Variety's Scores

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For 17,779 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 2.4 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: 9,134 out of 17779
  2. Mixed: 7,009 out of 17779
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17779
17779 movie reviews
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  1. Spun
    Outrageously grungy and whacked-out walk on the wild side.
  2. Bend It Like Beckham
    Writer-helmer Gurinder Chadha assembles a gallery of broadly played stereotypes into a movie about social attitudes that's more rooted in small-screen sitcom than anything deeper.
  3. Laurel Canyon
    The dramatic trajectory is frightfully obvious, the characters tediously one-dimensional, the dialogue banal.
  4. Nowhere in Africa
    Easy on the eye and effortlessly entertaining across almost 2½ hours.
  5. Bringing Down the House
    There are certainly good laughs to be had. But the contrived script and bland direction prevent the film from ever developing a comic life of its own, leaving what fun there is seeming like the foundation to a rumpus room that's never finished.
  6. The Safety of Objects
    A genuine and tangible fondness and respect for the characters and their eccentricities.
  7. Irreversible
    A demanding but rewarding emotional odyssey in a challenging visual package.
  8. Tears of the Sun
    This is one of those pictures that unavoidably becomes part of the zeitgeist due to its coincidental arrival at a precise moment in history when its themes play into current events.
  9. Journey to Western Xia Empire
    A slowly inspiring saga of blood, sweat and horse dung, played with conviction.
  10. Ten
    10 dazzling and perceptive snapshots of women with which femmes everywhere can identify.
  11. Cradle 2 the Grave
    Choreographed by long-term Li collaborator Corey Yuen, the martial arts confrontations supply plenty of spark, though they lack the more exhilarating stylistic flourishes of those in "Romeo."
  12. Poolhall Junkies
    Callahan mostly overcomes its grungy technical quality with entertaining dialogue, nervy confrontation scenes, decent thesping and some truly spectacular shooting on the green velvet.
  13. Foreign Sister
    Unfortunately, Wolman's flat direction accentuates the predictable course of his soft narrative.
  14. Bolivia
    A dignified second film for Caetano.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Open Hearts
    Poignant, thoughtful and utterly absorbing, Susanne Bier's Dogme film Open Hearts is a gem.
  16. Till Human Voices Wake Us
    This dank, gloomy essay into the supernatural tries hard to create an intriguing mood in which fate guides the lives of its wounded protagonists, but few will be interested in the outcome.
  17. Dark Blue
    Refreshingly devoid of flashiness or artificially pumped-up action, this consistently gripping, well-constructed police thriller… showcases a tightly controlled performance from Kurt Russell.
  18. Lawless Heart
    This slyly humorous, cleverly constructed comedy-drama wends its way through different takes on similar time frames to a warm, inclusive ending.
  19. Gods and Generals
    Gods and Generals is American history transformed into a museum movie, consistently making the flawed human characters at the heart of the Civil War into flawless figures Olympian in their statuesque remoteness.
  20. Old School
    This year's kinder, gentler "Animal House."
  21. The Life of David Gale
    Punches the expected buttons without being entirely convincing.
  22. From the Other Side
    While it's clear where the filmmaker's sympathies lie, the view presented is relatively balanced.
  23. Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony
    Exhaustively informative and powerfully emotional.
  24. The Ballad of Bering Strait
    Pleasant if slightly pokey documentary.
  25. Ordinary Sinner
    Its central theme being the struggle between Christianity and homophobia -- though what's onscreen is far too vanilla in both content and execution to spark much enthusiasm.
  26. Painted Fire
    Grounded by a vigorous, physical performance from Choi Min-Sik, who brings both earthiness and grandeur to the central role, the film vividly evokes the world of an obsessive natural talent.
  27. The Jungle Book 2
    The feel of a direct-to-video title that's been upgraded to theatrical status in the hopes of wringing a few extra bucks out of it and improving its not-too-distant homevid marketability.
  28. Gerry
    Defiantly uncommunicative picture.
  29. He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not
    Turns on an intellectual gimmick in the vein of "Memento," weaving down sinister byways, the better to click with satisfying symmetry.
  30. All the Real Girls
    Director David Gordon Green has created some fresh, penetrating, beautifully drawn scenes of one-on-one intimacy…But some of what surrounds these interludes is variously misguided, fuzzy and borderline pretentious.
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