Variety's Scores

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For 17,832 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: 9,164 out of 17832
  2. Mixed: 7,031 out of 17832
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17832
17832 movie reviews
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  1. Tucker & Dale vs Evil
    Sorta doing for "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"-type slashers what "Shaun of the Dead" did for zombie pics, "T&D" offers good-natured, confidently executed splatstick whose frequent hilarity suffers only from peaking too early.
  2. Everything Must Go
    While the film is neither entertaining nor profound, Ferrell makes it watchable at least.
  3. The French Minister
    A sparkling and savvy comedy of political manners.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    La Bamba
    La Bamba is engrossing throughout and boasts numerous fine performances.
  5. Exit: The Right to Die
    Pic's quiet lucidity and matter-of-fact procedurals pack a cumulative emotional punch.
  6. A Skin So Soft
    Côté assures them a humanity as well, without trying to analyze their obsession with this extravagant concept of masculinity, nor the need for self-display.
  7. Amazing Grace
    Picture reflects the no-nonsense storytelling skills of prolific helmer Michael Apted, whose career-long mix of feature and documentary work holds him in good stead once more.
  8. A Room for Romeo Brass
    An easygoing kitchen-sink comedy with an unsettling final act.
  9. One Last Kiss
    Craftily combining elements that speak directly to three different generations, this accomplished ensemble piece is shaping up to be the surprise homegrown hit of the season.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dirty Dancing
    Good production values, some nice dance sequences and a likable performance by Grey make the film more than watchable, especially for those acquainted with the Jewish tribal mating rituals that go on in the Catskill Mountain resorts.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
    The Harrison Ford-Sean Connery father-and-son team gives Last Crusade unexpected emotional depth, reminding us that real film magic is not in special effects.
  12. Francine
    A glum but tenderly observed micro-portrait of a woman struggling to re-enter society after being released from prison.
  13. Naz & Maalik
    The intense focus on the two lead characters emerges as both a strength and a weakness. There’s a lot of walking and talking, and what begins as rather charming ultimately turns tedious, even with a fleet 80-minute running time before closing credits factor in.
  14. Saving Mr. Banks
    It’s a bit square, never particularly surprising, yet very rich in its sense of creative people and their spirit of self-reinvention.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Warriors
    Theme of the pic, based on Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel, is a variation on countless westerns and war films. Update the setting to modern-day New York, and the avenues of escape to graffiti-emblazoned subway cars, and that’s The Warriors.
  16. The Gingerbread Man
    There is a trumped-up quality to the action climaxes that is disappointingly perfunctory, and the story's final revelation is simultaneously far-fetched and unsurprising.
  17. Beauty and the Beast
    It’s a lovingly crafted movie, and in many ways a good one, but before that it’s an enraptured piece of old-is-new nostalgia.
  18. Wheel of Time
    Taken strictly as a docu about a key Buddhist ritual, Wheel of Time is a perfectly pleasant, educational film, featuring pretty pictures, exotic locations and interview footage with the Dalai Lama himself. As a Werner Herzog film, it's flat and disappointing.
  19. American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel
    "American Heretics" is eye-opening, but it's never explosive.
  20. Ivory Tower
    Although stronger on breadth than focus, it’s an appropriately stimulating take on a far-from-sustainable system.
  21. Deconstructing Dad: The Music, Machines and Mystery of Raymond Scott
    Though the picture meanders somewhat in the absence of a clear throughline, the focus on Scott's music and electronic experimentation remains strong throughout, thanks to an eclectic roster of musicians and scholars and a generous sampling of his compositions.
  22. Beautiful Girls
    A great title in search of a movie to live up to it, this startlingly uneventful compendium of thick-headed boy-talk and female tolerance squanders a fine cast on incredibly ordinary characters and situations.
  23. Sin
    Neither glowing hagiography nor gritty apologia, Sin wallows instead in Michelangelo’s melancholy, his vanity and later his paranoia.
  24. X-Men: First Class
    After undergoing some unfortunate mutations in recent years, a beleaguered Marvel movie property gets the smart, stylish prequel it deserves in X-Men: First Class.
  25. The Polka King
    When it comes to the film’s overall success, these wildly amusing situations take a back seat to the contributions of an excellent cast.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Prince of Tides
    Bringing her usual strengths of character to her role as Nolte’s psychiatrist/lover, Barbra Streisand marks every frame with the intensity and care of a filmmaker committed to heartfelt, unashamed emotional involvement with her characters.
  27. Sibel
    Weaving together folklore, gender roles and a fitful kind of emancipation in the story of a mute young woman desperate to counter the ostracism of her fellow villagers, the writer-director couple have created an attractive package that doesn’t hold up to close inspection.
  28. Selena y Los Dinos
    This definitive doc about Selena feels comprehensive and illuminating, thanks to candid family interactions found in home movies from their earliest performances at their restaurant, recordings of local Texas TV station appearances, and eventually images captured on the road while traveling in a makeshift tour bus.
  29. Oscar and Lucinda
    Armstrong and Jones smoothly navigate the magical tale through numerous shocking twists and turns until they bring it to a most logical, emotionally satisfying conclusion.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tekkonkinkreet
    Strained metaphysics dovetail with urban and architectural nostalgia in the exquisitely realized, minutely detailed Japanese anime Tekkonkinkreet.
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