Variety's Scores

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For 17,840 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: 9,167 out of 17840
  2. Mixed: 7,035 out of 17840
  3. Negative: 1,638 out of 17840
17840 movie reviews
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  1. My Date with Drew
    This maddening yet deftly made, and finally disarming, documentary comes through with enough heart and hilarity to sell its celebrity-stalking shenanigans to genuinely moving effect.
  2. The Face of Love
    This tale of a still-grieving widow (Bening) hypnotized by a dead ringer for her late husband verges on ludicrous, but ultimately succeeds at conveying one person’s complicated yet emotionally rational response to a highly irrational situation.
  3. God's Pocket
    John Slattery makes a wobbly transition into feature filmmaking with this drab and uninvolving dark comedy.
  4. Everyone's Hero
    Neither a grand slam nor a strikeout, Everyone's Hero is minor-league animated entertainment.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Final Countdown
    As a documentary on the USS Nimitz, The Final Countdown is wonderful. As entertainment, however, it has the feeling of a telepic that strayed onto the big screen. The magnificent production values provided by setting the film on the world's largest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can't transcend the predictable cleverness of a plot that will seem overly familiar to viewers raised on Twilight Zone reruns.
  6. Go Back to China
    The capable cast and brisk pacing keep attention held toward a happy ending that pleases even if it is a bit pat, not to mention inevitable.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Gods Must Be Crazy II
    Jamie Uys has concocted a genial sequel to his 1981 international sleeper hit The Gods must Be Crazy that is better than its progenitor in most respects.
  8. Susie Searches
    Clemons’ strong performance provides enough of a center to propel the story to its conclusion.
  9. Irreversible
    A demanding but rewarding emotional odyssey in a challenging visual package.
  10. Taurus
    This is about as valiantly unflattering as vanity projects get. The bad news is that the wispily tragic character of “Cole,” his alienated, self-destructive but wildly popular alter ego, hardly seems worth Baker’s extensive efforts.
  11. The Wrath of Becky
    The Wrath of Becky is entertaining enough. But perhaps inevitably, with its heroine grown to near-adulthood, the novelty is a bit dulled now.
  12. Risen
    Whether or not it triggers a craze for divinely inspired detective stories, Risen makes a decent case for itself as the “Columbo” of the genre: It’s amiable, creaky and not remotely predicated on the element of surprise.
  13. Transporter 3
    Boasts a measure of the retro machismo, style and attitude some 007 fans have found lacking in "Quantum of Solace." But it also has a pointless storyline, incoherent editing and a polyglot cast that renders some of the dialogue utterly incomprehensible.
  14. The Song of Names
    It’s a fatally old-fashioned and lugubrious historical drama, muting the emotional payoff it labors so hard to deliver.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Jaws 2
    Despite a notable but effective change in story emphasis, Jaws 2 is a worthy successor in horror, suspense and terror to its 1975 smash progenitor.
  16. In a Relationship
    The movie is much funnier than the vast majority of indie comedies, serving as a great audition piece for a career of sitcom directing.
  17. Saint Ralph
    Even though it sprints along a well-trod path through familiar territory, Saint Ralph remains surprisingly compelling.
  18. Umma
    Oh aces her leading role with customary aplomb, and Stewart makes for a game scene partner, but Shim’s economical-to-a-fault screenplay rarely allows them enough downtime to fully flesh out their characters.
  19. DysFunktional Family
    The attempt to draw certain connections between Griffin's material and its autobiographical origins feels slapped together, shortchanging both aspects of the film.
  20. The Road to El Dorado
    A strained and pallid concoction that won't fire the collective imaginations of modern children.
  21. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
    Definitely lives up to its promise of being smashing, groovy, baby.
  22. Left Luggage
    A well intentioned but uneven and overly sentimental film.
  23. What Lies Beneath
    A thriller that tries aggressively, but not entirely successfully, to deliver the goods of three genres -- suspense, supernatural and horror.
  24. Nobody Walks
    Reminiscent of 2010 Sundance breakout "The Kids Are All Right," Ry Russo-Young's Nobody Walks captures the fallout of an open-minded Los Angeles family shaken up by the arrival of a sexy outsider, only this time, it's the outsider whose perspective takes precedence.
  25. The Song of Sway Lake
    The Song of Sway Lake never finds a thematic center around which to pivot its action.
  26. The Grinch
    For anyone who grew up with “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” The Grinch won’t replace it, yet it’s nimble and affectionate in a way that can hook today’s children, and more than a few adults, by conjuring a feeling that comes close enough.
  27. The Empire in Africa
    Infused with a strong sense of moral outrage, The Empire in Africa provides more heat than light while attempting to explain the motives and methods of combatants who waged the 1991-2002 civil war in Sierra Leone.
  28. In Our Nature
    Writer-director Brian Savelson drags four characters all the way out to the woods to orchestrate the sort of politely confrontational chamber piece best suited to an Off Off Broadway stage in In Our Nature, an eloquent but overly rehearsed drama.
  29. Funeral Kings
    A raggedy but refreshing yarn about the near-terminal condition known as male adolescence.
  30. That Demon Within
    Lam’s darkest work to date, one where violence is not just graphic but ugly, and Hong Kong symbolically comes to resemble a charnel house.
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