Variety's Scores

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For 17,825 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: 9,159 out of 17825
  2. Mixed: 7,029 out of 17825
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17825
17825 movie reviews
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  1. My Date with Drew
    This maddening yet deftly made, and finally disarming, documentary comes through with enough heart and hilarity to sell its celebrity-stalking shenanigans to genuinely moving effect.
  2. Saint Ralph
    Even though it sprints along a well-trod path through familiar territory, Saint Ralph remains surprisingly compelling.
  3. Four Brothers
    With equal measures of rock-the-house vigor and in-your-face attitude, Four Brothers proves usually potent and consistently enjoyable as an old school approach to what might best be described as the urban-Western genre of slam-bang, balls-out action-revenger.
  4. Pulse
    Result is always watchable, occasionally creepy and teasingly pitched halfway between a genre riff and a genuine scarefest.
  5. The Century of the Self
    Consistently engaging due to the wealth of generally unfamiliar archival footage, which reveals social trends, sweeping overview should provoke healthy debate.
  6. Red Eye
    Departing less from his horror bailiwick than he did with "Music Of The Heart" in 1999, Wes Craven retains shocks but dispenses with scares in the negligible Red Eye.
  7. Eternal
    A handsome package whose atmospherics outclass merely serviceable plot and character elements.
  8. We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
    A suitably unfussy tribute to a band that disdained even the slightest rock-star flash, We Jam Econo tells the story of the Minutemen, whose regrettably brief but brilliant career did much to expand punk's parameters during the early 1980s.
  9. Transporter 2
    Slick kidnapping yarn starts off like a bat out of hell and never sags.
  10. Touch the Sound: A Sound Journey with Evelyn Glennie
    Fans of the Grammy-winning musician will revel in the proximity to their idol, though second pic from talented helmer Thomas Riedelsheimer plays a tad long to those unfamiliar with his, or her, work.
  11. Keane
    Convincing as a portrait of a marginal man gone beyond the emotional pale.
  12. Green Street Hooligans
    Unvarnished verisimilitude, visceral impact and vividly evoked emotional and physical extremes distinguish Hooligans, the impressive debut feature by German-born helmer Lexi Alexander.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Music from the Inside Out
    Words sometimes fail, but energy and enthusiasm triumph in Music From the Inside Out, a docu that quizzes members of the Philadelphia Orchestra about their relationship to music.
  14. Thumbsucker
    Thumbsucker (like "Donnie Darko") is more likely to prosper in the long haul as a home-format cult fave than in its initial arthouse tour. Both offer eccentric humor within a fairly somber overall tone, support-cast surprises, and (to a lesser degree in Thumbsucker) fable-like, hyperreal elements.
  15. One Bright Shining Moment
    "Too decent to be president" was the label stuck to former senator and 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern, the self-effacing subject of Stephen Vittoria's One Bright Shining Moment. If "decent" means "polite," then the movie makes no effort to emulate its subject.
  16. G
    A handsome, compelling drama, about the African-American elite settling in the Hamptons, that more than stands on its own.
  17. Oliver Twist
    A respectable literary adaptation but lacks dramatic urgency and intriguing undercurrents.
  18. Forty Shades of Blue
    A muted but nicely observed study of a Russian woman's gradual estrangement from her domineering Memphis music-legend husband.
  19. Serenity
    What makes Serenity refreshing is its avoidance of CGI, which gives the pic a much more human dimension; the evident chemistry between the cast; and a humor that doesn't rely simply on flip one-liners.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Once Upon a Time in the West (re-release)
    Henry Fonda and Jason Robards relish each screen minute as the heavies, and Charles Bronson plays Clint Eastwood's 'man with no name' role. (Review of Original Release)
  21. The Squid and the Whale
    Pic makes up in strong performances and wry observation what it sometimes lacks in narrative drive. Result is a perceptive (and unexpectedly moving) portrait of lives in crisis.
  22. In Her Shoes
    While the director's avid fans may be disappointed, upscalish mainstream auds, particularly women, will eat up this well-acted, emotionally focused adaptation of Jennifer Weiner's popular novel.
  23. The Aggressives
    Documaker Daniel Peddle also works as a casting director, and so it is small wonder his crisp, concise, intimate portrait of six very different, self-styled "aggressives" -- women who stress their masculine sides -- should reveal in each a curious integrity and beauty.
  24. The Dark Hours
    The Dark Hours surmounts some of the problems of its weak dialogue through a commanding performance by lead Kate Greenhouse and some grisly, genre-style violence.
  25. Summer Storm
    Routine in some aspects, but compensates via psychologically sharp writing and performances.
  26. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
    Once again making a diverting but insubstantial movie look better than it is, Downey, with haggard charm to burn, is winning all the way. Kilmer is riotous at times as an impeccably groomed, businesslike guy keen to assert his orientation at every opportunity.
  27. Emmanuel's Gift
    Sincere but fairly soft piece of ennobling journalism that gives a positive spin to some of Africa's seemingly intractable problems.
  28. Protocols of Zion
    Entertaining and substantial enough to attract at least a portion of the Michael Moore audience.
  29. The Roost
    Debuting helmer Ti West taps into the realist-horror spirit of mentor and exec producer Larry Fessenden, and makes a scarier pic than any by his master.
  30. The Legend of Zorro
    Bigger, louder and considerably less charming than its predecessor…Still, there are enough crowd-pleasing moments amid the frenetic action.
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