Variety's Scores

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For 17,760 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: 9,121 out of 17760
  2. Mixed: 7,003 out of 17760
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17760
17760 movie reviews
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    • 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.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Look Who's Talking
    Like a standup comic pouring 'flopsweat', this ill-conceived comedy about an infant whose thoughts are given voice by actor Bruce Willis palpitates with desperation.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
    In its only novel twist, Halloween 5 takes the liberty of setting up its sequel (albeit clumsily) at the film’s end rather than ‘killing’ that pesky Michael Myers and then figuring out how to revive him after counting b.o. receipts. Otherwise, this is pretty stupid and boring fare.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Fabulous Baker Boys
    The fun part is seeing it all play out, thanks to a standout cast and first-time director Steve Kloves’ skill in handling them.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Drugstore Cowboy
    No previous drug-themed film has the honesty or originality of Gus Van Sant's drama Drugstore Cowboy.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    An Innocent Man
    This collection of cliches accomplishes the almost unthinkable by bringing the prison genre to a new low.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Black Rain
    This gripping crime thriller about hardboiled NY cop Michael Douglas tracking a yakuza hood in Osaka, Japan, boasts magnificent lensing and powerfully baroque production design.
    • Variety
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Dry White Season
    A wrenching picture about South Africa that makes no expedient compromises with feel-good entertainment values, A Dry White Season displays riveting performances and visceral style.
    • Variety
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sea of Love
    Sea of Love is a suspenseful film noir boasting a superlative performance by Al Pacino as a burned-out Gotham cop. Handsome production benefits from a witty screenplay limning the bittersweet tale of a 20-year veteran NYC cop assigned to a case tracking down the serial killer of men who've made dates through the personal columns.
    • Variety
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Big Picture
    The Big Picture is a surprisingly genial, good-natured satire on contemporary Hollywood mores.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sweetie
    Sweetie is an original, audacious tragicomedy.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Package
    Smartly written, sharply played and directed at a cracking pace that never sacrifices clarity for speed, The Package is an enormously satisfying political thriller.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Millennium
    Millennium tries hard to combine sci-fi special effects and a love story, but unfortunately neither are convincing and the pic ends up looking like a failed pilot for a TV series. Veteran science-fiction director Michael Anderson does the best he can with a mediocre script.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Casualties of War
    Casting Fox was a brilliant coup on De Palma’s part, since he brings with him an image of all-American boyishness and eager-beaver conservatism. Fox’s beautifully acted cowardly passivity in the face of the unthinkable challenges and implicates the viewer to examine his own conscience on the subject of Vietnam.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Uncle Buck
    John Hughes unsuccessfully tries to mix a serious generation gap message between the belly laughs in Uncle Buck, a warm-weather John Candy vehicle.
  27. Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation
    Pic’s real delight is its sheer resourcefulness, as stunts and FX are re-created on a shoestring in one of the most elaborate amateur features ever made.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
    Unfortunately, Aussie helmer Stephen Hopkins adopts a music-video approach, delaying the boring exposition for several reels and usually cutting away from climaxes to destroy much of the film’s impact. Acting is highly variable. Saving grace is the series of spectacular special effects set pieces featuring fanciful makeup, mattes, stopmotion animation and opticals.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Abyss
    A firstrate underwater suspenser with an otherworldly twist, The Abyss suffers from a payoff unworthy of its buildup.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    sex, lies, and videotape
    A sexy, nuanced, beautifully controlled examination of how a quartet of people are defined by their erotic impulses and inhibitions.
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