Variety's Scores

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For 17,765 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: 9,125 out of 17765
  2. Mixed: 7,004 out of 17765
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17765
17765 movie reviews
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    • 96 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Red River
    Howard Hawks' production and direction give a masterful interpretation to a story of the early west and the opening of the Chisholm Trail, over which Texas cattle were moved to Abilene to meet the railroad on its march across the country.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Foreign Affair
    While subject is handled for comedy, Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder have managed to underlay the fun with an expose of human frailties and, to some extent, indicate a passive bitterness among the conquered in the occupied areas.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Key Largo
    A tense film thriller has been developed from Maxwell Anderson's play, Key Largo. Emphasis is on tension in the telling, and effective use of melodramatic mood has been used to point up the suspense.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Paradine Case
    The Paradine Case offers two hours and 11 minutes of high dramatics.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
    The comedy team battles it out with the studio's roster of bogeymen in a rambunctious fracas that is funny and, at the same time, spine-tingling. Stalking through the piece to add menace are such characters as the Frankenstein Monster, the Wolf Man and Dracula.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Search
    This simple film was made in the American zone of Germany, principally in and around the rubbled remains of Nuremberg. Only four of its actors are professionals, the others having been recruited on the spot.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Naked City
    Throughout, despite its omniscient, stark melodrama, there has been no sight lost of an element of humor. Barry Fitzgerald, as the film’s focal point, in playing the police lieutenant of the homicide squad, strides through the role with tongue in cheek, with Don Taylor as his young detective aide.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Bishop's Wife
    Henry Koster's sympathetic direction deftly gets over the warm humor supplied by the script, taken from Robert Nathan's novel of the same title.
    • 98 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
    A distinguished work that will take its place in the repertory of Hollywood's great and enduring achievements.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Walk Alone
    I Walk Alone is tight, hard-boiled melodrama.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Road to Rio
    McLeod's direction blends the music and comedy into fast action and sock chuckles that will please followers of the series.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Black Narcissus
    The cast has been well chosen, but Kerr gets only occasional opportunities to reveal her talents.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Out of the Past
    Out of the Past is a hardboiled melodrama [from the novel by Geoffrey Homes] strong on characterization. Direction by Jacques Tourneur pays close attention to mood development, achieving realistic flavor that is further emphasized by real life settings and topnotch lensing by Nicholas Musuraca.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Nightmare Alley
    Nightmare Alley is a harsh, brutal story [based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham] told with the sharp clarity of an etching.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dark Passage
    Lauren Bacall's charm and Humphrey Bogart's ruggedness count heavily in a strange treatment of a murder story, which if it doesn't withstand scrutiny, does sustain mood and interest.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Life with Father
    Irene Dunne and William Powell have captured to a considerable extent the charm of the play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse [based on the book by Clarence Day Jr]. The major humor of the story, based on Father's eccentric characteristics and Mother's continual mollifying of his tantrums, is still evident in the pic.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
    Chuckles get heartier and heartier as adult Grant plays at being a juvenile at basketball games, school picnics, etc. It’s done with slapstick touch that pays off.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shoeshine
    With the shoeshine boys of Rome’s streets as background, this film is a preachment on Italian juvenile delinquency. Producers used real shoeshine boys and the absence of experienced actors works out okay. Scenes in Rome’s jail emphasize the need for drastic reforms there.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Brute Force
    A closeup on prison life and prison methods, Brute Force is a showmanly mixture of gangster melodramatics, sociological exposition, and sex [from a story by Robert Patterson].
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Miracle on 34th Street
    So you don't believe in Santa Claus? If you want to stay a non-believer don't see Miracle.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Great Expectations
    Only rabid Dickensians will find fault with the present adaptation, and paradoxically only lovers of Dickens will derive maximum pleasure from the film.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Yearling
    Heart-warming story of good earth, family ties and the love of the 11-year-old Jody Baxter for the faun which he is compelled to put out of his life as it becomes a yearling.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Egg and I
    Shortcoming is in an evenness of treatment – partially in the writing but more importantly in Erskine’s direction – that fails to suck the drama out of the situations presented in the book.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Odd Man Out
    Carol Reed has made his film with deliberation and care, and has achieved splendid teamwork from every member of the cast. Occasionally too intent on pointing his moral and adorning his tale, he has missed little in its telling.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    It's a Wonderful Life
    Frank Capra and James Stewart, in returning to films after long years in uniform, endow the pic with its most telling contributions. Herewith, Stewart touches the thespic peak of his career. He hasn’t lost a whit of his erstwhile boyish personality (when called to turn it on) and further shows a maturity and depth he seems recently to have acquired.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dead Reckoning
    Humphrey Bogart's typically tense performance raises this average whodunit quite a few notches. Film has good suspense and action, and some smart direction and photography.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Best Years of Our Lives
    One of the best pictures of our lives.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I Know Where I'm Going!
    I Know Where I'm Going! has all the values of a documentary as a foundation for the tale of a girl who is sure she knows where she is going until she gets sidetracked - and likes it.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Angel on My Shoulder
    Rains shines as the Devil, shading the character with a likeable puckishness good for both sympathy and chuckles. Anne Baxter is excellent as the troubled fiancee.
    • 100 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Notorious
    Production and directorial skill of Alfred Hitchcock combine with a suspenseful story and excellent performances to make Notorious force entertainment.
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