Variety's Scores

Select another publication »
For 17,791 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: 9,139 out of 17791
  2. Mixed: 7,015 out of 17791
  3. Negative: 1,637 out of 17791
17791 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2
    Part 2 has the bonus of a livelier Stewart performance than fans have been accustomed to. No longer a mopey, lower-lip-biting emo girl, this Bella is twitchy, feral, formidable and fully energized, a goddess even among her exalted bloodsucker brethren.
  2. Cowboys & Aliens
    While Cowboys & Aliens offers little in the way of sociological insight (except perhaps giving the white man a taste of his own resource-stealing medicine), it's still a ripping good ride.
  3. The Help
    A stirring black-empowerment tale aimed squarely at white audiences, The Help personalizes the civil rights movement through the testimony of domestic servants working in Jackson, Miss., circa 1963.
  4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    As classy a film as could be made from Stieg Larsson's sordid page-turner, David Fincher's much-anticipated return to serial-killer territory is a fastidiously grim pulp entertainment that plays like a first-class train ride through progressively bleaker circles of hell.
  5. The Amazing Spider-Man
    A mostly slick, entertaining and emotionally involving recombination of fresh and familiar elements.
  6. Crazy, Stupid, Love
    Old-fashioned as that might sound, there's a fresh, insightful feel to this multigenerational love story.
  7. Warrior
    An improbably effective and affecting mix of raw emotions and exciting smackdowns.
  8. Hobo with a Shotgun
    One must grudgingly admire director Jason Eisener's willingness to go over the top and beyond, and the film certainly delivers what it promises.
  9. Arthur Christmas
    Arthur Christmas embraces this unconditional faith and rewards it with creative explanations and a brisk computer-animated adventure clever enough to become essential yuletide viewing.
  10. The Grandmaster
    Venturing into fresh creative terrain without relinquishing his familiar themes and stylistic flourishes, Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai exceeds expectations with The Grandmaster, fashioning a 1930s action saga into a refined piece of commercial filmmaking.
  11. Midnight in Paris
    Like a swoony lost chapter from "Paris, je t'aime" agreeably extended to feature length.
  12. Margin Call
    J.C. Chandor's precocious writing-directing debut is fastidious, smart and more than a bit portentous as it probes the human costs of unchecked greed.
  13. The Deep Blue Sea
    Davies is in fine form here, with luminous performances, especially from Rachel Weisz, rounding out a classy package whose only major problem is it may be a bit too true to its period sensibility and legit origins.
  14. Take This Waltz
    Despite a few tonal and structural missteps, this intelligent, perceptive drama proves as intimately and gratifyingly femme-focused as Polley's 2006 debut, "Away From Her."
  15. I Saw the Devil
    Repugnant content, grislier than the ugliest torture porn, ought to have made the film unwatchable, but it doesn't, simply because Kim's picture is so beautifully filmed, carefully structured and viscerally engaging.
  16. The Desert of Forbidden Art
    Absorbing documentary is a natural for artscasters.
  17. Incendies
    Incendies vaults Denis Villeneuve to the status of serious director.
  18. Nostalgia for the Light
    Part of the beauty of Nostalgia is that the many metaphors and surprising parallels between the universe, archaeology and Chile’s recent past rise organically from the material.
  19. Bill Cunningham New York
    Rarely has anyone embodied contradictions as happily and harmoniously as octogenarian New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham.
  20. Queen to Play
    Like Sebastian Silva's "The Maid," Queen posits a radically different approach to class and gender empowerment.
  21. Tyrannosaur
    Brit thesp Paddy Considine makes a strong writing-helming feature debut with Tyrannosaur, recycling the same cast, characters and setup he used for his 2008 award-winning short "Dog Altogether."
  22. Monsters University
    Even when the story mechanics feel more than a bit secondhand, the exquisite interplay of vibrant pastel hues and almost photorealist textures (smoothly but not crucially enhanced in 3D) makes the film a continual pleasure to behold.
  23. The Avengers
    Like a superior, state-of-the-art model built from reconstituted parts, Joss Whedon's buoyant, witty and robustly entertaining superhero smash-up is escapism of a sophisticated order.
  24. Brave
    Brave offers a tougher, more self-reliant heroine for an era in which princes aren't so charming, set in a sumptuously detailed Scottish environment where her spirit blazes bright as her fiery red hair.
  25. Thunder Soul
    Mark Landsman's spirited Thunder Soul offers a heaping helping of uplift while documenting the past triumphs and recent reunion of a predominantly black Houston high school's singularly accomplished jazz stage band.
  26. Project Nim
    A provocative and surprisingly emotional saga that ranges from wrenching to downright hilarious as it spans more than a quarter-century of unpredictable twists, "Nim" reaches far beyond mere scientific curiosity to become compelling human drama.
  27. The Elephant in the Living Room
    Audiences can't possibly predict the upsetting twist to Landry's story, nor the welcome surprise that precedes it, but these two scenes -- both of which Webber was fortunate enough to capture on camera -- are documentary gold.
  28. The Family Jams
    Jams affords the opportunity to hang with gifted, genre-defying fringe artists at a pivotal point in their evolving careers.
  29. Armadillo
    If nothing else, Armadillo proves just how well "The Hurt Locker" captured the mixture of boredom, fear, brutality and locker-room machismo that makes up the day-to-day routine of a frontline soldier.
  30. The Princess of Montpensier
    There's no subtextual allusion really to contempo France or civil wars elsewhere in the world today, just the feeling that this is an interesting story in its own right, fascinating precisely because it's so at odds with modern sensibilities.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »