Variety's Scores

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For 17,777 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: 9,133 out of 17777
  2. Mixed: 7,008 out of 17777
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17777
17777 movie reviews
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  1. A League of Ordinary Gentlemen
    Chris Browne's sense of humor captures perfectly the contradictions, absurdities and drama at the intersection of class, media, money and sports without dissing any of his player/subjects.
  2. The Fearless Freaks
    Will please devotees without attracting many, if any, new converts.
  3. Saving Face
    The film's appealing characters and amusing situations prevail over its general shortage of energy.
  4. A Common Thread
    Thoughtful cross-generational portrait is full of familiar building blocks rendered fresh by first time feature helmer Eleonore Faucher.
  5. Genesis
    Eye-poppingly intimate footage of various critters evolving from the fetal stage or eating, strolling, fighting and courting that can only be obtained via infinite patience with special equipment in exotic locations.
  6. Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist
    Result is hardly a diabolical failure, if not quite a heavenly masterpiece. Schrader's intelligent, quietly subversive pic emphasizes spiritual agony over horror ecstasy, while paying occasional lip-service to the need for scares.
  7. Fixing Frank
    Full of bold dramatic strokes and complex character shadings.
  8. Second Best
    While Second Best is mildly engaging thanks largely to an appealingly self-effacing turn from Joe Pantoliano, writer-director Eric Weber's script could have used an extra polish or two.
  9. 2009: Lost Memories
    More often a noirish action drama, a melancholy meditation on history and nationalism, than the high-tech thriller promised by its hype and artwork.
  10. 6ixtynin9
    The film goes more and more off-kilter, with its jumble of black comedy and bloodshed and its mild-mannered protagonist embroiled in violent crime making it an unsophisticated foray into Coen brothers territory.
  11. Stolen Childhoods
    In its reliance on emotionally loaded voiceover and its disconcertingly direct appeals for support, Len Morris' old-fashioned docu seems more designed for fund-raising pitches than theatrical release.
  12. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
    Emerges as the best in the overall series since "The Empire Strikes Back."
  13. Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire
    The overall effect makes for a far more resonant film than that offered by concurrent narrative feature "Hotel Rwanada."
  14. Mindhunters
    Ridiculous would-be thriller.
  15. Kicking & Screaming
    An immensely likable, funny comedy that finds a novel approach to that familiar combo of kids and sports.
  16. Monster-in-Law
    Shrill, undermotivated, feature-length catfight.
  17. Unleashed
    Slick transitions and punchy pace leave just enough time for Hopkins and Freeman to make dopey dialogue sound far smarter than it is. And as both pit bull and puppy dog, Jet Li convinces.
  18. Mad Hot Ballroom
    Perky and effortlessly smooth.
  19. My Mother
    Director Christophe Honore's respectable, tightly coiled, but ultimately unrewarding adaptation of Georges Bataille's posthumous novel.
  20. Layer Cake
    There's a proper lived-in believability about Layer Cake's depiction of how the worlds of the rich, the criminal and the criminally rich intersect.
  21. Kings & Queen
    This enjoyable French pic welds together drama, melodrama and comedy.
  22. Lost
    Schlocky yet resourceful.
  23. Modigliani
    Can't overcome a didactic script.
  24. Tell Them Who You Are
    A compelling look at the great cinematographer Haskell Wexler by his photojournalist son Mark.
  25. Crash
    The tense drama eventually becomes off-putting when it becomes clear almost every scene hinges on an unpleasant or ugly racial interaction.
  26. House of Wax
    Direly predictable, with candle-drip pacing and a pervasive unpleasantness.
  27. Kingdom of Heaven
    Genuinely spectacular and historically quite respectable, Ridley Scott's latest epic is at its strongest in conveying the savagery spawned by fanaticism.
  28. Fighting Tommy Riley
    The winner by a knockout is Eddie Jones...Without Jones, pic is a standard drama on the sweet science with the usual tropes and a slight tweak on the usual conflicts.
  29. Jiminy Glick in Lalawood
    Too often depends on salty, adolescent one-liners that provide shock value guffaws but grow cumulatively wearisome.
  30. Mysterious Skin
    By turns spiky and lyrical, this unsettling drama will be anathema to many audiences, but is bound to be a provocative, talked-about release.
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