Variety's Scores

Select another publication »
For 17,828 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: 9,160 out of 17828
  2. Mixed: 7,031 out of 17828
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17828
17828 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. Music of the Heart
    A gloriously sentimental true-life drama
  2. Divan
    Offers a testimonial to the devastation caused in Hungary by the Holocaust, a glimpse into the richness of Yiddish folklore, a passive-aggressive assault on the patriarchal fastness of Hasidic orthodoxy and a vast self-reflexive joke.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Spy Kids
    Fulfills kids' empowerment fantasies and features enough techno-wizardry and cool f/x to satisfy those weaned on videogames.
  4. So Close
    Slickly packaged, unashamedly exploitative popcorn movie.
  5. What's Cooking?
    Though often enjoyable, it’s an old-fashioned, feel-good movie whose significance is more sociological than cinematic.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Abyss
    A firstrate underwater suspenser with an otherworldly twist, The Abyss suffers from a payoff unworthy of its buildup.
  7. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde
    The script here just doesn't have sufficient smarts to pull off Elle's political triumph. But Witherspoon again makes a valiant show of selling it.
  8. The Seagull's Laughter
    A sprightly, enjoyable comedy-drama from veteran Agust Gudmundsson that's buoyed by a raft of excellent distaff performances.
  9. Shooting Fish
    Though the script never makes a convincing case for the lads as '90s Robin Hoods, it's restlessly inventive, with a pleasant, rather than rib-cracking, humor and likable touch of naivete.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Capture the Castle
    Fywell has transformed this autobiographical novel into a perceptive, wholly engaging drama, infusing the proceedings with a light tone that almost qualifies the film as a comedy, yet never loses sight of the unpredictability of human emotions.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (re-released)
    It takes nerve to make a pic in which all dialog is sung. Also, there is no dancing and this is not a filmed operetta or opera. [review of original release]
  12. The Scorpion King
    Rouses excitement mostly from stuntwork and thesp agility rather than CGI excess.
  13. Agent Cody Banks
    As a spy pic, it has more pizzazz than the last few Bond adventures, "The Sum of All Fears" or "The Recruit."
  14. Die, Mommie, Die!
    Doing for the cheesier Ross Hunter-style bigscreen soaps of the early/mid-'60s what "Far From Heaven" did for the plush Douglas Sirk melodramas of a decade earlier -- albeit with tongue planted much further in cheek -- writer/star Charles Busch's Die Mommie Die! is an enjoyable genre homage-cum-parody.
  15. Pi
    The film's imaginative, diverse images create a mind's-eye urban claustrophobia; such intensity may exhaust over 85 minutes' course, but it's never less than impressive.
  16. Stepmom
    Everything about the film suggests that its makers consider it a deep, emotionally probing drama, but it's merely a soap opera with elevated production values and a sterling cast.
  17. Brokedown Palace
    It's close to a no-win situation dramatically, culturally and politically, and Kaplan deals with it plausibly enough by concentrating on the performances and the interior conflicts they reveal.
  18. Trekkies
    A largely affectionate look at the weird and the wonderful subculture that's ensued and endured since the sci-fi series first beamed up in 1966.
  19. Khab-e sefid
    Gentle, touching tale.
  20. The Big Hit
    Unquestionably a slick piece of goods. The training and experience of Wong and his crew --- culled largely from such action series as "La Femme Nikita" and "Once a Thief" --- keep the film lively and vivid.
  21. The King Is Alive
    Simultaneously gritty and cerebral.
  22. Amistad
    Aiming to instruct as well as entertain --- and often struggling to reconcile these two divergent goals.
  23. Evolution
    A consistently amusing action romp.
  24. Yossi & Jagger
    It's a very small pic but engagingly played by a fine cast.
  25. Femme Fatale
    An extravagant suspense cocktail of wacky and lascivious ingredients that goes down fine.
  26. One True Thing
    As sensitively written, fluidly directed and expertly acted as it is, and as elemental as its dramatic conflicts may be, One True Thing has trouble breaking free of its limitations as a small-scale, modestly aimed family drama.
  27. Amen.
    Despite fine performances and the care lavished on the production, Amen. is never as emotionally powerful as it should be.
  28. Addicted to Love
    Warm performances that result in hilarity without guilt.
  29. Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII
    Their interwoven stories, backgrounded by concise narration, well-chosen archival imagery and an evocative score by John Zorn, make for an absorbing and revealing examination of the ties that bind.
  30. There's Something About Mary
    Crudely made, somewhat overlong and larded with plenty of things that don't work, pic stands as proof positive that a comedy can be far from perfect and still hit the bull's-eye if it delivers when it counts in its big scenes.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »