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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    • 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.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Soul Man
    This social farce is excellently written, fast paced and intelligently directed. Film is hilarious throughout.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Trick or Treat
    Like a relatively dark street on Halloween night, Trick or Treat is ripe for howls and hoots, but only manages to deliver a choice handful of them when the festivities are just about over.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Color of Money
    A keenly observed and immaculately crafted vision of the raw side of life. Pic has a distinctive pulse of its own with exceptional performances by Paul Newman and Tom Cruise.
    • Variety
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Peggy Sue Got Married
    What makes this treatment unique is that the jokes aren’t so much derivative of pop culture, but are instead found in the learned wisdom of a middle-aged woman reacting to her own teenage dilemmas.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Deadly Friend
    Pic has enough gore, suspense and requisite number of shocks to keep most hearts pounding through to the closing credits.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Children of a Lesser God
    It’s another seamless performance for Hurt. Matlin, who makes her professional acting debut here and is in real life hearing impaired, as is much of the cast, is simply fresh and alive with fine shadings of expression.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    'Round Midnight
    'Round Midnight is a superbly crafted music world drama in which Gallic director Bertrand Tavernier pays a moving dramatic tribute to the great black musicians who lived and performed in Paris in the late 1950s.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Crocodile Dundee
    Hogan is comfortable enough playing the wry, irreverent, amiable Aussie that seems close to his own persona, and teams well with Kozlowski, who radiates lots of charm, style and spunk.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Down by Law
    The Jim Jarmusch penchant for off-the-wall characters and odd situations is very much in evidence. The black-and-white photography is a major plus, and so is John Lurie’s score, with songs by Tom Waits. Both men are fine in their respective roles, but Benigni steals the film.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Blue Velvet
    Hopper creates a flabbergasting portrait of unrepentent, irredeemable evil.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Men's Club
    Film is a distasteful piece of work that displays the worst in men. Leonard Michaels’ screenplay (from his novel) is all warts and no insight, full of self-loathing for the gender. In addition, film making is as tired as the material. Pic plays like a stageplay, so static is Peter Medak’s direction.
    • 16 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Shanghai Surprise
    But centerstage is the completely illogical relationship between the hustler and missionary. Penn seems game and has energy while Madonna can’t for a moment disguise that her character makes no sense at all.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Manhunter
    An unpleasantly gripping thriller... Interesting Hitchcockian guilt transference territory and Mann's grip on his material is tight and sure. Director is at all times preoccupied by visual chic.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Stand by Me
    Scripters have written inspired dialog for this quartet of plucky boys at that hard-to-capture age when they’re still young enough to get scared and yet old enough to want to sneak smokes and cuss.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
    Success of the low budget Chain Saw in 1974 spawned a generation of splatter films which largely have lost the power to shock and entertain. Not so Chain Saw 2. Director Tobe Hooper is back on the Texas turf he knows.
    • 17 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Reform School Girls
    Every character is a caricature, from the rifle-toting, Bible-quoting warden (Sybil Danning) to the lineup of lovelies who parade as reform school girls. Pat Ast, as the cantankerous and corpulent head matron, and Williams play their rotten roles to the hilt and get most of the juicy lines.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Fly
    David Cronenberg's remake of the 1958 horror classic The Fly is not for the squeamish. Casting Jeff Goldblum was a good choice as he brings a quirky, common touch to the spacey scientist role.
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