Variety's Scores

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For 17,847 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: 9,172 out of 17847
  2. Mixed: 7,036 out of 17847
  3. Negative: 1,639 out of 17847
17847 movie reviews
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  1. The Kid
    Director Jon Turteltaub's insistence upon hammering every point home with giant closeups and relentless musical underlining makes this insufferably cloying and sickly sweet.
  2. Slow Jam King
    Rambling road-trip comedy Slow Jam King offers agreeable shenanigans as three mismatched characters find themselves stuck together on a long drive from New York City to Nashville.
  3. Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead
    With Cross jump-starting others on a liquid road to health, this glorified infomercial could saturate latenight TV after its April 1 bow.
  4. Reindeerspotting: Escape from Santaland
    With an obvious nod to "Trainspotting," Joonas Neuvonen's junkie documentary Reindeerspotting combines the greasy immediacy of that Danny Boyle parable, the naked candor of Larry Clark's "Tulsa" and the laconic poetry of William S. Burroughs' "Junkie."
  5. She's Funny That Way
    An enthusiastic but low-fizz romantic farce that gets by principally on the charms of a cast speckled with gifted funnymen (and, more particularly, funnywomen).
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Return of the Living Dead II
    Billed as a comedy/horror flick, Return of the Living Dead Part II is neither scary nor funny and adds salt in the wound with an obnoxious soundtrack of grating rock music.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Paternity
    There are several funny bits in Paternity a harmless enough romantic comedy that strangely has its strongest laughs in its least important scenes.
  8. About Alex
    Neither the script’s up-to-the-minute signifiers nor its cheekily self-aware humor can entirely dispel a formulaic feel.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Foul Play
    Foul Play revives a relatively dormant film genre - the crime-suspense-romantic comedy in which low-key leading players get involved with themselves while also caught up in monumental intrigue. The name missing from the credits is Alfred Hitchcock. Writer Colin Higgins makes a good directorial bow.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Bedroom Window
    Curtis Hanson’s screenplay [from the novel The Witnesses by Anne Holden] involves several ingenious plot twists. Huppert carries the first half of the film, replaced by McGovern in importance in the final reels and both actresses are alluring and mysterious in keeping the piece suspenseful. Unfortunately, a lot of coincidences and just plain stupid actions by Guttenberg are relied upon to keep the pot boiling.
  11. Uncertainty
    Half formulaic and half simply unimaginative.
  12. Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
    At 76 minutes, the film is nearly twice as long as even the band's most dedicated admirers might need, with weariness setting in around the 40-minute mark.
  13. Shoot on Sight
    A disappointingly stilted melodrama masquerading as a political thriller.
  14. Johnny Mad Dog
    There's no doubt Johnny Mad Dog means to leave the viewer with a visceral impression of its terrors, on that it largely succeeds. Whether that accomplishment deserves praise is more of an open question.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Above the Law
    With a couple dozen stunt persons and an earthy, warm and supportive partner (Pam Grier), Seagal kicks, kills and crushes with his skillful hands one handful after another of street hoods who try and thwart his mission.
  16. The Dogwalker
    Though central dynamic is a familiar one -- old coot and young lost soul thrown together -- perfs, understated script and well-judged direction avoid too-obvious sentimentality or melodrama. Nonetheless, overall story arc is fairly predictable, and deliberate pacing sometimes risks dullness.
  17. Chasing Mavericks
    The outstanding big-wave footage proves more credible than the overfamiliar dramatics in Chasing Mavericks.
  18. Rules of Engagement
    A broad and obvious approach to ambiguous material that's virtually all plot mechanics with little nuance or characterization.
  19. The Scorpion King
    Rouses excitement mostly from stuntwork and thesp agility rather than CGI excess.
  20. Bootmen
    Feel-good quality fare.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Bangkok Dangerous
    Enjoyable in an undemanding way, and with a few interesting flourishes.
  22. Levity
    Despite an effectively low-key performance by Billy Bob Thornton in the leading role, pic is no more spiritually insightful or illuminating than Sunday School instructional story, and a lot less dramatically coherent.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Necessary Roughness
    Essentially, this is a football version of the equally contrived and only slightly less hokey baseball comedy Major League.
  24. Queenpins
    Gaudet and Pullapilly argue, cheekily and convincingly, that the real crooks are the unseen conglomerates who’ve created a society that devalues products and their consumers.
  25. Insidious: The Red Door
    For a first-time director, Patrick Wilson doesn’t do a bad job, but he’s working with tropes that have already been worked to death. It’s time to close this carnival of souls down.
  26. All Cheerleaders Die
    It’s a fond, briskly diverting homage, but not a truly inspired one.
  27. Legends of the Fall
    While emotionally intense, it's neither hurried nor charged with false drama. It's also one of the most handsome of recent films, with sterling work by cameraman John Toll and production designer Lilly Kilvert.
  28. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
    Neatly balancing brightly sentimental comedy with slightly edgier funny business, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone pulls off the impressive trick of generating laughs on a consistent basis while spinning a clever scenario about rival magicians waging a Las Vegas turf war with a wide multi-demographic appeal.
  29. 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain
    Only small children with limited attention spans will be impressed by the lackluster kung-foolishness in 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain.
  30. Willy's Wonderland
    Willy’s Wonderland has the garish stop-and-go rhythm of an ’80s slasher film, and I mean that as a compliment. It’s a gorefest to relax into with a can of Punch (or something stronger).
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