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. Tales from the Golden Age
    Though Mungiu's presumed two shorts have the most individual feel, the other helmers -- Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Hoefer, Razvan Marculescu and Constantin Popescu, all feature novices -- show a plethora of styles within the so-called "Romanian New Wave."
  2. Bullet to the Head
    To claim the dialogue is written to comfort the narratively challenged would be mere quibbling, as the picture's chief pleasure lies in its store of funny lines, which Stallone tosses off with genuine brio.
  3. Benda Bilili!
    Audiences will find the group's triumph inspiring.
  4. Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
    An inventive marriage of ancient China and Agatha Christie, Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame is a lavishly overwrought historical whodunit.
  5. Pariah
    Vivid photography, true-to-life moments and a wonderful lead performance compensate for some first-timer missteps in debutante writer-director Dee Rees' Pariah.
  6. Jane's Journey
    A worshipful tribute to the life and work of Jane Goodall.
  7. Chalet Girl
    A chirpy, tween-skewing, snowboarding-themed romantic comedy, Chalet Girl slaloms exuberantly down a predictable path, kicking up regular flurries of fun along the way.
  8. Happy, Happy
    Picture ultimately pulls off a fairly ambitious narrative agenda with a wrap both credible and crowdpleasing.
  9. Les Miserables
    Yet for all its expected highs, the adaptation has been managed with more gusto than grace; at the end of the day, this impassioned epic too often topples beneath the weight of its own grandiosity.
  10. The Three Stooges
    Peter and Bobby Farrelly tone down the abuse without compromising the numbskulls' unique style of physical comedy, making for an unexpectedly pleasant yet unapologetically lowbrow outing true to the spirit that has made the trio such an enduring comedy fixture since its bigscreen debut in 1930.
  11. Anna Karenina
    Setting most of the action in a mocked-up theater emphasizes the performance aspects of the characters' behavior, a strategy enhanced by lead thesp Keira Knightley's willingness to let her neurotic Anna appear less sympathetic than in previous incarnations.
  12. Journey from Zanskar
    Surprisingly entertaining.
  13. The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby
    Oddly, the director's personal connection with his subject adds little warmth, filmmaker Carl proving nearly as unemotional as his deadpan dad.
  14. Paul Goodman Changed My Life
    Reminiscences about Goodman and readings of his poetry are played over old pictures that capture his singularly seductive appeal and lively sense of humor.
  15. You Don't Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantanamo
    Luc Cote and Patricio Henriquez's You Don't Like the Truth demonstrates, through excerpts from an actual videotaped interrogation at Guantanamo, the process by which human will can be systematically broken down to force an admission of guilt, regardless of truth.
  16. Norman
    Recalls last year's "World's Greatest Dad," similarly using a snowballing fib to lampoon the ambulance-chasing relationship between morbidity and celebrity. But unlike that primarily satirical exercise, Norman gradually ditches the snark in favor of poignant, understated dramatics.
  17. Gangster Squad
    The cops play things as dirty as the crooks in Gangster Squad, an impressively pulpy underworld-plunger that embellishes on a 1949 showdown between a dedicated team of LAPD officers and Mob-connected Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) for control of the city.
  18. Oka!
    If movies were subject to sanity tests, Oka! would be a crazy old man with a three-day beard and a sock full of kruggerrands under his mattress.
  19. Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe
    Candace Against the Universe has been made for “Phineas and Ferb” believers, and like such hipster kiddie brand extensions as “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies,” it’s not necessarily more fun than three good episodes of the show stacked together. But that’s fun enough.
  20. Young Goethe in Love
    As its English-language title indicates, Philipp Stoelzl's yarn is clearly modeled on "Shakespeare in Love." But though it lacks that film's delirious wordplay, this German cousin is well plotted and impressively mounted.
  21. The Other F Word
    The Other F Word is a raucous, eye-opening, sad and unexpectedly wise look at veteran punk rockers as they adapt to the challenges of fatherhood.
  22. The Last Rites of Joe May
    Despite all this boilerplate gangster-with-a-heart-of-gold stuff, there's an emotional payoff to "Joe May" that feels solid and right.
  23. Stuck Between Stations
    Real people may not be this glib and witty, but Rosen and Lister-Jones sell us on Casper and Becky nonetheless.
  24. Dragonslayer
    The film observes a guy verging on poverty or riches with a bounty of beautiful imagery and fresh angles on skateboarding culture.
  25. Ender's Game
    An impressive, thought-provoking astro-adventure that benefits from the biggest screen available.
  26. The Innkeepers
    Slow-burning buildup, lack of explicit mayhem and overall low-tech approach may strike cineastes as amusingly quaint.
  27. Eames: The Architect & The Painter
    Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey's sprightly documentary weighs its subjects' unique accomplishments and widespread influence while probing a relationship more complex than its sunny public face indicated.
  28. Knuckle
    As anthropology lessons go, Knuckle is strong stuff, and it's easy to accept Palmer's conclusion that the problem he's showing us may well have no solution.
  29. Addiction Incorporated
    Producer Charles Evans Jr.'s directorial debut finds an engrossing suspense angle in the involvement of Victor DeNoble, an idealistic scientist-turned-whistleblower whose suppressed corporate research became the bombshell catalyst in that struggle.
  30. Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel
    When discussing tastemakers of the 20th century, few names conjure "style" with the zest of Diana Vreeland, and documentary The Eye Has to Travel gets the zing just right.
  31. Roadie
    Roadie features some wonderfully evocative music out of its characters' collective past (local legends the Good Rats, for instance) but like Jimmy himself, it takes a bit of a push to get the picture going, which it gets, both emotionally and dramatically, thanks largely to its ensemble.
  32. Dzi Croquettes
    Resembling an all-male late-20th-century version of the Ziegfeld Follies, the cabaret group Dzi Croquettes used an empowering sexuality to counter Brazil's military dictatorship. Dzi Croquettes -- the Documentary is Tatiana Issa and Raphael Alvarez's pleasure-packed exploration of the group's impact.
  33. Romantics Anonymous
    A delicious comedy-romance with a sweet-toothed twist from Gallic director Jean-Pierre Ameris ("Lightweight").
  34. Crazy Wisdom: The Life & Times of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
    The late Chogyam Trungpa's very colorful life makes for a most engaging narrative here.
  35. Lads & Jockeys
    A must for the equine-inclined, and a candid look at fearful ambition.
  36. Evil Dead
    Boasts way better production values than the penny-pinching 1981 original and conceivably could delight genre fans who have never seen the first version or its previous remakes/sequels. But it’s bound to play best with those who catch Alvarez’s many wink-wink allusions to Raimi’s picture.
  37. The Pill
    Deftly avoiding both the haphazardness of mumblecore and the fakery of studio romantic comedies, Khoury deploys a light directorial touch marked by assured thesping and a genuine appreciation for neurotic angst.
  38. The Flowers of War
    Scene by scene, The Flowers of War is an erratic and ungainly piece of storytelling, full of melodramatic twists and grotesque visual excesses (a bullet pierces first a stained-glass window and then a girl's neck), which are nonetheless delivered with startling conviction.
  39. Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same
    "Sweet, funny, clever comedy seeks crossover" would be the Craigslist come-on for Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, and it may well come true via Madeleine Olnek's wry homage to '50s sci-fi, urban dating and interspecies romance.
  40. Monsieur Lazhar
    Quietly intelligent and respectable.
  41. Last Days Here
    A surprise back-from-the-brink redemption proves reliably engaging in rock-doc Last Days Here, tracking three years in the life of cult musician Bobby Liebling, whose band Pentagram never capitalized on its early promise.
  42. Robinson in Ruins
    Although rich in ideas and always compelling to look at, writer-helmer Patrick Keiller's latest semi-experimental pic Robinson in Ruins reps a minor disappointment after his outstanding, same-veined previous works, "London" and "Robinson in Space."
  43. Frankenweenie
    This beautifully designed canine-resurrection saga feels, somewhat fittingly, stitched together from stray narrative parts, but nonetheless evinces a level of discipline and artistic coherence missing from the director's recent live-action efforts.
  44. The Island President
    In the face of rising sea levels, the Maldive Islands are the Alamo, and environmental crusader Mohamed Nasheed is their Davy Crockett. Boasting astonishing access, director Jon Shenk's The Island President documents a brave battle against overwhelming odds.
  45. Toll Booth
    Slightly surreal psychological portrait keeps things impressively light-footed and heartfelt.
  46. Sing Your Song
    Moving and enlightening as it serves up a crash-course in 20th-century history.
  47. Chronicle
    Unlike other mock documentaries, which unconvincingly pass themselves off as real, Chronicle cleverly embraces the format as shorthand for a new kind of naturalism, inviting audiences to suspend disbelief and join in the fantasy of being able to do anything with their minds.
  48. Jiro Dreams of Sushi
    The worst that could be said of helmer David Gelb's feature debut is that it's perhaps a little over-garnished with backstory about Ono's relationship with his two sons, and is slightly repetitive. That said, this intrinsically compelling hymn to craftsmanship and taste in every sense should cleanse palates.
  49. Grandma, a Thousand Times
    A delightfully inventive valentine to his 83-year-old Lebanese grandmother, Mahmoud Kaabour's Grandma, a Thousand Times tenderly deconstructs the family-portrait genre, investing all manner of postmodernist distancing devices with emotional resonance.
  50. Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission
    A must-see for stargazers of all ages.
  51. The Dish & the Spoon
    Gerwig, charmingly unflappable in "Greenberg," lets it all hang out here, unafraid to sacrifice likability to over-the-top hysteria as someone who cannot control herself, despite a lingering sense of her own absurdity. Alexander proves a worthily understated foil, his self-deprecatory whimsy recalling that of a young Johnny Depp.
  52. Private Romeo
    Sticking closely to the written text (with basketballs and barbells supplying incidental props) and wisely not attempting to reimagine the specific circumstances that separate the lovers, a dynamite ensemble cast of young actors invests the Bard's poetry with energetic immediacy.
  53. Bullhead
    Though the story is told and edited in a way that too often obscures rather than enhances its central tragedy, much is compensated by a career-defining, powerfully physical lead perf by Matthias Schoenaerts and ace lensing by local widescreen wiz Nicolas Karakatsanis.
  54. Putin's Kiss
    The picture still tells a riveting story about contempo Russia's darkest side.
  55. Michael
    Illustrating the banality of evil in an impressively controlled and sometimes darkly humorous fashion, Michael takes a coolly nonjudgmental, non-psychological approach to a disturbing topic.
  56. Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding
    May not be great cinema, but its broad, crowdpleasing qualities should make it a welcome night out for femmes.
  57. Beautiful Creatures
    Fortunately, writer-director Richard LaGravenese has jettisoned most of the novel and refashioned its core mythology and characters into a feverishly enjoyable guilty pleasure.
  58. Killing Them Softly
    A routine, even mundane crime story relayed in tones of world-weary fatigue, Killing Them Softly deglams the mob movie to coolly distinctive if rarely pulse-quickening effect.
  59. Good for Nothing
    A droll New Zealand parody with a tone so deadpan it becomes laugh-out-loud funny.
  60. The Fairy
    In The Fairy, Abel, Gordon and Romy have all of Le Havre as their playground. And now that the they've established the ideal format for their brand of comicbook-style humor, one can't help but wish they show the good sense to keep it at this level going forward.
  61. Easy Money
    Maria Karlsson's multilayered screenplay makes the film much more than just a crime thriller, beautifully incorporating themes of parents and children, misplaced values, and greed and corruption.
  62. Better Than Something: Jay Reatard
    What elevates the picture above the norm is a series of remarkably candid and eerily prescient interviews.
  63. The Salt of Life
    Di Gregorio's dialogue and performers are once again marked by a spontaneity and ease; who else working today treats so-called "middle age" with such jocular honesty?
  64. Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
    Spurlock brings his usual good-humored approach to the subject, nicely balancing absurdity with genuine human interest.
  65. Sound of Noise
    A delightful comic cocktail of modern city symphony, police procedural and love story.
  66. Free Men
    A satisfying wartime espionage drama focused on little-noted intersections between Arabic emigres and the French Resistance.
  67. Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away
    A bona fide high-wire act, Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away delivers towering thrills through its candy-colored 3D ode to the titular outfit's astounding acrobatics.
  68. For a Good Time, Call...
    Doesn't rise much above sitcom level in material or execution, but provides enough laughs and goodwill to be disarmingly entertaining.
  69. Surviving Progress
    Progress does a remarkable job weaving together these and many other big ideas in a crisp, coherent, easy-to-take fashion that somehow never becomes an informational overload.
  70. High School
    This madcap romp runs out of steam well before the finish, but its combo of sweetness and high spirits -- not unlike the chemical composition of the dope-infused brownies that serve as a key plot device -- proves sufficiently ingratiating to satisfy viewers.
  71. The Smurfs 2
    The genially goofy shenanigans, incredibly corny punchlines and Hank Azaria’s go-for-broke performance as the incompetent wizard Gargamel are very much the same ― an entirely welcome thing in a summer movie season full of so much apocalyptic Sturm und Drang.
  72. Restless City
    Picture's visual elegance makes a limited arthouse life possible, although Nigerian-born fashion photog-turned-helmer Andrew Dosunmu is far more interested in aesthetics than narrative in erecting his visually poetic "City."
  73. The Loved Ones
    Transcends mere torture porn -- though there's plenty for the squeamish to squirm over here -- in its deftly controlled mix of empathy, grotesquerie and sardonic humor.
  74. Starlet
    Though named after a party girl's pet Chihuahua, Starlet could just as easily describe the two exceptional first-timers making their debuts in this brittle, beautifully understated San Fernando Valley character study.
  75. Kid-Thing
    Spearheaded by phenomenal pint-sized lead Sydney Aguirre, this challenging third feature from the Zellner Brothers retains much of their provocative trademark idiocy but navigates darker waters.
  76. The Wise Kids
    An unusual example of what can be termed a "gay Christian" film, Cone's feature is among the best of a recent spate of dramas observing American Christian life.
  77. RoboCop
    It’s a less playful enterprise than the original, but meets the era’s darker demands for action reboots with machine-tooled efficiency and a hint of soul.
  78. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
    What Erica Rivinoja, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s script lacks in lingering nutritional value, it compensates for with amusing food puns. If nothing else, the pic’s zany tone and manic pace are good for a quick-hit sugar high.
  79. Lola Versus
    It's one girl against the world in Lola Versus, a snappy yet sincere romantic comedy that begins where others end, with the proposal and wedding plans pointing toward happily ever after.
  80. Fake It So Real
    The title is an apt one, suggesting that for all its staging and overt theatrics, independent (read: non-WWF) pro wrestling makes huge demands on the body and spirit.
  81. Jesus Henry Christ
    Too deliberately eccentric to attain quite the level of wigginess it aspires to, Jesus Henry Christ does feature some standout performances and a refreshingly unconventional approach to telling its slight story.
  82. 300: Rise of an Empire
    Anchored by Eva Green’s fearsome performance as a Persian naval commander whose vengeful bloodlust makes glowering King Xerxes seem a mere poseur, this highly entertaining time-filler lacks the mythic resonances that made “300” feel like an instant classic, but works surprisingly well on its own terms.
  83. Love in the Buff
    It’s the narrative non sequiturs and comic vignettes sprinkled throughout that give the freewheeling pic its playful charm.
  84. Frozen
    This always enjoyable tale of mysterious magic, imperiled princesses and square-jawed men of action proves longer on striking visuals than on truly engaging or memorable characters.
  85. Katy Perry: Part of Me
    Seemingly composed in a laboratory from stray bits of Betty Boop, Sailor Moon and Daphne from "Scooby-Doo," pop princess Katy Perry is the closest thing to a human cartoon the music business has produced since Kiss. This is an impression that concert-tour documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me looks to round out and humanize, and it's successful in a number of strange, seemingly accidental ways.
  86. The Face of Love
    This tale of a still-grieving widow (Bening) hypnotized by a dead ringer for her late husband verges on ludicrous, but ultimately succeeds at conveying one person’s complicated yet emotionally rational response to a highly irrational situation.
  87. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    It’s to the credit of the Russos that they give the characters such room to breathe in a movie that easily might have been about rushing from one gargantuan setpiece to the next.
  88. I Wish
    This tale of two elementary-school brothers plotting to end the physical separation their parents' divorce has forced on them effortlessly pulls off the naturalism and charm desired from material that might have easily curdled into calculated preciousness.
  89. The Day He Arrives
    An agreeably meandering exercise that brings some clever French New Wave fillips and structural repetitions to Hong's characteristically boozy party. Rougher but more approachable than his previous "Oki's Movie."
  90. Jean Gentil
    The relentlessly dour picture traces the slow voyage into oblivion of a talented immigrant looking for his place in a world that thinks it doesn't need him.
  91. 96 Minutes
    Despite the over-familiarity of its once-trendy time-tripping plot structure, 96 Minutes maintains a brisk pace and generates a satisfying degree of suspense with its credibly contrived tale of disparate lives forever changed by a violent carjacking.
  92. Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale
    This wildly ambitious rumble-in-the-jungle battle epic arrives bearing so heavy a burden of industry expectations, one wishes the results were less kitschy and more coherent; still, the filmmaking has a raw physicality and crazy conviction it's hard not to admire.
  93. The Giant Mechanical Man
    Helmer-writer Lee Kirk's deliberately offbeat romance, a vehicle for wife Fischer, will undoubtedly win friends through its cockeyed-optimistic view of romance.
  94. Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment
    Toby Perl Freilich's thought-provoking documentary Inventing Our Life sketches the history of the radically socialist, more-than-100-year-old kibbutz movement.
  95. Last Call at the Oasis
    Whether the glass is half full or half empty isn't the point of the effervescent Last Call at the Oasis: It's whether there'll be anything in the glass at all.
  96. Chronicling a Crisis
    Just marginally a documentary, Chronicling a Crisis turns out to be one of Amos Kollek's more affecting films.
  97. This Is the End
    This directing debut for co-writers Rogen and Evan Goldberg offsets its slightly smug premise with a clever sense of self-parody and near-cataclysmic levels of vulgarity.
  98. Robot and Frank
    Debuting helmer Jake Schreier, screenwriter Christopher D. Ford and a wry and wily Frank Langella all shine in a smart, plausible and resonant film.
  99. A Bag of Hammers
    First-time feature helmer Brian Crano maneuvers some tricky tonal shifts with impressive ease in A Bag of Hammers, a droll, quirky comedy with a pleasant amount of heart.
  100. Portrait of Wally
    Turning over rocks in and around the New York art world, helmer Andrew Shea finds a lot of ugly stuff while chronicling what amounts to a 60-year hostage drama centered around the Egon Schiele oil painting that gives the film its title.
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