Variety's Scores

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For 17,833 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: 9,165 out of 17833
  2. Mixed: 7,031 out of 17833
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17833
17833 movie reviews
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  1. Al Franken: God Spoke
    Despite these flashbacks, however, God Spoke never really delves into the reasons and/or motivations behind Franken's transformation from monologist and sketch-comedy performer to political pundit and liberal activist. Indeed, even during intimate moments, Franken rarely comes across as someone given to explaining himself.
  2. Everyone's Hero
    Neither a grand slam nor a strikeout, Everyone's Hero is minor-league animated entertainment.
  3. Feast
    Forgettable fun for the undiscriminating.
  4. Jesus Camp
    May shock many viewers, especially political liberals.
  5. School for Scoundrels
    Picture seemed certain to either fly high on outrageous humor or crash under the weight of tastelessness. Instead, the movie just sits there and never comes alive.
  6. Facing the Giants
    For those who felt insufficiently uplifted by "Invincible" and "Gridiron Gang," here comes Facing the Giants, an aggressively inspirational drama about a born-again high school football coach.
  7. ...So Goes the Nation
    Neither newly revelatory nor formally innovative.
  8. Kettle of Fish
    Pic contains its share of viable gags and stars generate a certain degree of convincing chemistry. But eventually, the seams in personality design and artificially stitched-together script construction begin to show.
  9. Man of the Year
    A curious hybrid -- a political/action/comedy/thriller in which Robin Williams becomes president of the United States. A movie as uneven as it sounds, "Man" is less laugh-out-loud funny than topical and suspenseful.
  10. The Marine
    Junky, jokey and sometimes both at once, pic marks yet another attempt by World Wrestling Entertainment to establish one of its burly superstars as a movie lead.
  11. Nearing Grace
    Without Smith's graceful presence, which more than once resembles Zach Braff's slightly older but observant New Jerseyite in "Garden State," Nearing Grace would be pure video fodder.
  12. Zerophilia
    Plays like a throwback to such transformative adolescent anxiety romps as "Teen Wolf" and "Just One of the Guys," this time aiming at a slightly less innocent crowd.
  13. Running with Scissors
    Writer-director Ryan Murphy strives mightily to capture the bracing hilarity, pathos and surreal incident of Burroughs' bestselling memoir, but this rudderless adaptation never gets a firm grip on the author's deadpan tone or episodic narrative style.
  14. Sleeping Dogs Lie
    A game and winning performance by Melinda Page Hamilton is the only saving grace.
  15. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
    Result: An undeniably clever commingling of a new cast (and spoken dialogue) with a silent classic. But pic fails to engage consistently on its own terms, and begins to coast on novelty value around the midway point.
  16. Conversations with God
    More polished and better acted than many "inspirational" biopics.
  17. Death of a President
    Disappointingly, Death of a President shrinks from its promise as a piece of genuinely radical or adventurous speculative fiction.
  18. The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
    Not unlike the shiny snow globe at its center, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause is a thing of consummate craftsmanship, a smoothly engineered and fundamentally lifeless object that's nevertheless capable of giving even the grinchiest moviegoers a brief attack of the warm-and-fuzzies.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Shottas
    Gangster tale Shottas feels like a Jamaican "Scarface," offering a vivid slice of the underground street culture of Kingston. Still, the violence is senseless and the plot full of holes.
  20. A Good Year
    A simple repast consisting of sometimes strained slapsticky comedy, a sweet romance and a life lesson learned, this little picnic doesn't amount to much but goes down easily enough.
  21. Come Early Morning
    Despite her (Judd's) efforts and those of a generally talented cast, picture just pokes along and offers nothing out of the ordinary in terms of drama, characterization or insight. Judd's presence notwithstanding, this one would be more at home on small than on big screens.
  22. Copying Beethoven
    Helmer Agnieszka Holland's Copying Beethoven joins 1994's "Immortal Beloved" in the ranks of mediocre dramatic interpretations of Beethoven's biography.
  23. Flannel Pajamas
    Visually, the film is without flair or ambition, conveying no sense of atmosphere or mood. But the performances put it over.
  24. Opal Dream
    From the first frames, when lollypops are offered to the camera, there's no escaping the saccharine miasma of whimsy enveloping Peter Cattaneo's Opal Dream.
  25. Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds
    Sequel is no more than a cheapo campy goof, but this edition does contain a higher quota of laugh lines and an unsubtle message that efforts to make gay youth "go straight" is destined to fail.
  26. The Nativity Story
    Memories of dreary Sunday school classes come flooding back courtesy of The Nativity Story.
  27. 3 Needles
    3 Needles is a great discussion tool for World AIDS Awareness Day that never achieves coherent shape as a three-paneled drama.
  28. The Good German
    For actor and director, the project seems like trying on a new coat, and it doesn't fit either of them.
  29. Screamers
    A noble cause does not a good movie make. Pic repeatedly drowns its impassioned message with music, creating an awkward hybrid between history lesson and concert documentary.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Good Shepherd
    Robert De Niro's second film as a director adopts a methodical approach and deliberate pace in attempting to grasp an almost forbiddingly intricate subject, with a result that is not boring, exactly, but undeniably tedious.
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