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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    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sudden Impact
    A brutally hard-hitting policier which casts Clint Eastwood as audiences like to see him, as the toughest guy in town.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Terms of Endearment
    Teaming of Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson at their best makes Terms of Endearment an enormously enjoyable offering for Christmas, adding bite and sparkle when sentiment and seamlessness threatens to sink other parts of the picture.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A Christmas Story
    Writer-director Bob Clark had long dreamed of making a movie based on Shepherd’s work and his reverence for the material shows through as detail after nostalgic detail rings true with period flavor.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Amityville 3-D
    There is hardly anything original about the picture. A new cast of characters and the addition of 3-D does little to pump new life, supernatural or otherwise, into this tired genre.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Star 80
    An engrossing, unsentimental and unavoidably depressing account of the short life and ghastly death of Playmate-actress Dorothy Stratten.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Born in Flames
    It is impertinent, audacious, abounding in fresh ideas, considerably untraditional ideas. On the other hand, it is disjointed, with no real characters, preachy, the script unsufficiently developed and the acting often amateurish.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Testament
    Testament is an exceptionally powerful film dealing with the survivors of a nuclear war. Debuting director Lynne Littman brings an original approach to the grim material.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Possession
    Pic’s mass of symbols and unbridled, brilliant directing meld this disparate tale into a film that could get cult following on its many levels of symbolism and exploitation.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Dead Zone
    David Cronenberg turns The Dead Zone into an accomplished psychological thriller.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Right Stuff
    The Right Stuff is a humdinger. Full of beauty, intelligence and excitement, this big-scale look at the development of the US space program and its pioneering aviators provides a fresh, entertaining look back at the recent past.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Under Fire
    Thesping is on the plus side, particularly Nolte in a role cut to his proportions. Director Roger Spottiswode, after a couple of earlier actioners, has great potential.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Rumble Fish
    Rumble Fish is another Francis Coppola picture that's overwrought and overthought with camera and characters that never quite come together in anything beyond consistently interesting.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Never Say Never Again
    What clicks best in the film is the casting. Klaus Maria Brandauer makes one of the best Bond opponents since very early in the series.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Brainstorm
    Producer-director Douglas Trumbull’s effects wizardry – and the concept behind it – is the movie...On the downside, majority of players, including stars Christopher Walken and Wood as a married couple in a research environment, seem merely along for the ride.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Eddie and the Cruisers
    A mish-mash of a film, combining elements of the ongoing nostalgia for rock music of previous decades with an unworkable and laughable mystery plotline.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Educating Rita
    Aided greatly by an expert film adaptation by its playwright, Willy Russell, Gilbert has come up with an irresistible story about a lively, lower-class British woman hungering for an education and the rather, staid, degenerating English professor who reluctantly provides her with one.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Revenge of the Ninja
    Revenge of the Ninja is an entertaining martial arts actioner, following up Enter the Ninja (1981) but lacking that film's name players and Far East locale.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
    The weakest point is its construction, sturdy and compact up to the point when it has to use flashbacks in order to explain the British side of the allegory.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fire and Ice
    Ralph Bakshi's newest animation feature is interesting for two special reasons: (1) the production represents a clear design on Bakshi's part to capture a wider and younger audience and (2) the animation marks the film debut of America's leading exponent of heroic fantasy art, Frank Frazetta, who coproduced.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mr. Mom
    Garr, as always, is a delight to watch though it would be nice to see her in a role where she wasn't someone's wife or mother. Still, her inspired double takes continue to say more than pages of dialogue while her keen timing helps somewhat in the more beleaguered scenes.
    • Variety
    • 57 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Cujo
    Although well-made, this screen adaptation of Stephen King's Cujo emerges as a dull, uneventful entry in the horror genre. Novel about a mad dog on the rampage occupies a low place in the King canon, which is understandable if the film's stupefying predictability is an accurate reflection of the book.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Curse of the Pink Panther
    Curse of the Pink Panther resembles a set of gems mounted in a tarnished setting. Abetted by screen newcomer Ted Wass’ flair for physical comedy, filmmaker Blake Edwards has created genuinely funny sight gags but the film’s rickety, old-hat story values waste them.
    • 4 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Smokey and the Bandit Part 3
    Filmmakers, including first-time theatrical director Dick Lowry, have wisely returned to the non-stop car-chasing destruction derby of the first movie. But the sense of fun in that original is missing and the countless smashups and near-misses are orchestrated randomly.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Risky Business
    Risky Business is like a promising first novel, with all the pros and cons that come with that territory.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Star Chamber
    Getting to this point in the film, there’s a pleasure in rediscovering intelligent dialog, ably provided by Hyams and Roderick Taylor. But the talk is haunted by concern that this intellectual morass cannot be solved within the confines of cinema.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    National Lampoon's Vacation
    National Lampoon’s Vacation is an enjoyable trip through familiar comedy landscapes.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Krull
    Professionalism of director Peter Yates, the large array of production and technical talents and, particularly, the mainly British actors keep things from becoming genuinely dull or laughable.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Jaws 3-D
    The Jaws cycle has reached its nadir with this surprisingly tepid [Arrivision] 3-D version.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Class
    McCarthy and Rob Lowe (as his roommate) carry most of the picture, and both acquit themselves reasonably well under the circumstances.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Staying Alive
    The bottom line is that Staying Alive is nowhere as good as its 1977 predecessor, "Saturday Night Fever."
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