Variety's Scores

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For 17,825 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: 9,159 out of 17825
  2. Mixed: 7,029 out of 17825
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17825
17825 movie reviews
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  1. 2009: Lost Memories
    More often a noirish action drama, a melancholy meditation on history and nationalism, than the high-tech thriller promised by its hype and artwork.
  2. The Bridge of San Luis Rey
    The stellar cast can do little to paper over the cracks in an awkward, unevenly-paced script that is composed of a series of sometimes-attractive scenes with little emotional undertow.
  3. The Perfect Man
    For most part, The Perfect Man is too bland to merit anything more censorious than a stifled yawn.
  4. Ethan Mao
    Messy admixtures of drama and mockery crucially undermine pic's serious message.
  5. Bewitched
    Nora Ephron's attempt to reconceive the standard TV-to-bigscreen adaptation goes bizarrely haywire here, spinning out of control like a runaway broomstick.
  6. Yes
    Ultimately has nothing of any real depth or profundity to say, but a thousand self-consciously complex ways of saying it.
  7. This Revolution
    The street action is vivid, but the dramatics are distinctly not, lending the film an unintended sense of fakery.
  8. The Warrior
    Tendency to go for art rather than action, and a leisurely pace that isn't bolstered by much dialogue or food for thought.
  9. Stealth
    Aiming to join the Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay school of American movie war games, Stealth is just too dumb to make the grade.
  10. The Great Raid
    This overlong march will bore all but the most nobly patriotic.
  11. Pretty Persuasion
    An exercise in bad taste that takes itself just seriously enough to be offensive.
  12. Valiant
    Fails to get off the ground due to a by-numbers script and dodo-ugly character design.
  13. Clean
    Dramatically pallid and unconvincing. Despite being written for her, the director's "Irma Vep" muse Maggie Cheung seems oddly miscast here and is ill-served by an emotionally underpowered screenplay that rarely gets beneath the surface of the character's problems.
  14. The Cave
    Refreshing strokes of science-fact in the early sections give way to action strictly from the Ridley Scott-James Cameron playbook, but without a powerful helmer behind the camera or a memorable cast in front.
  15. Undiscovered
    As a cautionary drama on the price of fame, Undiscovered could not tread on more exhaustively discovered territory, and the result is a reel-by-reel trail of cliches.
  16. William Eggleston in the Real World
    Despite Almereyda's strong following in arthouse circles, William Eggleston in the Real World --which requires patient if not repeat viewing -- will probably not venture far into it.
  17. Margaret Cho: Assassin
    Inspiration is running thin in comedian Margaret Cho's fourth concert film, a routine stand-up set that compares poorly to her oft-hilarious first two.
  18. Steal Me
    A classic case of overreaching, Steal Me boasts unorthodox camera angles, dramatic shifts in its palette and a generally adventurous visual style. What it lacks is believable dialogue, credible relationships and a serious foundation for its overripe psychology.
  19. Daltry Calhoun
    A string of scenes in search of a movie.
  20. Into the Blue
    Not a thriller so much as an extremely violent swimsuit calendar, the lushly lensed but dramatically waterlogged Into the Blue is too infatuated with its scantily clad stars to make sense of all the drug dealers, boat looters and bloodthirsty sharks trying to hunt them down.
  21. Carlito's Way: Rise to Power
    Conspicuously underwhelming.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Going Shopping
    Item may draw curious women looking to cool their heels, say, while out shopping, but straight men can be expected to stay away in droves and Jaglom regulars will probably wait for the DVD.
  23. MirrorMask
    Emerges as an overproduced novelty pic that looks and feels more like a company promo reel than an engaging piece of storytelling.
  24. The War Within
    An honorable but failed attempt to dramatize the dynamics that propel a basically good man to become a suicide bomber, The War Within contains provocative points inside a dull package.
  25. Sueño
    Brimming with fanciful ideas about life, romance and the rejuvenating power of music, Sueno sings a lovely tune but chokes on its own banal lyrics.
  26. Waiting...
    The wait for laughs lasts the entire length of Waiting ..., first feature from writer-director Rob McKittrick that aims to be a "Clerks"-type comedy set in a chain restaurant but ends up somewhere below a "Porky's" sequel.
  27. Never Been Thawed
    Comes off as lame and unfocused as its draggy dramatis personae.
  28. Domino
    Satisfying neither as character study nor as straight-ahead actioner.
  29. The Fog
    Unfortunately, interest lags between the grisly deaths, and, worse, none of the characters generates rooting interest.
  30. Stay
    An ultra-arty "The Sixth Sense" that deliberately inhibits comprehension of the story until the very end -- and arguably continues to inhibit it even then -- pic features certifiably talented people on both sides of the camera collaborating on a project that probably shouldn't have been undertaken in the first place.
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