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. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
    With appreciably greater emphasis on action than its predecessors, and clever use of 3-D trickery to enhance storytelling as well as offer spectacle, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs could prove the third time really is the charm.
  2. The Hurt Locker
    Boal's script stirs a little of everything into the pot, which boils down into seven setpieces divided by brief intervals of camaraderie/conflict among the three protags.
  3. My Sister's Keeper
    Unsubtle, uneven and undeniably effective, this take-no-prisoners cancer weepie poses a fascinating moral quandary.
  4. Afghan Star
    Not the slickest or most crowd-pleasing among many recent performance-competition docus, it's nonetheless absorbing for the light it casts on those many Afghanis who want an end to guns and fanaticism, and the return of a social liberalism.
  5. Chéri
    Like a passable bottle of champagne, Cheri fizzes and slides down quite easily but lacks real body and doesn't really hit the spot.
  6. Life Is Hot in Cracktown
    Nowhere near as much fun as its title, playing out like an unusually obtuse episode of "The Wire."
  7. Surveillance
    A mildly amusing trifle with one of the genre's dafter plot twists.
  8. New York
    As the industry reshapes itself, this drama by helmer Kabir Khan -- with its bold, righteous, anti-Bush administration bent -- could cut out a new constituency for a genre usually devoted to purely escapist entertainment.
  9. Quiet Chaos
    Beautifully modulated, fluidly told film expresses pain with warm understatement.
  10. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
    Little seems new compared to the first installment, except that this version is longer, louder, and perhaps "more than your eye can meet" in one sitting.
  11. Whatever Works
    This far-fetched, deliberately artificial game of musical chairs -- in which mismatched characters encircle, attract and repel each other -- feels forced, often losing itself in excess verbiage.
  12. The Proposal
    The Proposal won't catch any bouquets for originality, but in terms of a bended-knee pitch for the affections of women -- including Ryan Reynolds’ boyish charms, a hip granny and even a beyond-adorable puppy -- this romantic comedy pretty much pulls out all the stops.
  13. Year One
    Lacks seismic guffaws but elicits many mild smiles.
  14. $9.99
    A deliberately coarse character style that's more Gumby than Gromit.
  15. Dead Snow
    The pic reveals itself as a horror-action-comedy a la "Evil Dead," with amusing twists of fate and over-the-top gore.
  16. The End of the Line
    In 82 minutes, Murray wrangles enough data to make his point that biology can't keep up with sophisticated fishing technologies and worldwide demand; attacks high-end restaurants such as Nobu for putting endangered species on the menu; praises Alaska as a paragon of responsible fishing.
  17. Under Our Skin
    Takes a creative, humanistic approach that makes the complex material dramatic and visually interesting.
  18. Moon
    Despite its handsome look and good thesping workout for Sam Rockwell, the story stretches a bit thin over feature length.
  19. Food, Inc.
    A civilized horror movie for the socially conscious, the nutritionally curious and the hungry.
  20. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
    More than anything a fascinating portrait of how much New York has changed in 35 years, the film delivers the goods in excitement and big-star charisma.
  21. Imagine That
    An undemandingly pleasant, mildly amusing fantasy.
  22. Call of the Wild
    Alternately jerking the audience's tears and splashing snow in their faces, 3-D indie Call of the Wild loses focus (literally) but gets by on its good-hearted demeanor and a gently sweet turn by white-bearded Christopher Lloyd as the heroine's protective gramps.
  23. Sex Positive
    Daryl Wein's engrossing portrait of Richard Berkowitz is freshly engaging largely due to the subject himself.
  24. Tetro
    When Coppola finds creative nirvana, he frequently has trouble delivering the full goods. Tetro represents something of a middle ground in that respect.
  25. The Hangover
    At once raucously free-wheeling and meticulously contrived, picture satisfies as a boys-gone-wild laff riot that also clicks as a seriocomic beat-the-clock detective story.
  26. Séraphine
    An extraordinary performance by vet thesp Yolande Moreau in the title role.
  27. Away We Go
    Emerges as an oddly sour, unappealing road-trip scenario.
  28. Land of the Lost
    The result is a movie with an exceedingly narrow target audience that should test Will Ferrell's appeal among boys maybe ages 12-14 -- about the only demo likely able to endure this laborious mess.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    My Life in Ruins
    Feels like warmed-over souvlaki.
  30. Downloading Nancy
    On a moment to moment basis, however, picture continuously skirts very close to the ludicrous in its advanced-stage grimness and outre forms of torture foreplay.
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