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. The Notebook
    A determined and often affecting romance that doesn't speak down to audiences.
  2. The Intended
    Another ferocious perf by Janet McTeer and an atmospheric Malaysian jungle location are nearly lost in the DV muddiness of period drama The Intended.
  3. Time of the Wolf
    Haneke demonstrates profound insight into the essence of human behavior when all humility is pared away, raw panic and despair are the order of the day, and man becomes more like wolf than man.
  4. Two Brothers
    Combo of some stunning animal direction (courtesy of ace trainer Thierry Le Portier) and exotic period setting somewhere in French colonial Indochina charms when the quadripeds stalk the action but creaks when the bipeds open their mouths.
  5. White Chicks
    As lowbrow comedies go, it pretty much delivers.
  6. Fahrenheit 9/11
    Pic fails to provide any hard facts or make any incriminating connections that a reasonably informed person doesn't already know about, so intellectually Moore is largely preaching to the converted in this blatant cinematic 2004 campaign pamphlet.
  7. Ghostlight
    Neither fish nor fowl, slick yet strangely rudderless Ghostlight sounds interesting in description but lacks fascination in actual viewing.
  8. The Hunting of the President
    Content is engrossing (if so fast-paced that uninformed viewers might easily get lost), but packaging is sometimes questionable.
  9. Facing Windows
    Only partially succeeds in interweaving questions of family loyalty with historical memory and the fate of Italian Jews in WW2.
  10. Seducing Doctor Lewis
    Though harmless and amusing, this Quebecois comedy set in an impoverished fishing village is a bit too festooned with provincial humor and a bit too short on memorable perfs or feel-good climaxes to break out commercially beyond French-speaking Canadian territories.
  11. Father and Son
    Irritatingly devoid of irony, the film has an unintentional but unmistakable homoerotic subtext.
  12. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
    Contains interesting ideas, but often those ideas are not fully realized.
  13. The Terminal
    This buoyant, optimistic fable seems to share in the late Ronald Reagan's optimism for America. It does so with the help of a gifted comic ensemble led by Tom Hanks.
  14. What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?
    Pic's not-so-hidden agenda is to promote the fusion of science and New Age religion, making it a close cousin to ventures as Bernt and Fritjof Capra's "Mindwalk."
  15. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
    Gleefully commingles slapstick and scatology, satire and sentiment, in a free-wheeling farce aimed at making auds laugh until they're thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
  16. À cause d'un garçon
    Non-formulaic character interactions, a uniformly strong cast and deft handling by vet TV helmer Fabrice Cazaneuve render a refreshing take on youthful coming-out.
  17. Grand Theft Parsons
    A likably laid-back spin about the bizarre fate of rock 'n' roll legend Gram Parsons' corpse. Inspired by a true story, pic travels down familiar genre highways, but quirky humor and an apt soundtrack make for a pleasant enough journey.
  18. Around the World in 80 Days
    Takes plenty of liberties with the material and never generates much genuine excitement, but provides an agreeable ride without overloading it with contemporary filmmaking mannerisms.
  19. Anonymous
    Although occasionally witty, even with its abundant lashings of sex, both pic and selfish, narcissistic hero grow tiresome over surprisingly brief running time.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    My Sister Maria
    A tender, achingly poignant portrait of the Austrian actress Maria Schell, My Sister Maria is a valentine from her younger brother Maximilian.
  21. Word Wars
    There's a pronounced lack of emotional pay-off that likely will derail any attempts to position Word Wars as an aud-friendly crowd-pleaser with breakout potential comparable to "Spellbound."
  22. Imagining Argentina
    Fails on almost every level…the film only succeeds in trivializing this shameful era.
  23. Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
    Rick McKay's exceptional new documentary Broadway: The Golden Age presents a veritable avalanche of interviews with some of the biggest names in the history of the American theater, preserving for posterity their wise words and disarming anecdotes.
  24. The Chronicles of Riddick
    May not quite gain entry to the hallowed pantheon of interstellar cheese of a "Battlefield Earth," but it's not far behind.
  25. The Stepford Wives
    Another "remake" that merits the title in name only, The Stepford Wives isn't the "troubled" disaster that media reports have suggested it might be, yet nor do its oddly matched parts ever congeal into a fully formed creation.
  26. Garfield
    Only very small children still easily impressed by interaction of human actors and CGI quadrupeds will be amused by Garfield.
  27. Napoleon Dynamite
    An absurdist piece about a rural community of clueless cretins who careen through life like poorly played pinballs, Napoleon Dynamite represents the definition of the comedy of condescension and ridicule.
  28. Imelda
    A balanced, evenhanded film about a subject who has always managed to provoke intemperate reactions.
  29. The Story of the Weeping Camel
    The film spins a beguiling web of detail that builds to a surprisingly throat-clutching finish.
  30. Deadline
    Potent docudocu by Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson makes a strong case against capital punishment by pointing up the fallibility of the justice system, while offering an inspiring portrait of one politico who actually seems guided foremost by conscience.
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