Variety's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Mistress
    Pic, co-produced by Robert De Niro’s Tribeca outfit, looks to fade fast. The Player it’s not.
  2. Zombie Honeymoon
    Zombie Honeymoon scores simultaneously as romantic, tragic, grotesque and screamingly funny
  3. Pope Francis - A Man of His Word
    Few popes in living memory have seemed as recognizably human as Francis — for all its access, and for all the inherent empathy of its director, Wenders’ film is never able to completely connect the dots between the man and the figure.
  4. The Game
    The film itself is limited by the material's nature as a brainy exercise and by its narrow focus; individual response will depend upon how tantalized one is by puzzles and games, as well as upon how off-putting one finds the central character, who is center-stage throughout.
  5. Piercing
    The film is expertly crafted with jewel-toned cinematography, terrifically sleazy saxophone music, and performances by Abbott and Wasikowska that take turns seizing command. Still, like Reed’s solo rehearsals, Piercing has the feel of a blueprint, a talented man exercising his technical skills while waiting for a whack at the real deal.
  6. Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story
    Under the Boardwalk provides an amiable overview of one very famous board game's history and impact, alongside a moderately engaging portrait of players preparing for the 2009 World Monopoly Championship.
  7. Saving America's Horses: A Nation Betrayed
    Clearer, more thoughtful editing would have greatly enhanced the effectiveness of this sometimes-revelatory documentary.
  8. Symphony of the Soil
    Koons Garcia has obviously opted for an upbeat approach: Choruses of scientists and farmers sing the praises of organic farming while John Chater’s camera visually devours the fruits, vegetables and livestock produced by healthy dirt.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Sound of Music
    The Robert Wise production is a warmly pulsating, captivating drama set to the most imaginative use of the lilting R-H tunes, magnificently mounted and with a brilliant cast headed by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer which must strike a respondent chord at the box office.
  10. Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
    Were the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, in some rollicking sex-positive way, an intrinsic part of the feminist revolution? Or did they represent one step forward and one high kick back? You could make the case either way, but the film pushes the clean and forceful — if highly ironic — argument that the Cheerleaders were nothing more or less than empowered entertainers who seized control of their sexuality and, in doing so, advanced the liberation of women.
  11. I Want Your Sex
    Hoffman and Wilde’s commitment makes the film feel more important than it is. It’s better to think of this either as pure, irreverent escapism or a guiltless pleasure.
  12. Path of Blood
    In Path of Blood, the masks come off, and we literally see the faces of Al Qaeda in action, with the propaganda machine turned off. What’s shocking is how ordinary and high-spirited they appear.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Where the Boys Are
    Mimieux, in a demanding role, gets by dramatically. Visually she is a knockout, and has a misty quality.
  14. A Coffee In Berlin
    This day-in-the-life indie says something profound about an entire generation simply by watching a feckless young man try to figure it out.
  15. Dear Frankie
    Material that might have turned to standard dysfunctional family treacle in other hands is given stirring poignancy, warmth and emotional insight in Shona Auerbach's assured first feature.
  16. Little Jerusalem
    In what is arguably her best performance since "Van Gogh," Zylberstein brings Mathilde to life with grace and fervor.
  17. A State of Mind
    Admirably non-judgmental docu about life in "the least visited, known, understood country in the world," per Brit director Daniel Gordon, brings a refreshing balance to the usual blind vilification of the country.
  18. Atomic Blonde
    Virtuosic kick-ass filmmaking can be its own reward, but to paraphrase “Idiocracy,” you still need to care about whose ass it is, and why it’s being kicked.
  19. I'm Your Woman
    This is the kind of movie where the most dynamic thing in every scene is the art direction, followed by the natty retro costumes (which Jean must have used the cash to buy, since she didn’t have time to pack), and only then comes the people.
  20. Vitus
    A natural for kidfests, pic is a fine example of old-fashioned story-telling and also will dance wherever detailed character development and leisurely-paced drama are appreciated.
  21. Cachorro
    Taking a seed of an idea and nurturing it into a fable about moral hypocrisy, Bearcub substantiates prolific Spanish helmer Miguel Albaladejo's rep for well-observed, character-based dramas with an offbeat twist and a potent emotional undertow.
  22. Halftime
    Halftime justly salutes Lopez’s pride in her achievements, but it’s every bit as much a salute to her brand management.
  23. How She Move
    Title refers not only to its heroine's physical gyrations but also her moral maneuverings as she strives to break out of her lower-class surroundings in this moody, intelligent take on conventional material.
  24. Andre Gregory: Before and After Dinner
    Cindy Kleine pays tribute to her famed theater-director hubby in Andre Gregory: Before and After Dinner, with thoroughly delightful results.
  25. 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.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bad Influence
    Bad Influence proves a reasonably taut, suspenseful thriller that provides its share of twists before straying into silliness. Rob Lowe doesn’t really project enough menace or charisma to pull off his role as Alex, a babyfaced psycho who slowly leads Michael (James Spader) through a liberating fantasy that ultimately turns into a yuppie nightmare.
  27. Perfect Strangers (Perfectos Desconocidos)
    Released in Mexico late last year, Caro’s seriocomic adaptation alternates between a tense, well-acted chamber drama and an at times overly didactic parable, but its focus on our newfound willingness to collect all of our darkest secrets behind such an easily pierced veil – do we realize how precarious that tightrope we’re walking is? On some level, are we secretly hoping we might fall? – provides for plenty of squeamish entertainment.
  28. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
    It's all largely eye candy, especially the men, although this can be forgiven: Women have a long enough history of being superficial in the movies, and a little payback is perfectly understandable.
  29. Chéri
    Like a passable bottle of champagne, Cheri fizzes and slides down quite easily but lacks real body and doesn't really hit the spot.
  30. Friends with Benefits
    The raunchy premise here is just a smokescreen for the sort of squarely moralistic, altar-bound comedy of which even Jane Austen would approve.
  31. Polytechnique
    A weaker "Elephant," Quebecois director Denis Villeneuve's school-shooting drama Polytechnique nevertheless distinguishes itself by endeavoring to comprehend the 25-year-old man who murdered more than a dozen female students at Montreal's Polytechnique School in 1989.
  32. Being Ginger
    Pleasant but slim in running time and substance, this very first-person documentary raises some interesting issues it doesn’t pursue very far.
  33. Burning Sands
    The occasional heavy-handed or clumsy elements don’t seriously impair a film whose high spirits, talented cast and luridly intriguing subject consistently entertain, even if they seldom truly surprise.
  34. Easy's Waltz
    Movies like this don’t exactly light up the box office, but they stick with the folks fortunate enough to see them.
  35. Muriel's Wedding
    Most of the action is played for broad laughs, and Hogan demonstrates the ability to generate them, even if the humor is very base and often cruel, making fun of people's looks and ineptitude.
  36. The Blood of My Brother
    Made with access to the Mehdi Army and embittered citizens the Western news media -- or even the CIA -- might envy, producer-helmer-lenser Andrew Berends creates a revealing insight into the war in Iraq from the locals' POV.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
    Pic [story by Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna and Ed Naha] is in the best tradition of Disney and even better than that because it is not so juvenile that adults won’t be thoroughly entertained.
  38. Banana Split
    The director, Benjamin Kasulke, is a veteran cinematographer who brings the L.A. settings a spangly glow, but he stages too many scenes with generic “punch.” I wish he’d played against the comedy instead of italicizing it, and that he’d come up with some pop-music epiphanies and ditched the film’s cloying synthesizer score.
  39. Walking on Water
    The artist’s forceful character does battle with technology, bureaucracy, corruption and the elements, resulting in an installation of stunning beauty and a documentary that delights in capturing the act of creation.
  40. The Last Exorcism
    The Last Exorcism makes first-rate use of religious doubt and religious extremism to concoct a novel horror-thriller clever enough to seduce unbelievers while satisfying the bloodlust of its congregation/fanbase.
  41. It's Kind of a Funny Story
    The filmmakers fully retain their offbeat sensibility and attentiveness to character while providing perhaps the sharpest showcase yet for Zach Galifianakis' outsized talents.
  42. Vidal Sassoon: The Movie
    Teper buries his material in gimcrack mod trappings that trivialize rather than celebrate Sassoon's accomplishments.
  43. Gaga: Five Foot Two
    I found the film intensely revealing of Gaga’s life and personality, especially when she’s getting treatments to deal with the pain that’s dogged her for three years, ever since she suffered a broken hip (misdiagnosed at the time) on tour.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Manxman
    The Hall Caine novel from which this film was adapted is a weak one, but the director has done his best with it.
  45. Reel Paradise
    Although it will most readily appeal to cinephiles…offers sufficient reality-based incident and ponderable cultural issues to attract curious audiences.
  46. loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies
    Picture is targeted at the already initiated, but directors Steve Cantor and Matthew Galkin deftly resolve one often glaring problem with tribute documentaries -- making those who might not care do so.
  47. Human Capital
    A slick, stylish drama, Human Capital starts as a class critique wrapped around a whodunit, and though the mystery elements have overtaken the social assessment by the final third, the pic remains an engrossing, stinging look at aspirational parvenus and the super-rich they emulate.
  48. Howl
    Intelligent and highly respectful of its central character and his titular landmark poem, HOWL is an admirable if fundamentally academic exploration of the origins, impact, meaning and legacy of Allen Ginsberg's signal work.
  49. Lupin III: The First
    The unflaggingly perky caper has no down time, so one can’t help wishing for more the laid-back gamesmanship and boyish banter of the older renditions.
  50. In Between Dying
    The existential road movie gets an offbeat, elliptical yet peculiarly compelling Transcaucasian makeover in director Hilal Baydarov’s second fiction feature, In Between Dying.
  51. The Eyes of My Mother
    Pesce’s spare script doesn’t seek to obscure, but its quiet, matter-of-fact handling of drastic dramatic events will catch some off-guard.
  52. 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.
  53. Hot Tub Time Machine
    Even by recent standards for mainstream comedy packaging, "Tub" looks dull and ugly.
  54. Rose
    Though the storied actress’ personality offers moments of charm and occasional depth, a weak, cliché-riddled script reduces almost everyone to a maximum of two characteristics.
  55. Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain
    Estevan Oriol’s entertaining, energetic, better-than-it-had-to-be documentary Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain offers a more complete picture of this massively popular yet often underestimated grou
  56. Your Monster
    Mopey to a fault, with a missed opportunity for an ending, Your Monster amounts to an intermittently amusing, grubby-looking pity party.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mr. & Mrs. Smith
    Pacing his assignment at a steady gait, Hitchcock catches all of the laugh values from the above par script of Norman Krasna.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    My Favorite Wife
    Irene Dunne and Cary Grant pick up the thread of marital comedy at about the point where they left off in The Awful Truth. With these two stars working again with Leo McCarey, a surefire laughing film is guaranteed.
  59. 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.
  60. The Komediant
    Elegantly constructed, deceptively complex documentary.
  61. Spy Game
    Serves up a judicious blend of showy action, political intrigue, ticking-clock suspense and intramural CIA one-upsmanship for mainstream entertainment.
  62. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
    Generates enough inspired lunacy to sail past the arid stretches and provide a welcome splash of breezy, at times jaw-droppingly bizarre summer fun.
  63. Two Brothers
    Combo of some stunning animal direction (courtesy of ace trainer Thierry Le Portier) and exotic period setting somewhere in French colonial Indochina charms when the quadripeds stalk the action but creaks when the bipeds open their mouths.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Internal Affairs
    Figgis never lets the pace slow long enough to expose the story’s thinness despite, in retrospect, a moderate amount of action.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Road to Singapore
    Initial teaming of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in Road to Singapore provides foundation for continuous round of good substantial comedy of rapid-fire order, swinging along at a zippy pace.
  66. Changeling
    Emotionally powerful and stylistically sure-handed, this true story-inspired drama begins small with the disappearance of a young boy, only to gradually fan out to become a comprehensive critique of the entire power structure of Los Angeles, circa 1928.
  67. Simon Killer
    Considering how graphic Campos is willing to be, "restrained" may not the right word for his approach, and yet Simon Killer withholds so much that some amount of frustration is sure to follow.
  68. Knock at the Cabin
    Knock at the Cabin takes a premise audiences think they know and does something unconventional and (alas) frustrating with it. Trouble is, these days, it’s no surprise to be let down by a Shyamalan movie.
  69. Cyber-Seniors
    Though there might have been some real drama to tap in following some seniors’ efforts to reconnect with their long-lost loves, Cassaday either doesn’t find any such intrigue, or didn’t bother looking for it.
  70. Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America
    The differing responses Accidental Courtesy is likely to evoke in viewers make it a great conversation-starter for public and educational forums.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The World According to Garp
    George Roy Hill’s film adaptation of [John Irving’s novel] The World According to Garp has taste, intelligence, craft and numerous other virtues going for it.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Where Eagles Dare
    Highly entertaining, thrilling and rarely lets down for a moment.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shadow of the Thin Man
    Harry Kurnitz has fashioned the story with a good deal of ingenuity, using the characters of the private detective and his wife, as created in the original yarn by Dashiell Hammett.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Meet John Doe
    The synthetic fabric of the story is the weakness of the production, despite the magnificence of the Frank Capra-directed superstructure.
  75. Zoo
    A breathtakingly original nonfiction work by Seattle-based filmmaker Robinson Devor (whose "Police Beat" was among the highlights of Sundance's 2005 dramatic competition).
  76. Klitschko
    The indomitable siblings' unusual background, huge size and highly developed intellects, as well as the dramatic ups, downs and rebounds of their interwoven sagas, should result in a fascinating dual biodoc. But the two-hour pic's lack of economy makes for heavy slogging, with no boxing minutiae too small for exhaustive exposition.
  77. Pee-wee's Big Holiday
    The biggest surprise, frankly, might be that the funniest person here is frequently Manganiello. Indeed, the mere visual juxtaposition of the towering “Magic Mike” star and Reubens in the same frame together is practically a special effect in itself.
  78. Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family
    At first seems like a pleasantly pat piece of verite advocacy for convention-breaking unions. But it gets really interesting once said relationship unexpectedly dissolves in ugly fashion, offering real-life voyeuristic appeal a la "Capturing the Friedmans."
  79. Blood on Her Name
    A film that remains relentlessly absorbing for all of its compact 83-minute length largely because it places its audience in the position of helpless witnesses to a slow-motion trainwreck.
  80. Kiss of the Spider Woman
    The musical finds rare shards of light — and an unlikely connection — in the most despairing of places.
  81. Rob the Mob
    Unexpectedly but effectively cast in a role that plays to his sullen strengths, Pitt has a palpable, playful rapport with Arianda, a Tony-winning Broadway ingenue whose warm, expressive features and tinderbox comic timing recalls the young Marisa Tomei.
  82. 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.
  83. Winter Brothers
    While we may not always know what Pálmason means, there’s the undeniable sense that he does, and mostly, that’s enough to add up to an impressively original, auspiciously idiosyncratic debut, one that scratches away at truths about masculinity, lovelessness and isolation, that are no less true for being all but inexpressible.
  84. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him
    It’s a measure of Benson’s sure, skillful hand with actors that all the relationships in the movie — husband and wife, parent and child — feel lived-in and true, even when the dialogue strains too hard for the meaningful and poetic.
  85. Rocky Balboa
    The time away from the ring has done Rocky and the franchise some good, although it takes pic a good long while to gather momentum and clout before a surprisingly satisfying third-act heavyweight bout.
  86. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
    The picture's constant forward movement and breezy sense of amusement about itself provide a certain mild sort of diversion.
  87. Jimmy's Hall
    A minor-key but eminently enjoyable work by a master craftsman.
  88. Lunacy
    More moving animal parts and less human pontificating would make a stronger case for a tale already rich in imagery. Another drawback is Liska, too one-dimensional to stand against Triska's overpowering performance.
  89. David Hockney: The Colors of Music
    Hockney designed 11 operas, so buffs will be in seventh heaven here; but docu's potential audience extends to anyone interested in the creative process and life's ironies -- music lover Hockney has gone deaf from a genetic condition that surfaces in middle age.
  90. The Congress
    Apart from its general knock against ageism in Hollywood, The Congress doesn’t have much insight to offer on the subject.
  91. Tallulah
    Page is simply superb in a complex role that perfectly plays to her gift for balancing deadpan comedy with surprisingly deep emotional reserves.
  92. V/H/S/94
    Overall, this is a fun way to spend 100 minutes or so, warts and all.
  93. Biggie and Tupac
    Broomfield's shaggy p.o.v. always troubles -- blurring the lines between tabloid and serious reportage, morbid curiosity and hard facts, objectivity and amusing, quasi-amateur stuntsmanship.
  94. Hannah
    This is an impressively rigorous exercise, in which the director’s sober formalism finds a kindred spirit in his leading lady’s studied, secretive restraint.
  95. The Grace Lee Project
    Trivial-sounding hook manages to float a funny but complex meditation on identity, ethnicity and cultural expectations that should be as accessible to teens as adults.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Eating
    The ladies who lunch - and munch, breakfast, binge, dine, diet, starve and sample - are delicious in Eating, but writer-director Henry Jaglom labors over the stove too long, harming a tasty souffle.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Honeymoon in Vegas
    Writer-director Andrew Bergman has a rare talent for intelligently conceived farce, and he has plenty of fun with the premise of "Honeymoon in Vegas," an adult twist on Damon Runyon's "Little Miss Marker." Sarah Jessica Parker is the saucy, sympathetic prize in a poker game between her divorce-detective fiance Nicolas Cage and sharkish Vegas gambler James Caan. The Columbia release is a bit rough around the edges but should make merry at the B.O.
  98. Blood Quantum
    Despite sufficient gore, there’s more style than bite to this undead opus, which does not excel at scares or action set-pieces.
  99. Before the Flood
    Handsomely shot and entertainingly paced, “Before the Flood” may not tackle too much new ground, but given the sincerity of its message, its ability to assemble such a watchable and comprehensive account gives it an undeniable urgency.
  100. Green Zone
    Once Damon's one-man truth squad goes off the reservation and starts behaving too much like Jason Bourne for comfort, the film begins not only spilling more blood but also leaking crucial credibility.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »