Variety's Scores

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For 17,771 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 2.5 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: 9,130 out of 17771
  2. Mixed: 7,005 out of 17771
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17771
17771 movie reviews
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  1. The Code
    Gallic gangster actioner fuses many disparate generic and stylistic conventions, but, although script by co-star Samy Naceri's brother was purportedly pared down from several hundred pages, it still bears the weight of its pretensions.
  2. The Seagull's Laughter
    A sprightly, enjoyable comedy-drama from veteran Agust Gudmundsson that's buoyed by a raft of excellent distaff performances.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (re-released)
    It takes nerve to make a pic in which all dialog is sung. Also, there is no dancing and this is not a filmed operetta or opera. [review of original release]
  4. Love Object
    While the premise has possibilities for some creepy, pulpy fun, writer-director Robert Parigi brings too little style or humor, instead going a more obvious, overwrought route.
  5. 50 First Dates
    Schneider hams it up as a paunchy middle-aged Hawaiian stoner in an eyebrow-raising ethnic caricature that more than once calls to mind Mickey Rooney's unfortunate Japanese turn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
  6. Robot Stories
    Greg Pak understands the short form well, mercifully avoiding blatant O'Henry twists while pulling off neat reversals of expertly set-up genre expectations.
  7. Highwaymen
    Lean, mean and stripped for speed, Highwaymen fires on all cylinders as an edgy and unnerving road-kill thriller.
  8. An Amazing Couple
    The briefest of the three pics, it's also the least successful, suggesting that this kind of character-driven comedy isn't the genre with which Belvaux is most comfortable. Still, there are delightful sequences and ideas and the film carries a great deal more substance and resonance when placed alongside the other two in the series.
  9. Osama
    Apart from its historical interest, this tragic tale of religious extremism and misogyny is a very good film able to catch audiences up emotionally.
  10. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
    Affectionate spoof merits appreciation as a not-so-dumb salute to another era's ultra-dumb genre conventions.
  11. Miracle
    Key to drama's success is the artful underplaying by Kurt Russell in the lead role of Herb Brooks.
  12. Barbershop 2: Back in Business
    A less raucous and more serious-minded neighborhood comedy than its entertaining predecessor.
  13. Catch That Kid
    Feels like a prolonged episode of "Power Rangers" minus the colorful costumes. Whatever charm the original had was clearly lost in translation, resulting in a tedious exercise that 6- to 10-year-olds may find mildly diverting.
  14. The Return
    Constructed like an eerie, metaphorical thriller, this tense, riveting character study offers viewers nearly two hours of emotions with a stunning pay-off no one will be expecting.
  15. The Dreamers
    The whole spirit of rebellion, passion and protest that should be a driving force for the characters plays more like a cultivated affectation.
  16. Blind Shaft
    Has a low-key power that comes as much from its off-handed approach to the dark material as from any manipulative techniques.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Golden Age
    Bunuel's anger at society, particularly its attitude on morality, seems not only dated today, but laugh provoking. [Review is of a 1964 screening at Lincoln Center, NY, first showing of pic in the US.]
  18. On the Run
    Fluid camerawork, a resonant music score and tightly wound editing combine to produce a superior suspense film with a conclusion that is somewhat reminiscent of the final acts of Robert Altman's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and of Joseph Losey's "The Criminal."
  19. The Perfect Score
    Energetic, smarter-than-expected teen comedy.
  20. Latter Days
    Falls back on the broad characterizations and stereotypical situations that typified the earliest gay-themed movies, while preaching a familiar (though not entirely ingenuous) message of tolerance.
  21. The Big Bounce
    Modestly engaging, albeit instantly forgettable shaggy-dog story only gradually reveals itself as a seriocomic take on standard-issue noir.
  22. You Got Served
    A serviceable youth pic that's marginally less dumb than November's urban quasi-musical "Honey."
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Eat This New York
    The docu, serving up interesting insights into the unique restaurant culture of NYC, should prove appetizing in urban venues.
  24. Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!
    A warm embrace of broadly but humanely sketched characters plus some scrappy casting of rising young stars led by an incandescent Kate Bosworth help overcome the half-realized comedic situations.
  25. Touching the Void
    Uses first-person on-camera accounts of the adventure by Simpson and fellow climber Simon Yates to backdrop newly shot you-are-there footage that brings home the awesome and harrowing aspects of their feat.
  26. The Butterfly Effect
    This overwrought and egregiously self-serious thriller about the poisonous fruit borne of child abuse grows more ridiculous by the quarter-hour and is poised for a theatrical life span scarcely longer than that of its eponymous insect.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Made-Up
    While the whole may be less than the sum of its parts, those parts are individually commendable. Shalhoub has an eye for composition and a strong sense of pacing.
  28. Empathy
    Helmer-poet Amie Siegel delivers a provocative, confident film.
  29. Teacher's Pet
    A doggone hilarious cartoon extravaganza...virtually bursts at the seams with a supersized abundance of witty wordplay, silly songs and inspired sight gags.
  30. Torque
    A spectacularly trashy and aggressively flashy motorcycle melodrama in which computer-enhanced action scenes, unbound by gravity or logic, are choreographed, photographed and edited to resemble video-game stratagems.
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