Variety's Scores

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For 17,786 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: 9,137 out of 17786
  2. Mixed: 7,013 out of 17786
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17786
17786 movie reviews
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  1. Angel Eyes
    Darts back and forth from being a psychological thriller to a vaguely metaphysical drama to a fate-driven romance -- it all becomes a blur.
  2. Moulin Rouge!
    A tour de force of artifice, a dazzling pastiche of musical and visual elements at the service of a blatantly artificial story.
  3. Shrek
    This spirited and often very funny lark accomplishes something that most films in the bygone Hollywood studio era used to do but is remarkably rare in today's world of niche markets: It offers entertainment equally to viewers from 4 to 104.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Performance
    Co-director Nicolas Roeg’s lensing is tricky, the characters gamey, the dialog dull, performances flat, impact none.
  5. Sordid Lives
    When Sordid Lives does what it does best -- showing Southern gals in the full flight of rabid self-denial -- it's as screamingly funny as this subgenre can get.
  6. Startup.com
    Topical film, which goes beyond its potentially dry diet of facts to incorporate the juicy human drama of Machiavellian manipulations, ambition, torn loyalties and crushing betrayal.
  7. The King Is Alive
    Simultaneously gritty and cerebral.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Trumpet of the Swan
    Bland animated musical offers little to charm adults with fond memories of the book, and even tykes are likely to become bored by the halfway point.
  9. Bread and Roses
    Its politics and dramatic line are familiar and far from convincing.
  10. A Knight's Tale
    Traditionalists and older viewers in general will scoff, while pop culture addicts will no doubt go with the flow.
  11. About Adam
    Unlike "Four Weddings," which ultimately was moralistic and conservative in its message --—About Adam is a frolic free of any judgments, and marked by Stembridge's sparkling wit.
  12. The Man Who Bought Mustique
    A memorable portrait of an unbearable personality.
  13. Pavilion of Women
    Fails to stir the emotions despite its heavily melodramatic drive.
  14. Under the Sand
    An exquisite reflection on personal bereavement.
  15. Eureka
    Builds steadily through a series of masterfully orchestrated modulations to a final act without shattering revelations or lofty dramatic peaks but with a quiet, formidable power.
  16. Time and Tide
    An almost plotless effort that features charismatic stars and plentiful scenes of finely choreographed mayhem.
  17. The Mummy Returns
    Virtually bursts with visual goodies, and writer-director Stephen Sommers scarcely allows the actors, or the audience, a moment to take a breath during the nonstop action of the final hour.
  18. Ed Gein
    A disappointingly mild re-creation of true events.
  19. Deuces Wild
    In its overwhelmingly artificial depiction of the street gangs that ruled Brooklyn's mean streets in the 1950s, Deuces Wild draws from a phony deck.
  20. Green Dragon
    An ultimately moving drama about a displaced people. But its emotional kick is muffled by long-windedness, sentimental overkill and an overpopulated character gallery.
  21. The Forsaken
    Chalk it up as a middling B-pic that, with a bit more wit and style, could have been at least a cult item.
  22. One Night at McCool's
    Feels like a film from several years ago, one of the many made in the wake of "Pulp Fiction" that tried and failed to be as clever as its progenitor.
  23. Driven
    Director Renny Harlin has unfortunately adopted a let's-try-anything attitude that translates into a chaotic and unattractive visual style.
  24. The Golden Bowl
    A deliberately paced literary film that takes too long to build narrative momentum and explore its central dramatic conflicts.
  25. Town & Country
    A lot of talent on both sides of the camera operating in low gear.
  26. The Luzhin Defence
    A smoothly made period romancer that's elevated by strong playing from its whole cast, led by John Turturro and Emily Watson as the starstruck lovers.
  27. The Low Down
    The lowdown on The Low Down: charm 8, content 2.
  28. Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles
    Amiable rather than genuinely funny.
  29. Freddy Got Fingered
    One of the most brutally awful comedies ever to emerge from a major studio.
  30. The Center of the World
    A fairly sexy, serious-minded drama hobbled by its lack of real conceptual ambition.
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