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. Fear
    The thriller telegraphs most of its suspense payoffs, and the audience is almost always ahead of the game. What's most disappointing is that the characters begin as well-etched individuals, but are gradually turned into mere plot functions.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    James and the Giant Peach
    All in all, James and the Giant Peach is an extraordinary achievement.
  3. Primal Fear
    The major jolt is saved for the very end but, like much else in the film, it is overexplained and underlined when more simplicity and quiet would have provided the revelation with the power of a depth charge.
    • 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.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Sgt. Bilko
    Even Steve Martin back in his wild-and-crazy mode can't breathe much life into Sgt. Bilko - a somewhat unlikely candidate for translation from the TV sitcom vaults to the bigscreen. Bilko can't really be much more than the series - the exploits of an unscrupulous army scam artist constantly looking for new ways to make a buck.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Flirting with Disaster
    Although it eventually throws more balls in the air than it can easily juggle, Flirting with Disaster is, most of the time, a diabolically clever satire that has its way with any number of contemporary shiboleths.
  7. Welcome to the Dollhouse
    Though lacking the sensationalistic elements of a movie like "Kids", Dollhouse offers unflinching realism, meticulous attention to detail and deliciously wicked humor as it explores the growing pains of a misfit.
    • 100 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Dekalog (1988)
    Being a pessimist at heart, Kieslowski, who cowrote all 10 scripts, unfolds a variety of human weaknesses, shows how difficult it is to conform to one commandment, let alone 10, and considers human frailty with sympathy but little hope.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Ed
    Almost painfuly modest in its ambition and accomplishment, this slow-pitch offering might tolerably amuse the under-10 crowd, but will prove borderline intolerable for everyone else.
  10. Executive Decision
    Ultimately, it’s the film’s sly irony that sets it a notch above similar actioners. The Thomas brothers’ script repeatedly draws us down dead-end alleys only to reverse expectations and top white-knuckle situations with thrilling conclusions.
  11. Fargo
    In the darkly humorous Fargo, iconoclastic filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen manage the precarious balancing act of respecting genre conventions and simultaneously pushing them to an almost surrealistic extreme. Very funny stuff.
  12. The Birdcage
    Performed with matchless aplomb and made with plush professionalism, pic serves up pure pleasure from beginning to end.
  13. The Flower of My Secret
    Far from abandoning his trademark humor, however, the writer-director skillfully enlists it in the service of an emotional story, charting the heroine's journey from loss and torment to rediscovered strength and hope. Propelled by stellar performances and a script that resonates with intelligence, subtlety and surprises, this is by far Almodovar's best film in years.
  14. Chungking Express
    Overall, Wong’s movie doesn’t leave as big a wash behind it as the more ambitious “Days” and his “Mean Streets”-like debut, “As Tears Go By,” but it’s an enjoyable cruise.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Hellraiser: Bloodline
    Fourth installment of Hellraiser series proves to be so bad that the director of record is Alan Smithee, the name used under Directors Guild rules when the real helmer refuses credit. The director billed in early announcements was special effects whiz Kevin Yeager -- who retains credit in that category -- but who wisely realized the released film would not enhance his resume. Except for the most undiscriminating gorehound, pic is a pointless mess.
  16. The Neon Bible
    For about the first half hour, Davies and his superb creative team weave a potent spell. But, starting with a poorly staged revival meeting sequence, things start to go wrong; Davies's grip slackens, and the artifice overwhelms the perilously slim storyline.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Down Periscope
    The makers of Police Academy and Major League team up to take on the submarine corps in Down Periscope, and the result is a testosterone comedy that's crude fun, with a pinch of corn-pone morality. It's good-natured, innocuous frivolity that should raise a few smiles and generate good but not great spring box office.
  18. Rumble in the Bronx
    Though Chan wins his usual stripes for death-defying... the movie ends on a dramatically unsatisfying note.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Mary Reilly
    [A] muddled mix of melodrama and horror.
  20. Bottle Rocket
    Full of surprising warmth and charm, unexpected plot turns and droll characters that bounce off each other in refreshing ways.
  21. Happy Gilmore
    Added together, there are about three minutes of funny material in Happy Gilmore, and pretty much all of them are in the trailer, leaving a sometimes painfully unfunny 90 minutes with which to contend.
  22. Muppet Treasure Island
    While the picture is often pure delight, and constantly inventive and engaging, ultimately it is not up to the highest standards of the troupe. [25 Feb 1996, p.47]
    • Variety
  23. City Hall
    City Hall comes awfully close to delivering the goods within a fast-paced thriller framework. At its best, the picture conveys the visceral energy of city politics, in which problem-solving is more common than air. The dilemma for the film is that there are no happy endings, just reelection promises that have as much substance as ether.
  24. Beautiful Girls
    A great title in search of a movie to live up to it, this startlingly uneventful compendium of thick-headed boy-talk and female tolerance squanders a fine cast on incredibly ordinary characters and situations.
  25. White Squall
    Director Ridley Scott's lavish production isn't totally satisfying, coasting aimlessly at times before suddenly leaping to a more intense dramatic plane.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Restoration
    Sweeping yet intimate drama boasts an exemplary cast headed by Robert Downey Jr., who does bravura work as a wastrel physician. Pic’s main liability, an overly episodic story that loses some steam in the second half, might, however, limit its commercial domain to aficionados of artier historical fare.
  27. From Dusk Till Dawn
    A deliriously trashy, exuberantly vulgar, lavishly appointed exploitation picture, this weird combo of road-kill movie and martial-arts vampire gorefest is made to order for the stimulation of teenage boys.
  28. Mr. Holland's Opus
    An idealized tribute to a charismatic teacher who has devoted his entire life to music appreciation, Mr. Holland’s Opus has the same old-fashioned texture as Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Older audiences will be moved by the story, but the crucial variable is to what extent younger viewers will embrace this schmaltzy, Capraesque saga that’s not only set mainly in the past but also feels as if it were made back when.
  29. Bio-Dome
    Neither the script nor direction lives up to the concept, and the picture evolves into a "Bio"-degradable hash rather than a zany sendup of potent issues and serious intents gone awry.
  30. Dunston Checks In
    Director Ken Kwapis displays a deft touch, balancing realistic elements and outsize characterizations. Pic’s unflagging pace and the unexpectedly witty script by John Hopkins and Bruce Graham complement the simplicity of this comedy construct.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace
    Managing to transcend the formulaic plot are Frewer and Bergin, whose performances make the film work. Frewer, reunited with his “Max Headroom” director, Farhad Mann, veers from the real — and still somewhat dull-witted — Jobe to the megalomaniacal virtual Jobe without missing a beat.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
    The latest product of the prolific Wayans family, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood is much like its marquee-buster of a title: full of very obvious spoofery, and funnier in concept than in execution.
  33. Eye for an Eye
    A B movie that somehow won the lottery and got an A-movie cast and director.
  34. Two If by Sea
    The dialogue has the crispness of aging lettuce, and the situations rely on coincidence, disbelief and a singular disregard for character.
  35. Twelve Monkeys
    Gilliam's work is long on sensibility, short on sense.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Dead Man Walking
    An intimate chamber piece for two, superbly acted by Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, this is a mature, well-crafted movie.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Richard III
    Spirited acting, machine-gun pacing and ominous Art Deco settings combine to rousing effect in this Richard III, a sure-fire crowd-pleaser among recent Shakespeare movies.
  38. Grumpier Old Men
    Grumpier is a welcome continuation that leaves you wanting for another chapter that's as rich in humanity and fun as the initial companion pieces.
  39. Cutthroat Island
    What seemed like a dubious proposition on paper plays even more dubiously onscreen, as Cutthroat Island strenuously but vainly attempts to revive the thrills of old-fashioned pirate pictures. Giving most of the swashbuckling opportunities to star Geena Davis, pic does little with its reversal of gender expectations and features a seriously mismatched romantic duo in Davis and Matthew Modine.
  40. Shanghai Triad
    Triad oozes a confidence that carries the viewer almost without pause to its shocking climax and ironic close.
  41. Heat
    Stunningly made and incisively acted by a large and terrific cast, Michael Mann's ambitious study of the relativity of good and evil stands apart from other films of its type by virtue of its extraordinarily rich characterizations and its thoughtful, deeply melancholy take on modern life.
  42. 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.
  43. Cry, the Beloved Country
    A richly realized piece of Masterpiece Literature, director Darrell James Roodt's Cry, the Beloved Country has an admirable high polish. But more effort could have been made to address its underlying message and provide an emotional punch to equal the book's resonance.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The City of Lost Children
    A vibrant, bubbling cauldron of breathtaking f/x, gross-out humor and in-your-face imagery.
  45. Sabrina
    This new "Sabrina" is more fizzle than fizz. Although the revamping of one of Audrey Hepburn's most enchanting vehicles has its share of diverting scenes and dialogue, Sydney Pollack and his writers have uncomfortably tilted this Cinderella story to less than scintillating results.
  46. Sense and Sensibility
    Crucially for such an elaborately dressed production, the characters all come thoroughly alive with their ready wits and pulsing emotions, overcoming the two-century gap with seeming effortlessness.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Georgia
    Performed to maximum effect by a host of top-flight actors, Ulu Grosbard's strong character study is knit together by a tense subtext that underlies even the calmest moments.
  48. Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead
    Tartly written and vividly performed by a fine ensemble cast, Gary Fleder's bracingly entertaining first feature covers familiar ground in a fresh, breezy way.
  49. Wild Bill
    Overall, the filmmakers’ take on the subject is highly esoteric and fails to suggest either why Wild Bill has remained such a famous figure, or the irony in the fact that he has done so.
  50. Toy Story
    The very good news is that, in addition to stylistic innovation, the film sports a provocative and appealing story that's every bit the equal of this technical achievement.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Casino
    Possesses a stylistic boldness and verisimilitude that is virtually matchless.
  52. The American President
    Genial middle-brow fare that coasts a long way on the charm of its two stars
  53. GoldenEye
    Most crucially, Brosnan makes the grade as 007. He handles the action capably and gets the standard quips out in a commendably straightforward way that's wry but not dismissive.
  54. It Takes Two
    Quite simply, It Takes Two is just too cute for words.
  55. The Crossing Guard
    Much of the film plays awkwardly, its tone veering undecidedly between volatile drama and contemplative psychological study.
  56. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
    It's a death-defying hodgepodge anchored by the complete confidence of star Carrey.
  57. Mighty Aphrodite
    A zippy, frothy confection that emerges as agreeable middle-range Woody.
  58. Home for the Holidays
    But Foster is unable to give the episodic, fragmented film a coherent feel; her prosaic, sometimes irritating picture proceeds scene by scene, with the requisite climaxes and anticlimaxes along the bumpy road.
    • 13 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    Fair Game
    Fair Game is otherwise notable only for its jaw-dropping stupidity, the sort of action yarn that hopes nonstop mayhem will help cloud just how nonsensical it is.
  60. Total Eclipse
    A good biographical film about artists should, at the very least, inspire the viewer to learn more about its subjects and the work they created. Total Eclipse has totally the opposite effect, of making one never want to hear about its protagonists again. This misbegotten look at the mutually destructive relationship between the 19th century French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaineis a complete botch in all respects.
  61. Leaving Las Vegas
    The film pulls no punches, takes no prisoners and flies in the face of feel-good pictures.
  62. Copycat
    Ending is on the conventional side, more so than anything else in the picture , but script by Ann Biderman and David Madsen keeps the tart surprises coming throughout most of the picture with only occasional lapses into red herrings and artificial manipulation.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Doom Generation
    A nihilistic comedy about a trio of alienated youngsters, pic is bold not only in its art design, but also in its narrative and tone, a mixture of satire and horror with heavy dosage of steamy sex and macabre violence.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Get Shorty
    Good, sly fun.
  65. Mallrats
    While admittedly ragged and ribald, it's a picture with an innate charm and honesty that should win over audiences.
  66. Now and Then
    The adults do little more than provide marquee allure in brief bookending scenes that add little to rest of the pic. For the most part, Now and Then is a showcase for four fine actresses in their early teens.
  67. Blue in the Face
    A piecemeal collection of barely connected scenes and characters, stitched together with videotaped comments from a cross-section of Brooklyn residents.
  68. Strange Days
    A technical tour de force for director Kathryn Bigelow and her team, pic is less accomplished in putting over its characters, emotions and dubious sociopolitical agenda.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Jade
    A muddled mix of sex, political corruption and murder, Jade is a jigsaw puzzle that never puts all the pieces together.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kicking and Screaming
    The director is more successful in setting an easy, low-key tone, with nicely framed shots and subtle camera movements downplaying the script's pretensions.
  71. Devil in a Blue Dress
    On its own terms, the plotting of "Devil" is absorbing, and the pieces actually fit together pretty decently. On the other hand, when scenes directly call to mind similar ones in "Chinatown," this effort's stepchild relationship to the classic is forcibly demonstrated.
    • 10 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
    Not even the addition of satanic rituals, farm implements or a Howard Stern-like shock jock (Leo Geter) is enough to paint over the creaky trappings.
  73. To Die For
    Delivers continuous pinpricks of irreverent humor and subversive cultural commentary.
    • Variety
  74. Showgirls
    Impossibly vulgar, tawdry and coarse, this much-touted major studio splash into NC-17 waters is akin to being keelhauled through a cesspool, with sharks swimming alongside.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Seven
    This weirdly off-kilter suspenser goes well beyond the usual police procedural or killer-on-a-rampage yarn due to a fine script, striking craftsmanship and a masterful performance by Morgan Freeman.
  76. Empire Records
    A soundtrack in search of a movie, Empire Records is one teen-music effort that never finds a groove.
  77. Hackers
    There is a great deal more style than substance here. The special effects experts and the other members of the technical crew do their considerable best to give their various hacking sequences the look of warp-speed sci-fi fantasy.
  78. 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.
  79. Clockers
    A study of the urban dope-dealing culture and its toll on everyone who comes in contact with it, the picture has an insider's feel that is constantly undercut by the filmmaker's impulse to editorialize.
  80. To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar
    Ultimately, the comedy comes across as a celebration of openness, alternative lifestyles and bonding, all life-affirming values that in the 1990s are beyond reproach — or real controversy.
  81. Nadja
    After creating such promise through the intriguing setup of stunning twin vampires in trendy, nocturnal Gotham, it’s disappointing that Almereyda develops narrative butterfingers, letting the storyline become too diffuse and cutting among too many principal characters.
  82. Kids
    Disturbing because it is so believable, Kids goes well beyond any previous American film in frankly describing the lives of at least a certain group of modern teenagers.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Prophecy
    Daring and unique on the one hand, but hard to swallow on the other, Prophecy is a fantasy thriller about murderous angels waging a war on Earth. First-time director Gregory Widen deserves a pat on the back for attempting risky balancing act.
  84. Desperado
    Could scarcely be more dazzling on a purely visual level, but it's mortally anemic in the story, character and thematic departments.
  85. The Brothers McMullen
    Good old-fashioned virtues of three-dimensional characters, fine dialogue, recognizable life situations and meat-and-potatoes content.
  86. Mortal Kombat
    But where others have sunk in the mire of imitation, director Paul Anderson and writer Kevin Droney effect a viable balance between exquisitely choreographed action and ironic visual and verbal counterpoint.
  87. The Baby-Sitters Club
    The picture’s problem is that it is small in every way. It’s modestly budgeted, and boasts a simple, unflamboyant story. Its score is bland and nondescript, the performers are scrubbed, and everything is tied up in a neat, white bow.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Usual Suspects
    The Usual Suspects is an ironic, bang-up thriller about the wages of crime. A terrific cast of exciting actors socks over this absorbingly complicated yarn that's been spun in a seductively slick fashion by director Bryan Singer.
  89. Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
    Docu glosses over important issues of Wilson’s life and career, but the observations it does make are so illuminating that they almost compensate for the omissions, resulting in a brilliant docu.
  90. Dangerous Minds
    Pfeiffer tackles the part with obvious dedication, but she's thwarted from the get-go by the heavily proscribed nature of the role as written.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Walk in the Clouds
    Aa glossy, fairy-tale romance that's longer on wishfulness than believability.
  92. A Kid in King Arthur's Court
    Run-of-the-mill modern retelling in which a schnooky kid is transported to days of yore to revivify the glory of Camelot. But the juvenilization of the hero turns into an ill-fitting concept that unbalances an already fragile fantasy.
  93. Babe
    The achievement here is a thoroughly compelling story in which the underlying technological razzle-dazzle never intrudes.
  94. River of Grass
    River of Grass works much better as a jokey , theoretical piece of genre revisionism than as a real movie.
  95. Something to Talk About
    Unfortunately, the diverse elements introduced here don’t coalesce into a comfortable package, with much of the background action proving notably listless and unconvincing.
  96. Waterworld
    A not-bad futuristic actioner with three or four astounding sequences, an unusual hero, a nifty villain and less mythic and romantic resonance than might be desired.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Net
    Riddled with more coincidences and implausibilities than Hitchcock permitted himself in his entire career, The Net still gets by as a reasonably suspenseful, very au courant thriller.
  98. Operation Dumbo Drop
    A well-crafted and entertaining pic with broad, cross-generational appeal.
  99. Living in Oblivion
    An amusing look at the perils of film production, Living in Oblivion is an inside joke with a generosity of heart that makes it accessible to anyone who would take an interest.
  100. Clueless
    A fresh, disarmingly bright and at times explosively funny comedy well worth a trip to the mall, even if it eventually runs out of gas.
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