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
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Starman
    There is little that is original in Starman, but at least it has chosen good models.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Runaway
    This Michael Crichton robotic nightmare is so trite that the story seems lifted from Marvel Comics, with heat-seeking bullets and a villain so bad he would be fun if the film wasn’t telling us to take this near-futuristic adventure with a straight face.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Cotton Club
    Dramatically, Coppola and co-screenwriter William Kennedy, juggle a lot of balls in the air. The parallel stories of Gere and Hines’ professional rise prove more potent, thanks largely to a mixture of romance, music and gangland involvement. Hines and McKee generate real sparks in their relationship and latter adds an interesting dimension as a light-skinned singer trying to hide her racial origins.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dune
    Dune is a huge, hollow, imaginative and cold sci-fi epic. Visually unique and teeming with incident, David Lynch's film holds the interest due to its abundant surface attractions but won't, of its own accord, create the sort of fanaticism which has made Frank Herbert's 1965 novel one of the all-time favorites in its genre.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    2010
    In Peter Hyams’ hands [working from a novel by Arthur C. Clarke], the HAL mystery is the most satisfying substance of the film and handled the best. Unfortunately, it lies amid a hodge-podge of bits and pieces.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    City Heat
    City Heat is an amiable but decidedly lukewarm confection geared entirely around the two star turns.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Beverly Hills Cop
    Beverly Hills Cop is more cop show than comedy riot. Expectations that Eddie Murphy's street brand of rebelliousness would devastate staid and glittery Beverly Hills are not entirely met in a film that grows increasingly dramatic.
    • Variety
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Supergirl
    Helen Slater is a find: blonde as Supergirl, dark-haired as Linda Lee, she’s an appealing young heroine in either guise. Screenplay is filled with witty lines and enjoyable characters, but Jeannot Szwarc’s direction is rather flat.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Nightmare on Elm Street
    A Nightmare on Elm Street is a highly imaginative horror film that provides the requisite shocks to keep fans of the genre happy.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Night of the Comet
    Night of the Comet is a successful pastiche of numerous science fiction films, executed with an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek flair that compensates for its absence in originality.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Missing in Action
    Writer James Bruner and director Joseph Zito have marshalled a formula pic with a particularly jingoistic slant: even though the war is long over, the Commies in Vietnam still deserve the smack of a bullet.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Oh, God! You Devil
    The story didn’t need to get this involved and it winds up constantly trying to pull the picture apart, working against the comedy.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    No Small Affair
    No Small Affair is an okay coming-of-age romance [from a screen story by Charles Bolt] in which the believability of the leading characters far outweighs that of many of the situations in which the script places them.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Paris, Texas
    It’s indeed a beautiful film, one that will surely convince doubters that Muller is one of the cinema’s best cameramen. He gives the story a surface polish that hints of Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keefe Americana paintings. Some images are positively breathtaking.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Soldier's Story
    A Soldier's Story is a taut, gripping film which features many of the old fashioned virtues of a good Hollywood production - brilliant ensemble acting, excellent production values, a crackling script (adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning A Soldier's Play [1981] by its author, Charles Fuller), fine direction and a liberal political message.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Terminator
    A blazing, cinematic comic book, full of virtuoso moviemaking, terrific momentum, solid performances and a compelling story.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Body Double
    Brian De Palma lets all his obsessions hang out in Body Double. A voyeur’s delight and a feminist’s nightmare, sexpenser features an outrageously far-fetched and flimsy plot.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Gods Must Be Crazy
    Film’s main virtues are its striking, widescreen visuals of unusual locations, and the sheer educational value of its narration.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Little Drummer Girl
    A disappointingly flat film adaptation of one of John Le Carre's top novels.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Razor's Edge
    Tonally inconsistent and structurally awkward, film does develop some dramatic interest in the second half, but inherent power of the material is never realized.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Places in the Heart
    Flawlessly crafted, Benton creates a full tapestry of life in Waxahachie, Texas circa 1935, but filmgoers may find his understated naturalistic approach lacking in dramatic punch.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Eureka
    Even by his own standards, Nicolas Roeg's Eureka is an indulgent melodrama [based on a book by Marshall Houts] about the anticlimactic life of a greedy gold prospector after he has struck it rich.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Irreconcilable Differences
    Irreconcilable Differences begins strongly as a human comedy about a nine-year-old who decides to take legal action to divorce her parents. Unfortunately, this premise is soon jettisoned for a rather familiar tale of a marriage turned sour as shown step-by-step.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    All of Me
    For all its clowning, All of Me makes some good points about taking chances and doing what you want in life. Tomlin undergoes a transformation from a crabby sheltered poor little rich girl to a compassionate woman. It’s a measure of her performance that even as a sourpuss she’s irressistible.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Brother from Another Planet
    Pic is essentially a series of behavioral vignettes, and many of them are genuinely delightful and inventive. Once the Brother discovers the Harlem drug scene, however, tale takes a rather unpleasant and, ultimately, confusing turn.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ninja III: The Domination
    The new outing into the never-never land of the world's trickiest controlled violence is done with quite a twist.
  27. Amadeus
    Loaded with pleasures, the greatest of which derive from the on location filming in Prague, the most 18th century of all European cities.
    • 13 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Bolero
    Poor Bo no sooner has her initial introduction to amour than the new lover gets gored in a sensitive location, putting him out of commission.
    • 19 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Oxford Blues
    Director-writer Robert Boris fails to establish a consistent tone to make his fairytale story believable.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Tightrope
    Action is well-handled, as Tuggle demonstrates ample storytelling talent and draws a multitude of nuances from his cast.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »