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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    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hard to Kill
    It ain’t pretty, but it gets the action fans off.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Stella
    The semitragic Stella Dallas shows her years in this hopelessly dated and ill-advised remake.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tremors
    An affectionate send-up of schlocky 1950s monster pics, but with better special effects, Tremors has a few clever twists but ultimately can’t decide what it wants to be – flat-out funny, which it’s not, or a scarefest.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Internal Affairs
    Figgis never lets the pace slow long enough to expose the story’s thinness despite, in retrospect, a moderate amount of action.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Plot Against Harry
    The Plot against Harry is hilarious and often poignant.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
    Hard-driving, riveting film will be tough for many to take, but Henry – Portrait of a Serial Killer marks the arrival of a major film talent in the person of director, coproducer and cowriter John McNaughton.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Akira
    A remarkable technical achievement in every respect, from the imaginative and detailed design of tomorrow to the booming Dolby effects on the soundtrack, pic’s only drawback is the slight stiffness in the drawing of human movement.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Always
    Always is a relatively small scale, engagingly casual, somewhat silly, but always entertaining fantasy.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Tango & Cash
    Tango & Cash is a mindless buddy cop pic, loaded with nonstop action that's played mostly for laughs and delivers too few of them. Inane and formulaic, the film relies heavily on whatever chemistry it can generate between Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell, who repeatedly trade wisecracks while facing life-or-death situations.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Born on the Fourth of July
    Oliver Stone again shows America to itself in a way it won't forget. His collaboration with Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic to depict Kovic's odyssey from teenage true believer to wheel-chair-bound soldier in a very different war results in a gripping, devastating and telling film about the Vietnam era.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Driving Miss Daisy
    Bruce Beresford's sensitive direction complements Alfred Uhry's skillful adapation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    We're No Angels
    Pug-faced, slack-jawed and marble-mouthed, De Niro and Penn mug their semiarticulate proles with relish, but as religioso fish out of water their con game becomes a tiresome joke.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Family Business
    Director Sidney Lumet has crafted a film with real pathos while writer Vincent Patrick (adapting his own novel) injects enough bawdy humor to create a delightful mixed bag spiced with almost a European sensibility.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    She-Devil
    The casting is a real coup, with Barr going her everywoman TV persona one better by breaking the big screen heroine mold, and Streep blowing away any notion that she can’t be funny.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The War of the Roses
    Trying to wring yocks from a deranged couple locked in mortal combat over possession of their house is more suited to film noir than black comedy.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
    Solid family fare with plenty of yocks...For the most part, helmer Jeremiah Chechik makes an adept debut, injecting plenty of energy and spirit.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Back to the Future Part II
    The energy and heart which Robert Zemeckis and story-writing partner Bob Gale (who takes solo screenplay credit this time) poured into the ingenious story of part one is diverted into narrative mechanics and camera wizardry in Future II.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Steel Magnolias
    Field does some spectacular underplaying through the bulk of the action, revealing layer after layer of the feelings of this kindly tempered, deeply worried mother.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Valmont
    Milos Forman's meticulously produced Valmont is an extremely well-acted period piece that suffers from stately pacing and lack of dramatic high points.
    • 16 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    Harlem Nights
    This blatantly excessive directorial debut for Eddie Murphy is overdone, too rarely funny and, worst of all, boring.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mystery Train
    Mystery Train is a three-episode pic handled by indie writer-director Jim Jarmusch in his usual playful, minimalist style.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Little Mermaid
    Romantic, suspenseful and at times extremely funny.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    My Left Foot
    That it features a brilliant performance by Daniel Day-Lewis and a fine supporting cast lifts it from mildly sentimental to excellent.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dad
    There’s certainly much that’s funny, warm and endearing about Dad, which, based on William Wharton’s novel, deals with the familiar theme of a grown child resolving his sense of duty toward an ageing parent. Unfortunately, prolonged tilling of that emotional terrain and seemingly endless verbalization of feelings diminish most of what’s good about the film.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Henry V
    Henry V is a stirring, gritty and enjoyable pic which offers a plethora of fine performances from some of the U.K.'s brightest talents.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Shocker
    At first glance (or at least for the first 40 minutes) Shocker seems a potential winner, an almost unbearably suspenseful, stylish and blood-drenched ride courtesy of writer-director Wes Craven’s flair for action and sick humour. As it continues, however, the camp aspects simply give way to the ridiculous while failing to establish any rules to govern the mayhem. The result is plenty of unintentional laughs.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kill Me Again
    The tale of a down-and-out detective and a seamy femme fatale is a thoroughly professional little entertainment.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Next of Kin
    Picture climaxes with an elaborate war in a Chicago cemetery between Baldwin’s mafioso and Neeson’s Kentucky kin, matching automatic weaponry with primitive (but reliable) crossbows, hatchets, snakes and knives.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fat Man and Little Boy
    Newman has no trouble bringing the tough-talking ‘can do’ general to life. The trouble is the scriptwriters have no interest in exploring the man behind the mission. This tends to tilt the dramatic balance toward Oppenheimer. The film falls short here, too, partially because of Schultz’ lackluster performance, but primarily because the script fails to give a clue to what made this man tick.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Crimes and Misdemeanors
    Alda is perfect casting as a successful TV comedy producer, whose pompous attitude and easy romantic victories with women (including Farrow) exasperate Allen.
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