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. Eight Crazy Nights
    This is a dark, vulgar, brooding turnoff of a movie, minus the steady laugh quotient needed to appease Sandler's core constituency.
  2. Pearl Harbor
    Just compare their superficiality to the complex characters in "From Here to Eternity" and what's missing here becomes terribly clear.
  3. Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie
    No cuddly, funky "Pokemon" pocket monsters populate this pic; this game is for the big kids, rife with a ruthless tone, heightened violence and cold calculation. However, fans will put up with a dull tale to finally see their obsession on the bigscreen.
  4. Resident Evil: Apocalypse
    Calamitously uninspired and borderline incoherent, new pic lacks even those fleeting pleasures (namely, a sense of humor) that made the first film a passable popcorn attraction.
  5. Garfield
    Only very small children still easily impressed by interaction of human actors and CGI quadrupeds will be amused by Garfield.
  6. Darkness
    Though pic boasts decent perfs, potent atmospherics and eye-catching visuals, both psychology and plot are bargain-basement.
  7. Lolita
    The bad news, however, is that after an intriguing opening stretch, and despite Jeremy Irons' potent lead performance, the overlong film becomes repetitive, flat and often dull.
  8. Crash
    Cronenberg is a master of creating and sustaining a mood of insinuating cool and dark allure, but while the director remains firmly behind the wheel for the first hour or so, he cracks up toward the end with sequences that send the film and the audience into a ditch.
    • 11 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
    Pic consists largely of choppily edited fight scenes (usually involving somersaults and back flips) combined with various computer graphic effects.
  10. Michael
    John Travolta's charismatic screen presence is the only element that propels Michael over its rough narrative spots and scattered direction.
  11. Indecent Proposal
    This is one of those high-concept pictures with a big windup and weak delivery.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Spy Hard
    The picture that will test the durability of Leslie Nielsen's lowbrow franchise -- and proves the talent of the regrettably absent Zucker brothers-Jim Abrahams team --Spy Hard sticks so closely to the "Naked Gun" formula that one half-expects an O.J. Simpson cameo.
    • 15 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Carpool
    Arthur Hiller's pacing is crude, but that seems to be the point.
  14. Freeway
    Freeway is roadkill. The directorial debut of screenwriter Matthew Bright ("Gun Crazy") is a sophomoric and morally repellent mix of fractured fairy tale, juvenile social satire, bloody mayhem and overstated B-movie melodrama.
  15. Jack
    Blandness and lack of daring characterize nearly every minute of the very long two hours, which are marked by a high degree of professionalism at the service of little content.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Nine 1/2 Weeks
    The virtual absence of anything interesting happening between them - like plausible attraction, exotic, amazing sex, or, God forbid, good dialog - leaves one great big hole on the screen for two hours.
  17. M. Butterfly
    This butterfly just doesn't fly. Icy, surprisingly conventional and never truly convincing.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Jacob's Ladder
    Jacob's Ladder means to be a harrowing thriller about a Vietnam vet (Tim Robbins) bedeviled by strange visions, but the $40 million production is dull, unimaginative and pretentious.
    • 5 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Two of a Kind
    Aside from the presence of the two stars, Two of a Kind has all the earmarks of a bargain-basement job.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Tequila Sunrise
    There's not much kick in this cocktail, despite its mix of quality ingredients. Casually glamorous South Bay is the setting for a story of little substance as writer-director Robert Towne attempts a study of friendship and trust but gets lost in a clutter of drug dealings and police operations.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Newsies
    Newsies was made with care and affection by choreographer-turned-director Kenny Ortega. But the writers have created cardboard cutouts instead of flesh-and-blood characters.
  22. The Favor
    The direction and technical elements are obvious, bright and vapid, while the performers struggle against staggering odds to provide nuance.
  23. A Nightmare on Elm Street
    While the 1984 film has aged, its now-familiar jolts still pack more punch than this pic's recycled ones, which sometimes register so tepidly as to cause snickers.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Heartbreak Hospital
    Tries to combine romantic comedy, soap-opera parody and murder mystery, but the disparate elements never gel, and the film, about homicide at a daytime television serial, bounces around with no clue of how to reconcile or intertwine its genre conventions.
  25. Into My Heart
    So understated as to sometimes lack a pulse.
  26. Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel
    Even in a more fluid package, this mix of camp comedy and bathos would seem artificial.
  27. Miss Wonton
    Cluttered, unfocused script attempts too much.
  28. Close Call
    This cautionary melodrama about a Korean-American teen girl's slide into depravity is too inconsequential and too earnest to belong in the So Bad It's Good category; rather, it's merely bad.
  29. A Thousand Peace Clouds Encircle the Sky
    Handsome but dramatically static drama.
  30. Confessions of a Burning Man
    This not particularly well shot/organized feature isn't very engaging on the human level, either.
  31. Boricua's Bond
    At the most basic level, Boricua's Bond is at war with itself.
  32. Ya lyublyu tebya
    Clumsily drawn, poorly acted love triangle.
  33. Magnifico
    A wholesome family movie with a moppet star and tearjerker ending, Magnifico milks the sentiment like an industrial dairy machine on overdrive.
  34. Casuistry: The Art of Killing a Cat
    Too underground in feel.
  35. No Pain, No Gain
    Painfully sincere yet hopelessly amateurish dramedy.
  36. Angels with Angles
    Shrouded by memories of better times and better movies, Frank Gorshin and Rodney Dangerfield's final screen appearances are unfortunately in the thoroughly hapless and embarrassing comedy, Angels With Angles.
  37. Broken Sky
    Though the bold treatment of homoerotic love in Mexican helmer Julian Hernandez's feature bow Broken Sky is sure to grab attention, it doesn't take long before the picture's torturously slow pace turns an earnest effort into a tedious aesthetic exercise.
  38. Automatons
    An unwieldy mix of self-conscious camp and heavy-handed allegory, Automatons plays like a cheesy '50s no-budget sci-fier with serious delusions of grandeur.
  39. The Ex
    A half-baked comedy torn between sincere emotion and over-the-top outrageousness.
  40. Invisible
    Begins as a morosely melancholy study of a thirtysomething couple on the verge of divorce, then devolves into an unpleasant thriller about their confrontation with psychos.
  41. Live Free or Die
    Criminally short on laughs as it tries to wring humor from dull activity by dim bulbs.
  42. The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai
    If outrageous concepts were all, this latest fillip in the oft-eccentric history of Japanese "pink" (softcore sexploitation) cinema would be genius. But the crazy ideas in Takao Nakano's script just fitfully amuse under Mitsuru Meike's draggy direction.
  43. Shortcut to Happiness
    Less compelling than all the behind-the-scenes Sturm und Drang. Even Baldwin, who waived his directing credit in favor of the pseudonymous Harry Kirkpatrick, has warned fans to stay away.
  44. Goal II: Living the Dream
    The rags-to-near-riches saga of "Goal!" has turned into a risible riches-are-awful tale in Goal II: Living the Dream.
  45. Funny Games (2008)
    As shocking and deliberately manipulative as the original movie and -- some may reckon -- even more pointless.
  46. Shadows
    Overlong, ponderous and occasional risible.
  47. An American Affair
    Like many aspects of An American Affair, the music and the lopsided dramatic priorities take the viewer right out of the movie.
  48. Angel
    A monumental piece of miscasting in the title role, and an apparently tin ear for the nuances of English dialogue by Gallic helmer Francois Ozon.
  49. Lifelines
    Mature in terms of production polish and pro performances, writer-director Rob Margolies' feature debut, Lifelines (until recently called "Wherever You Are"), stumbles in a familiar way: It crams in so many family dysfunctions and plot crises in search of cathartic impact that credibility is stretched to the breaking point.
  50. Peter and Vandy
    An aggravating romance that runs only 78 minutes but ends not a moment too soon.
  51. Labor Day
    For every engrossing rank-and-file story, there are endless self-congratulatory explanations and podium highlights.
  52. Love Hurts
    An ungainly, at times cringe-worthy succession of tame, telegraphed romantic mishaps, well-intentioned if unconvincing sentimentality, and some of the least authentic teenage dialogue this side of the "Friday the 13th" franchise.
  53. Paa
    Though unrecognizable, Amitabh Bachchan is the star of -- and the only reason to go see -- Paa.
  54. The New Daughter
    Kevin Costner starrer boasts an impressive English-language debut from Spanish teenager Ivana Baquero ("Pan's Labyrinth") and a well-constructed first half, but its many cliches begin to undo its spell long before a ridiculous third act squanders all remaining goodwill.
  55. Bitch Slap
    Overblown and underwhelming, Bitch Slap is a desperately unfunny attempt to satirically recycle cliches and archetypes from sexploitation actioners of the 1960s and '70s within the time-trippy, multiple-flashback framework of a Quentin Tarantino. extravaganza.
  56. Drool
    Writer-director Nancy Kissam's inexplicably named feature feels a tad Frankensteinian, sewing second-hand ideas together most inorganically.
  57. Falling Awake
    Underacted, overheated and uses a pair of purloined, high-end sneakers as a 400-pound allegory for getting your priorities straight.
  58. October Country
    A feel-bad film through and through. Chronicling a year in the life of a low-income Mohawk Valley family beset by external hardships and shockingly bad decision-making, the docu straddles the line between unflinching intimacy and invasive exploitation.
  59. Everyone Else
    Simply fuzzy filmmaking of the worst sort.
  60. When You're Strange
    The Lizard King is a bummer in When You're Strange, Tom DiCillo's disastrously inane documentary ode to reptilian rocker Jim Morrison and his mellower bandmates in the Doors.
  61. Accidents Happen
    Andrew Lancaster's helming bow looks smart but lacks confidence in its melodrama and, professional editing aside, resembles a meandering rough cut.
  62. Chain Letter
    Yields few surprises, compensating with de rigueur false scares, unmemorable deaths and the kind of improbably exaggerated gore.
  63. You Again
    Manages to squander three generations of formidable actresses.
  64. The Lottery
    Advocacy to the point of propaganda.
  65. Who Killed Nancy?
    Despite the presence of Glen Matlock, Steve Dior and a handful of other punk rockers, plus a slew of oblique eyewitness who lurked around before and after the fact, the documentary soon bogs down in tiresome minutiae.
  66. Salt of This Sea
    That the taste of Annemarie Jacir's feature debut should be bitter is completely understandable given the untenable Palestinian situation, but the heavy-handed, excessively didactic script plays like a primer for people only vaguely aware of the issues while overly confirmed in their righteousness.
  67. Lovely, Still
    The surprise twist brutally defies the opening narration and plot logic that preceded it, alienating viewers who willingly suspended disbelief.
  68. Welcome to the Rileys
    Nothing short of preposterous, Jake Scott's film imagines a grieving couple (James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo) who play surrogate parents to an underage stripper ("Twilight's" Kristen Stewart) and spins it for the "Blind Side" crowd.
  69. Resident Evil: Afterlife
    Director Paul W.S. Anderson (who also directed the original) can hardly manage a hint of suspense or excitement. And excitement is exactly what the film ought to have in excess.
  70. It's a Wonderful Afterlife
    It's a Wonderful Afterlife is a movie to make Frank Capra roll over in his grave from indigestion.
  71. Kalamity
    An object lesson in overconfidence and underdevelopment, almost as unbalanced as its central psychotic.
  72. How Do You Know
    This wrong-headed dramedy peddles forced warm-fuzziness and insincere sentiment on the backs of an all-star cast.
  73. Gulliver's Travels
    The story grows more desperate as it goes on.
  74. Jolene
    Though stretched to a two-hour run time, Doctorow's socially critical tale is reduced to queasy spectacle.
  75. The Portuguese Nun
    A tedious slog alleviated only by widescreen shots of the Portuguese capital and terrific fado singing.
  76. Hemingway's Garden of Eden
    Garden of Eden sends sleek, half-nude bodies glumly cavorting through lush Riviera landscapes in a paradigm of unintentional camp.
  77. 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.
  78. Americatown
    Strictly for fans of free-form, DIY hit-or-miss humor (and those who prefer a miss to a hit), pic complacently parades its alienated amateurism in the mistaken belief that half a gag is better than none.
  79. Season of the Witch
    Both overblown and undercooked, Season of the Witch is a fine example of a film that would've been great fun if only its creators had a sense of humor about the wild brew of absurdity they had percolating.
  80. 6 Souls
    A schlock supernatural shocker.
  81. Zookeeper
    Ultimately, it's a marketing pitch in search of a movie that proves punishingly flat.
  82. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World
    A cheap-looking, vaguely depressing echo of Robert Rodriguez's well-loved kidpic trilogy, assembled with minimal imagination or effort.
  83. I Melt with You
    A weekend romp for four middle-aged buddies devolves into a drug-fueled, suicidal hell in Mark Pellington's ill-conceived and executed I Melt With You, a work of extreme self-indulgence.
  84. Shark Night 3D
    Unlike his "Snakes on a Plane," director David R. Ellis' sharks-in-a-lake thriller displays little sense of its scenario's camp potential. Gore, too, is in short supply on account of the pic's PG-13 rating, which renders the attack scenes nearly toothless.
  85. Ex Drummer
    Signaling a new low in post-modern smug superiority, Ex Drummer tries to pass off contempt as comedy and slanted lensing as creativity.
  86. Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
    The key to Seuss' tales, as with all good fables, is not only their cleverness but their surpassing elegance and simplicity, qualities that this busy, over-cluttered contraption of a movie seems entirely uninterested in replicating.
  87. That's My Boy
    All in all, it could have been worse. Puerile, crotch-fixated and very occasionally, inanely funny, Adam Sandler's raunchiest star vehicle in years has a small saving grace in Andy Samberg's performance.
  88. Passion Play
    Perversely eccentric and frequently inert, screenwriter Mitch Glazer's directorial debut, Passion Play, will benefit from some of the well-known names attached, but the near-painful hipness of the production will yield poisonous word of mouth.
  89. Cost of a Soul
    As is, the emotional elements explored by Cost of a Soul, and the devices it employs, seem trite and occasionally shoplifted from better-told tales.
  90. The Art of Getting By
    Facile, formulaic and utterly charm-free.
  91. Love, Wedding, Marriage
    Performances range from wooden to hysterical, and it's largely due to Mulroney's inexperience behind the camera.
  92. A Thousand Words
    Alas, even Murphy's largely wordless, physically adroit performance can't redeem this tortured exercise in high-concept spiritualist hokum.
  93. The Best and the Brightest
    Offering a fitfully funny sitcom plot clumsily stretched to 90 minutes, then goosed with increasingly tiresome doses of smuttiness and political incorrectness, The Best and the Brightest is neither.
  94. House at the End of the Street
    Exploiting Lawrence's newfound fame is the only hope this ill-conceived, poorly executed venture has of connecting with audiences before poisonous word of mouth sends potential buyers in search of a more attractive address.
  95. The Abduction of Zack Butterfield
    Woefully amateurish psychological thriller.
  96. Hunter Killer
    Hunter Killer has good enough actors, but it never figures out what to do with them. They’re stuck in an underwater vacuum, a submarine movie that submerges anything of interest.
  97. 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.
  98. Entrance
    A textbook example of a movie that betrays its audience, Entrance begins as a mildly interesting slice-of-life look at a struggling Los Angeles cafe worker, then impulsively devolves into a manipulative slasher picture.
  99. Seventh Son
    Given the fine past work of its many parents, there was clearly potential here, but as delivered, Seventh Son amounts to nothing short of a creative miscarriage.
  100. The Son of No One
    In this case, Montiel's awkward appropriation of gritty crime-drama conventions results in a film that's contrived and implausible, at times absurdly so.
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