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. 10,000 BC
    Conventional where it should be bold and mild where it should be wild, 10,000 BC reps a missed opportunity to present an imaginative vision of a prehistoric moment.
  2. Zoolander 2
    The results may delight those who believe recycled gags and endless cameos to be the very essence of great screen comedy, but everyone else will likely recognize Stiller’s wannabe Magnum opus as a disappointment-slash-misfire, the orange mocha crappuccino of movie sequels.
  3. Valentine's Day
    As gooey and lacking in protein as a chocolate holiday bonbon, Valentine's Day plays like a feature-length commercial produced by the Friends of the Valentine Promotional Society.
  4. Lansdown
    Recycles familiar ideas, with just enough droll wit to score as a nifty normal-folk-doing-stupid-deadly-things comedy a la "Fargo."
    • 34 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Year That Trembled
    Fails to generate much excitement, due to the blandness of the characters and some murky storytelling.
  6. All About the Benjamins
    Boilerplate crime comedy.
  7. Hair Show
    An anemic sitcom pilot dragged out to an excruciating 108-minute running time.
  8. Into My Heart
    So understated as to sometimes lack a pulse.
  9. Otto; or, Up with Dead People
    Meandering at the same draggy pace as its titular gay zombie, eroto-horror-satire mixes movie-within-a-movie machinations with graphic sex scenes that will titillate anyone who's ever wanted to see someone shagging an open wound.
  10. 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.
  11. As Good as Dead
    A muddled script, spatially confounding direction and four thesps seemingly acting in four different movies are only a few of the problems with the misbegotten political thriller As Good as Dead.
  12. 21 and Over
    Promising crude straight-boy humor, but delivering sensitive buddy moments and tons of male nudity, this by-the-numbers gut-buster looks slick, moves fast and packs enough laughs to enliven spring-break receipts and earn its helmers more work.
  13. The Time of Their Lives
    A likably lame rattletrap of a road movie that gets what limited spark it has from the “Dynasty” diva’s still-lascivious on-screen charisma.
  14. Radioflash
    Ultimately it seems a message movie not quite willing to deliver any clear message, as well as a genre film shy about admitting as much. It’s too melodramatic to be taken as gritty realism, yet not suspenseful enough to work as a straight thriller.
  15. Broken Diamonds
    It strikes not a single authentic chord, and that also goes for the lead performance of Ben Platt, whose overdone theater-kid turn further dooms the material’s stabs at humor and pathos.
  16. Safe Haven
    Safe Haven offers an unsurprising but not unsatisfying tour through recognizable Sparkville terrain.
  17. Ice Age: Collision Course
    It may be a slight entertainment in the grand scheme of things, but it’s been made with a busy, nattering joy that is positively infectious
    • 34 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    1941
    Billed as a comedy spectacle, Steven Spielberg’s 1941 is long on spectacle, but short on comedy. The Universal-Columbia Pictures co-production is an exceedingly entertaining, fast-moving revision of 1940s war hysteria in Los Angeles spawned by the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and boasts Hollywood’s finest miniature and special effects work seen to date.
  19. The Real Cancun
    Unabashedly tasteless, wholly trashy and, also, hugely entertaining.
  20. Spice World
    The movie essentially mirrors the non-diva, down-to-earth personalities on which their act is based, and which include a sizable amount of self-parody.
  21. It's Better to Jump
    The three director-producers’ inability to come up with stronger narrative or thematic organization makes “It’s Better to Jump” play like the professionally polished side product of a vacation stay.
  22. Boys of Abu Ghraib
    The film has a very good idea in using a single soldier’s perspective to explore how tension and boredom can lead to such extreme misconduct, but it doesn’t go far enough, in the end leaving a disgraceful chapter just dimly illuminated in psychological terms.
  23. Point Break
    The sense of living dangerously is somewhat lacking as Kurt Wimmer’s emotionally vacant screenplay fails to make audiences care enough about the characters to sweat over their physical exertions.
  24. Undead
    Precociously inventive horror pic that combines brain-eating zombies with outer space aliens.
  25. The Crush
    In fact, with its basic shortage of gore and only brief glimpses of nudity, it’s hard to imagine what in the film prompted an R rating, unless it stands for “ridiculous.”
    • 34 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Kill Me Later
    An edgy, energetic romantic thriller in the tradition of "Run Lola Run," "A Life Less Ordinary" and "Out of Sight."
  27. Town & Country
    A lot of talent on both sides of the camera operating in low gear.
  28. Eulogy
    Nine very good actors are wasted, if not embarrassed, by the thoroughly unconvincing shenanigans perpetrated by first-time writer-director Michael Clancy, while a tenth -- Zooey Deschanel -- somehow manages to float ethereally above it all with her dignity intact.
  29. Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston
    In sartorial terms, the fabric is to die for, but helmer Whitney Sudler-Smith's documentary follows a banal pattern, while the finishing lacks finesse.
  30. Elektra
    Elektra proves no more than fitfully satisfying, a character-driven superhero yarn whose flurry of last-minute rewriting shows in a disjointed plot.
  31. American Son
    The overly finished language and theatrical intensity levels that might be potently effective onstage lose any pretense of naturalism under the camera’s unblinking gaze.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Mr. Destiny
    A heavy-handed, by-the-numbers fantasy about an ordinary Joe who thinks his life would have been different if he'd connected with that all-important pitch in a high school baseball game.
  33. The Mummy
    The Mummy is a literal-minded, bumptious monster mash of a movie. It keeps throwing things at you, and the more you learn about the ersatz intricacy of its “universe,” the less compelling it becomes.
  34. Dead & Breakfast
    Offers plenty of splat with its slapstick. But this strenuous zombie yukfest is no more sophisticated than its nail-on-head title -- making it a joke no smarter than the movies it riffs on.
  35. Two Gates of Sleep
    Starts off promisingly but peters out as the story, told practically sans dialogue, heads nowhere consistent.
  36. Nesting
    The script unfortunately suffers from its own case of arrested development, barely getting out of the gate before stalling, and never building enough laughs or narrative impetus to justify feature length.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The People That Time Forgot
    Special effects add to the suspense as the group encounter all manner of hair-raising beasties and erupting fire in braving the dangers of the cavemen in an attempt to find their quarry.
  38. Vacation
    Key to the success of the Vacation movies was their underlying sweetness — the sense that, for all their foibles, the Griswolds were a surprisingly functional lot. Families looked up at the screen and saw a version of themselves reflected back. Look at the new Vacation and all that stares back is a great comic void.
  39. Love Hurts
    Most audiences want action to feel like action, whereas Eusebio makes it look too much like choreography: No matter how dynamic, every fight scene seems rehearsed to within an inch of its life.
  40. Fatal Affair
    Ultimately, this movie isn’t “Us,” or any other shrewd riff on contemporary culture. You won’t make a fatal — or even near-fatal — error if you stream it. Sometimes a second-rate thriller is just a second-rate thriller.
  41. The Lifeguard
    Lambert brings a forlorn dimension to his seductive young role, but Bell never really convinces as the older woman. Despite flirting with controversy, the actress seems reluctant to plunge fully into potential unlikability, nor does the film quite give her the chance.
  42. The Bubble
    Judd Apatow made a movie. A very bad movie.
  43. 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.
  44. My Best Friend's Girl
    Manages to distract auds from the predictability of the plot with fusillades of profanely funny dialogue and some playfully sexy chemistry generated by Cook and Hudson.
  45. 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.
  46. The Era of Vampires
    Has the stench less of rotting flesh than the whiff of a thoughtless quickie.
  47. Collateral Damage
    More than an embarrassment, it's an insult.
  48. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
    Has the distinction of being a major motion picture that's far less imaginative, and quite a bit more stupid, than the interactive game it's based on.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Raise Your Voice
    Duff makes an engaging heroine, but her immaculately coifed blonde locks and undiminished lip gloss remind viewers just how much of a star vehicle this actually is.
  50. And Now a Word from Our Sponsor
    Plop plop. Fizz fizz. Oh, what a missed opportunity it is! In the well-cast but seldom funny satire And Now a Word From Our Sponsor.
  51. Equilibrium
    Misses with its blowhard treatment of a silly, obvious script. Results might hazard "Battlefield Earth" comparison if new pic were a tad more fun.
  52. Shadowboxer
    Admirably jostles and upends the fatigued killer-for-hire genre.
  53. 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).
  54. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
    A mostly harmless yet plenty rough assemblage of musical numbers and rote chases that barely add up to a movie.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Soul Man
    This social farce is excellently written, fast paced and intelligently directed. Film is hilarious throughout.
  56. The Glimmer Man
    For a rock'em, sock'em action thriller, The Glimmer Man is a hopelessly slow-moving, slow-witted shaggy-dog tale that delivers the jolts but lacks the juice necessary for high-voltage entertainment.
  57. Kidnapping Mr. Heineken
    About as appealing as day-old beer littered with cigarette butts, the abysmal caper drama Kidnapping Mr. Heineken is one of those international co-productions produced for all the right tax-credit reasons and none of the right artistic ones.
  58. The Greening of Whitney Brown
    This simplistic story of bucolic redemption has few pretensions to depth, ambiguity or realism, relying on its name cast, sprightly lead and a helluva horse to attract family audiences.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    An Eye for an Eye
    An Eye for an Eye is an effective martial arts actioner vehicle for Chuck Norris.
  60. The Chaperone
    Nothing here -- technologically, linguistically or visually -- would not be more at home decades ago, when director Stephen Herek helmed "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "The Mighty Ducks."
  61. Grandma's Boy
    Even Sandler diehards may pass on this mostly derivative paean to compulsive computer geekdom and male sexual dysfunction.
  62. Looking Glass
    The movie offers a great deal more mood than matter.
  63. The Grudge 2
    Story is incidental here, as auds merely anticipate the scares.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Chasing Papi
    For the most part, the fast-moving pace, thankfully slight running time, attractive leads and infectious soundtrack distract from its many inconsistencies
  65. The Divergent Series: Allegiant
    Although “Allegiant” does recapture the original film’s sense of constantly discovering and adapting to fresh information, audiences no longer identify with anyone in particular.
  66. The Stepfather
    McCormick's Stepfather boasts a decent script by J.S. Cardone, but it seems to have been made in a bubble, as if nothing had transpired in the world of slasher/horror since the late Donald Westlake ("The Grifters") wrote the much-respected original.
  67. Burning Palms
    Making his directorial debut, screenwriter Christopher Landon struggles so mightily to offend that he forgets to supply a rooting interest in his characters.
  68. American Renegades
    While not particularly inspired, memorable or suspenseful, the action here is impressively scaled, from a tank plunging off a bridge to helicopter stunts and all that diving activity. It may have been a bad investment, but technically first-rate American Renegades does put its considerable budgetary resources right up there onscreen.
  69. Despite the Falling Snow
    When a film’s basic strategy is to cut between the past and the present, it should create ripples of anticipatory tension. But Despite the Falling Snow is one of those movies in which the cross-cutting keeps destroying all mood and momentum — it feels more like channel-surfing.
  70. Lies We Tell
    Very much to its detriment, Misra’s ambitious, overflowing soap opera of a debut is not content with being the character portrait that Byrne’s inherently interesting Donald deserves.
  71. Elisa & Marcela
    A dully made, frequently ridiculous eye-roller shot in standard issue black-and-white that gussies itself up as a brave clarion call for gay rights.
  72. Blood and Chocolate
    The entire star-crossed scenario is conveyed with the narrative simplicity of a musicvideo, lingering in an almost fetishistic manner on sensual details (boxes of chocolates, a blood-red ribbon) while compressing important elements of the story into clumsy montages.
  73. The Only Living Boy in New York
    If it’s less punchy and original than “(500) Days of Summer,” it’s still a wry tale that deserves to be seen. Gerald keeps telling Thomas that life should be a mess, but in The Only Living Boy in New York it’s a pleasingly witty and well-observed one.
  74. The Blazing World
    Ambitious but tediously precious, sincerely conceived but derivatively realized, The Blazing World throws an ornate heap of production design at an anemically scripted psychological metaphor, and counts on a combination of fairy dust and sheer determined nerve to make the whole contraption fly.
  75. Detroit Rock City
    It's crude, sexist, ear-splittingly loud and a helluva lotta fun for anyone suffering from past or present testosterone overload.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bedtime Stories
    With Bedtime Stories, Sandler has delivered on his promise to make a movie his kids can enjoy. What's more, he's managed to do so without alienating his core audience.
  77. House of D
    David Duchovny scores considerably higher as director than as screenwriter.
  78. Welcome to Mooseport
    Lacks the antic energy and inspired imagination that might have put this over as a sharp-witted community comedy in the Preston Sturges vein.
  79. Grave Encounters
    The picture's creepiness factor is sufficient to rate this a notch above genre average.
  80. Virginia
    A scattershot Southern melodrama that can't decide what it's supposed to be.
  81. My Favorite Martian
    Martian is loud, busy and altogether pointless. Worse, it’s simply not as engaging as the show that inspired it.
  82. Five Nights at Freddy's
    Faced with a flat script and uninspired direction, the actors can’t save Five Nights at Freddy’s.
  83. Programming the Nation?
    Being pissed off isn't enough to convince in a film that reveals very little that's new; the picture's personalized approach and kitchen-sink structure don't help, either.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Class
    McCarthy and Rob Lowe (as his roommate) carry most of the picture, and both acquit themselves reasonably well under the circumstances.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Air America
    Spectacular action sequences and engaging performances by Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr make this big-budgeter entertaining and provocative.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
    Given, however, the consistent pro production value, the evisceration on parade is not campy.
  87. War of the Worlds: Goliath
    Rote character writing, voicing and animation devalue the more impressive design elements of Joe Pearson’s long-aborning project.
  88. State Property 2
    Slicker, funnier and more professional than its predecessor, State Property 2, with Damon Dash at its helm tones down the original.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Son of the Pink Panther
    Starring Italian comedian Roberto Benigni as the new bumbling inspector, it is a tired pastiche of recycled sketches and gags.
  90. Chill Factor
    Utterly lacking the drive and roller-coaster energy expected of top action pics, this latest try at repackaging "Speed" is a Kmart version of a Jerry Bruckheimer production.
  91. Anatomy
    A fantastical romp with a buoyant pace, exotic locations, a finger-popping score, appealing leads and spicy cooking demonstrations.
  92. Animal
    Contrastingly notable for their absence are emotional depth, narrative cogency or non-scatological humor — lacks that much ultra-violence and a surprising amount of sexual content can only distract from so much over such a long, bombastic, shallow course.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Breadwinner
    The comedian’s 'Mr. Mom' update offers a few opportunities to chuckle, but the gags mostly fall flat.
  94. Losing Control
    Some of Weiss' funniest material gets lost between episodes of outright silliness; to paraphrase Mark Twain's assessment of Richard Wagner, the film is smarter than it looks.
  95. The Hero of Color City
    Cheerfully exhorting imagination, creativity and bravery in children while demonstrating none of those virtues itself, The Hero of Color City proves to be a dispiritingly colorless feature-length babysitter.
  96. Gulliver's Travels
    The story grows more desperate as it goes on.
  97. Awake
    Harold's thriller does have an attention-getting plot hook, but piles on too many narrative gimmicks to maintain suspense or credibility.
  98. Air
    This first feature for videogame designer/writer Christian Cantamessa has an intriguing premise and two capable stars, none of which is utilized as memorably as one might hope.
  99. A Haunting in Cawdor
    Though never outright dull, A Haunting in Cawdor manages to provide few incidents of genuine interest while leaving potentially rewarding character and thematic elements unexplored.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Police Academy 3: Back in Training
    Cast of cartoon misfits is still basically intact and if Police Academy 3 has any charm it’s in the good-natured dopeyness of these people. No bones about it, these people are there to laugh at.
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