Variety's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Some Kind of Wonderful
    A simple, lovely and thoughtful teenage story that occasionally shines due to fine characterizations and lucid dialog.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
    Pic is mainly focused on the violent special effects outbursts of Freddy Krueger (ably limned under heavy makeup by Robert Englund), the child murderer’s demon spirit who seeks revenge on Langenkamp and the other Elm St kids for the sins of their parents. Debuting director Chuck Russell elicits poor performances from most of his thesps, making it difficult to differentiate between pic’s comic relief and unintended howlers.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Working Girls
    Borden sugars her pill with clean, crisp, often witty recording of brothel action and shop-talk. All acting is credible and the camerawork is smooth, the non-action a bit on the long winded side.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mannequin
    Mannequin is as stiff and spiritless as its title suggests.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Over the Top
    Stallone is sincere and soulful as a father who messed up pretty bad and just wants his kid back, Mendenhall is a likable tyke, and justice is served in the end.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Light of Day
    Despite the over-the-edge quality of her character, Rowlands makes even the most ludicrous lines seem feasible. Fox is basically miscast as the good-natured brother who idolizes his sister and tries to cover for her. Jett looks the part and even manages to hit the mark from time to time, but for every hit there’s a miss.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Black Widow
    Lacking the snap and sharpness that might have made it a firstrate thriller, Black Widow instead plays as a moderately interesting tale of one woman's obsession for another's glamorous and criminal lifestyle.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dead of Winter
    Mary Steenburgen is first-rate as the struggling actress.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Radio Days
    Although lacking the bite and depth of his best work, Radio Days is one of Woody Allen's most purely entertaining pictures. It's a visual monolog of bits and pieces from the glory days of radio and the people who were tuned in.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Outrageous Fortune
    Outrageous Fortune is well crafted, old-fashioned entertainment that takes some conventional elements, shines them up and repackages them as something new and contemporary.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Crimes of the Heart
    Thoughtfully cast, superbly acted and masterfully written and directed, Crimes of the Heart is a winner.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Bedroom Window
    Curtis Hanson’s screenplay [from the novel The Witnesses by Anne Holden] involves several ingenious plot twists. Huppert carries the first half of the film, replaced by McGovern in importance in the final reels and both actresses are alluring and mysterious in keeping the piece suspenseful. Unfortunately, a lot of coincidences and just plain stupid actions by Guttenberg are relied upon to keep the pot boiling.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Brighton Beach Memoirs
    Performances are skilled all the way through.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Little Shop of Horrors
    Little Shop of Horrors is a fractured, funny production transported rather reluctantly from the stage to the screen.
  15. Platoon
    There is plenty of good work to be found here, and pic certainly grabs the viewer by the collar in a way not found everyday in contemporary films.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    King Kong Lives
    Director John Guillermin loses all control of the pic.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    No Mercy
    Despite some graphically brutal violence and a fair bit of 'too-cool' police jargon, No Mercy turns out to be a step above most other films in this blooming genre of lone-cop-turned-vigilante stories.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Golden Child
    A strange hybrid of Far Eastern mysticism, treacly sentimentality, diluted reworkings of Eddie Murphy’s patented confrontation scenes across racial and cultural boundaries, and dragged-in ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) special effects monsters, film makes no sense on any level.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Heartbreak Ridge
    Heartbreak Ridge offers another vintage Clint Eastwood performance. There are enough mumbled half-liners in this contemporary war pic to satisfy those die-hards eager to see just how he portrays the consummate marine veteran.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Mosquito Coast
    It is hard to believe that a film as beautiful as The Mosquito Coast [adapted from the novel by Paul Theroux] can also be so bleak, but therein lies its power and undoing.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
    Latest excursion is warmer, wittier, more socially relevant and truer to its TV origins than prior odysseys.
    • Variety
    • 38 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    An American Tail
    Every character and every situation presented herein have been seen a thousand times before.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hoosiers
    An involving tale about the unlikely success of a smalltown Indiana high school basketball team that paradoxically proves both rousing and too conventional.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Willy/Milly
    The rather silly title Willy / Milly caps this charming and substantial kidpic about sex roles.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Every Time We Say Goodbye
    Culturally rich story is aided throughout by the pic’s all-Israel shoot, nicely highlighting the different worlds these two lovers come from.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Something Wild
    Conceptually and stylistically compelling under Jonathan Demme's sometimes striking direction.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sid and Nancy
    The film’s dialog is extremely rough, the settings sordid, the theme of wasted lives (and talent?) depressing. But Sid and Nancy is a dynamic piece of work, which brings audiences as close as possible to understanding its wayward heroes.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Betty Blue
    Director Jean-Jacques Beineix has adapted a novel by Philippe Djian, considered an enfant terrible of the new literary generation. It's another feverish tale of amour fou.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    52 Pick-Up
    52 Pick-Up is a thriller without any thrills. Although director John Frankenheimer stuffs as much action as he can into the screen adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel (previously filmed by Cannon in Israel in 1984 as The Ambassador), he can't hide the ridiculous plot and lifeless characters.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Mission
    The script is based on a little-known but nonetheless intriguing historical incident in mid-18th century South America, pitting avaricious colonialists against the Jesuit order of priests. The fundamental problem is that the script is cardboard thin, pinning labels on its characters and arbitrarily shoving them into stances to make plot points.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »