Variety's Scores

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For 17,837 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 17837
  2. Mixed: 7,034 out of 17837
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17837
17837 movie reviews
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    • 21 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Better Living
    Vibrant, snappy and surprisingly fresh.
  2. Adanggaman
    Dramatically naive at times, but still represents a refreshingly ambitious, imaginative film in a period of creative underachievement for African cinema.
  3. Smiling Fish & Goat on Fire
    Boasts a perceptive script, rich performances and date-movie appeal.
  4. China: The Panda Adventure
    This wobbly docu-drama ends up being caught in between the impulse to make theatrical a true story and the usual Imax mission of imparting information about the natural world in an entertaining way for families.
  5. Big Bad Love
    A flawed and overlong but ultimately affecting account of one man's struggle to regain control of his life.
  6. Bad Company
    It's almost impossible to enjoy this uneven but mostly exciting popcorn pic without flinching at a few plot elements that feel a bit too real for comfort.
  7. Ivansxtc
    Achieves a certain poignancy through its sensitivity to mortality in a context where illness and death are often thought of primarily in terms of gossip, blown deals and lost money.
  8. Thorns
    An involving, often kinetic 2½-hour ride for auds who can accept their entertainment overboiled as well as just hardboiled.
  9. Boiler Room
    Begins extremely well as a saga of greed and conspicuous consumption, but gradually loses its bite.
  10. Friends and Family
    Unusually slick, mini-budgeted and broad piece of slapstick that liberally borrows from Neil Simon and "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight'' with the twist that gay hit men are the romantic heroes.
  11. House of Fools
    Has the comically grotesque appeal of a Fellini film and could reach out to auds in specialized release. It lacks the originality and invention to go much beyond that.
  12. Dirt Boy
    Intelligent, low-key suspenser.
  13. Original Sin
    Lavish and florid, the corny venture falls into so-bad-it's-good territory.
  14. Crush
    Some fine screen chemistry between its leads and a spikey, offhandedly comic script by young writer-director John McKay put spice into Crush.
  15. Warm Water Under a Red Bridge
    A film with a terrifically engaging concept that overstays its welcome by quite a stretch.
  16. Washington Heights
    Believable characters trump the retread plot and hokey message.
  17. City of Ghosts
    Despite a name cast, with Dillon playing an insurance crook, pic is holed by a plot-heavy script that's unsatisfying at a character level and plays like a cut-down version of a much longer, more ambitious saga.
  18. Dust
    It's too arty to cut it as a violent action pic and too gore-spattered to appeal to the arthouse crowd.
  19. Est - Ouest
    Too often caught between trying to be a sweeping period drama and intimate love story at the same time, with a script that's never fully satisfying on either count.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Stuart Little
    Given what a tricky proposition it is to adapt a classic children's book for the screen, this take on E.B. White's Stuart Little does a more-than-passable job of resurrecting the story for a new generation.
  21. Blindness
    The ability not to see the obvious in both a literal and a metaphoric sense imbues the indie feature Blindness with dramatic potency.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Uprising
    It is a Holocaust story from a different angle, not the traditional depiction of a concentration camp or a rescue effort.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Grisbi (re-release)
    Jeanne Moreau turns in a neat bit as a moll and Dary as the inarticulate aging Romeo friend is memorable.
  24. The Contender
    The large, talented cast elevates the film above the trappings of its loquacious debates, particularly Allen.
  25. Affliction
    The pervasive chill, ugly feelings and downward spiral of the narrative make this a work that requires an equally sober, serious-minded attitude on the part of the viewer.
  26. The Ballad of Bering Strait
    Pleasant if slightly pokey documentary.
  27. AKA
    Always watchable yet ultimately self-defeating in terms of its tonal/aesthetic choices.
  28. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
    Jolie is even hotter, faster and more commanding than last time around as the fearless heiress/adventuress, plus a little more human. The less welcome news is that most of the same shortcomings that cramped the first installment are still dogging the sequel, which delivers on action but dawdles through downtime.
  29. Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat
    By turns defiant and apologetic, gleefully raunchy and anxiously defensive.
  30. The World Is Not Enough
    007 is undone by villainous scripting and misguided casting and acting in a couple of key secondary roles.
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