Variety's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 34 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Private Lessons
    Dan Greenburg’s script from his own novel [philly] is very effective in presenting an innocent youth’s point-of-view confronted with the sexual stimuli that pervade modern society. Inability to flesh out this central notion into a feature-length screenplay is a pity, but Private Lessons should satisfy general audiences with its diversions of frequent nudity, softcore sex, dominant rock music score and gags.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    An American Werewolf in London
    A clever mixture of comedy and horror which succeeds in being both funny and scary, An American Werewolf in London possesses an overriding eagerness to please that prevents it from becoming off-putting, and special effects freaks get more than their money's worth.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Prince of the City
    The film is a concentrated, unrelievedly serious and cerebrally involving entry, exhaustively detailing the true-life saga of a Gotham detective who turned Justice Dept informer to eke out widespread corruption in his special investigating unit during the 1960s.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    They All Laughed
    Rarely does a film come along featuring such an extensive array of attractive characters with whom it is simply a pleasure to spend two hours.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    An Eye for an Eye
    An Eye for an Eye is an effective martial arts actioner vehicle for Chuck Norris.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Heavy Metal
    Courtesy of a vastly overlong, relatively unrousing 27-minute end-piece that may be the technical highpoint of the film, but lacks the punch and tightness of the earlier segments, the venture tends to run out of steam. Still, the net effect is an overridingly positive one.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Victory
    Script spends so much effort extolling man’s basic goodness and the values of selflessness, teamwork and fair play, that it frequently softens the action. Fortunately, director John Huston has such a firm grip on the dramatic line that does exist – and works some very good performances from the cast, particularly Caine – that the pic survives intact.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blow Out
    Writer-director Brian De Palma's Blow Out is a frequently exciting $18 million suspense thriller which suffers from a distracting emphasis upon homages to other motion pictures.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Wolfen
    Wolfen is consistently more interesting than it is thrilling. Wadleigh creates a surreal point-of-view for the killers that works effectively, accented by handy digital sound.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Tarzan the Ape Man
    This endless romp through the jungle, lacking any focus, fun or excitement (sexual or otherwise), seems to exist merely as a reason for husband John to find another 1001 ways to photograph wife Bo in varying stages of undress.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Eye of the Needle
    It’s a good yarn, remindful of some of Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang’s wartime mellers as well as Michael Powell’s 1939 tale of a World War I German agent in Scotland, The Spy in Black.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Arthur
    Arthur is a sparkling entertainment that attempts, with a large measure of success, to resurrect the amusingly artificial conventions of 1930's screwball romantic comedies.
    • Variety
    • 30 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Endless Love
    A Cotton-candy rendition of Scott Spencer's powerful novel, Endless Love is a manipulative tale of a doomed romance which careens repeatedly between the credible and the ridiculous.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Zorro: The Gay Blade
    Despite an inspired, offbeat performance by George Hamilton, Zorro, the Gay Blade doesn't have nearly enough gags to sustain its 93 minutes. For the most part this is a Zorro with a very dull edge.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Escape from New York
    Although execution doesn’t quite live up to the fabulous premise, Escape from New York is a solidly satisfying actioner.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Decline of Western Civilization
    A bracing, stimulating and technically superb close-up look at the LA punk scene, pic is pitched at a perfect distance to allow for simultaneous engagement in the music and spectacle, and for rueful contemplation of what it all might mean.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    S.O.B.
    S.O.B. is one of the most vitriolic – though only occasionally hilarious – attacks on the Tinseltown mentality ever.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    For Your Eyes Only
    For Your Eyes Only bears not the slightest resemblance to the Ian Fleming novel of the same title, but emerges as one of the most thoroughly enjoyable of the 12 Bond pix [to date] despite fact that many of the usual ingredients in the successful 007 formula are missing.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Stripes
    Stripes is a cheerful, mildly outrageous and mostly amiable comedy pitting a new generation of enlistees against the oversold lure of a military hungry for bodies and not too choosy about what it gets. There’s little in the way of art or comic subtlety here, but the film really seems to work.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dragonslayer
    A well intentioned fantasy with some wonderful special effects, Dragonslayer falls somewhat short on continuously intriguing adventure.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Great Muppet Caper
    As before, much of the dialog neatly walks the line between true wit and silly (and sometimes inside) jokes.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Superman II
    Superman II emerges as a solid, classy, cannily constructed piece of entertainment which gets down to action almost immediately.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Cannonball Run
    Cross-country race of the title comes off as almost entirely incidental to the star turns. Overall effect is akin to watching the troupe take a vacation.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Raiders of the Lost Ark
    Spielberg has deftly veiled proceedings in a sense of mystical wonder that makes it all the more easy for viewers to suspend disbelief and settle back for the fun.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Clash of the Titans
    Clash of the Titans is an unbearable bore that will probably put to sleep the few adults stuck taking the kids to it. Desmond Davis directs with a tired hand, not helped much by the lackadaisical writing.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    History of the World: Part I
    The one interlude which really brings down the house has Brooks working as a waiter at the Last Supper and asking the assembled group. ‘Are you all together or is it separate checks?’..As the old ad line said, there’s something here to offend everybody, particularly the devout of all persuasions and homosexuals.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Polyester
    A fitfully amusing comedy of not so ordinary people.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bustin' Loose
    Bustin’ Loose is obviously a personal project for Pryor, who produced and wrote the story, which has admirable ambitions but is also the film’s greatest weakness. Still, Pryor is an infectious comedian and a master of body language, keeping the picture on the move with sheer energy.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Four Seasons
    Tale is populated strictly with Ordinary People, but Alda’s script doesn’t begin to scratch the surface to discover what makes them tick and is particularly stingy in giving Carol Burnett and Rita Moreno anything to work with.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Outland
    While there are several mile-wide plot holes and one key under-developed main character, the film emerges as a tight, intriguing old-fashioned drama that gives audiences a hero worth rooting for.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »