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. Secondhand Lions
    May score higher with parents than the kids they bring in tow. Writer-director Tim McCanlies' ("Dancer, Texas Pop. 81") feel-good celebration of youth and old age enriching each other is carefully leavened with humor.
  2. The Fighting Temptations
    Paper-thin plot serves as a pretext for rousing gospel numbers in The Fighting Temptations, which straddles styles and eras to get everybody's toes tapping.
  3. Underworld
    Takes itself so seriously that it never has fun with its shopworn genre elements.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Year That Trembled
    Fails to generate much excitement, due to the blandness of the characters and some murky storytelling.
  5. Millennium Actress
    Contains some brilliant invention between duller stretches.
  6. Dummy
    At this stage, Pritikin shows considerably more aptitude for writing than for directing, and the exuberant eruptions of humor lead one to suspect he should try for outright comedy next time and forget the sentiment.
  7. Luster
    An ensemble seriocomedy that's initially loose to a fault, but gradually wins one over with its shaggy charm -- and by the close has grown more ambitious, and poignant, than initial reels lead you to expect.
  8. So Close
    Slickly packaged, unashamedly exploitative popcorn movie.
  9. Matchstick Men
    Odd mixture of ultra-sleek visuals, psychological probing, "Paper Moon"-like father-daughter swindling, self-improvement efforts and abrupt tough-guy stuff keeps the picture percolating, even if it seems too artificial to genuinely convince on an emotional or dramatic level.
  10. Cabin Fever
    Uncertain whether to go for straight suspense or gross-out effects, genre in-joking or schlock cinema-of-parodic-excess, Eli Roth's backwoods horror opus Cabin Fever seldom sticks with any one tactic.
  11. Lost in Translation
    The film's unhurried pace will target it for discerning audiences only, but its wry humor and coolly amused observation of contemporary Japan should score with smart urbanites.
  12. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
    Evokes the mythic feel of Sergio Leone Westerns. Despite a convoluted plot that begs for cleaner lines, the wild shoot-outs, cartoonish violence and charismatic cast should lure action fans to theaters.
  13. Warrior of Light
    Universally embraceable subject matter, coupled with helmer's sterling rep as benevolent booster of humanistic pioneers.
  14. The Same River Twice
    Has the built-in curiosity value of watching real people evolve on camera -- a fascination increased by subjects' original, variably sustained commitment to countercultural ideals.
  15. Where's the Party Yaar?
    The most affable and endearing of the recent wave of films about Indian immigrants assimilating in the West.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Grisbi (re-release)
    Jeanne Moreau turns in a neat bit as a moll and Dary as the inarticulate aging Romeo friend is memorable.
  17. Carnage
    Audience patience undergoes a far more brutal butchering than anything onscreen in Delphine Gleize's wildly over-reaching feature debut, Carnage.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Order
    Commits the first cardinal sin of cinematic horror -- it's boring and doesn't have a single scary moment.
  19. Home Room
    Writer-editor-director Paul F. Ryan makes the mistake of focusing on an ungainly and, finally, unplayable verbal match between two high schoolers.
  20. Party Monster
    A colorful, lurid and ultimately so-what look at obnoxious personalities careening down their own road to ruin.
  21. Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star
    Offers a largely satisfying mix of broad slapstick, seriocomic sentimentality and mostly amusing satirical thrusts at easy targets.
  22. Taking Sides
    Its soul rests in Skarsgard's performance, a powerful mixture of buttoned-down anger and personal disappointment that combines the filmmaker's self-questioning with the real-life character's conflict.
  23. The Backyard
    This underground scene makes other "extreme sports" look as harmless as tiddlywinks.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (re-release)
    Good action caper.
  25. Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
    Marvelously involving family saga.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Civil Brand
    Film explores the abuses rampant in woman's prisons and the powerlessness of the inmates, while telling the uplifting story of one inmate, Frances (LisaRae).
  27. The Other Side of the Bed
    A nicely contempo mood, engaging characters energized by solid perfs from a good-looking, high-profile young cast, and genuinely witty scripting are let down only by over-length and some generally turgid tunes.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jeepers Creepers II
    Substantially better than its predecessor, even while staying strictly within the genre's well-defined boundaries.
  29. Suddenly
    A delightfully unpredictable sleeper that proves new Argentine cinema really exists, Suddenly, by 26-year-old Diego Lerman, starts scary, moves through deadpan comic and comes out with a whimsical tenderness for its characters.
  30. My Boss's Daughter
    Director David Zucker, a master of whacked-out visual comedy during his “Airplane!” era, drops the ball here.
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