Variety's Scores

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:
17777 movie reviews
  1. Crowd-pleasing, darkly comic joyride.
  2. Punchy dialogue, excellent thesping and a real feel for the universal tuning fork of great classical music make this a prime candidate for international arthouse play.
  3. A sunny and sassy comedy that somehow manages to breathe fresh life into familiar stereotypes and stock situations.
  4. Glacial in its pacing but beautifully, mournfully evocative of its subjects' ethnic/psychic exile.
  5. A wild, intensely cinematic ride into two men's burning desire to get even.
  6. If only as much thought went into the script for this listless comedy as its marketing calculus.
  7. Well-wrought individual scenes and sharply focused acting provide Rebecca Miller's third feature with a measure of gravity, but too much abrupt, even melodramatic behavior and undigested psychological matter leave nagging dissatisfactions.
  8. Smart assembly of terrific archive footage is matched by spirited interviews with the tough old broads today.
  9. An amiable, but cluttered dramedy.
  10. Lame and inoffensive.
  11. Consistently fascinating material provides an uncommonly eloquent, provocative statement against globalization that's sure to stimulate thinking audiences.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Manages to be at once historically elucidating and personally compelling.
  12. The most sparkling aspect to Ice Princess is Juliana Cannarozzo, a real-life, nationally ranked skater.
  13. Half-intriguing, half-tedious.
  14. Radha Mitchell stirs memories of complex Allen heroines from Annie Hall on down, even if the action is dispersed via a larger ensemble cast which he currently favors.
  15. Schizo manages to keep it fresh.
  16. Dry storytelling and boy's-toys mechanics will stop this from being the next "Spirited Away"-style crossover hit.
  17. Instead of using its hot-button issues as a present-day hook, sticks with a 19th century mindset which it accompanies with elegant turn-of-the-century decors.
  18. Dexterously scripted, darkly humorous.
  19. The highly directed film adopts a semi-impressionistic approach more European than British in flavor, aided by a terrific central performance by Kevin McKidd and painterly lensing by John Rhodes.
  20. A numbingly pretentious approach to a moldy premise -- a handful of strangers interacting amid rubble in wake of WWIII.
  21. What sends this initially tense thriller over the precipice is a plot scheme that never knows when enough is enough.
  22. It's meant as high praise to say that, very early in Robots, the extraordinary starts to seem perfectly ordinary.
  23. Increasingly exhibits a desire to amuse and distract rather than go deep, which ultimately generates disappointment in light of its announced intentions.
  24. Maintains a bankable charm and innocence even when overdrawn on the special effects side.
  25. An unquestionably sincere but dramatically stillborn outing by veteran John Boorman.
  26. This black comedy on the making of a documentary about mail-order wives finally breaks down under the weight of its twists and turns, but mostly maintains a creepy fascination with its scuzzy characters.
  27. Given a lift by its folksy soundtrack of toe-tapping Ceili dance tunes, the film is handsomely produced and engaging enough, but never more than that due to a weak dramatic arc and soft conflicts in Nicholas Adams' script and to John Irvin's functional direction.
  28. In his second outing as a director, top thesp Sergio Castellitto (also playing the surgeon) takes the viewer on an emotion-filled ride and brings a violently masculine perspective to the story. However, it is Penelope Cruz who gives the film's knockout performance.
  29. But behind its slick veneer and the glibness of its preposterous premise and dark twists, there's a yawning absence of charm or substance in this London-set love triangle, as well as a lack of chemistry between its three leads.

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