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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  1. Strictly Ballroom
    Within the confines of this tried-and-true formula, Luhrmann has concocted a feel-good entertainment, which is lively, original (in an old-fashioned sort of way) and charming.
  2. Philadelphia
    On a scene-by-scene basis, in terms of performance and the grave issues under consideration, the film is quite absorbing.
  3. Truly Madly Deeply
    This sharply scripted study of a bereaved woman who literally wishes her partner back from the grave is an impressive directorial bow by British playwright Anthony Minghella. Despite surface similarities with Ghost pic has a different feel and theme.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ragtime
    The page-turning joys of E.L. Doctorow's bestselling Ragtime, which dizzily and entertainingly charted a kaleidoscopic vision of a turn-of-century America in the midst of intense social change, have been realized almost completely in Milos Forman's superbly crafted screen adaptation.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
    Almodovar's inventive direction, superb lensing by Jose Luis Alcaine, a fine score by Ennio Morricone and top technical credits make pic a pleasure to watch.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Bostonians
    This is a classy adaptation of a Henry James novel.
  7. Maurice
    Maurice, based on a posthumously published novel by E.M. Forster, is a well-crafted pic on the theme of homosexuality.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mr. & Mrs. Bridge
    Mr. & Mrs. Bridge is an affecting study of an uppercrust Midwestern family in the late 1930s.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Dead Zone
    David Cronenberg turns The Dead Zone into an accomplished psychological thriller.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Scanners
    Scanners offers at least one literally eye-popping moment and another that can only be called mind-blowing.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
    This often hilarious, irreverent and offbeat comedy is the most coherent young Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar has limned thus far.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Year of Living Dangerously
    Here is an astonishing feat of acting by New Yorker Linda Hunt, cast by Weir because he could not locate a short male actor to fit the bill. A bizarre, yet touching, romantic triangle develops between Gibson, Hunt, and Sigourney Weaver as a British Embassy official.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Silverado
    Rather than relying on legendary heroes of Westerns past, writer-director Lawrence Kasdan with his brother Mark have used their special talent to create a slew of human scale characters against a dramatic backdrop borrowing from all the conventions of the genre.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Gallipoli
    Peter Weir's Gallipoli tackles a legend in human terms and emerges as a highly entertaining drama on a number of levels, none of them inaccessible to anyone unfamiliar with the actual events.
  15. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
    A cheerfully vulgar and bitchy, but essentially warmhearted, road movie with a difference, which boasts an amazing star turn by Terence Stamp as a transsexual, Stephan Elliott's second feature is a lot of fun.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Purple Rain
    Playing a character rooted in his own background, and surrounded by the real-life members of his Minneapolis-based musical 'family,' rock star Prince makes an impressive feature film debut in Purple Rain, a rousing contemporary addition to the classic backstage musical genre.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Terms of Endearment
    Teaming of Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson at their best makes Terms of Endearment an enormously enjoyable offering for Christmas, adding bite and sparkle when sentiment and seamlessness threatens to sink other parts of the picture.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Scarface
    Scarface is a grandiose modern morality play, excessive, broad and operatic at times.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Trading Places
    Trading Places is a light romp geared up by the schtick shifted by Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy.
  20. Henry Fool
    Poetic, bawdy, contemplative, often side-wrenchingly funny and finally quite touching, this tale about a nerdy garbage man whose life is changed by an egocentric hobo philosopher is flawed only by its length.
  21. Amateur
    Just as quirky and idiosyncratic as the Gotham-based writer-director's earlier efforts, this one pushes the spiky humor a bit more to the fore while unfolding a tale loaded with offbeat oppositions and odd character detailing.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Silkwood
    A very fine biographical drama.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Sabrina
    A slick blend of heart and chuckles makes Sabrina a sock romantic comedy.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Lethal Weapon 2
    Loaded with the usual elements, Lethal Weapon 2 benefits from a consistency of tone that was lacking in the first film. This time, screenwriter Jeffrey Boam and director Richard Donner have wisely trained their sights on humor and the considerable charm of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover's onscreen rapport.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Air America
    Spectacular action sequences and engaging performances by Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr make this big-budgeter entertaining and provocative.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    JFK
    Oliver Stone's JFK is electric muckraking filmmaking.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    What About Bob?
    Bill Murray finds a real showcase for his oft-shackled talent in this manic comedy.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
    Action dwells upon the misadventures of the pair as they pursue the outlaw trail, but more importantly, packs the type of fast movement the title indicates.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Love Story
    It is generally successful on all artistic levels, propelled by the best-selling Erich Segal novel written from the original screenplay.
  30. Traveller
    The film shrewdly humanizes its protagonists to the point where the audience forgets their identity and roots for them to succeed - and survive.
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