Variety's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
  1. Salt of This Sea
    That the taste of Annemarie Jacir's feature debut should be bitter is completely understandable given the untenable Palestinian situation, but the heavy-handed, excessively didactic script plays like a primer for people only vaguely aware of the issues while overly confirmed in their righteousness.
  2. Lovely, Still
    The surprise twist brutally defies the opening narration and plot logic that preceded it, alienating viewers who willingly suspended disbelief.
  3. Welcome to the Rileys
    Nothing short of preposterous, Jake Scott's film imagines a grieving couple (James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo) who play surrogate parents to an underage stripper ("Twilight's" Kristen Stewart) and spins it for the "Blind Side" crowd.
  4. Resident Evil: Afterlife
    Director Paul W.S. Anderson (who also directed the original) can hardly manage a hint of suspense or excitement. And excitement is exactly what the film ought to have in excess.
  5. It's a Wonderful Afterlife
    It's a Wonderful Afterlife is a movie to make Frank Capra roll over in his grave from indigestion.
  6. Kalamity
    An object lesson in overconfidence and underdevelopment, almost as unbalanced as its central psychotic.
  7. How Do You Know
    This wrong-headed dramedy peddles forced warm-fuzziness and insincere sentiment on the backs of an all-star cast.
  8. Gulliver's Travels
    The story grows more desperate as it goes on.
  9. Jolene
    Though stretched to a two-hour run time, Doctorow's socially critical tale is reduced to queasy spectacle.
  10. The Portuguese Nun
    A tedious slog alleviated only by widescreen shots of the Portuguese capital and terrific fado singing.
  11. Hemingway's Garden of Eden
    Garden of Eden sends sleek, half-nude bodies glumly cavorting through lush Riviera landscapes in a paradigm of unintentional camp.
  12. Burning Palms
    Making his directorial debut, screenwriter Christopher Landon struggles so mightily to offend that he forgets to supply a rooting interest in his characters.
  13. Americatown
    Strictly for fans of free-form, DIY hit-or-miss humor (and those who prefer a miss to a hit), pic complacently parades its alienated amateurism in the mistaken belief that half a gag is better than none.
  14. Season of the Witch
    Both overblown and undercooked, Season of the Witch is a fine example of a film that would've been great fun if only its creators had a sense of humor about the wild brew of absurdity they had percolating.
  15. 6 Souls
    A schlock supernatural shocker.
  16. Zookeeper
    Ultimately, it's a marketing pitch in search of a movie that proves punishingly flat.
  17. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World
    A cheap-looking, vaguely depressing echo of Robert Rodriguez's well-loved kidpic trilogy, assembled with minimal imagination or effort.
  18. I Melt with You
    A weekend romp for four middle-aged buddies devolves into a drug-fueled, suicidal hell in Mark Pellington's ill-conceived and executed I Melt With You, a work of extreme self-indulgence.
  19. Shark Night 3D
    Unlike his "Snakes on a Plane," director David R. Ellis' sharks-in-a-lake thriller displays little sense of its scenario's camp potential. Gore, too, is in short supply on account of the pic's PG-13 rating, which renders the attack scenes nearly toothless.
  20. Ex Drummer
    Signaling a new low in post-modern smug superiority, Ex Drummer tries to pass off contempt as comedy and slanted lensing as creativity.
  21. Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
    The key to Seuss' tales, as with all good fables, is not only their cleverness but their surpassing elegance and simplicity, qualities that this busy, over-cluttered contraption of a movie seems entirely uninterested in replicating.
  22. That's My Boy
    All in all, it could have been worse. Puerile, crotch-fixated and very occasionally, inanely funny, Adam Sandler's raunchiest star vehicle in years has a small saving grace in Andy Samberg's performance.
  23. Passion Play
    Perversely eccentric and frequently inert, screenwriter Mitch Glazer's directorial debut, Passion Play, will benefit from some of the well-known names attached, but the near-painful hipness of the production will yield poisonous word of mouth.
  24. Cost of a Soul
    As is, the emotional elements explored by Cost of a Soul, and the devices it employs, seem trite and occasionally shoplifted from better-told tales.
  25. The Art of Getting By
    Facile, formulaic and utterly charm-free.
  26. Love, Wedding, Marriage
    Performances range from wooden to hysterical, and it's largely due to Mulroney's inexperience behind the camera.
  27. A Thousand Words
    Alas, even Murphy's largely wordless, physically adroit performance can't redeem this tortured exercise in high-concept spiritualist hokum.
  28. The Best and the Brightest
    Offering a fitfully funny sitcom plot clumsily stretched to 90 minutes, then goosed with increasingly tiresome doses of smuttiness and political incorrectness, The Best and the Brightest is neither.
  29. House at the End of the Street
    Exploiting Lawrence's newfound fame is the only hope this ill-conceived, poorly executed venture has of connecting with audiences before poisonous word of mouth sends potential buyers in search of a more attractive address.
  30. The Abduction of Zack Butterfield
    Woefully amateurish psychological thriller.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »