Variety's Scores

Select another publication »
For 17,777 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: 9,133 out of 17777
  2. Mixed: 7,008 out of 17777
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17777
17777 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. Howl's Moving Castle
    The tireless volley of ideas and inventions make this a delight that should connect with kids and adults in both dubbed and original-language versions.
  2. The Talent Given Us
    Brutally truthful, funny and touching in nearly equal measure.
  3. Rize
    Eye-popping lensing and an appreciation of social complexities combine for an entirely satisfying experience.
  4. Memories of Murder
    A powerful, slow-burning portrait of human fallibility.
  5. Twist of Faith
    A powerful and damning look at the long-term impact of sexual abuse.
  6. Bad News Bears
    The new Bad News Bears has adopted a somewhat raunchier tone but delivers enough laughs to go the distance.
  7. Sky High
    Smartly written and sprightly played, Sky High satisfies with a clever commingling of spoofy superheroics, school-daze hijinks, and family friendly coming-of-age. dramedydramedy.
  8. The Aristocrats
    A raucous insider documentary that invites the viewer to share a secret held exclusively by comics for untold generations.
  9. Broken Flowers
    Working in his typically idiosyncratic and episodic vein, Jim Jarmusch has nonetheless pitched the film slightly more toward mainstream tastes than usual for him, using excellent thesps in the service of accessible material.
  10. Darwin's Nightmare
    Somewhat haphazardly organized yet fascinatingly detailed and enriched by the candor and dignity of its shockingly deprived interview subjects.
  11. 11:14
    A zippy and sardonic feast of bad decision-making under pressure, 11:14 artfully molds the seemingly unrelated misfortunes of 10 characters into a satisfying and consistently entertaining whole.
  12. This Divided State
    As boisterous as it is sobering.
  13. The Constant Gardener
    Succeeds in capturing the book's essential themes and concerns, albeit in a hectic style that could not be more antithetical to that of the literary master of international intrigue.
  14. The Memory of a Killer
    A gripping,stylishly lensed thriller.
  15. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
    Some genuine shocks punctuate The Exorcism of Emily Rose, an unusually intelligent genre item that manages to mix full-bore horror with courtroom drama.
  16. Proof
    But despite less-than-ideal casting of the male roles, and a tendency to soften the Pulitzer Prize-winning work's thorny humor with a more sober tone, director John Madden has woven together an elegant, intelligent drama of a breed increasingly rare in mainstream American movies.
  17. Lord of War
    Brimming with cinematic confidence, cynicism, chutzpah plus dramatic bungles, Andrew Niccol's ambitious Lord of War views today's international arms trade through its anti-hero.
  18. Separate Lies
    With Separate Lies, Fellowes has made a truly adult film -- not because of its content or themes, but because it knows that real drama often lies in the accepted and unspoken realms of life.
  19. The Greatest Game Ever Played
    Offers an inspiring story, lush visuals and accessible characters to give a black-hat-white-hat view of class struggle in America and England.
  20. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
    Even more than in "Far From Heaven," Moore's housebound wife is a study in pent-up brilliance, with extraordinary devotion to her family.
  21. Good Night, and Good Luck.
    A vital chapter of mid-century history is brought to life concisely, with intimacy and matter-of-fact artistry.
  22. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
    Park and co-helmer Steve Box stay faithful to the cozy core ingredients that made the clay duo's kudo-reaping shorts and Park's previous pic, "Chicken Run," so well loved. "Curse" delivers a wholesome morsel, happily not too cheesy, that families will nibble on as a treat.
  23. Dandelion
    A perceptive character drama both delicate and tragic.
  24. Zombie Honeymoon
    Zombie Honeymoon scores simultaneously as romantic, tragic, grotesque and screamingly funny
  25. The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till
    Now, 50 years later, the Justice Department has decided to reopen the case, due largely to Keith Beauchamp's documentary, which contains testimony from hitherto unseen witnesses.
  26. Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque
    A labor of love made over the course of seven years that crucially matches the energy and passion Langlois himself embodied, this deep-dish account of the life and times of the longtime head of the Cinematheque Francaise will enthrall buffs.
  27. North Country
    An emotionally potent story told with great dignity.
  28. Nine Lives
    Though the episodic structure results in a whole not quite equal to some of its parts, pic is an unusually tender, perceptive character study buoyed by stellar performances from a who's who of talented (and many underused) actresses.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Harlan County U.S.A. (re-release)
    The stars of the film are the men and women of Harlan County, portrayed here not as patronized mountain folks but as human beings. (Review of Original Release)
  30. After Innocence
    A powerfully affecting documentary.
  31. White King, Red Rubber, Black Death
    A stunning indictment of Belgium's brutal colonization of the Congo in the late 19th century, Brit documaker Peter Bate's White King, Red Rubber, Black Death illustrates how European exploitation in Africa caused irreparable damage to the continent.
  32. Innocence
    This genuine curio maintains its mystery to the end.
  33. Good Morning, Night
    Numerous filmmakers have attempted to dramatize the terrorist activity that gripped Italy in the 1970s, but few have done so with the unsettling power of Marco Bellocchio's Good Morning, Night.
  34. Syriana
    A weighty and deeply intriguing look at the many-tentacled beast that is the international oil industry. Wide-ranging and restlessly probing, Stephen Gaghan's second directorial effort uses the same mosaic storytelling technique as in his Oscar-winning screenplay for "Traffic."
  35. Transamerica
    Laugh-out-loud funny, tartly off-color and ultimately touching.
  36. Memoirs of a Geisha
    From a filmmaking point of view, this is a work that the old Hollywood moguls themselves would have been proud to present.
  37. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
    An array of supporting craftspeople pull the viewer into a credible alternative world, even if the film itself is more prosaic than inspiring.
  38. Match Point
    Well-observed and superbly cast picture is the filmmaker's best in quite a long time.
  39. Happy Here and Now
    Isn't for everyone. It seems certain to confound as many viewers as it will inspire. But pic will foster a core critical contingent that will find itself transfixed and, ultimately, deeply moved by the film's ravishing power.
  40. Wolf Creek
    Essentially a worst-case-scenario white-knuckler executed with terrifically focused skill and realism.
  41. The Intruder
    A beautiful, complex work that challenges viewers to mentally sift interior and exterior journeys.
  42. Casanova
    A handsome chunk of widescreen entertainment that's as nimble as its rakish hero.
  43. Glory Road
    Slick enterprise buoyed by a Motown-flavored '60s soundtrack and an appealing ensemble cast.
  44. How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)
    Lively interviews from a wide range of people, a wealth of excerpted footage stretching over decades, and a story packed with legend are served up by helmer Joe Angio with a verve mirroring the restless creativity of the film's subject.
  45. The Ister
    Tyro helmers David Barison and Daniel Ross have sunk their teeth into a heady intellectual stew, and results are invigorating thanks to the filmmakers' inspired linkage of images and ideas and commentaries from three of the world's leading philosophers.
  46. Love
    The action is compelling, the film good looking, the acting first rate and the circumstances -- people from neglected nations in an alienating if not hostile urban landscape -- is moving.
  47. Battle in Heaven
    Both intensely exciting for its cinematic inventions and terribly uninvolving on emotional and dramatic levels.
  48. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
    An ace performance by 26-year-old Julia Jentsch ("The Edukators," "Snowland"), as the quietly determined Munich student who was beheaded for distributing counter-propaganda leaflets in 1943, gives pic a focused dramatic power.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Little Fish
    Blessed with stellar performances, especially by lead Cate Blanchett as an ex-junkie looking for a fresh break, this sophomore feature by Australian director Rowan Woods marks a strong return after his powerful debut, "The Boys" (1998).
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Black Orpheus
    Pic is somewhat cerebral, being mainly helped by the fresh playing of the cast, especially Yank actress Dawn. Color is excellent, and director Marcel Camus gives this movement. (Review of Original Release)
  51. Dave Chappelle's Block Party
    A heady spirit of spontaneity permeates the proceedings, suggesting the entire pic, much like the concert it documents, was conceived, planned and completed in a single burst of creative enthusiasm.
  52. Forgiving Dr. Mengele
    An impressively polished documentary by Bob Hercules and Cheri Hughes. Perhaps even more thought-provoking than its co-helmers intended, pic is bound to spark conversations and debate.
  53. The Devil's Miner
    An unforgettable journey through hell under the earth, where Satan is worshipped as king. Straight-as-an-arrow filmmaking raises this docu above the crowd.
  54. Iluzija
    Superbly modulated yet unrelentingly grim, Mirage builds upon a remarkable performance from young Macedonian newcomer Marko Kovacevic to tell the tragic tale of a talented schoolboy driven to violence through neglect and manipulation.
  55. L'Enfant (The Child)
    Those masters of small-scale realism, Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, have created yet another beautifully acted, exquisitely observed morality tale in The Child.
  56. Slither
    Slither begins briskly, gradually accelerates and eventually achieves a breakneck momentum that makes the wild ride even more exhilarating.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mountain Patrol
    Exquisite to behold and with a stimulating storyline that mixes guns with ecological consciousness, picture is a considerable change of pace for director Lu Chuan.
  58. The Proposition
    Hillcoat and Cave have here found their most fertile ground yet for allegory-rich examinations of life and death in remote, pressure-cooker environments.
  59. Sketches of Frank Gehry
    Lucid and engaging, Sketches of Frank Gehry provides the enormously gratifying opportunity to spend an hour-and-a-half with an artistic giant.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Overlord [re-release]
    US director Stuart Cooper gives it the right understated, unheroic feel. (Review of Original Release)
  61. Half Nelson
    Avoiding rote inspirational notes as well as boyz-in-the-hood violence, scrupulously low-key drama nonetheless builds to a powerful impact.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Fan-Fan the Tulip
    A rousing, good humored costumer on ribald 18th-century France. (Review of Original Release)
  63. Lassie
    Competent journeyman writer-helmer Charles Sturridge ("Brideshead Revisited") and his overqualified thesp ensemble steer a steady course between dogged fidelity to Eric Knight's sentimental original novel and modern auds' need for a little humorous bite with the barking.
  64. This Film Is Not Yet Rated
    Never really addresses why aspects of the ratings don't work, proposes concrete improvements or compares the system to those in other countries. Still, picture's bracing, hilarious and out-there elements make it a landmark.
  65. The Ground Truth
    The substance of the movie is potent, and so powerfully presented by those who have fought and are still fighting a controversial war, that the message of Ground Truth cannot be dismissed.
  66. Keeping Mum
    Rather dark, decidedly English and exceedingly well played, Keeping Mum is a neatly crafted black comedy with more than a nod in tone toward the Ealing classic "The Ladykillers."
  67. Old Joy
    A beautifully nuanced study in friendship and the irretrievability of the past.
  68. Black Gold
    The Francises are aces behind the camera, displaying an elegant sense of composition that makes their subject visually ravishing. Andreas Kapsalis' gorgeous score lends doc a grand quality.
  69. Deliver Us from Evil
    So harsh and damning is the pic toward the current Catholic leadership -- personified by Los Angeles-based Cardinal Roger Mahony, who oversaw O'Grady's stewardship at various central California parishes in the 1970s and '80s, that charges the church operates "like the Mafia" sound spot-on.
  70. The Ritchie Boys
    Christian Bauer's engaging The Ritchie Boys captures the excitement, ironies and "good war" feel of World War II.
  71. The Wild Blue Yonder
    Should stand with the likes of "Fata Morgana" and "Lessons of Darkness" as one of helmer's best efforts at smudging the lines between docu and fiction.
  72. Commune
    Often mocked and rarely understood, the movement in communal living that blossomed with Flower Power in the '60s gets its most honest appraisal yet on film with Jonathan Berman's Commune.
  73. Happy Feet
    One of the very best directed animated films on record. Not surprisingly from the force behind the "Babe" movies, the attention to detail is phenomenal, the humor ample.
  74. For Your Consideration
    It will garner critical huzzahs from those it lampoons, which will broaden the duo's (Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy) fan base.
  75. The Aura
    The Aura is far from being simply "Nine Queens2." Leisurely paced, studied, reticent and rural, The Aura is a quieter, richer and better-looking piece that handles its multiple manipulations with the maturity the earlier picture sometimes lacked.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Deja Vu
    Cinema's natural felicities for time and action have seldom felt as beautifully dovetailed.
  77. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
    An ingeniously twisted mockumentary.
  78. Bamako
    Rather miraculously, picture succeeds in painlessly educating its viewers about global politics and economics while it describes contemporary Africa with freshness and clarity.
  79. The Cats of Mirikitani
    Always surprising documentary makes excellent use of its many serendipidities.
  80. Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders
    Intelligent, informative and unusually entertaining documentary errs only when it yanks too insistently on heartstrings while focusing on worst-case scenarios involving desperate debtors driven to suicide.
  81. The Namesake
    A richly compelling story of family and self-discovery.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Adam's Apples
    A funny, politically incorrect and, somewhere deep down, thoughtful black comedy, Adam's Apples is the third and final film in helmer-writer Anders Thomas Jensen's excellent trilogy centered on oddballs and misfits in Denmark.
  83. Reign Over Me
    Sandler (never making a false step while maneuvering though vertiginous mood swings) and Cheadle (deftly commingling instinctive decency with quiet desperation) are individually excellent, and bring out the best in each other. And the picture itself transcends its real but relatively minor flaws to score a satisfyingly potent impact.
  84. Color Me Kubrick
    A sly, enormously entertaining romp based on the antics of real-life Brit conman Alan Conway who rooked his way around '90s London posing as Stanley Kubrick.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Journey from the Fall
    A post-Vietnam War boat people saga is launched to compelling effect in Journey From the Fall, a sleek U.S. production.
  86. Offside
    In his most accessible and spontaneous picture, ranking Iranian helmer Jafar Panahi reveals unsuspected comic gifts barely visible in his dramatic festival winners "The White Balloon," "The Circle" and "Crimson Gold."
  87. Blades of Glory
    This Will Speck-Josh Gordon-directed farce is the triple axel of comedy.
  88. The Lookout
    A stealthy neo-noir drama that isn't afraid to take its time developing characters on the way to the payoff of a neatly designed caper scenario.
  89. Meet the Robinsons
    A sharp-minded, plenty entertaining toon that will keep children of all ages wide-eyed and on their toes.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    After the Wedding
    Thanks to a tight script, sharp direction and excellent actors, new film by Danish helmer Susanne Bier manages to be both emotional and engaging.
  91. Black Book
    Moves like an express train across almost 2½ hours without any sense of rush and with strong, empathetic characters etched en route.
  92. Grindhouse
    Planet Terror delivers only momentary kicks...while Tarantino's Death Proof is a juicy, delicious treat, its pleasures stem much less from the play with genre conventions than from great dialogue and electric performances.
  93. The Hoax
    Lasse Hallstrom's breezy, fast-paced, somewhat loose-ended account of how he (Irving) did it offers a surprisingly layered vehicle for a maniacally conniving Richard Gere, backed up by a superb Alfred Molina as his accomplice.
  94. Lonely Hearts
    Todd Robinson constructs a riveting thriller.
  95. Hot Fuzz
    A sustained genre parody that's equally funny but (maybe in deference to the genre) much more pumped up.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Triad Election
    Distinguished by intelligence, wit and violence but is lightly wounded by some ill-fitting moments.
  97. Shrek the Third
    After a buoyantly funny first half-hour, stylish animated comedy takes a breather before ramping it up again for a rambunctious, girrrl-power finale that provides a convenient springboard for further adventures to come.
  98. Chalk
    Filtering one school year through the eyes of three young instructors and a rookie administrator, this loosely scripted satire mostly steers clear of cheap shots and over-the-top gags, balancing its comic observations with a real measure of affection for teachers and students alike.
  99. Golden Door
    An imaginative, intelligent and attractive Italo pic precisely when the country needs it most, Emanuele Crialese's Golden Door reps a solid piece of cinema that neither panders nor preaches.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »