Variety's Scores

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For 17,779 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: 9,134 out of 17779
  2. Mixed: 7,009 out of 17779
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17779
17779 movie reviews
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  1. Phillip the Fossil
    The edge achieved by director-editor-producer-scribe Garth Donovan is jeopardized by overreaching for topical relevance.
  2. 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.
  3. The Conspirator
    This methodical courtroom drama is charged with impassioned performances and an unimpeachable liberal message. But its stodgy emphasis on telling over showing will limit its reach to Civil War buffs and self-selecting older viewers.
  4. Fly Away
    Exceptional performances by two femme leads and sensitive but unsentimental storytelling throughout.
  5. Footprints
    Exhibits stray instances of intrigue and wit, and makes nostalgic hay with its enshrinement of old-timers Pippa Scott and H.M. Wynant, but ultimately suggests a too-writerly, over-padded "Twilight Zone" episode.
  6. Scream 4
    The picture delivers enough of the expected goods, if seldom with the wit or panache of the series' best.
  7. Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny
    Pic benefits greatly from Ben Kingsley's brilliantly nuanced reading of frankly bombastic narration.
  8. The First Beautiful Thing
    Occasionally affecting but unremarkable, the picture's emotional moments are designed to pluck local heartstrings.
  9. Square Grouper
    Think of it as the cinematic equivalent of a buzz-kill.
  10. Dumbstruck
    It's only natural that audiences should root for such characters to succeed, but since human nature also harbors a mean streak, it's peculiar that Dumbstruck doesn't better exploit the obvious humor of its eccentric subject.
  11. The Double Hour
    Not so much a genre movie as a movie that switches between genres -- and comes out on top.
  12. 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.
  13. They're Out of the Business
    The two still rely on their run-on, Woody Allen-ish interlocking rhythms to smartly propel the desultory plot forward, but after countless mumblecore and slacker indies, the sense of newness is gone.
  14. Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer
    Though initially fascinating, this two-hour travelogue soon becomes repetitive as it forsakes stark desert isolation for icon-festooned churches and overcrowded ceremonies.
  15. The Family Jams
    Jams affords the opportunity to hang with gifted, genre-defying fringe artists at a pivotal point in their evolving careers.
  16. Born to Be Wild
    Sticks faithfully to the giantscreen brand's impress-and-educate formula.
  17. Meeting Spencer
    Brit helmer Malcolm Mowbray's film assumes the constrictions of a stagebound farce, taking place on a single set in real time, and swept along in magisterially broad strokes by Jeffrey Tambor's playfully theatrical perf.
  18. Atlas Shrugged: Part I
    Part one of a trilogy that may never see completion, this hasty, low-budget adaptation would have Ayn Rand spinning in her grave, considering how it violates the author's philosophy by allowing opportunists to exploit another's creative achievement -- in this case, hers.
  19. Rio
    Like its flight-challenged parrot protagonist, Rio takes a while to get off the ground but manages to soar by the end.
  20. 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.
  21. Your Highness
    That skunky smell emanating from Your Highness ain't pot; it's the stink of miscalculation that surrounds an inside joke gone awry.
  22. Arthur
    Even the Brit-wit chemistry of Russell Brand and Helen Mirren can't offset the self-conscious degree to which this tame, calculated effort sticks to its source.
  23. Meek's Cutoff
    Working on a richer and more intricate canvas than she's previously attempted, Kelly Reichardt has pulled off a rare thing with Meek's Cutoff -- a low-budget period Western with a bracing feminist spin.
  24. Henry's Crime
    While the absurdity builds, the intensity never does -- a problem shared by director Malcolm Venville's previous feature, "44 Inch Chest."
  25. Ceremony
    Despite a few grace notes and mildly clever twists, this handsomely produced indie is such a grating turnoff throughout its first third that its minor virtues may be discovered only by insomniac latenight cable viewers.
  26. American: The Bill Hicks Story
    A hagiographic portrait of the standup comic and social satirist who never quite reached beyond cult status in the U.S., American: The Bill Hicks Story might have impressed more of the unconverted had it included more performance footage of its subject.
  27. Blank City
    The major draw of Blank City lies in its generous glimpses of rare, virtually lost Super-8 and 16mm films.
  28. Cat Run
    If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with genre baloney -- and enough shoplifted visual trickery to fill Quentin Tarantino's kitchen sink.
  29. Hop
    Why rock, rather than hip-hop, is anybunny's guess, though either way, the basic overnight-sensation pop-star fantasy will surely appeal to a demographic weaned on "American Idol."
  30. Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead
    With Cross jump-starting others on a liquid road to health, this glorified infomercial could saturate latenight TV after its April 1 bow.
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