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. Oyster Farmer
    A small, carefully composed film that rejoices in the parochial lingo and mores of its richly textured characters.
  2. My Blueberry Nights
    As much a trifle as its title suggests, My Blueberry Nights sees Hong Kong stylist Wong Kar Wai applying his characteristic visual and thematic doodles to a wispy story of lovelorn Yanks.
  3. A Letter to True
    Gorgeously lensed, photographer-turned-helmer Bruce Weber's heartfelt docu tribute to his dogs, his friends and his friends'dogs.
  4. The Weekend Away
    Ultimately there are a few twists too many, pushing the story into a realm of excess contrivance. There’s not enough time or nuance to lend numerous narrative turnabouts plausibility.
  5. White Bird in a Blizzard
    It’s naughty, campy and wildly uneven.
  6. St. Nick
    Virtually dialogue-free, the film opts for an almost perverse minimalism; even the camera is limited to the topography within the kids' purview.
  7. Loves Her Gun
    Loves Her Gun ultimately doesn’t quite cohere as one part slackerish social observation in a nicely turned mumblecore mode, and one part cautionary psychological thriller about the dangers of treating fear with a loaded weapon.
  8. What We Started
    Though it offers a decent enough primer on dance music history, it’s so eager to play all the hits that it never quite settles into any particular groove.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shalako
    The film is a slow starter while the various characters are being established and has an over-abrupt and inconclusive ending. Intriguing are the relationships between members of the hunting party.
  10. Falling for Figaro
    Expect no surprises in Falling for Figaro, a corny, cute-enough carpe diem comedy, in which it’s a lovable ensemble — led by Danielle Macdonald, and spiked by a deliciously imperious Joanna Lumley — that brings the grace notes to a pretty standard-issue script.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
    [Siodmak] delivers a good job of fantastic writing to weave the necessary thriller ingredients into the piece, and finally brings the two legendary characters together for a battle climax.
  12. Broadway Idiot
    A straightforward account of the show’s journey from conception to rehearsal to Great White Way triumph, it effectively doubles as a traditional let’s-put-on-a-show musical in its own right, albeit one with heavier guitars.
  13. Fear
    The thriller telegraphs most of its suspense payoffs, and the audience is almost always ahead of the game. What's most disappointing is that the characters begin as well-etched individuals, but are gradually turned into mere plot functions.
  14. Yves Saint Laurent
    Clothes make the man, but can’t save the film, in Yves Saint Laurent, in which the life of one of haute couture’s great innovators gets disappointingly by-the-numbers treatment.
  15. A Little Chaos
    Too often, helmer Rickman galumphs through what’s meant to be a witty romp, underlining the script’s most obvious, rigged qualities.
  16. Sweetness in the Belly
    There’s a floridly sentimental heart fluttering beneath its tastefully solemn surface, but at times, you can’t help wishing the film would give in to its more expressive impulses.
  17. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
    Phantom is easily consumable eye candy, but it contains no nutrients for the heart or mind.
  18. Holly
    Though treading a firm, clear-eyed line between education and exploitation, the well-acted and technically proficient drama -- too chaste to scandalize, too dark for general audiences -- works as a mobilizing tool for its cause.
  19. Walk Away Renee
    Ultimately, "Renee" feels less like a walk away than a retread.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Bright Lights, Big City
    This novel-cum-feature film (from Jay McInerney's book) is a distinctly morose and maudlin journey through one man's destructive period of personal loss.
  21. Predators
    Perfs are adequate in a movie lacking much use for better ones, though Brody disappoints by using the stock sotto voce rasp of the uber-macho action hero who really, really means business.
  22. Hotel for Dogs
    Ultimately warm and furry, with a wet nose buried in gross receipts.
  23. Just Wright
    Painting by numbers often gets a bad rap: While it takes little originality to fill in the romantic-comedy blanks, even a simple, competent job can sometimes feel like a breath of fresh air.
  24. Morning Light
    The film feels more like the ultimate scrapbook for the participants than the vicarious thrill the pair no doubt imagined for audiences.
  25. The Program
    The Program starts in a fourth-down situation by being a sports movie with virtually no one for whom the audience can root — a major drawback, no matter how hackneyed those “Rocky”-ized finishes have become. Instead, Ward and co-writer Aaron Latham seek to indict big-time college football through a collection of cliches (money-doling boosters, steroid abuse, academic negligence , shady recruiting practices) and still want us to care about whether these players and coaches win the big game.
  26. Assassination Tango
    On just about every level -- as a thriller, as a romance and as a character study of a complicated man nearing the end of his professional life -- the film fails, and the meandering, sub-Cassavetes approach is likely to be a turnoff for all but the most indulgent viewers.
  27. The Transporter
    So second-hand and disposable is it in every respect.
  28. My Mother Likes Women
    Lightness of touch, vibrant performances and a sharp script are the hallmarks of this delightful femme comedy.
  29. The Young Black Stallion
    A visually opulent but dramatically undernourished prequel to the 1979 hit of almost the same name.
  30. Ender's Game
    An impressive, thought-provoking astro-adventure that benefits from the biggest screen available.
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