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. Noise
    Amusing but marginal diatribe against aural assault in Manhattan.
  2. The Children of Huang Shi
    Giving Jonathan Rhys Meyers the kind of manly yet paternal role Spencer Tracy once mastered, this carefully wrought international production relates the basic story of reporter George Hogg without any vibrancy, emotion or style.
  3. Savage Grace
    Scripter Howard A. Rodman's treatment of an enthralling book is more a series of vignettes rather than a fully connected work, and helmer Tom Kalin seems unable to decide how much Sirkian melodrama to introduce into the heady mix. Gone are the reasons to be fascinated with these people, merely replaced with maddeningly over-arch dialogue and struggles with characterization.
  4. A Jihad for Love
    Predicament makes the picture kin to 2001's "Trembling Before G-d," about gay Orthodox Jews. Both docs share the same fascination and limitation.
  5. Before the Rains
    Tale of an idealistic local caught in the crossfire of an illicit affair is too pat and pretty to connect with upscale audiences.
  6. Sex and the City
    Best in its small moments, the movie should find receptive gal pals congregating for the mother of all viewing parties.
  7. Kung Fu Panda
    A nice looking but heavily formulaic DreamWorks animation entry.
  8. The Happening
    In short, this is a Shyamalan movie minus the bravado, the swagger; there are no audacious attempts to pull out the rug from under the audience, no ham-fisted lessons about the importance of religious belief or the power of storytelling.
  9. Get Smart
    Helmer Peter Segal's formulaic takeoff is neither fish nor fowl, not quite faithful to the show, but not quite bringing it into the 21st century either.
  10. The Midnight Meat Train
    Film isn't scary, per se, but it's mostly effective nonetheless, with Cooper capably steering his character from charming young artist to nervous wreck, evoking Ralph Fiennes' more unhinged turns along the way.
  11. Full Battle Rattle
    A so-so pic on an incendiary subject, Full Battle Rattle follows the training regimen of one battalion during engagement and occupation in one of 13 fake "villages" comprising a massive Iraq simulation somewhere in the Mojave Desert.
  12. The X Files: I Want to Believe
    The warming glow of nostalgia only goes so far, with one's level of forgiveness likely dictated by where they reside along the "X-Files" fan continuum.
  13. Step Brothers
    The film is funny at times but lapses into the reflexive vulgarity that seems to be the default mechanism of the Apatow machinery.
  14. Holding Trevor
    Sometimes succeeds, but mostly comes off as a vanity project for writer-star Brent Gorski.
  15. Kabluey
    Kabluey is short on the cutes and ca-ca jokes. But it's also short on substance, despite a watchable supporting cast and an amiable overall tenor.
  16. August
    This middling drama has no glaring faults, but simply lacks the intended urgency.
  17. Garden Party
    Isn't racy enough to warrant the word of mouth necessary to make pic a sensation with its generation, the way the unrelated disaffected-twentysomething hit "Garden State" was.
  18. Star Wars: The Clone Wars
    This isn't the Star Wars we've always known and at least sometimes loved.
  19. The Longshots
    While The Longshots is by no means an unpleasant experience, it feels like a project carried out by people who began with the best of intentions but weren't quite able to sustain their initial enthusiasm.
  20. Hamlet 2
    Amusing but unevenly inspired tale of a deluded high school drama teacher's attempt to stage a career-saving extravaganza has some laughs, to be sure.
  21. W.
    For a film that could have been either a scorching satire or an outright tragedy, W. is, if anything, overly conventional, especially stylistically.
  22. Fly Me to the Moon 3D
    It’s a wingless exercise, despite a rather heartening attitude toward space travel that will introduce young auds to the glory that was NASA in the '60s.
  23. Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
    Indie effort evidences more energy than wit, and spends too much time on set-up before a slam-bang pay-off.
  24. Henry Poole Is Here
    Picture's tendency to lecture on the power of faith and religion and on the demerits of science seems to assume an almost childlike audience that needs to be spoon-fed Pablum.
  25. Sukiyaki Western Django
    Basic joke wears off after five minutes, and many bystanders will start to head out of town. But genre/Asian buffs prepared to ride shotgun for two hours will be rewarded with some classy action sequences and densely accoutred widescreen lensing.
  26. Young People Fucking
    Uneven but not unpleasant.
  27. Bangkok Dangerous
    Without the technical nastiness and fatal realism that made the initial film so compelling, the remake feels like a hollow excuse to present the myriad ways in which a bullet can pierce a cranium, rather than an edgy portrait of Third World violence.
  28. Towelhead
    Towelhead is transgressive without being effectively subversive, gutsy to no particular end. It simply lacks style, which counts for so much in this sort of thing.
  29. Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived
    Filmmakers underline the immediate relevance of their conclusion: In matters of war and peace, who we elect president is crucial.
  30. A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
    A quiet work with Ozu-like structure and concerns, but remains more an intellectual exercise than one from the heart.
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