Variety's Scores

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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
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  1. American Psycho
    Pace is sleek, airless and apt.
  2. Bulletproof Monk
    Not surprisingly based on a comic book series by Brett Lewis and R.A. Jones (whom pic fails to credit), pic hurtles along at a pace designed by vet music vid and ad helmer Paul Hunter to engage short attention spans.
  3. In & Out
    Aside from Dillon, who brightens every scene he's in, the delightful surprise here is Selleck, who brings wonderfully mischievous, energizing and self-deprecating qualities to the role of the dirt-digging but ultimately on-the-level broadcaster.
  4. Smilla's Sense of Snow
    An exceedingly sleek and handsome thriller, this ambitious European co-production, like the novel on which it's quite faithfully based, starts intriguingly but fails to stay the distance.
  5. Unbreakable
    Possesses sufficient intrigue to hook audiences and keep them on board much of the way.
  6. MC5*: A True Testimonial
    Draws on extensive archival materials to etch an absorbing portrait of a singular counterculture mini-phenom that will be manna to music fans.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Rocco and His Brothers (re-release)
    It's plotted in the form of an epic poem, each stanza dedicated to a member of the group.
  8. Holy Man
    Complex issues of ambition and consumerism taken to televangelic levels aren't truly addressed or resolved but simply tied up in a box with the message that love conquers all.
  9. Six Days Seven Nights
    Sprinkled with just enough laughs, close shaves and compromising positions to keep audiences mildly interested, this old-fashioned popcorn picture is agreeably breezy and colorful, but lacks the pizzazz and star chemistry of a genre ancestor such as "Romancing the Stone."
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    El mariachi
    Spanish lingo crime meller has a verve and cheekiness that's partly a smart wedding of such influences as Sergio Leone, George Miller and south-of-the-border noir.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Siddhartha (re-release)
    Rooks has chosen to give this a surface elegance which sometimes robs the film of its needed earthiness and sensuality in its love angle and more robustness in detailing the vagaries of social aspects and values at the time.
  12. The Green Mile
    An intermittently powerful and meticulously crafted drama that falls short of its full potential due to considerable over-length and some shopworn, simplistic notions at its center.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Vitelloni [re-release]
    Federico Fellini, long a scripter, in his second feature film satirizes the 'wastrels', the do-nothing sons of middle-class Italian provincials whose life ranges from schoolroom to poolroom.
  14. Enemy of the State
    Sporadically entertaining, though it lacks the kind of political urgency and emotional resonance so crucial to many similarly themed '70s movies.
  15. Tycoon: A New Russian
    A savvy, fast-paced political thriller dealing with the meteoric rise and fall of a new Russian businessman.
  16. The Virgin Suicides
    Humor prevails throughout, but it doesn't deflate the disturbing elements of the tale, which miraculously manages to stay droll, heartfelt and poignant to the end.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Animal Factory
    In one of his best leading screen turns, Dafoe makes a potentially unlikely construct into a fascinating, full-blooded figure.
  18. The Sleepy Time Gal
    Bisset throws herself into what is by far the most emotionally demanding role of her career and emerges honorably.
  19. Rosenstrasse
    A sober, unsensationalized enactment of a Holocaust incident. Von Trotta keeps sentimentality at bay and, as a result, the film isn't as emotionally wrenching as it might have been.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Holy Land
    Offers an occasionally fascinating look at the complex social, religious and political dynamics that help define the sacred city of Jerusalem.
  21. Twister
    Another theme park ride of a movie without an ounce of emotional credibility to it, Twister succeeds on its own terms by taking the audience somewhere it has never been before: into a tornado's funnel.
  22. The Station Agent
    A well-acted and crafted character piece that's a bit too calculated and cutesy for its own good.
  23. Chasing Liberty
    Inoffensive adolescent escapism laced with surprising amounts of genuine charm.
  24. Billabong Odyssey
    Narrower focus may lend this less crossover appeal than "Step Into Liquid," which was practically a recruitment poster for the surfing lifestyle. But such a tight focus might also make Billabong a repeat must-see for more dedicated boarders and wannabes.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pretty Woman
    Roberts handles the transition from coarse and gawky to glamorous with aplomb.
  26. Glengarry Glen Ross
    But it doesn't quite all come together here as it did onstage, and relentless scabrousness, heavy claustrophobia and a vaguely dated feel are among the elements that will keep mainstream audiences away.
  27. Don't Say a Word
    Generates tension from the get-go, albeit of an increasingly unpleasant variety, on its way to a disappointingly generic climax.
  28. Bowfinger
    So lunatic that it creates as much puzzled disbelief as it does carefree delight.
  29. Runaway Jury
    With the standard Grisham formula having grown stale after so many books and film versions, Jury introduces ingredients that add zest to the old recipe and, in cinematic terms, open up increased possibilities for intrigue and narrative layering.
  30. Detroit Rock City
    It's crude, sexist, ear-splittingly loud and a helluva lotta fun for anyone suffering from past or present testosterone overload.
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