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. Go for Zucker
    Picture lets loose an experienced cast of vets on a well-honed script that has broad appeal.
  2. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
    Though it risks political incorrectness every step of the way, film is more a pleasant laugher than a sharp-edged satire.
  3. Underworld: Evolution
    Overall package is potent. A few rock-the-house scenes of slam-bang derring-do -- are nothing short of sensationally exciting.
  4. Nanny McPhee
    Under the surface, the movie has a streak of Roald Dahl-style darkness that dilutes the sugar.
  5. Roving Mars
    Helmer George Butler correctly gauges his film's strengths, with the search for life in the universe becoming a heartfelt tribute to a couple of robots.
  6. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
    Cheating flagrantly, helmer Michael Winterbottom has pulled off the trick -- sort of -- with the wickedly playful Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story.
  7. La scorta (re-release)
    Ricky Tognazzi's La Scorta topped the Italian box office charts for weeks, thanks to its skill in capturing the country's current political climate in an entertaining action film format. (Review of Original Release)
  8. Through the Fire
    Upbeat Urbanworld documentary prizewinner, full of strong personalities and crisply edited court action.
  9. A Year Without Love
    An Argentine writer dying of AIDS searches for a medical cure and some human warmth in the hospitals and S&M clubs of Buenos Aires in dignified, thoughtful drama A Year Without Love.
  10. Eight Below
    An easy watch, thanks to the splendors of frosty scenery and furry canines.
  11. Tsotsi
    Powered by a pounding soundtrack of dance hall Kwaito music, the pic has vital, urban energy similar to the Brazilian crossover "City of God" but with a tauter, more conventional storyline.
  12. Dirty
    The cop genre receives a shot of adrenaline in helmer Chris Fisher's Dirty, a no-nonsense dramatic response to the LAPD Rampart scandals of the '90s.
  13. Unknown White Male
    Bruce's efforts to retrace and recover his life after his memory loss contain all the drama and uncertainty of a fine psychological drama.
  14. 16 Blocks
    Not that it ever rises to the level of Sidney Lumet's Gotham police pics ("Serpico," "Prince of the City"), but 16 Blocks does raise the banner for the tradition of the textured urban cop drama, spurred by action but made substantial by characters at crossroads.
  15. Aquamarine
    Result is an unusually likeable family-friendly comedy.
  16. Our Brand Is Crisis
    Proves as entertaining as the earlier "The War Room," which also featured Carville, but is more somber.
  17. Woman Is the Future of Man
    Taken as a film about muddling along, "Woman" never bores the viewer with indecisive filmmaking. Basically, it's an elegant jeu, played and constructed with an almost Gallic lightness heightened by Jeong Yong-jin's bursts of music, all bouncy piano and pizzicato.
  18. The Hills Have Eyes
    Besides proving to be a faithful mimic of Craven's filmmaking, Aja pours on the gore. But where Aja's version really leaps beyond Craven's both atmospherically and on the violence scale is in the second hour.
  19. Duck Season
    This slight but appealing film's funky eccentricity feels a little contrived at times.
  20. Evil
    Evil is not, as the title would suggest, a horror film, at least not a conventional one. Based on the autobiographical novel by Jan Guillou and set in the mid-1950s, the film relates the experiences of a troubled young man who's enrolled into a hidebound private school.
  21. Find Me Guilty
    Part mob-trial thriller, part "dese 'n' dose" extended standup routine, character-rich pic plays like vintage Lumet, mining the grim comedy from life-and-death legal wranglings in the manner of "Dog Day Afternoon," "Prince of the City" and "The Verdict."
  22. Thank You for Smoking
    Playing a Big Tobacco lobbyist, Aaron Eckhart puts his golden news-anchor good looks and smooth conviction to better use than in any pic since his breakthrough film, "In the Company of Men."
  23. Take My Eyes
    Handles the subject of domestic violence with intelligence and compassion.
  24. Don't Tell
    More than in her previous tales of dysfunctional families like "Marriages," she (Comencini) lightens the weight of angst with well-designed subplots, secondary characters and moments of tender humor.
  25. The Big Question
    Intriguing and surprisingly witty.
  26. Inside Man
    A flashy cast, clever script and vibrant showcasing of New York City as the ultimate melting pot are strong plusses for Spike Lee's most mainstream studio venture.
  27. The Lady in Question Is Charles Busch
    An affectionate, energetic documentary, it targets the existing fans of Busch's Broadway and off-Broadway exploits, but is likely to win a lot of converts, too -- largely through Busch's endearing personality.
  28. Brick
    The story, while derivative, isn't half bad, and the picture gains in finesse and confidence to the point where Johnson more or less pulls off his peril-fraught exercise.
  29. Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!
    The sense of immediacy and excitement is contagious.
  30. Friends with Money
    Stealing the show is Jane, whose rage-fueled rants and scarcely concealed mutterings are loaded with sarcastic bon mots that are delivered to the hilt by McDormand.
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