Variety's Scores

For 17,782 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:
17782 movie reviews
  1. What Away From Her achieves is quite admirable-- a low-key, intelligent setting for performances marked by those same qualities.
  2. A sense of strain envelops the proceedings this time around. One can feel the effort required to suit up one more time, come up with fresh variations on a winning formula and inject urgency into a format that basically needs to be repeated and, due to audience expectations, can't be toyed with or deepened very much.
  3. The result is dull and lifeless.
  4. Unfolding largely within the confines of a single apartment complex, the well-structured scenario is arresting but ill-served by an overly fussy visual treatment from helmer Jeff Renfroe, while Peter Krause's increasingly psychotic performance as an amateur snoop frequently threatens to cross the line between forceful and off-putting.
  5. A brave but doomed attempt to revive the art of pure physical comedy, the willfully eccentric, practically dialogue-free, Iceberg sets itself a high standard with an opening 15 minutes of the most delicious slapstick, but thereafter only a few moments of gentle surrealism and the occasional poetic image justify the ride, with only 10% of the pic's potential laughs evident above the surface.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Uneven but quite pleasant as a two-hour experience that acknowledges the idealized Paris people carry in their heads while wisely veering off the beaten track.
  6. This offbeat charmer succumbs to the same airless artificiality that has claimed many recent efforts in the genre.
  7. Lovingly rendered talking-heads effort puts emphasis on basic tenets on basic human connection, not on sexual orientation or social attitudes.
  8. While aspects verge on sitcom terrain, this tale of a pregnant small-town woman caught between a bad marriage and a risky affair is mostly as funny and charming as intended.
  9. Never obtains the full impact of its potentially powerful inner core.
  10. Picture aims for nonstop thrill ride, but for all its brainless brawn, it has plenty of stops and few real thrills.
  11. That rare mystery in which auds know everything upfront and the characters, rather than investigating, simply wait for the culprit to turn herself in. Previously adapted as Swedish thriller "Den Osynlige," Mick Davis' script brings out director David S. Goyer's emo side.
  12. An inauspicious feature debut for director Harv Glazer and all three scenarists, the "Big"-meets-breakdancing comedy will be kickin' it to ancillary by swimsuit season.
  13. What starts out as a mildly diverting thriller blows itself to smithereens in the final reel.
  14. Boosted by a delish performance from Carrie-Anne Moss as a local vamp who helps unthaw the Englishman, but holed beneath the waterline by a gratingly miscast Sigourney Weaver as the persnickety autistic.
  15. Some general viewers may feel let down by the relatively scant action.
  16. A movie so unrepentantly French that viewers who enjoy truly Gallic pics can start (tastefully) salivating now.
  17. Trite, sententious and generally unfunny.
  18. Far too aggressively seamy (and ferociously foul-mouthed) to please diehard fans of traditional sagebrush sagas, this misfire offers nothing in the way of wit, innovation or even marquee allure to interest auds accustomed to edgier revisionist oaters.
  19. This intermittently effective thriller serves as a rickety vehicle for its two perfectly cast leads, working better as a slow-thawing two-hander than as a chilly ghost story.
  20. Basically "Diner" in wading boots, it feels very familiar in conceit and unadventurous in execution, but offers the undeniable pleasures of a well-observed, well-played modest seriocomedy.
  21. Sensitively and methodically tells the story of the first U.S. soldier killed in the 2003 Iraq invasion.
  22. Despite engaging performances from a cast led by Matthew Rhys and Kate Ashfield and pro direction by first-timer Richard Janes, yarn about art grifters lacks real snap, which ultimately stems from the so-so script and lack of real coin.
  23. A frequently mesmerizing if exceedingly strange coming-of-age odyssey.
  24. Zoo
    A breathtakingly original nonfiction work by Seattle-based filmmaker Robinson Devor (whose "Police Beat" was among the highlights of Sundance's 2005 dramatic competition).
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Distinguished by intelligence, wit and violence but is lightly wounded by some ill-fitting moments.
  25. A sustained genre parody that's equally funny but (maybe in deference to the genre) much more pumped up.
  26. At the risk of spoiling anything, Vacancy, is one strange movie. It ends so precipitously, one can only assume it's a setup for the sequel (which, given all that happens, seems a mite unlikely).
  27. An absorbing legal thriller that can't help but taste like exquisitely reheated leftovers.
  28. A strong cast struggles valiantly to rise above Lifetime material in In the Land of Women, an appealingly scruffy if overly programmatic drama.

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