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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    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Raise Your Voice
    Duff makes an engaging heroine, but her immaculately coifed blonde locks and undiminished lip gloss remind viewers just how much of a star vehicle this actually is.
  2. The Child I Never Was
    Though Pieck is to be admired for the rigorousness in telling this chilling story (on what looks like a near zero budget), the film itself remains resolutely unlikable.
  3. Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate
    Unmistakably sympathetic but mostly even-handed documentary.
  4. Arna's Children
    Must-see docu penetrates a Jenin refugee camp to follow several Palestinian children from laughing little kids in a theater group to grim actors on a grislier world stage.
  5. The Card Player
    Argento fans lusting for a classy slasher movie of the "Suspiria"/"Opera" variety are headed for a disappointing rendezvous with an old-fashioned police thriller, upgraded by serious actors in the main roles.
  6. Tarnation
    Getting so close to real-life mental illness, via footage that spans many years, renders Tarnation a uniquely potent experience.
  7. Taxi
    Commits any number of comedic violations during an aimless pursuit of laughs.
  8. Tying the Knot
    A lively, cogent documentary, Tying the Knot fortuitously examines same-sex marriage at precisely the moment the issue is making headlines all over.
  9. Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry
    Butler is in no way a hot-headed or contentious piece of agit-prop, unlike so many other election year documentaries; like Kerry himself, the film speaks to the mind, not the emotions.
  10. Woman Thou Art Loosed
    Notable for Kimberly Elise's ferocious lead performance and for the bigscreen exposure pic affords the charismatic Bishop T.D. Jakes, who plays himself and upon whose works the film is based.
  11. Dig!
    The terrific DIG! offers a unique chance to watch two classic rock band scenarios unfold simultaneously.
  12. Shark Tale
    With the combination of mobster characters and heavily R&B, hip-hop and disco/soul tune orientation of the soundtrack, pic has a more streetwise feel than most animated fare, which is not to say that it has street smarts.
  13. I Heart Huckabees
    Clever but distancing, this existential comedy bounces along on the backs of its tasty cast, witty writing and stylistic verve.
  14. Ladder 49
    It plays, rather, like an old-fashioned, by-the-numbers drama that solidly connects with most of its well-worn cliches.
  15. The Cloud of Unknowing
    In service of an eerie Japanese ghost story, the spooky atmospherics prove surprisingly compelling.
  16. The Yes Men
    Sometimes feels like an extended pilot for a smarty-pants broadcast series in the tradition of Michael Moore's "Awful Truth" and "TV Nation" skeins.
  17. Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed
    Solid, straightforward docu should prove a durable broadcast and educational item for years to come.
  18. Blissfully Yours
    A rare example of indie filmmaking produced outside the Thai studio system, Blissfully Yours takes the good-humored nonsense of director Apichatpong Weeasethakul's first feature, "Mysterious Object at Noon," several steps further into the realm of non-communicative minimalism.
  19. The Raspberry Reich
    This ostensible spoof of "radical chic" is, like his previous works, at once amusingly outrageous and slightly dull.
  20. First Daughter
    There are stiff politicians and there are stiff political movies, but the rigidity of the White House-based fairy tale that is First Daughter is in a category even pollsters may have a hard time assessing.
  21. A Dirty Shame
    Frequently hilarious but ultimately is a protracted one-joke affair that strays into undisciplined chaos.
  22. Rick
    A noxious little tale of Wall Street types whose amorality knows no limit, Rick takes smarmy knowingness to ludicrous extremes.
  23. Mind the Gap
    Warm-hearted but clear-eyed indie effort richly repays audience patience during deliberately paced and provocatively allusive early scenes with a cumulative emotional impact that is immensely satisfying.
  24. The Last Shot
    Contains most of the elements of a "Get Shorty"-type romp without the character depth and wit.
  25. The Forgotten
    A spare, streamlined thriller for the conspiracy-minded, Area 51 crowd, The Forgotten perhaps wisely leaves more questions than it answers and for the most part manages to maintain its suspense.
  26. Infernal Affairs
    Pic is superbly honed at both script and performance levels, with character taking precedence over action.
  27. Shaun of the Dead
    A classic example of a clever idea that could easily have run out of steam halfway. However, co-scripters Pegg and Wright structure it as a classic three-acter (set-up, journey, finale) with enough twists, character development and small set pieces to keep the comedy boiling.
  28. Anatomy of Hell
    Compact, ultra-explicit two-character pic about what transpires when a beautiful straight woman hires a handsome gay man to "look" at her is gloriously mannered, proudly pretentious and undeniably compelling.
  29. The Motorcycle Diaries
    This intelligently made picture is artful but not arty, political without being didactic.
  30. September Tapes
    Gritty, engaging.
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