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. Accidents Happen
    Andrew Lancaster's helming bow looks smart but lacks confidence in its melodrama and, professional editing aside, resembles a meandering rough cut.
  2. Oceans
    Though there's a formlessness to it all, the wow factor will thrill the "Earth" crowd, making Oceans a surefire bet for families and nature lovers.
  3. Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D
    Sound is crystal-clear, and unobtrusive stereoscopic footage looks great throughout the 99-minute feature, though some weird compositional snafus scuttle the desired concert experience, and the set's lack of variety makes it a fans-only proposition.
  4. Death at a Funeral
    This slavishly faithful update... fails to tap into anything culturally specific or uniquely funny in its Pasadena setting or its theoretically looser, livelier black cast. And because the characters are so flat, we couldn't care less about the blows to their sense of propriety.
  5. Kick-Ass
    Equal parts audacious dark comedy, wish-fulfillment fantasy and over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek action-adventure.
  6. The Joneses
    If The Joneses were pure farce, which it isn't, Borte could have gotten away with a lot. Likewise, the picture might have succeeded if it were all a bit funnier and a little less mean-spirited about spending, debt and envy.
  7. The Cartel
    A lopsided whine about the state of American public schools, The Cartel is a lesson in dichotomous documaking: Effervescent and tedious, crusading and craven, it's a prime example of that ubiquitous oxymoron: the agenda-driven "expose."
  8. The City of Your Final Destination
    Languid, multi-accented adaptation of the contempo novel by Peter Cameron suffers from an unfocused screenplay and direction.
  9. Exit Through the Gift Shop
    A raucously entertaining postmodern survey of guerrilla street art that appears to be one thing, only to fold back on itself and examine would-be filmmaker Thierry Guetta instead.
  10. Handsome Harry
    Beginning promisingly enough, "Handsome" soon turns monotonously angst-ridden, with all humor and personality falling by the wayside.
  11. No One Knows About Persian Cats
    Strings an improvised tale around Tehran's underground indie-rock scene. Good-looking, shot-on-the-fly fifth feature by Bahman Ghobadi ("Half Moon," "Turtles Can Fly," "A Time for Drunken Horses"), which blends exciting musical performances with an undernourished narrative.
  12. The Perfect Game
    It's an unabashedly corny but occasionally stirring dramedy based on the true-life story of scrappy young baseball players from Mexico who, in 1957, scored an improbable string of successes while playing their way from a Monterrey sandlot to the Little League World Series.
  13. The Secret in Their Eyes
    A deeply rewarding throwback to the unself-conscious days when cinema still strove to be magical, The Secrets in their Eyes is simply mesmerizing.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Date Night
    An uncommonly engaging date movie.
  15. After.Life
    The potent imagery never meshes with narrative logic in Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo's first feature, promising more than it can deliver.
  16. The Black Waters of Echo's Pond
    This generic horror meller would be most at home debuting on Syfy -- perhaps double-billed with "Pinata: Survival Island."
  17. Everyone Else
    Simply fuzzy filmmaking of the worst sort.
  18. La mission
    Rather predictable in its major plot points and social-issue pleadings, the picture is better suited to cable than the big screen, but nonetheless offers solid drama with nice streaks of humor, warmth and local color.
  19. Letters to God
    While only the converted will likely see the redemption behind the manipulation, picture delivers a strong enough dose of spiritual saccharine to yield solid if not heavenly returns from its trusty target audience.
  20. The Square
    A tasty neo-noir from the James M. Cain school of lust-driven dirty dealings, The Square reps a promising debut by Aussie stuntman-turned-helmer Nash Edgerton.
  21. When You're Strange
    The Lizard King is a bummer in When You're Strange, Tom DiCillo's disastrously inane documentary ode to reptilian rocker Jim Morrison and his mellower bandmates in the Doors.
  22. Who Do You Love
    Ultimately an entertaining story about a deeply lonely man.
  23. Women Without Men
    Has striking moments comparable to the best of Neshat's potent imagery. But the script jettisons most of the book's more powerful sections.
  24. It Came from Kuchar
    Gleefully piles on everything anyone could want in a docu on the fabulous Kuchar brothers, whose deliriously campy zero-budget mellers -- with titles like "Hold Me While I'm Naked" or "Sins of the Fleshapoids" -- enlivened many otherwise somber evenings of '60s underground cinema.
  25. The Misfortunates
    Calling the Strobbe clan a working-class family would imply that some of its members worked (or had class), but none of the lowlife protags do in the visually robust and often hilarious Flemish tragicomedy The Misfortunates.
  26. See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary
    An outstanding documentary exploration of the travails of four deaf entertainers.
  27. Don McKay
    A film noir set mostly in broad daylight, Don McKay, writer-director Jake Goldberger's mild riff on "Double Indemnity," etc., works best as a showcase for its veteran cast, particularly Elisabeth Shue.
  28. Leaves of Grass
    A mixed bag of often mismatched ideas.
  29. The Thorn in the Heart
    This moving but far from revelatory portrait of a beloved family figure registers as too slight and personal for significant theatrical play.
  30. Why Did I Get Married Too?
    Married offers a positive, if melodramatically heightened, portrait of upper-middle-class African-American life, one broadly appealing enough to satisfy even the Nancy Meyers set, if only they'd give it a chance.
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