Variety's Scores

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For 17,786 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: 9,137 out of 17786
  2. Mixed: 7,013 out of 17786
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17786
17786 movie reviews
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    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Herod's Law
    Provocative, well-shot and vastly entertaining in its malice.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
    A worthy sequel to "Star Wars," equal in both technical mastery and characterization, suffering only from the familiarity with the effects generated in the original and imitated too much by others.
  3. Spy Game
    Serves up a judicious blend of showy action, political intrigue, ticking-clock suspense and intramural CIA one-upsmanship for mainstream entertainment.
  4. Blind Shaft
    Has a low-key power that comes as much from its off-handed approach to the dark material as from any manipulative techniques.
  5. Deconstructing Harry
    A tremendous, stellar cast is mostly confined to minor roles, but all shine under Allen's assured direction.
  6. Goya in Bordeaux
    Feverish, elegant movie.
  7. Runaway Bride
    The central idea is quite clever and appealing, and that the charm meter is turned up all the way.
  8. Next Stop Wonderland
    Low on plot but high on charm and personality, Next Stop Wonderland is a sly, hand-crafted indie that is very alive and attentive to its characters' feelings and foibles.
  9. American Wedding
    The funny stuff continues for a quite satisfying conclusion during the wedding prep and ceremonies, which Stifler single-handedly transforms into his own personal gross-out comedy masterpiece.
  10. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
    Pic itself is a long haul, at nearly 2½ hours; yet one needn't be a fan of Metallica or heavy metal to be engrossed throughout.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Night and the City (re-release)
    Jules Dassin, in his direction, manages extraordinarily interesting backgrounds, realistically filmed to create a feeling both of suspense and mounting menace.
  12. Lost Boys of Sudan
    A potent, engrossing look at several young refugees from Sudan's disastrous, endless civil war who've been relocated to the U.S.
  13. About Schmidt
    Films exist for different reasons, and the indisputable raison d'etre for About Schmidt is to showcase Jack Nicholson giving a master class in the art of screen acting.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Braveheart
    The sort of massive vanity piece that would be easy to disparage if it didn't essentially deliver.
  15. Clerks
    A randy, irreverent, slice-of-life no-budgeter that's played for laughs and gets them.
  16. Dudley Do-Right
    One of the summer's more pleasant surprises. A silly bit of tiptop tomfoolery with cross-generational appeal.
  17. In the Bedroom
    Beautifully acted by a diverse ensemble, this Good Machine production is carefully crafted and deliberately paced.
  18. Mostly Martha
    A charming relationships comedy about food, gourmet cooking and emotionally chilling out. Anchored by a career-best performance from German thesp Martina Gedeck.
  19. Narc
    A darkly textured, powerfully suspenseful genre piece.
  20. Shanghai Knights
    A hugely entertaining and more lavishly mounted follow-up to 2000's "Shanghai Noon," the high-concept East-meets-Western that first teamed top-billed duo, pic rides even taller in the saddle as a fleet and funny crowd-pleaser.
  21. Mind the Gap
    Warm-hearted but clear-eyed indie effort richly repays audience patience during deliberately paced and provocatively allusive early scenes with a cumulative emotional impact that is immensely satisfying.
  22. Notting Hill
    Has buckets to spare of that rarest screen commodity — genuine, engaging charm.
    • Variety
  23. Selena
    Although Nava's screenplay hits the subject of every scene right on the head and doesn't ask for much subtlety or subtext, Lopez is wonderful to watch in the dramatic sequences as well as in the numerous musical interludes.
  24. Love and Death on Long Island
    This is arguably Hurt's best role in years, and he bites into it with relish, managing to seem both manipulative and vulnerable, dour and droll at the same time.
  25. The Corporation
    A surprisingly cogent, entertaining, even rabble-rousing indictment of perhaps the most influential institutional model for our era.
  26. Behind the Sun
    Consummately crafted and stunningly shot in magnificent locations deep in Brazil's remote northeastern badlands, the film unapologetically courts the commercial curve of the international arthouse arena with its rustic exotica and sensory overload of poetic imagery, giving it something of a grandiose air.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    On the Waterfront
    Under Elia Kazan's direction, Marlon Brando puts on a spectacular show, giving a fascinating, multi-faceted performance.
  28. Open Range
    An intensely scenic, refreshingly humanistic oater that dares to be sincere and open-hearted.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man
    Tech elements, including music, lensing, costumes and production design are blazingly impressive and strikingly evocative on all levels.
  30. Sling Blade
    Marked by some powerful scenes, fine performances and colorful dialogue, this talented directorial debut by actor-writer Billy Bob Thornton has its effectiveness diluted by serious overlength and a rather monotonous, unmodulated tone.
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