Marder, surely, was looking for a big bonanza at the end of Loot, but suspense and catharsis prove as elusive as two old men's memories.
  89. The Strip
    It's certainly an unusual movie, aiming more often than not for pathos rather than pratfalls while nonetheless maintaining a slapstick tone, but it remains resolutely unmemorable.
  90. Until the Light Takes Us
    Stylistic overreach and neglect of the uninitiated make Until the Light Takes Us a too-specialized examination of Norway's black-metal movement and the aberrant culture surrounding it.
  91. Videocracy
    Rather than presenting a well-argued expose of the disturbing symbiosis that exists between Italo politics and TV, with Prime Minister Berlusconi being only the most obvious connection, the scribe-helmer gets sidetracked by marginal characters while keeping bare facts to a minimum.
  92. Blood Done Sign My Name
    Comes off as a painfully old-fashioned, flatly directed exercise in passionless historical reenactment.
  93. Shutterbug
    Though the low-budget picture is not without interest, its uneven thesping, sound quality and special effects might prove more welcome on the fest fringe.
  94. Godspeed
    A little less chatter and a little more splatter might have improved Godspeed, an initially intriguing but finally overwrought tale of murder, retribution and quasi-religious fanaticism set in the land of the midnight sun.
  95. The Thorn in the Heart
    This moving but far from revelatory portrait of a beloved family figure registers as too slight and personal for significant theatrical play.
  96. Letters to God
    While only the converted will likely see the redemption behind the manipulation, picture delivers a strong enough dose of spiritual saccharine to yield solid if not heavenly returns from its trusty target audience.
  97. The Perfect Game
    It's an unabashedly corny but occasionally stirring dramedy based on the true-life story of scrappy young baseball players from Mexico who, in 1957, scored an improbable string of successes while playing their way from a Monterrey sandlot to the Little League World Series.
  98. Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger
    Despite uninspired dialogue and direction, newcomer Catanzariti impresses as the oddball finding her niche. But the show, such as it is, belongs to top-billed Castle-Hughes.
  99. Paper Man
    The picture's biggest stumbling block is its superhero hook.
  100. Furry Vengeance
    This undistinguished picture qualifies as an endangered species. As a digital babysitter, however, it may prove sufficiently efficient to generate fair-to-middling homevid sales.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »