Variety's Scores

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For 17,782 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: 9,136 out of 17782
  2. Mixed: 7,010 out of 17782
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17782
17782 movie reviews
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  1. Darkness
    Though pic boasts decent perfs, potent atmospherics and eye-catching visuals, both psychology and plot are bargain-basement.
  2. Lolita
    The bad news, however, is that after an intriguing opening stretch, and despite Jeremy Irons' potent lead performance, the overlong film becomes repetitive, flat and often dull.
  3. Crash
    Cronenberg is a master of creating and sustaining a mood of insinuating cool and dark allure, but while the director remains firmly behind the wheel for the first hour or so, he cracks up toward the end with sequences that send the film and the audience into a ditch.
    • 11 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
    Pic consists largely of choppily edited fight scenes (usually involving somersaults and back flips) combined with various computer graphic effects.
  5. Michael
    John Travolta's charismatic screen presence is the only element that propels Michael over its rough narrative spots and scattered direction.
  6. Indecent Proposal
    This is one of those high-concept pictures with a big windup and weak delivery.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Spy Hard
    The picture that will test the durability of Leslie Nielsen's lowbrow franchise -- and proves the talent of the regrettably absent Zucker brothers-Jim Abrahams team --Spy Hard sticks so closely to the "Naked Gun" formula that one half-expects an O.J. Simpson cameo.
    • 15 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Carpool
    Arthur Hiller's pacing is crude, but that seems to be the point.
  9. Freeway
    Freeway is roadkill. The directorial debut of screenwriter Matthew Bright ("Gun Crazy") is a sophomoric and morally repellent mix of fractured fairy tale, juvenile social satire, bloody mayhem and overstated B-movie melodrama.
  10. Jack
    Blandness and lack of daring characterize nearly every minute of the very long two hours, which are marked by a high degree of professionalism at the service of little content.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Nine 1/2 Weeks
    The virtual absence of anything interesting happening between them - like plausible attraction, exotic, amazing sex, or, God forbid, good dialog - leaves one great big hole on the screen for two hours.
  12. M. Butterfly
    This butterfly just doesn't fly. Icy, surprisingly conventional and never truly convincing.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Jacob's Ladder
    Jacob's Ladder means to be a harrowing thriller about a Vietnam vet (Tim Robbins) bedeviled by strange visions, but the $40 million production is dull, unimaginative and pretentious.
    • 5 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Two of a Kind
    Aside from the presence of the two stars, Two of a Kind has all the earmarks of a bargain-basement job.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Tequila Sunrise
    There's not much kick in this cocktail, despite its mix of quality ingredients. Casually glamorous South Bay is the setting for a story of little substance as writer-director Robert Towne attempts a study of friendship and trust but gets lost in a clutter of drug dealings and police operations.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Newsies
    Newsies was made with care and affection by choreographer-turned-director Kenny Ortega. But the writers have created cardboard cutouts instead of flesh-and-blood characters.
  17. The Favor
    The direction and technical elements are obvious, bright and vapid, while the performers struggle against staggering odds to provide nuance.
  18. A Nightmare on Elm Street
    While the 1984 film has aged, its now-familiar jolts still pack more punch than this pic's recycled ones, which sometimes register so tepidly as to cause snickers.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Heartbreak Hospital
    Tries to combine romantic comedy, soap-opera parody and murder mystery, but the disparate elements never gel, and the film, about homicide at a daytime television serial, bounces around with no clue of how to reconcile or intertwine its genre conventions.
  20. Into My Heart
    So understated as to sometimes lack a pulse.
  21. Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel
    Even in a more fluid package, this mix of camp comedy and bathos would seem artificial.
  22. Miss Wonton
    Cluttered, unfocused script attempts too much.
  23. Close Call
    This cautionary melodrama about a Korean-American teen girl's slide into depravity is too inconsequential and too earnest to belong in the So Bad It's Good category; rather, it's merely bad.
  24. A Thousand Peace Clouds Encircle the Sky
    Handsome but dramatically static drama.
  25. Confessions of a Burning Man
    This not particularly well shot/organized feature isn't very engaging on the human level, either.
  26. Boricua's Bond
    At the most basic level, Boricua's Bond is at war with itself.
  27. Ya lyublyu tebya
    Clumsily drawn, poorly acted love triangle.
  28. Magnifico
    A wholesome family movie with a moppet star and tearjerker ending, Magnifico milks the sentiment like an industrial dairy machine on overdrive.
  29. Casuistry: The Art of Killing a Cat
    Too underground in feel.
  30. No Pain, No Gain
    Painfully sincere yet hopelessly amateurish dramedy.
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