Variety's Scores

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For 17,807 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 2.4 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: 9,148 out of 17807
  2. Mixed: 7,022 out of 17807
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17807
17807 movie reviews
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  1. Today's Special
    The picture works best as a vehicle for the likable talents of thesp Aasif Mandvi, arguably best known for his occasional "reporting" on the Middle East on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart."
  2. The Next Three Days
    Paul Haggis' middling fourth feature evinces a sometimes pulse-quickening fascination with procedural details, and climaxes with a good dose of swift, suspenseful filmmaking. But what was briskly diverting in the original has been rather laboriously overworked.
  3. William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
    There is a wealth of anecdotal material. Like his subject, Leyser strives to disengage from the conventional, while still being lucid. He succeeds admirably.
  4. Skyline
    An underwhelming and derivative sci-fi thriller that's only marginally more impressive than a run-of-the-mill SyFy Channel telepic.
  5. Helena from the Wedding
    Pacing is brisk, and performances and writing sharp enough to engage throughout.
  6. Morning Glory
    A genially midrange if overlong romantic comedy.
  7. Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story
    Charting the presence of prominent Jewish major leaguers in every decade, their relationship to the world of big-time ball and the careers of such greats as Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax, helmer Peter Miller's historical docu strikes out a stadium-load of assumptions.
  8. Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
    For all the information here, Gibney is unusual among investigative documentarians in that he never forgets he's making cinema.
  9. Fair Game
    Fair Game serves up impeccable politics with a bit too much righteous outrage and not quite enough solid drama.
  10. Four Lions
    An audacious premise gets dangerously unstable execution in Four Lions, a ballsy but wobbly high-concept farce that sends up the bumbling schemes of a Blighty-based jihadist cell.
  11. For Colored Girls
    The result falls squarely in familiar territory, better acted and better lit, perhaps, but more inauthentically melodramatic than ever.
  12. 127 Hours
    While Franco can sometimes be a wild card, getting increasingly self-conscious with recent roles, his take on Ralston feels both credible and compelling; few actors could have made us care so much, or disappeared so completely into the role.
  13. Inspector Bellamy
    This upscale talkfest, which delights in its witty banter and sly references, could be helmer's most commercial work in quite some time.
  14. Kalamity
    An object lesson in overconfidence and underdevelopment, almost as unbalanced as its central psychotic.
  15. Wild Target
    Nearly every element here is wildly off-target, from Jonathan Lynn's ("The Whole Nine Yards") lazy helming and Lucinda Coxon's shambolic script to the embarrassed-looking perfs from usually excellent lead thesps Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt.
  16. Welcome to the Rileys
    Nothing short of preposterous, Jake Scott's film imagines a grieving couple (James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo) who play surrogate parents to an underage stripper ("Twilight's" Kristen Stewart) and spins it for the "Blind Side" crowd.
  17. Waste Land
    Lucy Walker's Waste Land takes his (Vik Muniz) project one step deeper by actually getting to know Muniz's models, which brings a compelling human-interest dimension to the sort of art documentary otherwise better suited for TV.
  18. Shake Hands with the Devil
    Spottiswoode's lackluster film fails to offer any fresh perspective on these now well-known events.
  19. The Kids Grow Up
    Obsession, compulsion and fear are all part of The Kids Grow Up, which is occasionally a less-than-pleasant reminder of the goofy way we can act even while we think we're being sane.
  20. Jolene
    Though stretched to a two-hour run time, Doctorow's socially critical tale is reduced to queasy spectacle.
  21. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
    Benefits from edge-of-your-seat pacing despite a conspicuous lack of action.
  22. Paranormal Activity 2
    Picture fares like most horror follow-ups, offering more of the same to somewhat diminished effect.
  23. Knucklehead
    Knucklehead has a professional slickness about it, flawless shooting by d.p. Kenneth Zunder, and Johnston's perfectly cloying score. The acting leaves a bit to be desired: Malick is hilarious; Wight is endearing; Rebecca Creskoff ("Hung"), who plays Mary's friend and fellow ex-"dancer," is refreshingly natural.
  24. Inhale
    Icelandic helmer Baltasar Kormakur ("101 Reykjavik," "Jar City") injects notes of hysteria into the script's frenetic pileup of gratuitous cliches, as Dermot Mulroney pushes his square-jawed, desperate hero to near-masochistic extremes.
  25. Conviction
    Although fiercely committed performances by Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell provide director Tony Goldwyn's film with a core of emotional integrity, a less heavy-handed, more informative approach would have served them and the audience better.
  26. Hereafter
    A beguiling blend of the audacious and the familiar; it dances right on the edge of the ridiculous and at times even crosses over, but is armored against risibility by its deep pockets of emotion, sly humor and matter-of-fact approach to the fantastical.
  27. I Want Your Money
    Equal parts hagiography and hatchet job.
  28. Tamara Drewe
    Adapted from a comicstrip-turned-graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, which was itself based on Thomas Hardy's "Far From the Madding Crowd," picture represents a satirical but soft-biting swipe at contempo middle-class mores among Blighty's chattering countryside classes.
  29. Stone
    Though nearly sabotaged by the ridiculous sexual subplot at its center, this soul-searching drama works best at the character level, couching insights about sin and forgiveness under the guise of conventional genre entertainment.
  30. The Portuguese Nun
    A tedious slog alleviated only by widescreen shots of the Portuguese capital and terrific fado singing.
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