Variety's Scores

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For 17,849 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: 9,174 out of 17849
  2. Mixed: 7,036 out of 17849
  3. Negative: 1,639 out of 17849
17849 movie reviews
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    • 14 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
    Jensen Daggett is a standout as the troubled young girl on whom Jason is fixated. V.C. Dupree has vibrant energy in his boxing scenes, Sharlene Martin has a fine time with the bitch role, and Martin Cummins is funny as a video freak who compulsively films the proceedings.
    • 14 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Sculptress
    While good to look at, is devoid of psychological depth or credibility, and further marred by weak, often risible performances.
  3. Dungeons & Dragons
    Stunningly bad sci-fi/fantasy hokum.
  4. From Justin to Kelly
    The most resounding thuds in From Justin to Kelly, however, come from the musical numbers.
  5. Glitter
    Glitter deserves yet another title: "A Star Is Dull." As phony a vehicle as one could possibly concoct for a wannabe movie star, pic carries Mariah Carey into a swamp of gloppy melodrama.
  6. The Killing Jar
    A spectacularly boring chamber thriller.
  7. Condemned
    Writer-director Eli Morgan Gesner (a clothing designer and skateboarder who previously helmed the skateboarding and hip-hop doc “Concrete Jungle”) could have milked the premise for gleeful counterculture exploitation (like a 21st-century “Basket Case”) or campy John Waters-style gross-out comedy, but settles for mean-spirited banality.
  8. China Salesman
    It’s the rare kind of sprawling, costly hot mess that achieves instant camp gratification other fiascos must wait decades to ripen toward.
    • 14 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    The In Crowd
    Murky, unappealing The In Crowd is a femme-centered melodrama that makes an awkward stretch into thriller territory.
  10. City of Dreams
    Ramchandani’s baffling screenplay contains the most obvious, stock archetypes of people recurrent in Hollywood’s uninteresting depictions of Latino communities. Yet, its dialogue, which ranges from the laughably stereotypical to the downright absurd in the context of a sweatshop, stands out as the most unforgivable affront.
  11. Cabin Fever
    Lack of originality feels like a fairly meaningless complaint when Roth’s film was derivative enough to begin with.
    • 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.
  13. Love, Wedding, Marriage
    Performances range from wooden to hysterical, and it's largely due to Mulroney's inexperience behind the camera.
  14. Daddy Day Camp
    This sequel to the 2003 Eddie Murphy comedy may appeal to auds still young enough not to have seen it all before, or who still find flatulence hilarious, or who think adults, when agitated, flail about like epileptic marionettes.
  15. Fascination
    Glacially paced, self-consciously acted and narratively risible.
    • 13 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    Fair Game
    Fair Game is otherwise notable only for its jaw-dropping stupidity, the sort of action yarn that hopes nonstop mayhem will help cloud just how nonsensical it is.
  17. Freddy Got Fingered
    One of the most brutally awful comedies ever to emerge from a major studio.
  18. A Beautiful Life
    A waste of a talented, earnest cast, this borderline offensive indie, set for an Oct. 2 limited release, shouldn't take up too much valuable theater space before fading away.
  19. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
    Nothing aired by WikiLeaks could possibly be more destructive to Sony’s reputation than the release of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, the sort of movie that goes beyond mere mediocrity to offer possible evidence of a civilization in decline.
  20. Golf in the Kingdom
    In this shoestring outing, Susan Streitfeld ("Female Perversions") opts for an unsettling mix of low-tech cinematic tricks and temporal reshufflings to simulate the process of enlightenment to sometimes laudable, usually ludicrous effect.
    • 13 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Down to You
    Something oddly appealing about this mushy romantic tale, but first-time feature writer-director Kris Isacsson doesn't have the skills to raise it far above its formulaic foundation.
    • 13 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
    Although their duel offers original effects-laden thrills and stunts, it’s too little and too late.
  23. Run Hide Fight
    Merely pedestrian at the levels of direction, craft and performance, the film instead makes a grab for attention by peddling an ambiguous line on gun control and eye-for-an-eye morality. Any controversy that ensues, however, won’t disguise the phoniness of this exploitation exercise, which milks the worst fears of millions in pursuit of empty tension.
  24. New Best Friend
    Obvious and exploitative even by low-bar youthpic standards.
  25. Red Hook Black
    The characters are wearisomely one-dimensional and their situations and motives almost indecipherable due to poor exposition, weirdly pretentious dialogue and amateurish thesping.
    • 13 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Cannonball Run II
    Execution is uninspired, laughs are hard to find, and the script is also difficult to locate. Reynold’s high-pitched laugh is wearing thin.
  27. Murder-Set-Pieces
    Pic's nastiness is so insistent, one-dimensional and excessive it risks self-parody.
  28. Armed Response
    Armed Response has less story than your average first-person shooter video game — and far fewer moments of exciting action or nerve-wracking suspense as well.
    • 13 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Nothing But Trouble
    It’s a good bet a film is in trouble when the highlight comes from seeing John Candy in drag.
    • 12 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Avengers
    What's missing is chemistry: the right blend of seriousness and whimsy, and charmingly compelling interplay between leads Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman.
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