Variety's Scores

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For 17,779 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: 9,134 out of 17779
  2. Mixed: 7,009 out of 17779
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17779
17779 movie reviews
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  1. Simon Sez
    A frenetically junky action adventure that will quickly dribble off to vid stores after a token fast break in theatrical release.
  2. 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag
    Spade is tiresome in yet another smart-ass part.
  3. Demonlover
    Sure to turn off general viewers due to its emotional inaccessibility, multitude of narrative problems and preoccupation with a torture Web site.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Home Fries
    While plot elements don't add up, film's energy level remains high, and oddball ensemble brings to mind a classic of this type, Jonathan Demme's "Citizens Band."
  5. 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.
  6. Abandon
    Passably interesting psychological study of emotionally wounded characters until it commits dramatic suicide by showing its true colors as a tricked-up "Fatal Attraction" wannabe.
  7. Lana's Rain
    It ends up a grinding, ludicrous depiction of a thuggish Bosnian's abuse of his sister.
  8. Teaching Mrs. Tingle
    A pat, hollow exercises with few tricks (or treats) up its sleeve.
  9. Love Forbidden
    Torpid, academic vanity project for helmer-thesp Rodolphe Marconi.
  10. Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite
    Choppy and fragmented to the point of irritation, pic overuses blackouts between scenes, self-conscious camera movements, narrative ellipses and other jangly techniques.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Saturday Night Fever
    The clumsy story lurches forward through predictable travail and treacle, separated by phonograph records (or vice versa).
  12. Serving Sara
    Little more than a mall movie designed to kill time.
  13. Lake Placid
    To be sure, Kelley's Emmy-winning brand of off-kilter humor and cockeyed affection for rural folk is on display, but his attempt here to blend the citified angst of "Ally McBeal" (co-star Bridget Fonda was Kelley's first choice as that series' lead) with the countrified absurdisms of "Picket Fences," plus bits out of the Peter Benchley playbook, doesn't hold water.
  14. Below
    This hokey thriller reps what one can only hope will be a one-of-a-kind hybrid between a World War II actioner and a ghost story outfitted with innumerable false-alarm shock cuts and shot with enough colored lights and filters to delight Baz Luhrmann.
  15. Club Dread
    A stunningly unfunny farce that makes the worst of a stale concept.
  16. Rugrats Go Wild
    Screechily abrasive and sorely lacking in elements that engage the imagination.
  17. American Pie 2
    A remarkably boring comedy.
  18. Borstal Boy
    Mixes a rites-of-passage story with political and sexual elements to solid but finally uninvolving results.
  19. Dracula 2000
    Overall, though, the slapdash pic appears to be the work of folks who made things up as they went along; you might say they were, well, vamping.
  20. Gerry
    Defiantly uncommunicative picture.
  21. The Mummy
    Universal’s attempt to find gold by bringing to new life one of the mustier items in its vaults is pure hokum and scarcely of the first order.
  22. Universal Soldier: The Return
    Lightning fails to strike twice -- an underwhelming follow-up to one of the career-stalled action star's better efforts.
  23. But I'm a Cheerleader
    A shallow, only mildly entertaining satire
  24. The Wedding Planner
    This tale of mismatched lovebirds begins with considerable charm but eventually loses its winning ways with an excess of ridiculous elements.
  25. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
    This is the kind of movie that was doomed on the page, both by an inherently problematic premise and ill-conceived character motivations.
  26. Megiddo: The Omega Code 2
    Apocalyptic gobbledygook.
  27. The Battle of Shaker Heights
    Although Erica Beeney's script beat out more than 7,000 entries, the screen version dulls her potentially distinctive voice with deadly doses of sentimentality.
  28. Jason X
    Further proof that titular antagonist Jason Voorhes is ready for retirement -- to videostore shelves.
  29. Practical Magic
    Part comedy, part family drama, part romance, part special-effects mystery-adventure, and not entirely satisfying on any of these levels, this hodgepodge suffers from the conflicting sensibilities of its three credited scripters: Robin Swicord, who has done good work before, Akiva Goldsman, who has not, and Adam Brooks.
  30. Simon Birch
    Johnson (who scripted "Grumpy Old Men") flattens out any promise so completely that the feature resembles nothing so much as a subpar "Hallmark Hall of Fame" entry.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Breakfast Club
    Does director John Hughes really believe, as he writes here, that 'when you grow up, your heart dies.' It may. But not unless the brain has already started to rot with films like this.
  32. Steal This Movie
    A valiant but seriously flawed attempt to belie the notion that if you remember what you did in the '60s, you weren't there.
  33. Going Down
    There seems to be no bottom to Going Down, a lame also-ran in the rapidly declining teen gross-out comedy genre.
  34. Jurassic Park III
    Game ride that makes the two previous installments look like models of classic filmmaking.
  35. Cabin Fever
    Uncertain whether to go for straight suspense or gross-out effects, genre in-joking or schlock cinema-of-parodic-excess, Eli Roth's backwoods horror opus Cabin Fever seldom sticks with any one tactic.
  36. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
    Initially promising, but quickly disappointing.
  37. Nijinsky: The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky
    Despite its occasional visual interest, avant-garde package is far from the accessible tortured-artist portrait helmer essayed 15 years ago in "Vincent." Even committed dance and experimental cinema fans are likely to find this rough sledding.
  38. Catch That Kid
    Feels like a prolonged episode of "Power Rangers" minus the colorful costumes. Whatever charm the original had was clearly lost in translation, resulting in a tedious exercise that 6- to 10-year-olds may find mildly diverting.
  39. Jawbreaker
    The strongest dimensions of this self-conscious but centerless film are four sexy actresses parading in colorful costumes and Amy Vincent's radiant lensing, which makes the picture seem hipper than it is.
  40. The Jimmy Show
    Pic has a stagy, boxed-in feel. Both visually and energetically, it suggests something that has been done onstage to the point of mechanized repetition. And even though Whaley is supposed to be playing a disillusioned character, it's the actor himself who seems fatigued and over-rehearsed.
  41. View from the Top
    Flubs nearly every opportunity to be the comedy it wanted to be.
  42. Paid in Full
    Begins as a serious, straightforward account of the origins of the cocaine trade and "gangsta" culture in 1980s Harlem, but then downward spirals due to a weak plot and gratuitous violence.
  43. Casa de los babys
    An entirely schematic treatise on maternity and conflicting cultures. A subject perhaps far more suited to documentary treatment, this numbingly earnest effort will be a laborious delivery for IFC.
    • 16 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Half Baked
    A couple of hash brownies short of a satisfying cinematic picnic, with far too few comic highs during the bigscreen reefer party.
  45. Marci X
    Plays like an overextended variety-show sketch.
  46. Hope Floats
    A dreadfully dull, completely conventional story of a young wife's recuperation from being unceremoniously dumped, this is a by-the-numbers bit of emotional calculation without a single fresh, original or offbeat move in its system, apart from a nifty opening sequence.
  47. 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.
  48. Stateside
    Partially biographical story of a rich kid's unplanned encounter with the Marines and his even more random romance with a schizophrenic movie starlet is contrived and emotionally incomplete, and strained further by self-consciously cockeyed dialogue.
  49. The Hot Chick
    At best routinely assembled -- at worst barely competent. The slapstick is labored, and the bigger setpieces flat.
  50. Love Don't Cost a Thing
    Stuffed with attitude but just as hackneyed as the original, Love Don't Cost a Thing brings a year of exceptionally lame youth comedies to a fitting conclusion.
  51. Slackers
    Awful and subversively spunky at the same time.
  52. 8MM
    A movie that keeps jumping the gate and finally unravels all over the floor.
  53. Lost and Delirious
    All the dramatic stops are pulled out as the script goes into serious literary overload.
  54. Pumpkin
    Begins as though the filmmakers imagine that they're making a daringly anti-p.c. serio-comedy, but long before it's over, the picture is wearing its bleeding liberal heart all over its sleeve.
  55. Home Room
    Writer-editor-director Paul F. Ryan makes the mistake of focusing on an ungainly and, finally, unplayable verbal match between two high schoolers.
  56. First Daughter
    There are stiff politicians and there are stiff political movies, but the rigidity of the White House-based fairy tale that is First Daughter is in a category even pollsters may have a hard time assessing.
  57. The Peacemaker
    An uncommonly dour and even grim action thriller that globetrots as diversely as a James Bond film but offers a very limited view politically, emotionally and dramatically.
  58. Riding the Bullet
    A ponderous, incoherent horror mishmash that turns King's short story into utter nonsense.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Molly
    A shamelessly sentimental story.
  60. Twisted
    A dreary, weary psychosexual thriller that's neither sexy nor thrilling.
  61. Session 9
    Little more than an overworked exercise in jostling red herrings, and not particularly fresh herrings at that.
  62. Ghost Ship
    Launched with a few surprising touches and a disturbingly bloody prelude, horror pic collapses under the weight of its own dull conception and weak direction, dialogue and character portraits.
  63. Rick
    A noxious little tale of Wall Street types whose amorality knows no limit, Rick takes smarmy knowingness to ludicrous extremes.
  64. Dragonfly
    Costner's earnest performance is a major plus for Dragonfly, keeping the picture grounded in some semblance of reality even as it becomes progressively more fantastical.
  65. Father and Son
    Irritatingly devoid of irony, the film has an unintentional but unmistakable homoerotic subtext.
  66. Chelsea Walls
    Speak a great deal, but they don't have much to say. A dull ensembler.
  67. Pokémon: The Movie 2000
    A much more intense action vehicle for hero Ash Ketchum and his band of pocket monster trainers than its leaden, sometimes claustrophobic predecessor.
  68. The Man Who Cried
    Sally Potter, who leapt to critical attention with her 1992 adaptation of Virginia Woolf's "Orlando" -- makes a serious misstep with The Man Who Cried.
  69. The Haunted Mansion
    Mansion's drab comic strokes and narrative render the movie almost superfluous.
  70. Who Killed Bambi?
    Delivers only annoyance and impatience.
  71. Drive Me Crazy
    Sloppy and dull in equal measures.
  72. Pokémon Heroes
    Demonstrates no improvement or enhancement. But the action this time is even less inspired than past battles
  73. Jackass: The Movie
    It's plotless, shapeless -- and yet, it must be admitted, not entirely humorless. Indeed, the more outrageous bits achieve a shock-you-into-laughter intensity of almost Dadaist proportions.
  74. 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.
  75. 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.
  76. Noel
    Goes down like sour eggnog on Christmas Eve.
  77. The King and I
    Broadway musical purists will shudder in horror, but parents will be whistling a happy tune that there's at least one acceptable pic out there for their kids.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Trumpet of the Swan
    Bland animated musical offers little to charm adults with fond memories of the book, and even tykes are likely to become bored by the halfway point.
  79. Digimon: Digital Monsters
    Voice work is weirdly awful and funny at the same time.
  80. From Justin to Kelly
    The most resounding thuds in From Justin to Kelly, however, come from the musical numbers.
  81. Bread and Roses
    Its politics and dramatic line are familiar and far from convincing.
  82. A Knight's Tale
    Traditionalists and older viewers in general will scoff, while pop culture addicts will no doubt go with the flow.
  83. To End All Wars
    Grim in theme yet seldom effective or convincing in execution.
  84. Enemy at the Gates
    Shows a consistent inability to generate any kind of drama when characters open their mouths.
  85. The Salton Sea
    This extremely plot-thickened tale finally offers little more than the usual genre elements pushed to the kind of extremes that recall the acrid "The Way of the Gun."
    • Variety
  86. Anything But Love
    A low-budget musical so steeped in nostalgia that accusing it of being too old-fashioned is like accusing "Gone With the Wind" of being too Southern, (Standard Time-as this film was once titled) wears its heart, intentions and limitations on its sleeve.
  87. Dreamcatcher
    Overlong and unwieldy grab-bag of vintage monster-movie elements starts intriguingly as a snowbound deep-woods chiller, but gradually dissolves into a mess of other-worldly invasion and military counter-offensive.
  88. Overnight
    There's a stunning rags-to-rags morality tale hidden in this two-hour mess of a movie.
  89. Hair Show
    An anemic sitcom pilot dragged out to an excruciating 108-minute running time.
  90. Taxi
    Commits any number of comedic violations during an aimless pursuit of laughs.
  91. Saw
    A crude concoction sewn together from the severed parts of prior horror/serial killer pics.
  92. Adored
    Slipping from fantasy to soap opera without any authorial control, pic's best hope is to be recognized as some kind of cult movie of badness.
  93. 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.
  94. Brother
    The mix feels flat and the story remains a fairly banal account of underworld exploits whose emotional gears never fully engage.
  95. Beyond Borders
    Star-driven, high-minded claptrap that, fatally, can't even rig a rooting interest in its central love story.
  96. Man on the Moon
    Never comes close to making the case that its subject is worthy of the viewer's interest.
  97. The Butterfly Effect
    This overwrought and egregiously self-serious thriller about the poisonous fruit borne of child abuse grows more ridiculous by the quarter-hour and is poised for a theatrical life span scarcely longer than that of its eponymous insect.
  98. The Grudge
    Viewers of this Sam Raimi-produced, sub-"Amityville" scarefest are likely to hold the real grudge.
  99. Scary Movie 2
    Technically and comedically strained by the demands of its special effects-filled haunted house setting. Worse, the need to top the first pic's outlandish stunts is ghoulishly unfulfilled and terribly ironic.
  100. A Cinderella Story
    Lusterless trifle.
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