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. It's All About Love
    The director doesn't display the spirit of a natural entertainer; while intellectual notions abound, he never grabs the audience by the hand to pull them into the tale emotionally.
  2. September Tapes
    Gritty, engaging.
  3. Transformers: Age Of Extinction
    It’s the robots — endowed here with character-rich physicality and almost human-scaled facial features — who give the film its emotional heft.
  4. Legion
    Even when the blood-and-thunder hokiness of the over-the-top plot tilts perilously close to absurdity, the admirably straight-faced performances by well-cast lead players provide just enough counterbalance to sustain audience curiosity and sympathy.
  5. Mara
    A generically conceived horror thriller distinguished only by its belief that more hysteria equals a more frightening movie.
  6. The Girl in the Photographs
    The Girl in the Photographs is a slasher movie filled with smug and self-absorbed characters who are not nearly as clever as they obviously assume they are.
  7. Ride Along 2
    Another tired, witless and potentially lucrative attempt to spin an exhausted buddy-cop template into action-comedy gold.
  8. Backseat
    Culturally falling somewhere between "Sideways" and "Dumb and Dumber," this low-rent road movie similarly rides on principles of audience identification, largely minus competent helming, thesping or scripting.
  9. Chapter 27
    Jared Leto gained some 70 pounds. Seemingly following his lead, the pic itself is heavy, lethargic, and exasperating.
  10. Land of the Blind
    One of the more spectacular misfires of recent years, Land of the Blind's lack of originality is only slightly exceeded by its failure to work as political satire.
  11. Down to Earth
    A very earthbound comic fantasy, a racially flip-flopped "Heaven Can Wait" redo stuck in a purgatory with just enough meager laughs to keep it from a more fiery fate.
  12. Play It to the Bone
    A woefully under-realized story of small-time boxers enjoying perhaps their last moment in the spotlight.
  13. Primal
    That this mashup of too many familiar action-thriller elements doesn’t emerge a generic mess is a credit to all involved. That it’s passably entertaining but also instantly forgettable comes as less of a surprise.
  14. I Love You, Beth Cooper
    Peaks early -- like, during the first three minutes -- and rapidly goes downhill from there.
  15. The Hills Have Eyes II
    The politics of "Hills 2" won't enlist any new converts to the horror ranks, but existing fans will be drawn to the combination of visceral tension, violent payoff and the patented Craven gift for innovative gore.
  16. Paranoia
    Director Robert Luketic’s thriller Paranoia has a host of problems, but the biggest seems to be that no one in it is nearly paranoid enough.
  17. Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse
    A witless undead retread served up as a vulgar revenge-of-the-dorks comedy.
  18. Impolex
    Reveling in its provocative absurdity, Impolex is a madly uncommercial head-scratcher that will strike a dream-logic chord in some viewers and leave others in a "My kid could do better than that" mood.
  19. Independence Day: Resurgence
    This cinematic Big Mac entertains abundantly on its own second-hand merits.
  20. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
    While thesping is not the main game here, having a cast of bright young things certainly helps, and Quaid gets in a few nice John Wayne-like moments as the no-nonsense boss.
  21. The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
    Not unlike the shiny snow globe at its center, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause is a thing of consummate craftsmanship, a smoothly engineered and fundamentally lifeless object that's nevertheless capable of giving even the grinchiest moviegoers a brief attack of the warm-and-fuzzies.
  22. Night of the Living Dead 3D
    A juiceless quasi-remake of George Romero's 1968 classic that, cardboard glasses aside, brings absolutely nothing new to the party.
  23. Teddy Bears' Picnic
    Despite its intelligence and a great, funny concept for a movie, this "Picnic" never gets past the appetizers; pic lacks the development needed for a full-length feature and, following a hilarious opening sequence, it becomes tiresomely one-note.
  24. Snipes
    Unremarkable but competent in stylistic terms, with good use of Philadelphia locations, sharp casting and the requisite marketable hip-hop soundtrack adding up to a fun genre package.
  25. Carlos Castaneda: Enigma of a Sorcerer
    Though interviews here are primarily with former camp followers and pic was made by one, overall perspective is just critical enough to satisfy both New Age types and curious skeptics.
  26. Masked and Anonymous
    Evinces no interest in such niceties as credible dialogue, character motivation or forward momentum.
  27. Tattoo Bar
    Simple tale is made unnecessarily complex by script's desire to give everything a metaphysical flavor, characters are across-the-board disagreeable and portentous art-school atmospherics are barely redeemed by occasionally good dialogue and a strong visual sense.
  28. Day of the Falcon
    Helmer/co-scripter Jean-Jacques Annaud's rep for spectacle over screenplay is again borne out in this overblown yet oddly anemic epic of warring Arabian tribes during the nascent oil boom.
  29. Least Among Saints
    The forced plotting and Lifetime movie-style tearjerking are a chore, and commercial prospects look narrow, but if this is indeed a good-faith effort to preach beyond the choir, it deserves plaudits.
  30. The Rambler
    Bursting with cheap f/x, the pic is often tedious when not repugnant, but it’s hard to dislike.
  31. Immigrant
    The storyline develops so erratically that it lacks any internal momentum, with some scenes unfolding in exhaustive detail and others seemingly missing, as if whole chunks had been shot and later edited out.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    At the Earth's Core
    At the Earth's Core, from the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, is an okay fantasy adventure film. Made in England, it's a fast-paced, slightly tongue-in-cheek tale about stalwart hero Doug McClure's battles with underground monsters.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Hitcher
    The Hitcher is a highly unimaginative slasher that keeps the tension going with a massacre about every 15 minutes.
  34. Warcraft
    So good at making the most outlandish elements of his first two films seem completely credible, Jones can’t find a way to get this cartoony spectacle to soar. His heartfelt approach to the material only underlines the silliness.
  35. Footprints
    Exhibits stray instances of intrigue and wit, and makes nostalgic hay with its enshrinement of old-timers Pippa Scott and H.M. Wynant, but ultimately suggests a too-writerly, over-padded "Twilight Zone" episode.
  36. Addicted
    The sudsy quality of the production ensures all the performers look terrific, but aren’t given particularly impressive material to work with.
  37. Repo! The Genetic Opera
    So over-the-top it's purple. At the same time, it's not too many lengths of intestine beyond some mainstream movies, "Sweeney Todd" being the most obvious comparison.
  38. Cats
    Tom Hooper’s outlandishly tacky interpretation seems destined to become one of those once-in-a-blue-moon embarrassments that mars the résumés of great actors (poor Idris Elba, already scarred enough as the villainous Macavity) and trips up the careers of promising newcomers (like ballerina Francesca Hayward, whose wide-eyed, mouth-agape Victoria displays one expression for the entire movie).
  39. The Scribbler
    Despite a game lead performance from smallscreen star Katie Cassidy (“Arrow”) as a young woman with multiple personality disorder and an incorrigible punk attitude, this latest low-budget outing from helmer John Suits simply doesn’t have the imagination or resources necessary to pull off its clumsy stabs at visual pizzazz.
  40. The Rising Place
    An ultra-touchy-feely race-relations, civil-rights drama as imagined by theme-park organizers, with every character painted in broad strokes in a story that eagerly tugs at every available heartstring -- and rings false at every turn.
  41. Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
    Mildly diverting caper.
  42. Beyond Borders
    Star-driven, high-minded claptrap that, fatally, can't even rig a rooting interest in its central love story.
  43. Cassadaga
    Equal parts gory mayhem, convoluted mystery and rote romance, none of which gel together very well.
  44. Every Breath You Take
    The movie carries you along, and it’s got some high-tension moments, but there are one too many coincidental running-into-each-other-in-town close encounters.
  45. Land of the Lost
    The result is a movie with an exceedingly narrow target audience that should test Will Ferrell's appeal among boys maybe ages 12-14 -- about the only demo likely able to endure this laborious mess.
  46. Beyond Honor
    Though it can't hide occasionally crude dramatics, pic is an undeniably bold and daring tragedy.
  47. Modi - Three Days on the Wing of Madness
    Broad in tone and narrow in scope, the film is in thrall to the idea of creating art outside mainstream financial and aesthetic models, though its structure and outlook are not unfamiliar.
  48. The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure
    The low-budget production feels chintzy and impossibly square, even by tyke standards.
  49. Sinister 2
    A retread of such brainless, shameless lameness that it’s hard to imagine anyone begging for another installment.
  50. States of Control
    Oblique and impenetrable under its glossy surface.
  51. Swordfish
    A half-absorbing, half-ridiculous techno-thriller that often goes too far in search of audience-rousing effects.
  52. Scorched Earth
    Equal parts 1960s-style Spaghetti Western pastiche and ’80s-style “Mad Max” knockoff, Scorched Earth is the sort of divertingly hokey post-apocalyptic B-movie that would have amused undiscriminating Blockbuster Video renters a generation ago, and now might pass muster as the pilot for a weekly SyFy series.
  53. Firestarter
    The whole thing plays like “Logan” done in the worst humdrum rhythmless made-for-streaming generic style, the lighting flat, the soundtrack heavy with John Carpenter’s old-school one-man-at-the-synthesizer horror music, because if you took that sound of processed dread away you wouldn’t have much else.
  54. Das wilde Leben
    One long tease -- not in a voyeuristic sense, since its heroine, as nakedly incarnated by pouty Polish sexpot Natalia Avelon, hides none of her obvious talents under a bushel.
  55. As Luck Would Have It
    Though it slickly offers up drama, black comedy and enjoyable performances in due measure, the picture never develops much bite, though it does bare its fangs.
  56. Robin Hood
    Robin Hood is no classic, but if it sometimes seems like it’s trying to be “Baz Luhrmann’s Robin Hood,” more power to it. The movie is a diverting live-wire lark — one that, for my money, gets closer to the spirit of what Robin Hood is about than the logy 1991 Kevin Costner version or the dismal 2010 Russell Crowe version.
  57. Price of Glory
    May hold some appeal for Latino auds in the Southwest but will fold after a couple of rounds in the big arena.
  58. Alex & Emma
    A desperately slight romantic comedy marked by contrived romance and little comedy.
  59. Godzilla
    Despite all the flash and filigree, this monster movie is curiously -- and conspicuously -- lacking in heart.
  60. Wrong Turn
    The clear ambition here is to recapture the raw, explosively violent atmosphere of such hallmark 1970s shockers as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Hills Have Eyes." Nice try, but no cigar.
    • Variety
  61. Plastic
    A dismal My First Heist thriller that is all-too-aptly nailed by its own title.
  62. The Good Neighbor
    The script has some familiar, vaguely disapproving things to say about latchkey kids (both the teen leads are under-supervised by workaholic or absent parents), depersonalizing technology, and the pursuit of fatuous social-media fame. But there’s not much real suspense stirred here by a premise that straddles recent found-footage thrillers and “Rear Window.”
  63. Tom & Jerry
    No, Tom & Jerry won’t be winning any Oscars, even if Hanna-Barbera shorts in which they starred racked up seven during the series’ 1940-58 run. But it’s good enough to go down easy.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    Game Over, Man!
    Game Over, Man! is a movie with few original ideas, plenty of tropes, and not enough love for the Bill Paxton “Aliens” character who made its eponymous catchphrase popular
    • 32 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    King Kong Lives
    Director John Guillermin loses all control of the pic.
  66. Love Again
    An old-school, straight-faced studio romance featuring five new songs from Ms. Dion, writer-director Jim Strouse’s Love Again is all about such healing — to the extent that if it were a book instead of a movie, it would be filed in the self-help section.
  67. The Unbelievers
    While every moment is captured with the reverence of a fawning fan, Holwerda’s star-struck approach neglects to shed new light on his subjects or even showcase their greatest hits.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hanover Street
    Hanover Street is reasonably effective as a war film with a love story background. Unfortunately it's meant to be a love story set against a war background.
  69. The Forger
    Nothing feels fresh here — not even Christopher Plummer hamming it up as a crusty-coot grandpa — and Philip Martin’s routinely polished direction only underscores the cliche-composting of Richard D’Ovidio’s script.
  70. The Secret Lives of Dorks
    Winning performances by a number of fresh-faced newcomers are almost but not quite enough to recommend The Secret Lives of Dorks, a fitfully amusing, more often shrill and overstated teen comedy that, like its dweeby protagonist, tries too hard to impress.
  71. The Perfect Holiday
    Neither perfect nor much of a holiday, more like a fruitcake passed around from arthritic aunt to demented uncle -- stale, predictable and made with fossilized ingredients.
  72. Brightest Star
    Brightest Star, has all the trappings of a contemporary romantic comedy, but also the good sense to strive for a deeper examination of a young man’s search for his place in the universe.
  73. Someone Like You...
    A romantic comedy as lamely generic as its title.
  74. The Middle of the World
    Debuting helmer Vicente Amorim provides a determined forward movement, which, while lacking in cultural explanation, gives the saga uplift and punch.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Hanoi Hilton
    The Hanoi Hilton is a lame attempt by writer-director Lionel Chetwynd to tell the story of US prisoners in Hoa Lo Prison, in Hanoi during the Vietnam War. Pic is a slanted view of traditional prison camp sagas, injecting lots of hindsight and taking right-wing potshots that do a disservice to the very human drama of the subject.
  76. The Transporter Refueled
    The Transporter Refueled comes up strong where it counts, with frequent bursts of ludicrously implausible yet coherently directed mayhem.
  77. The Viral Factor
    The helmer's blockbuster ambitions, striving to make every move a money shot, relegate human drama to the backseat.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Pirates
    Roman Polanski's Pirates is a decidedly underwhelming comedy adventure adding up to a major disappointment.
  79. Wish Upon
    By any normal standards, teen horror flick Wish Upon is a pretty bad movie. But its badness is of such a distinct and kooky character that it can’t help but exert an inadvertent charm.
  80. Broken Bridges
    It's obviously intended as a star vehicle, but Broken Bridges turns out to be a rattletrap jalopy for country music performer Toby Keith.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Hole in My Heart
    Dark, provocative and disturbing, the new film by Lukas Moodysson is definitely not for all tastes but solidifies his standing as the most interesting director working in Scandinavia today.
  82. Lucky Stiff
    Another theater adaptation that remains stuck to the boards, despite the considerable talent and energy on tap..... equal parts diverting and strained, most likely to please the same niche audiences who have given the material a modest stage shelf life for the last quarter-century.
  83. The Kindness of Strangers
    Too much of the kindness in “Strangers” feels sentimentally story-dictated rather than born of profound human observation, leaving you with mild, woolly good feeling but little to contemplate or chew on.
  84. The Secret: Dare to Dream
    Littered with confounding clichés and hokey devices, director/co-writer Andy Tennant’s feature is the exact inverse of what a passionate romance should aspire to be, let alone one preaching the power of positivity.
  85. Broken Horses
    Fails to convince on several crucial levels, including plotting and dialogue.
  86. Untraceable
    Unfolding like a better-than-average episode of a first-rate TV police procedural, Untraceable is a satisfying slice of solidly crafted meat-and-potatoes filmmaking.
  87. Farmland
    Though the perspective of farmers is well worth examining, this good-looking 77 minutes of propaganda is heavy on sugar-coating and light on nutritional value.
  88. Tyler Perry's Acrimony
    A ludicrously scattershot drama in which overwrought feminine rage, diary-of-a-mad-woman craziness, and inept filmmaking are all but inseparable.
  89. Black Knight
    Arriving so soon after "A Knight's Tale" -- and the 25th-anniversary reissue of the classic "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," Black Knight is a textbook example of too much, too late.
  90. Showtime
    A shrill, strained and shallow riff on a tired idea.
  91. Games People Play: New York
    This artless, unpolished venture adds a heavy sex-and-skin factor to a poorly defined game show, lurching awkwardly between exploitative voyeurism, maudlin confessions and self-consciously risque titillation.
  92. Unfinished Business
    A comedy with its heart in the right place and everything else bizarrely out of joint.
  93. The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard
    So is it, you know, fun? At times it is; at others it’s exhausting. Let’s call the whole thing fun-xhausting.
  94. Chernobyl Diaries
    Scattered stretches of suspense and a few undeniably potent shocks are not enough to dissipate the sense of deja vu that prevails throughout Chernobyl Diaries, a wearyingly predictable thriller about "extreme tourists."
  95. A Week Away
    If anything, the film’s cross-pollination with faith-based cinema is detrimental to its already minimal tension.
  96. Repo Men
    This ultra-gory speculative noir is, at its infrequent best, certifiably nuts; the rest of the time, it's one numbingly brutal slog.
  97. The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez
    'Aranjeuz” has less of a pulse than the already inert “Every Thing Will Be Fine."
    • 32 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Revenge of the Ninja
    Revenge of the Ninja is an entertaining martial arts actioner, following up Enter the Ninja (1981) but lacking that film's name players and Far East locale.
  99. Boogeyman
    Trendy influence of insidiously creepy Japanese horror pics is felt in almost every frame of Boogeyman. The effectively atmospheric and unusually involving thriller tells the story of a distraught young man's protracted duel of wits with the eponymous evildoer.
  100. The Human Race
    Real suspense and shocks are MIA in a movie that’s eventful but lacks the atmospherics needed to be scary.
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