Variety's Scores

Select another publication »
For 17,791 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: 9,139 out of 17791
  2. Mixed: 7,015 out of 17791
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17791
17791 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. He Got Game
    Lacking the moral indignation, outrage and militant politics that marked Lee's earlier work, this vibrantly colorful film is a tad too soft at the center, and arguably the director's most mainstream movie.
  2. Star Trek: Insurrection
    Even though Frakes is back, Star Trek: Insurrection plays less like a stand-alone sci-fi adventure than like an expanded episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
  3. Love Object
    While the premise has possibilities for some creepy, pulpy fun, writer-director Robert Parigi brings too little style or humor, instead going a more obvious, overwrought route.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The War of the Roses
    Trying to wring yocks from a deranged couple locked in mortal combat over possession of their house is more suited to film noir than black comedy.
  5. Mayor of the Sunset Strip
    Spectacular song selection gives the docu an appropriate rock 'n' roll swagger and accompanying soundtrack would be a valuable overview of the bands championed by Rodney on the ROQ.
  6. Poolhall Junkies
    Callahan mostly overcomes its grungy technical quality with entertaining dialogue, nervy confrontation scenes, decent thesping and some truly spectacular shooting on the green velvet.
  7. Zoolander
    Misses its comic targets as often as it hits them but is endearing all the same for the good-natured cheer with which it skewers the eminently skewerable.
  8. Gaudi Afternoon
    Silly, childish fun and as relaxing to watch as good American TV fiction -- and with a very similar world view.
  9. In This World
    Makes engrossing viewing for much of the way...but stumbles dramatically in its final leg.
  10. The 6th Day
    A mostly standard-issue latter-day Arnold Schwarzenegger actioner spiked with a creepily plausible cloning angle.
  11. Kiss Me, Guido
    A bright, snappy culture-clash farce in the mode of "Desperately Seeking Susan" and its ilk, Kiss Me, Guido plays gay and Italian-American stereotypes against one another to good-natured, crowd-pleasing results.
  12. Spellbound
    Docu dispassionately examines this strange phenomenon of anachronistic Americana, created as a newspaper promotion in 1925.
  13. Girl, Interrupted
    A solid central performance by Winona Ryder and a captivating wild turn by Angelina Jolie in the yarn's flashiest role.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Raising Arizona
    As leisurely and disconnected as "Blood Simple" was taut and economical. While film is filled with many splendid touches and plenty of yocks, it often doesn't hold together as a coherent story.
  15. Anger Management
    The antics here are strained, graceless and tiresomely crude, the sorts of things audiences feel they're supposed to laugh at rather than well-developed situations that generate genuine amusement.
  16. Matchstick Men
    Odd mixture of ultra-sleek visuals, psychological probing, "Paper Moon"-like father-daughter swindling, self-improvement efforts and abrupt tough-guy stuff keeps the picture percolating, even if it seems too artificial to genuinely convince on an emotional or dramatic level.
  17. Veronica Guerin
    The supporting perfs provide the real drama, especially Hinds' excellent turn as the outwardly macho but inwardly broken Traynor, and McSorley's simmering portrayal of the psychotic Gilligan
  18. Identity
    Some fancy footwork in the writing and directing can't disguise the hoary "Ten Little Indians" origins of Identity.
  19. The Perfect Score
    Energetic, smarter-than-expected teen comedy.
  20. Deep Blue Sea
    Powered by exceptional displays of physical filmmaking, Deep Blue Sea is pulled back to shore by the usual suspects -- weak plotting and weaker dialogue.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dial M for Murder
    There are a number of basic weaknesses in the setup that keep the picture from being a good suspense show for any but the most gullible. Via the performances and several suspense tricks expected of Hitchcock, the weaknesses are glossed over but not enough to rate the film a cinch winner.
  22. X-Men
    Plays like a so-so middle chapter of an epic series rather than a fitting kickoff.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Maryam
    A lovely, intricate coming-of-age portrait set in a cross-cultural context.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Salaam Bombay!
    Director Mira Nair indulges in some melodramatic explorations, however, dangerously verging on a romanticized Oriental tearjerker mood.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fast Times at Ridgemont High
    The nice thing is that Crowe and director Amy Heckerling have provided something pleasant to observe in all of these characters though they really are sadly lacking in anything gripping.
  26. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
    Robinson's script is alive to the material's literary roots, although there is a sense that the brakes have been applied so as not to push into territory perceived as too esoteric for American teenagers.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Army of Darkness
    Blending almost nonstop violence with humorous parody, Sam Raimi's latest excursion into horror-kitsch seems more like an irreverent "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court."
  28. Reign of Fire
    An uncommonly satisfying mix of medieval fantasy, high-tech military action and "Mad Max"-style misadventure.
  29. Carandiru
    A low-structure, high-involvement Brazilian free-for-all destined to take its place among hellish prison films, Carandiru plants a fist in the viewer's stomach.
  30. Booye kafoor, atre yas
    Resonant with inner harmonies and dark, dark humor.
  31. The Mexican
    An intensely whimsical shaggy-dog crime story that ricochets between goofy violence and some endearing personal moments.
  32. Charlie's Angels
    This entertaining confection possesses the substance of the TV show, the pacing of a Hong Kong actioner and the production values of a James Bond thriller.
  33. The Whole Nine Yards
    A crudely funny farce that covers no new ground but sees its talented players running some surefire plays.
  34. Two Girls and a Guy
    Often a gutsy, intelligent writer, Toback has yet to prove himself decisively as a director, and this, his first fictional effort behind the camera in a decade, shows his talents to be as variable as ever.
  35. Il Postino: The Postman
    Pic's potentially inspiring story too often remains grounded by a problematic script and unshapely direction.
  36. Antwone Fisher
    Washington reveals himself to be a filmmaker with a clean, uncluttered storytelling style. Too often, overtly inspirational material such as this can become strident or mawkish.
  37. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
    As computer game-derived features go, it sure beats "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider."
  38. A Foreign Affair
    An odd concoction: an English-language movie made by Dutch filmmakers working with an American cast on location in Russia and Mexico. That strangeness, combined with sharp casting and affectionate performances, is a big part of "Affair's" charm.
  39. Twin Falls Idaho
    Lacks narrative push...atmospheric drama that casts a minor but distinctive spell.
  40. Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
    It's hard to dislike a movie this light-hearted, but there's something terribly ephemeral about it as well; it's a film of complete weightlessness.
  41. House of 1000 Corpses
    A cobwebbed, mummified horror entry that makes obvious, cartoonishly grotesque demands for attention.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Backdraft
    Visually, [the film] often is exhilarating, but it's shapeless and dragged down by corny, melodramatic characters and situations.
  43. Sunshine State
    Falco, light years from "The Sopranos," is exquisitely vulnerable and her scenes play well with Hutton, in his finest role in years as a good man who knows he's sold out.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Evil Dead II
    More an absurdist comedy than a horror film, Evil Dead II is a flashy good-natured display of special effects and scare tactics so extreme they can only be taken for laughs.
  45. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
    Purists will find the pic's obviousness disappointing, but there's no question that the film delivers a sufficient shock quotient to satisfy its youthful target audience.
  46. Pecker
    A pleasant but ephemeral spoof that may disappoint Waters' hard-core fans while not recruiting many new devotees.
  47. Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed
    Solid, straightforward docu should prove a durable broadcast and educational item for years to come.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Say Anything...
    A half-baked love story, full of good intentions but uneven in the telling.
  49. Breakin' All the Rules
    Manages to amuse as a cleverly concocted hybrid of conventional romantic comedy and mistaken-identity farce.
  50. Brother Bear
    A very mild animated entry from Disney with a distinctly recycled feel.
  51. The Limey
    One has no problem praising the bravura acting of the entire ensemble.
  52. Tying the Knot
    A lively, cogent documentary, Tying the Knot fortuitously examines same-sex marriage at precisely the moment the issue is making headlines all over.
  53. My Dog Skip
    Superior family entertainment.
  54. Never Die Alone
    Largely overcomes key cast weaknesses to deliver a jazzy, darkly textured rendering of the ghetto pulp of late African-American ex-con author Donald Goines.
  55. Max
    The film is ultimately too glib in its suggestion that Hitler's discovering his career path was a matter of sheerest chance, even an accident.
  56. The Animal
    A sweethearted trifle.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Secrets & Lies
    Unquestionably a finely observed, deeply felt work, though with some nagging problems in pacing and structure.
  58. Vanity Fair
    Nair's approach never entirely convinces, and the adaptation of the 900-plus-page book becomes increasingly episodic, making this Vanity Fair more a collection of intermittent pleasures than a satisfying emotional repast.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Eyes Without a Face [re-release]
    Director Georges Franju has given this some suspense and not spared any shock details. But the stilted acting, asides to explain characters and motivations, and a repetition of effects lose the initial impact.
  60. The Card Player
    Argento fans lusting for a classy slasher movie of the "Suspiria"/"Opera" variety are headed for a disappointing rendezvous with an old-fashioned police thriller, upgraded by serious actors in the main roles.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Das Boot
    A descent into the pit of hell with slim odds of ever returning.
  62. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
    Phantom is easily consumable eye candy, but it contains no nutrients for the heart or mind.
  63. S1m0ne
    Attempts to delve beneath the surface of Hollywood's rampant narcissism and fascination with technology, but ultimately feels like just one more in the long line of films this year about the business of making movies.
  64. Tube
    A check-your-brains-at-the-door, almost non-stop actioner that finally wins the viewer over with its sheer single-mindedness.
  65. The Postman
    Although The Postman conveys a thoroughly imagined vision of a future society, its basic concerns are actually far from those of traditional sci-fi, as it quickly comes to feel more like a Western than anything else.
  66. Stella Street
    A hip comic curio.
  67. Sunshine
    Well-intentioned but never entirely engaging chronicle.
  68. Bait
    A B movie in A-grade clothing.
  69. Tears of the Sun
    This is one of those pictures that unavoidably becomes part of the zeitgeist due to its coincidental arrival at a precise moment in history when its themes play into current events.
  70. A Dirty Shame
    Frequently hilarious but ultimately is a protracted one-joke affair that strays into undisciplined chaos.
  71. The Thirteenth Floor
    Comes too late, far surpassed by similar and more visually stunning devices in "The Matrix," and even by the mind-bending realities of "eXistenZ."
  72. Cellular
    Because plot is the sum total here, the alarming holes, inconsistencies and impossibilities in Chris Morgan's script corrode this drama of distress.
  73. The Girl Next Door
    A tickle-and-tease teen sex comedy that plays like a late-night channel-surf through soft-core sitcoms, "American Pie" wannabes and '80s Brat Pack romances.
  74. The Other Side of the Bed
    A nicely contempo mood, engaging characters energized by solid perfs from a good-looking, high-profile young cast, and genuinely witty scripting are let down only by over-length and some generally turgid tunes.
  75. A Night at the Roxbury
    The track record of SNL-drawn movies is dire ("It's Pat," "Stuart Saves His Family," "Blues Brothers 2000"), and this one stands just a peg higher, as an amiable, if flyweight, di-version.
  76. Waterworld
    A not-bad futuristic actioner with three or four astounding sequences, an unusual hero, a nifty villain and less mythic and romantic resonance than might be desired.
  77. Seven Years in Tibet
    Despite some magnificent widescreen lensing, faultless ethnographic detail and a timely sympathy for the plight of the Tibetan people, director Jean-Jacques Annaud's true-life tale about a self-obsessed Austrian mountaineer who learns selflessness in the Himalayas too rarely delivers at a simple emotional level.
  78. 10 Things I Hate About You
    10 Things doesn't take much time before ditching its pitch idea in favor of a mishmash of newer formulas, never quite settling on a cogent game plan or directorial tone.
  79. Scooby-Doo
    Just fast, frenetic and funny enough to amuse both new fans and longtime devotees of the characters who have inspired more than 30 years worth of animated TV episodes and made-for-video features.
  80. Blow
    Respectable but unmemorable end result may suffer from comparison with the similarly themed, albeit differently angled, “Traffic.”
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Reckoning
    Has its flaws, among them a certain self-righteousness and a complicated storyline, but it is never less than gripping thanks to its gifted international cast.
  82. Before Sunrise
    While pic remains sympathetic and appealing, the endless dialogue and repetitive settings become wearing through the couple's one long night together, and the artifice of the premise may contribute to the difficulty the film has in coming to romantic life.
  83. Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry
    Butler is in no way a hot-headed or contentious piece of agit-prop, unlike so many other election year documentaries; like Kerry himself, the film speaks to the mind, not the emotions.
  84. Levity
    Despite an effectively low-key performance by Billy Bob Thornton in the leading role, pic is no more spiritually insightful or illuminating than Sunday School instructional story, and a lot less dramatically coherent.
  85. Tea with Mussolini
    Some fine individual perfs by the tony cast, plus fine period detail and costumes, make the time pass fairly agreeably, but Tea With Mussolini suffers from a fatal lack of focus and emotional center, reducing potentially involving material to a succession of individual scenes.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Who Framed Roger Rabbit
    An unparalleled technical achievement... Yet the story amounts to little more than inspired silliness about the filmmaking biz where cartoon characters face off against cartoonish humans.
  87. 'R Xmas
    Despite some hazy plot points, the tough, compelling drama comes together quite satisfyingly, standing alongside 1996's "The Funeral" as perhaps the most controlled and cohesive of Ferrara's uneven work of recent years.
  88. Spun
    Outrageously grungy and whacked-out walk on the wild side.
  89. The Out-of-Towners
    Lightweight but likable entertainment.
  90. An Everlasting Piece
    It's a film of myriad minor pleasures but scant compelling qualities.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bridget Jones's Diary
    Misses its mark, failing to capitalize on the staccato rhythms and sardonic wit of Bridget's inner life.
  92. Brother to Brother
    The film's transitions between periods are not entirely seamless and its discourse often becomes didactic. However, the depth and intelligence it brings to issues of black politics and sexuality could help carve an appreciative theatrical audience in upscale gay and/or urban niches.
  93. The Sixth Sense
    Borderline dull to sit through, The Sixth Sense is actually rather interesting to think about afterward because of the revelation of its ending.
  94. 21 Grams
    Ambitiously structured in non-chronological fragments that form a fascinating puzzle, this raw drama about grief, guilt and redemption becomes ultimately overextended and overwrought in its final stretch.
  95. Holes
    Holes will no doubt speak clearly and appealingly to its intended early teen audience.
  96. The Alamo
    Refreshingly revisionist in the sense that it takes a relatively clear-eyed view of the messy lives and equivocal circumstances of many of the key participants.
  97. New Guy
    Does a lot with little, milking a single location and minimal dialogue for deadpan humor, tension, and macabre payoff.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jeepers Creepers II
    Substantially better than its predecessor, even while staying strictly within the genre's well-defined boundaries.
  99. Zhou Yu de huo che
    Chinese thesp Gong Li goes for a striking career makeover in Zhou Yu's Train, a sensual, slickly packaged slice of Euro-style metaphysical cinema centered on a free-thinking woman and the two men in her life.
  100. Under the Tuscan Sun
    Lane transforms this seriocomic saga of a devastated American divorcee who impulsively purchases a Tuscan villa, thereby changing her life, into a spellbinding display of emotional transparency.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »