Variety's Scores

For 17,791 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:
17791 movie reviews
  1. A fine cast further illuminates a felicitous script.
  2. An acceptably entertaining but borderline bland vehicle for Jean Reno.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Rooks has chosen to give this a surface elegance which sometimes robs the film of its needed earthiness and sensuality in its love angle and more robustness in detailing the vagaries of social aspects and values at the time.
  3. Revives the format but not the fun of classic Hollywood screwball comedies about rediscovering the virtues of a former mate.
  4. A movie at war with itself -- tuned into its characters' vicissitudes one moment, stumbling with awkward stabs at goofiness the next.
  5. A chilling history lesson in realpolitik.
  6. An unusually bright, inspired look at the perils of breaking into the acting business.
  7. This potentially intriguing story winds up being dull and at times faintly silly.
  8. Scripters Robert Lee King and Lamar Damon leave no national cliche or double entendre unturned in this good-looking but relentlessly lowbrow outing which plays like "Clueless Does South Fork" with a side order of garlic.
  9. Emerges as a curiously mild-mannered if not downright tepid drama.
  10. Remote, non-involving and finally incomprehensible.
  11. There is no one to become attached to in The Four Feathers, no interest or sympathies appealed to or engaged.
  12. Adult fans of good thesping in the service of a lightweight but thoroughly entertaining story should bask in the antics.
  13. A pretty skillfully handled domestic thriller about a criminal activity that, while always upsetting, is especially noxious now due to the too many recent tragic and highly publicized instances of it.
  14. Plays like a mercilessly extended version of an uninspired "Saturday Night Live" sketch.
  15. Unremarkable but competent in stylistic terms, with good use of Philadelphia locations, sharp casting and the requisite marketable hip-hop soundtrack adding up to a fun genre package.
  16. The well-structured film goes beyond issues of sexuality, giving nuanced consideration to broader questions of love and loss, family and friendship, trust, lies and deception.
  17. For all its careful plotting, some viewers may find the exercise ultimately hollow and nasty, but thesps make the experience completely worthwhile.
  18. In a very demanding role demanding a vast emotional range from clueless innocent to confident role player and emotional adventurer, Gyllenhaal is outstanding.
  19. An out-and-out charmer. It's almost impossible to do justice in words either to the visual richness of the movie, which melanges traditional Japanese clothes and architecture with both Victorian and modern-day artifacts, or to the character-filled storyline, with human figures, harpies and grotesque creatures.
  20. Never less than pleasant and genteel, but rarely more.
  21. A solid slice of entertainment without reaching the psychological depths promised by the subject matter.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Must-see fare for fans of the bosomy camp horror queen.
  22. What gives Quitting its freshness is its setting in a country that often denies it has such problems and the decision to anchor the film strongly within the Chinese family fabric.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    There's an infectious, spry quality to much of The Dogwalker, an indie that benefits from amusing characters, strong thesping and taut situational humor.
  23. A generally old-fashioned costumer that runs out of gas even faster than does the tempestuous love affair between writer George Sand and poet Alfred de Musset that it so devotedly recounts.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Young Kieran Culkin holds his own against a stellar ensemble in Igby Goes Down, a family comedy so dark it turns "The Royal Tennebaums" into latter-day Bradys.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A rousing celebration of the family-run small business, this Ice Cube-topped ensemble comedy, without offering anything especially new or exciting, provides a springboard for high-voltage comic exchanges that double as wisecrack-coated lessons in community relations.
  24. Depressingly thin and exhaustingly contrived. Only masochistic moviegoers need apply.
  25. Looks set to unsettle as many conservative auds as it will delight nihilistic film buffs.

Top Trailers