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. The Fourth Kind
    Even the most gullible auds will be challenged to buy into the picture, billed as "based on the actual case studies" and, in any case, rendered rather boring by writer-director Olatunde Osunsanmi ("The Cavern").
  2. A Christmas Carol
    Shortchanging traditional animation by literalizing it while robbing actors of their full range of facial expressiveness, the performance-capture technique favored by director Robert Zemeckis looks more than ever like the emperor's new clothes in Disney's A Christmas Carol.
  3. Storm
    A potentially gripping legal thriller about what happens when Western Europe attempts to solve Central European problems ends up as dull entertainment in Storm.
  4. Collapse
    Unnervingly persuasive much of the time, and merely riveting when it's not.
  5. Splinterheads
    Writer-director Brant Sersen's amiable indie comedy -- even less edgy than Greg Mottola's theme-park-set "Adventureland" -- attempts to compensate for its too-familiar romantic setup by defining its characters through idiosyncratic hobbies and traits.
  6. That Evening Sun
    Deliberately paced, richly atmospheric drama also boasts first-rate work by a splendid supporting cast and impressive production values.
  7. The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
    Feels larger in scope yet sorely lacking in originality.
  8. Gentlemen Broncos
    Napoleon Dynamite seems perfectly well-adjusted (not to mention downright charismatic) compared to homeschooled mama's boy Benjamin Purvis in Gentlemen Broncos, the latest oddball character portrait from one-trick helmer Jared Hess.
  9. The House of the Devil
    Call it the best '80s babysitter-in-peril movie never made. The House of the Devil delivers about as much as one could reasonably hope from the not-quite-alone-in-the-house category, with the bonus of authentically re-creating the low-budget look and feel of that era's classic horror entries.
  10. Labor Day
    For every engrossing rank-and-file story, there are endless self-congratulatory explanations and podium highlights.
  11. Looking for Palladin
    Amiable but uneven.
  12. Skin
    One of the more bizarre illustrations of racial injustice under apartheid is dramatized in Skin.
  13. This Is It
    There’s an incredible amount to enjoy here, and the star’s fans will be in rapture.
  14. Antichrist
    Lars von Trier cuts a big fat art-film fart with Antichrist. As if deliberately courting critical abuse, the Danish bad boy densely packs this theological-psychological horror opus with grotesque, self-consciously provocative images.
  15. Amelia
    What rankles most about Amelia is the timidity and lack of imagination with which Nair approaches one of America's most exceptional and intriguing celebrity life stories.
  16. Astro Boy
    Appropriately for a film about robots, efficiency is the primary virtue of Astro Boy, a well-oiled CG-animated superhero pic that makes up in competence and vitality what it lacks in originality.
  17. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
    The Vampire's Assistant is too busy making impossible claims about just how spectacular its sequels will be to serve up a self-contained story with a satisfying finale.
  18. Saw VI
    A film so frighteningly familiar it could well be called "Saw It Already."
  19. Motherhood
    Though pregnant with possibility, Motherhood fails to deliver.
  20. Bam gua nat
    Very Korean in its emotional content, while also preserving a quizzical distance that is quite French, picture is one of his lightest and most easily digestible metaphysical meals to date.
  21. Killing Kasztner
    Frequently cutting away from storylines just before they peak and returning to them too much later, odd editing/structural choices never let the picture build up a satisfying head of steam. Overall look is just slightly better than homevideo.
  22. Rembrandt's J'Accuse...!
    An enthralling docudrama that examines the Dutch master's most famous painting, "The Night Watch," for proof that it was responsible for his dramatic fall from grace.
  23. Where the Wild Things Are
    Director Spike Jonze's sharp instincts and vibrant visual style can't quite compensate for the lack of narrative eventfulness that increasingly bogs down this bright-minded picture.
  24. Law Abiding Citizen
    True torture-porn aficionados will be disappointed, as editor Tariq Anwar cuts away right before blade meets flesh -- a move that feels a tad, well, gutless under the circumstances. But elsewhere, "Citizen" proves startlingly graphic, even by R-rated standards.
  25. New York, I Love You
    The results are, well, formulaic, hobbled by weak dialogue and absent any sense of texture.
  26. Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
    Will have to overcome an unfortunate title and competition from this year's other nutrition-oriented titles, though it's a natural for the crunchy crowd.
  27. The Stepfather
    McCormick's Stepfather boasts a decent script by J.S. Cardone, but it seems to have been made in a bubble, as if nothing had transpired in the world of slasher/horror since the late Donald Westlake ("The Grifters") wrote the much-respected original.
  28. The Little Traitor
    Sentimental and a bit too cute in evoking a child's-eye view, the picture, nevertheless will please its target Jewish auds.
  29. The Maid
    Saavedra is riveting as a servant whose unblinking focus on her routine masks a profound loneliness.
  30. Adela
    Artfully observed, it's content to let Linda be the sole, compelling focal point.
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