Variety's Scores

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For 17,782 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: 9,136 out of 17782
  2. Mixed: 7,010 out of 17782
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17782
17782 movie reviews
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  1. The Son's Room
    While devotees expecting Moretti's wry worldview may feel shortchanged, others will find this a profoundly moving experience, giving it fuel to cross borders into the arthouse niche.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shot in the Heart
    The piece is ultimately admirable for its lack of easy answers, for its continued sense of emotional confusion.
  3. 20 Dates
    Blurring the lines between cinema verite and fiction, writer-director Myles Berkowitz has created a winning entertainment.
  4. Trapped
    A pretty skillfully handled domestic thriller about a criminal activity that, while always upsetting, is especially noxious now due to the too many recent tragic and highly publicized instances of it.
  5. XX/XY
    Chick agreeably captures the feel and flow of on-the-move young professionals in New York.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Billy Liar (re-release)
    An imaginative, fascinating film.
  7. Down and Out with the Dolls
    Unaffectedly hip and affably manic, Down & Out With the Dolls picks up where "Singles" left off.
  8. The House of Mirth
    Visually detailed but emotionally dry.
  9. Janice Beard
    Starts out on an exhilarating high but gradually loses steam, Janice Beard 45 WPM tries hard to overcome its inconsistency with relentless whimsy.
  10. A Housekeeper
    Leads Jean-Pierre Bacri and Emilie Dequenne establish an awkward yet tender odd-couple dynamic, their accomplished work serving to distinguish the familiar material.
  11. Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)
    It's shiny, amusing, incessantly clever, but sometimes a tad too snarky for its own good.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Dogwalker
    There's an infectious, spry quality to much of The Dogwalker, an indie that benefits from amusing characters, strong thesping and taut situational humor.
  13. Amores Perros
    He (Gonzalez Inarritu) handles a complex plot with clarity and precision while keeping audience members on the edge of their seats.
  14. The Believer
    Those who see it at fests, and in carefully tailored specialized release, will be struck by the adroitness with which it addresses touchy issues, as well as by the outstanding performance of Ryan Gosling in the difficult leading role.
  15. Where's the Party Yaar?
    The most affable and endearing of the recent wave of films about Indian immigrants assimilating in the West.
  16. All Over the Guy
    Lightweight but likable romantic comedy about two mismatched gay singletons who are, of course, made for each other.
  17. Francis Ford Coppola Presents: The Legend of Suriyothai
    The frequently confusing story does eventually pull together; but there's still a lack of any strong emotional center, and the character gallery remains over-populated.
  18. Brotherhood of the Wolf
    A little Sergio Leone here, a little "Sleepy Hollow" there, a grand helping of late royal-era Gaul with its wigs and finery, and, uh, martial arts-style confrontations galore are all deftly melded in Brotherhood of the Wolf.
  19. Dr T and the Women
    Gere breaks through with what may or may not be his best performance.
  20. Revolution #9
    Looks with fresh eyes at a new millennium in which, seemingly, the entire world is bought and sold in neatly wrapped packages engineered for mass consumption.
  21. Sister Helen
    Riveting portrait of a straight-talking, tough-loving Benedictine nun in charge of a South Bronx home for recovering substance abusers.
  22. Yves Saint Laurent 5 avenue Marceau 75116 Paris
    Companion piece to Teboul's "Yves Saint Laurent -- Time Regained" nicely complements that excellent film but is less riveting as a free-standing experience.
  23. Kiss of the Dragon
    Slick, straight-ahead action-thriller that marks a small step back and two bounding leaps forward for toplined Jet Li.
  24. Ulee's Gold
    Nunez achieves a rare, and rarely earned, emotional depth that rewards the moderate demands he makes on contemporary viewers' short attention spans.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ishtar
    Enter Charles Grodin, who upstages all involved via his savagely comical portrayal of a CIA agent.
  26. Felicia's Journey
    Mounted as an art film and is likely to divide both critics and the helmer's fans.
  27. Happy, Texas
    Steve Zahn shines throughout Mark Illsley's feature debut, Happy, Texas, elevating this eccentric small-town comedy a notch or two above its level of writing.
  28. Madame Satã
    While it's a little shapeless and dramatically overwrought, the film remains entertaining thanks to its fascinating subject, sharp visuals and fiercely proud central performance.
  29. City by the Sea
    De Niro's reunion with helmer Michael Caton-Jones doesn't stoke the same fire as their previous pere-fils drama, "This Boy's Life," partly because De Niro's latest portrayal of a troubled cop feels so familiar.
  30. The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
    The lack of a plausible leading lady is enough to sink what is otherwise an eye-catching, although heavily '90s-style, telling of one of history's most frequently filmed stories.
  31. The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course
    A perfectly respectable kid-friendly family offering.
  32. An Amazing Couple
    The briefest of the three pics, it's also the least successful, suggesting that this kind of character-driven comedy isn't the genre with which Belvaux is most comfortable. Still, there are delightful sequences and ideas and the film carries a great deal more substance and resonance when placed alongside the other two in the series.
  33. The Heart of Me
    Solidly entertaining for those who like their dialogue crisp and with a main verb in every sentence.
  34. Km. 0 - Kilometer Zero
    Consistently amusing, candy-colored sex romp -- about romantic match-ups in Madrid that go both wrong and right.
  35. Apollo 13
    It's exceedingly linear structure, while unavoidable, renders it rather methodical and shallow in characterization.
  36. The Opposite of Sex
    Roos’ talent for vivid, jump-off-the-screen dialogue remains unquestioned, but his direction is considerably more spotty.
  37. The Secret Lives of Dentists
    Director Alan Rudolph achieves fresh as well as humorous insights into family life and strategies for keeping a damaged relationship from expiring. But a tiresome final act proves trying.
  38. Dark Blue
    Refreshingly devoid of flashiness or artificially pumped-up action, this consistently gripping, well-constructed police thriller… showcases a tightly controlled performance from Kurt Russell.
  39. Our Father
    Haroun's film is both touching and, ultimately, almost perversely optimistic.
  40. E-Dreams
    Plays out in quite a different offscreen context than did last year's similarly themed sleeper "Startup.com."
  41. Kippur
    A cumulatively devastating and visceral insight into the horrors of war.
  42. Journeys with George
    A golden opportunity to witness the "unplugged," after-hours George W. Bush at his most congenial. "George" offers a portrait of a gregariously charming and self-mocking fellow who's perfectly at ease in his own skin, and who's no less slick and savvy a politician for being willing to make himself the butt of jokes.
  43. The Experiment
    A solid slice of entertainment without reaching the psychological depths promised by the subject matter.
  44. Smoke Signals
    Breezy, often self-mocking tone proves fresh and invigorating.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mystery Men
    Sharply written, with a lavish look and top-drawer effects adding to the appeal of its large and talented cast, pic achieves a nice balance of fondness and satiric snap, character laughs and goofy action.
  46. Smoke
    Too often goes off on a tangent with unessential anecdotes and then fails to deliver in more important areas.
  47. Ghost River
    Huppert's mastery aside, this is a European Art Film writ large, complete with classical music, gorgeously filmed landscapes, expository voiceovers, poetic transitions and only a ghost's footprint of a story.
  48. Too Tired to Die
    Has a jaunty, cosmopolitan air that proves appealing for considerable stretches, and Chin's love of cinema and mostly humorous approach to weighty themes will win points with buffs who have seen the same films the director has.
  49. Phone Booth
    Gussied up with a host of filmmaking tricks in an attempt to keep things lively, this intensely acted little exercise just doesn't have enough going for it, with the exception of gradually growing interest in lead Colin Farrell.
  50. An American Werewolf in Paris
    An enjoyably trashy blend of impressive special effects, low-key refs to Landis's movie, and sudden moments of horror breaking the jokey tone.
  51. My Life Without Me
    With a glowing performance by Sarah Polley as the doomed woman, this Spanish-Canadian co-prod, filmed in English, is surprisingly adept at avoiding the worst cliches and most manipulative elements inherent in such a story.
  52. Velvet Goldmine
    A constantly imaginative, stylistically lively but dramatically inert chronicle of cultural and sexual rebellion.
  53. The Apostle
    Beautifully detailed and deftly structured, every scene in The Apostle logically leads to the next one, each elaborating on the central theme of religious redemption.
  54. The Man from Elysian Fields
    A fine cast further illuminates a felicitous script.
  55. Real Women Have Curves
    Delightful coming-of-age comedy-drama.
  56. Knock Off
    Working from a formulaic script by Steven E. De Souza, Hark employs a variety of visual stratagems to keep the action fast and flashy.
  57. Dummy
    At this stage, Pritikin shows considerably more aptitude for writing than for directing, and the exuberant eruptions of humor lead one to suspect he should try for outright comedy next time and forget the sentiment.
  58. The Rookie
    Quaid's effortlessly compelling and engagingly earnest performance keeps pic grounded in down-to-earth reality.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Passionada
    A lovely, albeit imperfect fable marked by strong performances and infused with glorious bursts of soulful fado folk music.
  60. The Flower of Evil
    A terrific multigenerational cast brings a subtle, mordant, frequently funny tale of family secrets vividly to life.
  61. The Thomas Crown Affair
    The characters in The Thomas Crown Affair are cool -- too cool, in fact, for the film to develop much of a pulse.
  62. Intimacy
    A tortured reflection on the complex relationship between love, sex, desire and obsession, distinguished by courageously raw performances from leads Mark Rylance and Kerry Fox.
  63. Donnie Brasco
    The psychological dimensions of the story remain underrealized, but the loaded central premise and intimate focus the film sustains combine for a very involving and dramatic piece of crime lore.
  64. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
    While plot mechanics aren't wildly imaginative, pic nonetheless delivers requisite jolts in an above-average package.
  65. Woman on Top
    A fantastical romp with a buoyant pace, exotic locations, a finger-popping score, appealing leads and spicy cooking demonstrations.
  66. The Gift
    A good, old-fashioned suspenser.
  67. The Missing
    Ron Howard has never before made a picture this raw and alive. At the same time, this tale of the desperate pursuit of the kidnappers of young women makes for a fundamentally grim and unpleasant experience.
  68. The Clay Bird
    Accomplished, emotionally involving film.
  69. Italian for Beginners
    The most nonconfrontational and thus accessible title in the Dogma lot to date, and will speak the international language of proletariat love to arthouse auds who go for such fare.
  70. Nowhere in Africa
    Easy on the eye and effortlessly entertaining across almost 2½ hours.
  71. Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion
    The film is, at times, emotionally riveting -- yet also has an institutional feeling, largely because it attempts to cover too much ground in too little time.
  72. Luster
    An ensemble seriocomedy that's initially loose to a fault, but gradually wins one over with its shaggy charm -- and by the close has grown more ambitious, and poignant, than initial reels lead you to expect.
  73. Johnny English
    An extremely silly but effective enough romp for family audiences.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bull Durham
    A fanciful and funny bush league sports story where the only foul ball is its overuse of locker-room dialog.
  75. The Man in the Iron Mask
    An unusually sober and serious-minded telling of Alexandre Dumas' classic tale, this handsome costumer is routinely made and comes up rather short in boisterous excitement.
  76. The Object of My Affection
    Tries to mix the messy realities of mismatched relationships with the structural neatness of a musical-comedy view of the world, with mild, occasionally diverting results.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Die Hard
    As high tech, rock hard and souped up as an action film can be.
  78. Up at the Villa
    This least affected of their (Haases) movies is also the most dramatically and emotionally convincing.
  79. The Mummy Returns
    Virtually bursts with visual goodies, and writer-director Stephen Sommers scarcely allows the actors, or the audience, a moment to take a breath during the nonstop action of the final hour.
  80. Bulgarian Lovers
    Full of charm, entertaining enough as it unfolds, good looking, but not especially memorable in retrospect.
  81. Lawless Heart
    This slyly humorous, cleverly constructed comedy-drama wends its way through different takes on similar time frames to a warm, inclusive ending.
  82. Alice et Martin
    All the main characters make a telling contribution to the claustrophobic web of feelings the drama comprises.
  83. Life
    Careens from decade to decade, and from relative dramatic realism to frequent hilarity, in often-winning fashion.
  84. Music of the Heart
    A gloriously sentimental true-life drama
  85. Divan
    Offers a testimonial to the devastation caused in Hungary by the Holocaust, a glimpse into the richness of Yiddish folklore, a passive-aggressive assault on the patriarchal fastness of Hasidic orthodoxy and a vast self-reflexive joke.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Spy Kids
    Fulfills kids' empowerment fantasies and features enough techno-wizardry and cool f/x to satisfy those weaned on videogames.
  87. So Close
    Slickly packaged, unashamedly exploitative popcorn movie.
  88. What's Cooking?
    Though often enjoyable, it’s an old-fashioned, feel-good movie whose significance is more sociological than cinematic.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Abyss
    A firstrate underwater suspenser with an otherworldly twist, The Abyss suffers from a payoff unworthy of its buildup.
  90. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde
    The script here just doesn't have sufficient smarts to pull off Elle's political triumph. But Witherspoon again makes a valiant show of selling it.
  91. The Seagull's Laughter
    A sprightly, enjoyable comedy-drama from veteran Agust Gudmundsson that's buoyed by a raft of excellent distaff performances.
  92. Shooting Fish
    Though the script never makes a convincing case for the lads as '90s Robin Hoods, it's restlessly inventive, with a pleasant, rather than rib-cracking, humor and likable touch of naivete.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Capture the Castle
    Fywell has transformed this autobiographical novel into a perceptive, wholly engaging drama, infusing the proceedings with a light tone that almost qualifies the film as a comedy, yet never loses sight of the unpredictability of human emotions.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (re-released)
    It takes nerve to make a pic in which all dialog is sung. Also, there is no dancing and this is not a filmed operetta or opera. [review of original release]
  95. The Scorpion King
    Rouses excitement mostly from stuntwork and thesp agility rather than CGI excess.
  96. Agent Cody Banks
    As a spy pic, it has more pizzazz than the last few Bond adventures, "The Sum of All Fears" or "The Recruit."
  97. Die, Mommie, Die!
    Doing for the cheesier Ross Hunter-style bigscreen soaps of the early/mid-'60s what "Far From Heaven" did for the plush Douglas Sirk melodramas of a decade earlier -- albeit with tongue planted much further in cheek -- writer/star Charles Busch's Die Mommie Die! is an enjoyable genre homage-cum-parody.
  98. Pi
    The film's imaginative, diverse images create a mind's-eye urban claustrophobia; such intensity may exhaust over 85 minutes' course, but it's never less than impressive.
  99. Stepmom
    Everything about the film suggests that its makers consider it a deep, emotionally probing drama, but it's merely a soap opera with elevated production values and a sterling cast.
  100. Brokedown Palace
    It's close to a no-win situation dramatically, culturally and politically, and Kaplan deals with it plausibly enough by concentrating on the performances and the interior conflicts they reveal.
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