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. Tombstone
    Tombstone is a tough-talking but soft-hearted tale that is entertaining in a sprawling, old-fashioned manner.
  2. The Land
    The Land feels a few drafts away from succeeding on its own terms. Still, there’s enough on screen, beyond Lendeborg’s confident star turn, to label Caple as a filmmaker to watch.
  3. Bolden
    Pritzker and Rothschild’s script feels like such a composite of jazz biopics that its only in the performance sequences, parceled out stingily amid the misery, in which Bolden really comes alive.
  4. War Story
    Anchored by Keener’s understated, psychologically acute performance, director Mark Jackson’s spare, quietly powerful sophomore feature demonstrates an impressive control of mood and tone and the ability to tell a story largely without words.
  5. 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.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fat Man and Little Boy
    Newman has no trouble bringing the tough-talking ‘can do’ general to life. The trouble is the scriptwriters have no interest in exploring the man behind the mission. This tends to tilt the dramatic balance toward Oppenheimer. The film falls short here, too, partially because of Schultz’ lackluster performance, but primarily because the script fails to give a clue to what made this man tick.
  7. Donne-moi la main
    The bros are built, and "Hand," with its gorgeous shots of mist-shrouded woods and sun-burnished hay, plus a brief but rapturous foray into gay sex, may attract queer auds.
  8. Band of Sisters
    Mary Fishman’s admiring docu is more a general survey than a detailed history or portrait of individual personalities and causes, and as a result, it holds interest without achieving any real narrative arc, offering inspirational content in a merely workmanlike package.
  9. Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks
    For all these missteps — including the convenient and predictable use of elderly death as a plot device — the leads’ odd-couple chemistry does become steadier and affectionate as their dance lessons continue, and the film manages to close on a quietly touching final note.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Million Dollar Mermaid
    This is a gaudy, conventional biopic based on the career of Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman, appropriately tagged ‘Million Dollar Mermaid’.
  11. Beating Hearts
    Beating Hearts never bores, least of all when François Civil and the ever-electric Adèle Exarchopoulos take over as the young lovers’ adult (but far from grown-up) incarnations, while the consistent, cartwheeling kineticism with which Lellouche and DP Laurent Tangy shoot the whole thing is an ongoing rush.
  12. Giant
    It leaves a lot to the audience to figure out about Hamed beyond what’s publicly known, as it’s clearly more interested in Ingle. While far from being a knockout, the film lands enough solid punches to leave a mark.
  13. Tell It to the Bees
    Within the film’s modest scale, the period trappings feel apt, and its aesthetic packaging is attractive enough. But particularly for a movie largely about repression, “Bees” is so full of forced emotions that it teeters on the brink of cliche-riddled camp.
  14. Lolo
    Well cast and funny just often enough to recommend.
  15. Septien
    Duly offbeat without ever being very compelling in content or aesthetic.
  16. Siempre, Luis
    Siempre, Luis winds up sidelining the bulk of Luis’ life to focus disproportionately on a recent achievement: his part, alongside that of his son, in bringing “Hamilton” to a Puerto Rican audience. The perky but lopsided result isn’t particularly revelatory on either front, and so relentlessly glowing that it’s hard not to feel some of Luis’ political expertise at play.
  17. The Vault
    The Vault has all the external factors that heist movies require. Yet without quite being dull, somehow it misses the danger, esprit and camaraderie we need for such escapades to achieve liftoff.
  18. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
    It’s a badly shot one-joke movie that sits there and goes thud.
  19. Zus & zo
    About as vigorous and intricate as a glossy romantic comedy can get without collapsing under the weight of its own merriment.
  20. The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course
    A perfectly respectable kid-friendly family offering.
  21. Duplex
    Somewhere along the line, the comedy turned from dark and playful to mean-spirited and sophomoric. A waste of the considerable appeal and comic talents of leads Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lifeforce
    Pic [from the novel The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson] descends into subpar Agatha Christie territory.
  23. Face
    A well-meaning but schematic drama about three generations of Chinese women in America.
  24. Marebito (The Stranger from Afar)
    Japanese horror doesn't get more tedious.
  25. Going in Style
    Going in Style coasts along on the testy spiky charms of its leading men, who have 246 years of life on earth between them (Caine is 84, Freeman 79, and Arkin 83), but it’s nothing more than an amiable connect-the-dots movie.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    American Flyers
    American Flyers is most entertaining when it rolls along unencumbered by big statements. Unfortunately, overblown production just pumps hot air in too many directions and comes up limp.
  27. Passenger 57
    A reasonably saucy action tale.
  28. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
    Producer Gene Roddenberry and director Robert Wise have corralled an enormous technical crew, and the result is state-of-the-art screen magic.
    • Variety
  29. Electric Apricot
    Generates enough mild humor to keep the spoof rolling, but lacks the commitment and scope.
  30. Prom
    An adorable cast ought to provide some appeal for tweens and tykes, though interest should gradually dwindle the closer one gets to actual prom-going age.
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