Variety's Scores

Select another publication »
For 17,835 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: 9,166 out of 17835
  2. Mixed: 7,032 out of 17835
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17835
17835 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    They Were Expendable
    The picture vividly portrays the big job the little boats did. The battle scenes in which the P-Ts go after Jap cruisers and supply ships were exceptionally well directed.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mister Roberts
    James Cagney is simply great as the captain of the ship. William Powell tackles the role of ship’s doctor with an easy assurance that makes it stand out and Jack Lemmon is a big hit as Ensign Pulver.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Curse of Frankenstein
    Peter Cushing gets every inch of drama from the leading role, making almost believable the ambitious urge and diabolical accomplishment.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Nothing Sacred
    Hecht handles the material breezily and pungently, poking fun in typical manner of half-scorn at the newspaper publisher, his reporter, doctors, the newspaper business, phonies, suckers, and whatnot.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Horror of Dracula
    Both director Terence Fisher as well as the cast have taken a serious approach to the macabre theme that adds up to lotsa tension and suspense.
  6. The Opening Act
    Becoming a successful stand-up comic is an uphill climb, one that not everybody is cut out for, and The Opening Act is a likable ode to those hard knocks.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
    Done in the satirical Sturges vein, and directed with that same touch, the story makes much of characterization and somewhat wacky comedy, plus some slapstick, with excellent photography figuring throughout.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Thin Man
    The Thin Man was an entertaining novel, and now it's an entertaining picture.
  9. Atarrabi & Mikelats
    Atarrabi and Mikelats isn’t a movie for everyone — in fact, by design, it’s probably a movie for very few. Yet it confirms the reverent audacity of Eugène Green’s talent. He’s 73 years young. He still has the chance to make a film that will blow the world away.
  10. The Show
    Fun if perhaps a little too tongue-in-cheek for its own good, the results will no doubt appeal most to Moore fans who’ll revel in his Byzantine plotting, noirish tropes and other signature elements.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Daughters of Darkness
    Daughters of Darkness is so intentionally perverse that it often slips into impure camp, but Kumel and Seyrig hold interest by piling twists on every convention of the vampire genre.
  12. Pink Skies Ahead
    The catchy title’s a clever way of saying “It gets better,” and in the end, that feels as true for Winona as it does for the high-potential writer-director who created her.
  13. The Donut King
    Gu’s to be commended for recognizing that the hollow part of a donut might provide such a rich window into another culture. There’s much to learn about the immigrant experience from her research, even if the movie leaves us craving two things: donuts, obviously, but also a more well-rounded sense of all the incredible personalities she too-politely engages with along the way.
  14. Kindred
    Kindred is a demonstration of how a naturalistic horror film can be derivative, in the most flagrant and shameless way, and still work.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dead of Winter
    Mary Steenburgen is first-rate as the struggling actress.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Masque of the Red Death
    Vincent Price is the very essence of evil, albeit charming when need be.
  17. Hard Target
    A briskly vigorous, occasionally brilliant actioner.
  18. Coming Home Again
    While this is not exactly a premise with mass appeal, Wang’s movie is still an unassuming exercise, defiantly in contrast to Hollywood’s typically over-sentimental terminal illness fare.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Some Came Running
    The story is pure melodrama, despite the intention of the original novel’s author, James Jones, to invest it with greater stature. But the integrity with which the film is handled by all its contributors lifts it at times to tragedy.
  20. Citizen Penn
    Some of this is stirring stuff, and all of it is worth learning about, but as a documentary Citizen Penn is more diligent than riveting.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    High Society
    Fortified with a strong Cole Porter score, film is a pleasant romp for cast toppers Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra. Their impact is almost equally consistent. Although Sinatra has the top pop tune opportunities, the Groaner makes his specialties stand up and out on showmanship and delivery, and Kelly impresses as a femme lead.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Black Narcissus
    The cast has been well chosen, but Kerr gets only occasional opportunities to reveal her talents.
  23. Rams
    Of course, the film’s main selling point is the particular chemistry of its two leads. It’s a delight to see the usually dapper Neill convince as a disheveled farmer, with his unshaven face, wild hair and utilitarian clothing. Meanwhile, Caton, with his baleful glare and drunken muttering, is utterly believable as the older, angrier brother.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    David Copperfield
    It was almost an adventure to try to bring to the screen the expansively optimistic Micawber, but he lives again in W.C. Fields, who only once yields to his penchant for horseplay.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Thing Called Love
    Perhaps there's not much new to say about the dues and disappointments involved in breaking into the country music scene, but the scenes are fresh and the emotions real in Peter Bogdanovich's tune-laden, mixed-mood drama.
  26. The White Tiger
    The White Tiger isn’t a fairy tale, but by the end the movie still leaves you feeling that it has made a wish into a command.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Harry and Tonto
    A pleasant film about an old man who rejuvenates himself on a cross-country trek. Script is a series of good human comedy vignettes, with the large supporting cast of many familiar names in virtual cameo roles.
  28. The Endless Trench
    The Endless Trench plunges us into a living nightmare with enough atmospheric precision of its own: It needn’t literally spell things out for us.
  29. The United States vs. Billie Holiday
    This is gripping stuff, to be sure, yet the movie, volatile as it is, lacks a full dramatic center and the momentum that would flow out of it.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Vixen!
    Russ Meyer’s film is another of his technically polished sexplicit dramas, this time free of physical violence and brutality, and hyped with some awkwardly developed draft-dodging and patriotism angles.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »