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. Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj
    The four-years-in-the-making, badly recycled (not to mention awful) sequel might stain the honor of the Lampoon label if it hadn't already produced several even worse films.
  2. The Hitcher
    In the absence of actors with the tremendous presence of Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh, picture loses its raison d'etre. Yet, directed by video helmer Dave Meyers with a certain fastidious distance from its plentiful gore, picture is also insufficiently over-the-top or corny to incite gleeful audience feedback.
  3. Ghost Rider
    Though the superhero's fans have long awaited his close-up, the Devil's bounty hunter -- complete with a burning skull for a head and a killer motorcycle in flames --materializes in a movie that never measures up to his infernal potential.
  4. The Brothers Solomon
    If "Hot Rod" and "The Ex" couldn't attract an audience, this full-blown comedy miscarriage stands no chance.
  5. Silk
    Silk is a snooze. Vacuous, arid and terminally dull, this adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's freak bestseller hasn't a trace of real life or energy to it, and is hamstrung by a lethargic lead performance by Michael Pitt.
  6. Revolver
    Guy Ritchie shoots a blank with Revolver, which replays the low-life criminal shtick from his first two features with an ill-advised overlay of pretension. The action, attitude and wise-guy talk all feel moldy this time around.
  7. 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.
  8. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
    Reheating the ingredients can't disguise how stale they are, as setpiece after setpiece strains to whip up excitement, only to fall flat while reminding of previous sequences that did such things ever so much better.
  9. Disaster Movie
    Seldom has a pic been more appropriately titled than Disaster Movie, yet another frantically unfunny free-form farce.
  10. Miracle at St. Anna
    This is a sloppy stew in which the ingredients of battle action, murder mystery, little-kid sentiment and history lesson don't mix well.
  11. Filth and Wisdom
    Ineptly written and helmed story of three Londoners, although quite bad, does have a few redeeming features.
  12. 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.
  13. Lake City
    Moore and Hill's script plunges Spacek in a mawkish stew of banality and improbability composed of bits and pieces of earlier roles.
  14. Seven Pounds
    An endlessly sentimental fable about sacrifice and redemption that aims only at the heart at the expense of the head. Intricately constructed so as to infuriate anyone predominantly guided by rationality and intellect.
  15. Fast & Furious
    A series that's provided a successful, moderately enjoyable ride up to now blows its tires, gasket and transmission on its way to flaming out in Fast & Furious.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Powder Blue
    The heartstring-pulling contrivances of the film, set during Christmastime, go way over the top.
  17. What Goes Up
    A pointless and pretentious drama.
  18. 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.
  19. Armageddon
    Much of the confusion, as well as the lack of dramatic rhythm or character development, results directly from Bay's cutting style, which resembles a machine gun stuck in the firing position for 2 and a half hours.
  20. The Art of War
    Almost every element in Art of War is slightly off.
  21. Esther Kahn
    Senselessly long at two-and-three-quarters hours and with a protracted climax that eradicates any goodwill established in the fastidious first couple of reels.
  22. They
    They ought to be a whole lot scarier than they are in this tepid genre offering from director Robert Harmon, whose debut film "The Hitcher" set a high bar for screen terror in the 1980s. Pic looks like a holiday gobbler.
  23. The Young Unknowns
    A strident, painfully repetitive and hopelessly stage-bound drama about self-indulgent twentysomethings on the fringes of the L.A. film scene.
  24. Company Man
    A consistently silly, occasionally funny but mostly forced account of how a mild-mannered teacher from Connecticut unwittingly triggered the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
  25. Beautiful
    There's no particular reason to see this disappointingly trivial picture on the bigscreen.
  26. 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.
  27. Crazy as Hell
    An erratic, psychobabbling jumble of scenes that never builds to any discernible point.
  28. Where the Money Is
    Newman's charismatic, multishaded performance elevates the hodgepodge caper comedy a couple of notches above its preposterous plotting and self-consciously movieish texture.
  29. Beautiful Creatures
    Plays like a movie where the script went missing on the third day of shooting.
  30. Pavilion of Women
    Fails to stir the emotions despite its heavily melodramatic drive.
  31. Big Momma's House
    The sight and sound of Lawrence in fat-lady drag remains engaging throughout; script may often let him down, forcing him to keep things afloat almost single-handedly.
  32. Passion of Mind
    This small-scale, chamber piece, which boasts good acting from Moore, Skarsgard and Fichtner, has a strong built-in appeal for women but may experience harder times in going beyond the specialized arthouse circuits due to the narrowly-scoped, undernourished script.
  33. Lies
    Has nothing much to say.
  34. The Watcher
    Emerges as a formulaic thriller that plays more like direct-to-video fare than a megaplex-worthy feature.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Whispers: An Elephant's Tale
    The unsophisticated, even crude result is not likely to win over too many tots.
  36. Backstage
    Lacks sufficient appeal beyond niche aficionados of its featured performers.
  37. Body Shots
    Fires nothing but blanks.
  38. Exit Wounds
    Viewers who sit through Exit Wounds should at least do themselves the favor of staying for the end credits, which feature some truly funny off-color banter between Anderson and Arnold on the latter's ostensible talkshow.
  39. A Piece of Eden
    A collection of sentimental and emotional moments in search of a movie.
  40. 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.
    • 16 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Lost Souls
    The hallucination sequences are among the pic's creepiest.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Skulls
    A silly, hackneyed college suspenser put across with all the contrived banality of a bad '70s TV movie.
  43. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
    Remote, non-involving and finally incomprehensible.
  44. The Body
    Has shown its true colors as less a serious religious-themed film than a moth-eaten tapestry of foreign intrigue and badly miscast international stars.
  45. CQ
    Roman Coppola's first film has sympathetic aims but is distressingly lacking in flair, style, wit or fun.
  46. My Boss's Daughter
    Director David Zucker, a master of whacked-out visual comedy during his “Airplane!” era, drops the ball here.
  47. The Importance of Being Earnest
    A comedy in the last century and a drama in the new one. At least, that's the dumbfounding impression left by writer-director Oliver Parker's utterly miscalculated film adaptation of Wilde's play.
  48. The Era of Vampires
    Has the stench less of rotting flesh than the whiff of a thoughtless quickie.
  49. Play It to the Bone
    A woefully under-realized story of small-time boxers enjoying perhaps their last moment in the spotlight.
  50. The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest
    Feels entirely a part of an already faded go-go era. Pic is too late by a mile and rightly dumped in a few theaters by Fox, which will doubtless send it to video bins faster than you can say gigabyte.
  51. The Amati Girls
    Most discomforting of all is the sight of world-class actors stuck in such threadbare material.
  52. Simply Irresistible
    Much like a botched souffle that fails to rise, Simply Irresistible is a bland confection that remains doggedly earthbound while attempting flights of romantic fantasy.
    • 19 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Supernova
    Appears headed for a deep-space rendezvous with audience indifference.
  54. Big Fat Liar
    Though Muniz and Bynes make a somewhat likable team, their funniest skills are dampened by the material's insistent stupidity.
  55. The Fantasticks
    The resulting film is one of too much reverence and not enough satire.
  56. Highlander: Endgame
    The sheer raggedness of the plotting -- and the pic's cynical disdain toward audiences -- is staggering.
  57. Juwanna Mann
    Bringing absolutely no fresh angles to a time-tested formula that's seemed particularly overworked of late.
    • 13 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Down to You
    Something oddly appealing about this mushy romantic tale, but first-time feature writer-director Kris Isacsson doesn't have the skills to raise it far above its formulaic foundation.
  59. Red Planet
    As dull and arid as a hike through the desert.
  60. I Dreamed of Africa
    Visually gratifying but dramatically weak, the film falls short of its aspiration to be a sweeping romantic epic.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    La Femme Nikita
    [Parillaud] remains a totally uninteresting figment of Besson's blinkered movieland imagination, especially when she's in the company of Karyo and Anglade, who provide balance to her overacting.
  62. Drop Dead Gorgeous
    A relatively pain-free, if brain-free, diversion.
  63. Bollywood/Hollywood
    Depressingly parochial.
  64. The Omega Code
    By turns laughably simplistic and confoundingly muddled as it charts the "final battle" between good and evil.
  65. All the Queen's Men
    Not bad enough to qualify as a memorable dud, multinational production nonetheless misses mark on every level.
  66. Hanging Up
    A shamelessly sappy family meller that bears the schmaltzy sensibility of Nora Ephron.
  67. Lucky Numbers
    Strictly a minor-league late fall entry.
  68. Someone Like You...
    A romantic comedy as lamely generic as its title.
  69. Crossroads
    Awfully lame bigscreen debut for pop diva Britney Spears.
  70. Extreme Ops
    Action pics rarely come much more blandly generic than Extreme Ops, an instantly forgettable snow-and-stuntwork extravaganza.
  71. Love Stinks
    Lacks the comic style or abandon to make its cynical turn on male-female relationships anything more than a short-lived stunt.
  72. Valentine
    Looking good but lacking much in the way of personality or gray matter -- rather like its characters -- Valentine is a straightforward slasher pic that's acceptably scary until a weak finale.
  73. Where the Heart Is
    Banal and trite where it could have been insightful and emotionally truthful, this Fox release is also notable for featuring the first disappointing performance by teen star Natalie Portman.
  74. Here on Earth
    Young teen girls will flock to pic in droves, dragging their boyfriends or other girlfriends.
  75. The Majestic
    A thick slice of bogus inspirational cheese that only makes itself look bad by recycling so many golden movie memories.
  76. Tomcats
    A boner-headed comedy whose sense of gross-out humor is calculated rather than inspired.
  77. Bride of the Wind
    An odd case of filmmaking with a crystal-clear subject but no guiding dramatic premise.
  78. Mission to Mars
    In outer space, no one can hear you scream -- of boredom.
  79. Loser
    This tepid comedy-drama is, lamentably, aptly titled.
  80. Ghosts of Mars
    This deliberately pre-'90s slice of rock 'n' roll-tinged sci-fi horror, decorated with anything but the latest in special effects, seems particularly grungy and marginal.
  81. Species II
    An unsavory and unsatisfying blend of dumb plotting, leering lasciviousness and full-bore gore, pic should warp-speed to video shelves.
  82. The Adventures of Pluto Nash
    The proper mix is never found. Ill-conceived and expensive project that winds up looking like a bunch of talented thesps slumming it.
  83. American Outlaws
    Sadly symbolizes the decline of the Western. The 36th bigscreen version of the exploits of the James-Younger Gang is one of the least convincing.
  84. Imagining Argentina
    Fails on almost every level…the film only succeeds in trivializing this shameful era.
    • 19 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Lost & Found
    Tumbles off the sick-but-sweet balance beam.
  86. 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
    • 14 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Sculptress
    While good to look at, is devoid of psychological depth or credibility, and further marred by weak, often risible performances.
  88. The Ladies Man
    The question isn't where is the love but where are the laughs?
  89. Ready to Rumble
    Rates a notch below the KISS-centric "Detroit Rock City" and a couple above Jerry Springer's "Ringmaster" -- in other words, closer to stupid-fun than stupid-toxic.
  90. Waking Up in Reno
    A hillbilly romantic comedy in which the hillbillies show up but the romance and comedy never do.
  91. Get Carter
    A useless remake of Mike Hodges' 1971 British gangland cult classic.
  92. Hansel & Gretel
    Pity the children for whom this is their intro to the world of Grimm, for while pic stays to basic outline of the original story in opening and closing sections, the large middle is stuffed with badly staged slapstick and painful stabs at hip dialogue in an arch attempt to cater to modern kids.
  93. Rat Race
    A lineup of comic actors running on empty long before the dust settles.
  94. 3 Strikes
    Exuberantly rude and crude, but generally more frantic than genuinely funny.
  95. In Search of Peace
    It's a timely, noble undertaking ill-served by a dry, history-textbook style that is at once too much and not enough.
  96. Piñero
    Hectic, sketchy and finally dull.
  97. The Cookout
    Loosely plotted and wildly uneven farce.
  98. Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
    A sign that the Sandler comedy empire is expanding and reaching new depths of pure gross-out stupidity.
  99. Not Another Teen Movie
    A nail in the coffin if not the heart of teen comedies.
  100. 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.
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