Variety's Scores

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For 17,760 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 2.3 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: 9,121 out of 17760
  2. Mixed: 7,003 out of 17760
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17760
17760 movie reviews
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  1. Submarine
    Rises above the genre's tired, cookie-cutter competition, presenting familiar elements, such as preternaturally articulate teens preoccupied with virginity, through fresh eyes.
  2. The Abduction of Zack Butterfield
    Woefully amateurish psychological thriller.
  3. We Are the Night
    "Night" trades politics for acrobatics, the film's kinetically edited action sequences filling the void left by sketchy character development.
  4. Cost of a Soul
    As is, the emotional elements explored by Cost of a Soul, and the devices it employs, seem trite and occasionally shoplifted from better-told tales.
  5. Tuesday, After Christmas
    Again, Muntean and his script collaborators offer exceptionally naturalistic dialogue.
  6. Kung Fu Panda 2
    Once again, the DreamWorks team demonstrates that humor is the primary weapon in its arsenal.
  7. The Hangover Part II
    The rote professionalism on display verges on cynicism, and despite some occasional sparks, this ranks as a considerable disappointment.
  8. Life 2.0
    A disturbing but nonjudgmental study of online addiction and the lure of manufactured identities.
  9. The Big Uneasy
    Well-intended and informative, but also unfocused, unwieldy and a little smug, picture pales in comparison to the really first-rate films on the subject ("When the Levees Broke," "Trouble the Water").
  10. The Tree of Life
    Result is pure-grade art cinema destined primarily for the delectation of Malick partisans and adventurous arthouse-goers.
  11. Make Believe
    A charming, affectionate and often elegantly executed study of teenage magicians, their craft and the social shadows they step out of when they do their stuff.
  12. The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
    A documentary that has you falling in love with two of the crazier people you've never met.
  13. The Big Bang
    A borderline unintelligible, scattershot attempt at Lynchian neo-noir that takes intellectual and aesthetic risks it has no reasonable hope of pulling off. And yet train wreck that it may be, it's completely watchable, at times garishly eye-catching, and certainly the only film in theaters that features Snoop Dogg comparing himself to Alfred Hitchcock.
  14. Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
    An unremarkable documentary about Harper Lee and her single literary masterwork, Hey, Boo features what the French call a "structuring absence," that of Lee herself.
  15. Go for It!
    Serves up a bland recycling of cliches and archetypes from just about every youth-skewing, dance-centric picture to hit the megaplexes since "Flashdance."
  16. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
    Serves as a welcome corrective, reviving the fun, feather-light frivolity that any film based on a Disneyland ride ought to exhibit.
  17. Midnight in Paris
    Like a swoony lost chapter from "Paris, je t'aime" agreeably extended to feature length.
  18. L'amour fou
    Shy on the celebrity-gawking (and celebrity input) that marks many fashion documentaries, and neither gossipy nor an objective appreciation of his impact and legacy, picture is a successful portrait on its own terms, save one: It's unlikely to excite much theatrical interest.
  19. The High Cost of Living
    Although there are moments when lead thesps Zach Braff ("Scrubs", "Garden State") and Isabelle Blais just about pull off the implausible conceit, the picture still suffers from major problems of tone as well as stilted camerawork and editing.
  20. How to Live Forever
    The prospects, advisability and potential methods of prolonging human life are examined in an engagingly multifaceted manner in How to Live Forever.
  21. Hesher
    The problem with the script by Susser and David Michod, working from a story by Brian Charles Frank, is that Hesher's uncouth behavior is so aggressively pushed to single-minded, crudely exploitative effect.
  22. The First Grader
    The uplifting true story of world's oldest primary school student, The First Grader reels you in with its human-interest hook, but packs an even more vital agenda: enlisting Kenyan locals to share little-known details of their nation's independence.
  23. Everything Must Go
    While the film is neither entertaining nor profound, Ferrell makes it watchable at least.
  24. Priest
    Not exactly an unholy mess, but still a rather too pious retread of classic sci-fi/action/horror riffs that lacks originality or pizzazz.
  25. Forks Over Knives
    One of the more convincing, radical and politically volatile documentaries to come out of the burgeoning good-food genre.
  26. Harvest
    A venerable cast of Broadway vets interminably wanders through the clan's Connecticut mansion with no apparent goal, carrying the remains of never fully explained resentments.
  27. An Invisible Sign
    A tone of fanciful absurdity is maintained throughout.
  28. There Be Dragons
    Dragons may not be perfect, but it plays to the helmer's strengths, demonstrating an increasingly rare sense of scope and pageantry best served by the bigscreen.
  29. Passion Play
    Perversely eccentric and frequently inert, screenwriter Mitch Glazer's directorial debut, Passion Play, will benefit from some of the well-known names attached, but the near-painful hipness of the production will yield poisonous word of mouth.
  30. Hobo with a Shotgun
    One must grudgingly admire director Jason Eisener's willingness to go over the top and beyond, and the film certainly delivers what it promises.
  31. Last Night
    An aptly gorgeous-looking Manhattan meller whose quartet of sexy actors proves no less attractive than the well-mounted picture as a whole.
  32. Jumping the Broom
    A broad African-Amerian family comedy that manages to avoid many of the more predictable cliches of the genre, yet also leaves out the warmth and, too often, the laughs.
  33. Daydream Nation
    Charged with alternating currents of teen angst, sardonic wit, nervous dread and impudent sensuality, Daydream Nation suggests "Juno" as reimagined by David Lynch, or a funnier, sunnier "Donnie Darko."
  34. The Beaver
    The troubled actor delivers a performance very few could pull off as a depressed father who begins communicating through a hand puppet, but Foster doesn't know how to manage it or navigate the script's seismic tonal shifts, and ends up producing a film that's deeply strange, yet incapable of leaving an impression.
  35. Something Borrowed
    Try as she might, Hudson can't turn Darcy into a three-dimensional character: She's astonishingly easy to dislike, but not nearly amusing enough in what could have been an unforgettable camp performance.
  36. Bridesmaids
    A sluggish, charmless misfire in which even the most appealing players -- must try too hard to make anything close to an engaging impression.
  37. Dylan Dog: Dead of Night
    Dylan Dog isn't a terrible movie, just one that feels like a tepid mishmash of secondhand concepts, never developing a distinctive atmosphere or unique personality of its own.
  38. Prom
    An adorable cast ought to provide some appeal for tweens and tykes, though interest should gradually dwindle the closer one gets to actual prom-going age.
  39. We Go Way Back
    Ultimately too underdeveloped and slight to have much impact, though the helmer's impressionistic uses of image and sound are appealing.
  40. Hoodwinked Too! Hood VS. Evil
    Less a movie than a ill-advised lab experiment in which classic children's stories are injected with Bond-movie stylings, inane wisecracks and martial-arts mayhem, this manic misfire takes storybook revisionism to ever more irritating ends.
  41. Thor
    Thor delivers the goods so long as butt is being kicked and family conflict is playing out in celestial dimensions, but is less thrilling during the Norse warrior god's rather brief banishment on Earth.
  42. The Robber
    With no emotional or stylistic hooks, there's not much compelling viewers to engage with what's happening onscreen.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Road to Nowhere
    Monte Hellman's first feature film in 21 years is one of his finest and deepest, a twin peak to his 1971 masterpiece, "Two Lane Blacktop."
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    That's What I Am
    Benefits from sensitive, restrained thesping, most notably by Ed Harris, and leaves one feeling blandly inspired.
  45. Sympathy for Delicious
    This offbeat effort proves more admirable for its ambition than anything else, as the uneasy mix of satire, allegory, grittiness and redemption never quite jells.
  46. Exporting Raymond
    Mildly amusing.
  47. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
    Filtering the world's oldest paintings through the latest in cinematic technology, Werner Herzog delivers a one-of-a-kind art-history lesson in Cave of Forgotten Dreams.
  48. Bride Flight
    A devil-may-care adventurer and three vastly different gals emigrate from the Low Countries to New Zealand in the romantic epic Bride Flight, a glossy European meller that switches between the '50s, the '60s and the present
  49. The Arbor
    Dramatically spellbinding and intellectually stimulating, picture abstractly manipulates multiple layers of representation to shattering effect.
  50. What on Earth?
    Inoffensive but mostly undistinguished "Ancient Aliens"-type concoction.
  51. Madea's Big Happy Family
    Another lumpy mix of broadly played ethnic comedy, deadly serious soap operatics, and aggressively rousing religious uplift. Picture may help him reconnect with faithful fans.
  52. Water for Elephants
    The filmmakers clearly value their public, crafting a splendid period swooner that delivers classic romance and an indelible insider's view of 1930s circus life.
  53. St. Nick
    Virtually dialogue-free, the film opts for an almost perverse minimalism; even the camera is limited to the topography within the kids' purview.
  54. The Bang Bang Club
    Club's entertainment value suffers at the expense of trying to capture the events as they happened -- an ill-advised endeavor, considering everything.
  55. POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
    A consistently amusing and not entirely vacuous stunt.
  56. Incendies
    Incendies vaults Denis Villeneuve to the status of serious director.
  57. 13 Assassins
    This at first slow-moving and then wildly kinetic actioner possesses a cool classicism that will appeal to offshore audiences as well as those at home.
  58. Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
    This superhero spin on a largely Eastern legend will appeal primarily to Asian genre aficionados on homevid.
  59. Stake Land
    A highly satisfying low-budget horror-thriller from helmer/co-writer Jim Mickle.
  60. African Cats
    The film captures a wealth of spectacular and wrenching conflicts, and even if its ability to spin a story out of the footage falls somewhat short of the gold standard set by "March of the Penguins," it's nonetheless a remarkably cohesive piece of work.
  61. Phillip the Fossil
    The edge achieved by director-editor-producer-scribe Garth Donovan is jeopardized by overreaching for topical relevance.
  62. The Princess of Montpensier
    There's no subtextual allusion really to contempo France or civil wars elsewhere in the world today, just the feeling that this is an interesting story in its own right, fascinating precisely because it's so at odds with modern sensibilities.
  63. The Conspirator
    This methodical courtroom drama is charged with impassioned performances and an unimpeachable liberal message. But its stodgy emphasis on telling over showing will limit its reach to Civil War buffs and self-selecting older viewers.
  64. Fly Away
    Exceptional performances by two femme leads and sensitive but unsentimental storytelling throughout.
  65. Footprints
    Exhibits stray instances of intrigue and wit, and makes nostalgic hay with its enshrinement of old-timers Pippa Scott and H.M. Wynant, but ultimately suggests a too-writerly, over-padded "Twilight Zone" episode.
  66. Scream 4
    The picture delivers enough of the expected goods, if seldom with the wit or panache of the series' best.
  67. Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny
    Pic benefits greatly from Ben Kingsley's brilliantly nuanced reading of frankly bombastic narration.
  68. The First Beautiful Thing
    Occasionally affecting but unremarkable, the picture's emotional moments are designed to pluck local heartstrings.
  69. Square Grouper
    Think of it as the cinematic equivalent of a buzz-kill.
  70. Dumbstruck
    It's only natural that audiences should root for such characters to succeed, but since human nature also harbors a mean streak, it's peculiar that Dumbstruck doesn't better exploit the obvious humor of its eccentric subject.
  71. The Double Hour
    Not so much a genre movie as a movie that switches between genres -- and comes out on top.
  72. Armadillo
    If nothing else, Armadillo proves just how well "The Hurt Locker" captured the mixture of boredom, fear, brutality and locker-room machismo that makes up the day-to-day routine of a frontline soldier.
  73. They're Out of the Business
    The two still rely on their run-on, Woody Allen-ish interlocking rhythms to smartly propel the desultory plot forward, but after countless mumblecore and slacker indies, the sense of newness is gone.
  74. Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer
    Though initially fascinating, this two-hour travelogue soon becomes repetitive as it forsakes stark desert isolation for icon-festooned churches and overcrowded ceremonies.
  75. The Family Jams
    Jams affords the opportunity to hang with gifted, genre-defying fringe artists at a pivotal point in their evolving careers.
  76. Born to Be Wild
    Sticks faithfully to the giantscreen brand's impress-and-educate formula.
  77. Meeting Spencer
    Brit helmer Malcolm Mowbray's film assumes the constrictions of a stagebound farce, taking place on a single set in real time, and swept along in magisterially broad strokes by Jeffrey Tambor's playfully theatrical perf.
  78. Atlas Shrugged: Part I
    Part one of a trilogy that may never see completion, this hasty, low-budget adaptation would have Ayn Rand spinning in her grave, considering how it violates the author's philosophy by allowing opportunists to exploit another's creative achievement -- in this case, hers.
  79. Rio
    Like its flight-challenged parrot protagonist, Rio takes a while to get off the ground but manages to soar by the end.
  80. The Elephant in the Living Room
    Audiences can't possibly predict the upsetting twist to Landry's story, nor the welcome surprise that precedes it, but these two scenes -- both of which Webber was fortunate enough to capture on camera -- are documentary gold.
  81. Your Highness
    That skunky smell emanating from Your Highness ain't pot; it's the stink of miscalculation that surrounds an inside joke gone awry.
  82. Arthur
    Even the Brit-wit chemistry of Russell Brand and Helen Mirren can't offset the self-conscious degree to which this tame, calculated effort sticks to its source.
  83. Meek's Cutoff
    Working on a richer and more intricate canvas than she's previously attempted, Kelly Reichardt has pulled off a rare thing with Meek's Cutoff -- a low-budget period Western with a bracing feminist spin.
  84. Henry's Crime
    While the absurdity builds, the intensity never does -- a problem shared by director Malcolm Venville's previous feature, "44 Inch Chest."
  85. Ceremony
    Despite a few grace notes and mildly clever twists, this handsomely produced indie is such a grating turnoff throughout its first third that its minor virtues may be discovered only by insomniac latenight cable viewers.
  86. American: The Bill Hicks Story
    A hagiographic portrait of the standup comic and social satirist who never quite reached beyond cult status in the U.S., American: The Bill Hicks Story might have impressed more of the unconverted had it included more performance footage of its subject.
  87. Blank City
    The major draw of Blank City lies in its generous glimpses of rare, virtually lost Super-8 and 16mm films.
  88. Cat Run
    If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with genre baloney -- and enough shoplifted visual trickery to fill Quentin Tarantino's kitchen sink.
  89. Hop
    Why rock, rather than hip-hop, is anybunny's guess, though either way, the basic overnight-sensation pop-star fantasy will surely appeal to a demographic weaned on "American Idol."
  90. Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead
    With Cross jump-starting others on a liquid road to health, this glorified infomercial could saturate latenight TV after its April 1 bow.
  91. Soul Surfer
    Distinguished by splashy cinematography, engaging performances from Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt as the girl's go-get-'em parents.
  92. Hanna
    An exuberantly crafted chase thriller that pulses with energy from its adrenaline-pumping first minutes to its muted bang of a finish.
  93. Wretches & Jabberers
    The ability to mix humor and emotion is the strong suit of this upbeat, music-saturated documentary.
  94. Two Gates of Sleep
    Starts off promisingly but peters out as the story, told practically sans dialogue, heads nowhere consistent.
  95. Wrecked
    Greenspan's solid but unexceptional debut, ably carried by Brody's one-hander performance.
  96. Super
    Waiting for Super to deliver the funny is an experience as long as the film itself.
  97. Rubber
    Neither scary, funny, nor anywhere near as clever as it seems to think it is, picture offers audiences few reasons to want to see it beyond its one-joke premise.
  98. Queen to Play
    Like Sebastian Silva's "The Maid," Queen posits a radically different approach to class and gender empowerment.
  99. In a Better World
    However didactic the film's final scenes, there's no denying the sheer dramatic intensity Bier achieves.
  100. Insidious
    A possession thriller less terrifying than fun.
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