Variety's Scores

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For 17,765 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: 9,125 out of 17765
  2. Mixed: 7,004 out of 17765
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17765
17765 movie reviews
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    • 49 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Mickey Blue Eyes
    An engaging, often very funny fish-out-of-water story that provides Hugh Grant with his best part to date.
  2. Teaching Mrs. Tingle
    A pat, hollow exercises with few tricks (or treats) up its sleeve.
  3. Universal Soldier: The Return
    Lightning fails to strike twice -- an underwhelming follow-up to one of the career-stalled action star's better efforts.
  4. Perfect Blue
    Forsaking the usual anime fantasy terrain for a straight suspense plot that might easily have been executed in live-action form, director Satoshi Kon's debut pic, "Perfect Blue," is a psychological thriller that intrigues without quite hitting the bull's-eye.
  5. Brokedown Palace
    It's close to a no-win situation dramatically, culturally and politically, and Kaplan deals with it plausibly enough by concentrating on the performances and the interior conflicts they reveal.
  6. Bowfinger
    So lunatic that it creates as much puzzled disbelief as it does carefree delight.
  7. Detroit Rock City
    It's crude, sexist, ear-splittingly loud and a helluva lotta fun for anyone suffering from past or present testosterone overload.
  8. Better Than Chocolate
    A terrifically entertaining romantic comedy, Better Than Chocolate tackles the age-old theme of the universal need for love with exuberance and gusto.
  9. Autumn Tale
    A typically deftly layered meditation on men, women, friendship and the prospect of romance.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mystery Men
    Sharply written, with a lavish look and top-drawer effects adding to the appeal of its large and talented cast, pic achieves a nice balance of fondness and satiric snap, character laughs and goofy action.
  11. The Thomas Crown Affair
    The characters in The Thomas Crown Affair are cool -- too cool, in fact, for the film to develop much of a pulse.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Acid House
    The Acid House makes "Trainspotting" look like a mild-mannered youth comedy.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Iron Giant
    Despite its p.c., humanistic overtones, the film manages to integrate the humor and action of a kid’s adventure tale and the message of a political allegory without beingheavy-handed.
  14. The Sixth Sense
    Borderline dull to sit through, The Sixth Sense is actually rather interesting to think about afterward because of the revelation of its ending.
  15. Twin Falls Idaho
    Lacks narrative push...atmospheric drama that casts a minor but distinctive spell.
  16. Runaway Bride
    The central idea is quite clever and appealing, and that the charm meter is turned up all the way.
  17. Deep Blue Sea
    Powered by exceptional displays of physical filmmaking, Deep Blue Sea is pulled back to shore by the usual suspects -- weak plotting and weaker dialogue.
  18. Drop Dead Gorgeous
    A relatively pain-free, if brain-free, diversion.
  19. Inspector Gadget
    A new standard for wretched excess is established by Inspector Gadget, a joyless and charmless disaster in which state-of-the-art special effects are squandered on pain-in-the-backside folly.
  20. The Haunting
    A wannabe horror classic that turns deadly dull once the sense of anxious expectation wears off.
  21. Lake Placid
    To be sure, Kelley's Emmy-winning brand of off-kilter humor and cockeyed affection for rural folk is on display, but his attempt here to blend the citified angst of "Ally McBeal" (co-star Bridget Fonda was Kelley's first choice as that series' lead) with the countrified absurdisms of "Picket Fences," plus bits out of the Peter Benchley playbook, doesn't hold water.
  22. The Wood
    This rambling and episodic autobiographical saga of three friends coming of age in Inglewood, Calif. (aka The Wood) in the '80s is so determined to be likable that it forgets to be interesting.
  23. Eyes Wide Shut
    A riveting, thematically probing, richly atmospheric and just occasionally troublesome work, a deeply inquisitive consideration of the extent of trust and mutual knowledge possible between a man and a woman.
  24. The Blair Witch Project
    An intensely imaginative piece of conceptual filmmaking that also delivers the goods as a dread-drenched horror movie.
  25. Muppets from Space
    A modestly clever comedy in which nothing gets seriously out of hand.
  26. Arlington Road
    An intelligent, insidiously plotted Hitchcockian thriller directed in souped-up, modern expressionistic style.
  27. American Pie
    Cheesy homage to a level of horniness Austin Powers could only imagine will be a dream movie for many a teenage boy.
  28. Late August, Early September
    A kaleidoscopic but engrossing study of the shifting sands of friendship among a group of Parisians, "Late August, Early September" reps a major advance by writer-director Olivier Assayas in warmth and maturity of observation.
  29. Summer of Sam
    Summer of Sam is never less than absorbing but feels just a bit like yesterday's news, both narratively and cinematically.
  30. Wild Wild West
    As impressive as the industrial-style special effects may be, they're both too much and not enough for this mild mild West.
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