Variety's Scores

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For 17,777 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: 9,133 out of 17777
  2. Mixed: 7,008 out of 17777
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17777
17777 movie reviews
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  1. Mule Skinner Blues
    Above all a rousing entertainment.
  2. The Cat's Meow
    Playful and sporty, with just a small twist of the knife, The Cat's Meow is good, uncomplicated fun.
  3. Outta Time
    So absurdly contrived that it begs to be taken as comedy.
  4. Quo Vadis?
    Bright, glossy, grandly scaled and dramatically stolid, 79-year-old writer-director Jerzy Kawalerowicz's longtime dream project mixes earnest religiosity with the depraved cruelty of Nero's Rome in the classic De Mille tradition.
  5. Human Nature
    Charlie Kaufman's clever screenplay bears many traces of the same brand of originality and eccentric imagination that graced his work on "Being John Malkovich," although even at an hour-and-a-half the conceit is stretched almost too thin for audience sustenance.
  6. Frailty
    A resoundingly old-fashioned and well crafted study of evil infecting an American family, Frailty moves from strength to strength on its deceptive narrative course.
  7. The Other Side of Heaven
    Rousing, family-friendly item has a big, epic look and state-of-the-art visual effects, which help to make pic -- a high-profile example of the mainstreaming of Christian entertainment.
  8. Changing Lanes
    Captures the excitement of lightning in a bottle.
  9. New Best Friend
    Obvious and exploitative even by low-bar youthpic standards.
  10. The Sweetest Thing
    A comedy that starts the date in a frisky mood but sours before it's time to kiss goodnight.
  11. Run Ronnie Run
    Despite early-on guffaws, pic suffers from the same problem that has plagued nearly all of the similarly adapted “Saturday Night Live” films: It fails to sustain its initial burst of comic inspiration over the course of its feature-length running time.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Ambush
    Thoughtful and mostly very watchable picture, with its emphasis on how war dehumanizes the individual soldier.
  13. Lucky Break
    Chained to the floor by a script that isn't particularly funny, direction that goes for realism rather than stylization and an almost complete lack of comic timing.
  14. Les Destinées
    A massive undertaking and an accomplished piece of filmmaking in a solid tradition of intelligent, meticulous literary adaptations.
  15. High Crimes
    Judd now is top-billed, but her performance is so resolutely humorless and businesslike that Freeman's gruffly affectionate warmth becomes doubly valuable, though not nearly enough to lend this generic project any special character.
  16. 30 Years to Life
    Middleton's polished writing and amusing observations about the anxieties most people encounter when definitively farewelling their youth help compensate for her standard-issue direction.
  17. Big Trouble
    A genially amusing ensemble farce that doesn't quite achieve enough momentum for liftoff.
  18. The Komediant
    Elegantly constructed, deceptively complex documentary.
  19. Van Wilder
    There's nary a comic idea in Van Wilder that isn't ripped off from a recent Farrelly brothers movie. But that doesn't stop Van Wilder from being very funny, provided you're not easily offended.
  20. Astoria
    A muted coming-of-age piece that more often reflects rusty movie conventions than it freshly observes real-life struggles.
  21. Crush
    Some fine screen chemistry between its leads and a spikey, offhandedly comic script by young writer-director John McKay put spice into Crush.
  22. Teddy Bears' Picnic
    Despite its intelligence and a great, funny concept for a movie, this "Picnic" never gets past the appetizers; pic lacks the development needed for a full-length feature and, following a hilarious opening sequence, it becomes tiresomely one-note.
  23. The Rookie
    Quaid's effortlessly compelling and engagingly earnest performance keeps pic grounded in down-to-earth reality.
  24. The Piano Teacher
    Whatever valid points are being explored are hopelessly clouded by the film's unwavering earnestness as it descends into silliness and excess.
  25. Time Out
    Theater veteran Recoing is utterly compelling. Both the script and the resourceful, subtle actor provide enormous insight into the troubled character.
  26. Death to Smoochy
    Pushes its dark, smart, clever, cynical, satirical, nasty, provocative and sarcastic instincts to the point of heavily diminished returns -- to the point where the very amusing premise just isn't funny anymore.
  27. Panic Room
    Smartly plotted, convincingly acted and brilliantly executed technically, this engrossing thriller adds some clever modern wrinkles to the time-tested formula of sinister intruders threatening innocents in their home.
  28. No Such Thing
    Deadly dull in stretches, and just plain embarrassing in others.
  29. Clockstoppers
    A blandly conceived youth adventure lacking zing or style.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shot in the Heart
    The piece is ultimately admirable for its lack of easy answers, for its continued sense of emotional confusion.
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