Variety's Scores

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For 17,765 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 2.3 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: 9,125 out of 17765
  2. Mixed: 7,004 out of 17765
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17765
17765 movie reviews
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  1. Fidel
    Worth seeing for its wealth of archival footage hitherto little-seen outside Communist bloc nations, Fidel nonetheless errs badly by slapping a quasi-objective journalistic tenor onto content so flattering and uncritical it might pass for an old "This Is Your Life" episode.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Le bossu
    Consistently enjoyable, if rarely exceptional, mass entertainment.
  3. Under the Moonlight
    Though its subject has curiosity value, its critical view of religious institutions is compromised by an ending that evidently was necessary for the film to be made and released at all.
  4. The Business of Fancydancing
    Stalled character development in the second half of the pic reduces the impact of the whole.
  5. Naqoyqatsi
    Possessed of another outstanding wall-to-wall score by Philip Glass but rather fuzzy in its message, entry differs from its predecessors in that roughly 80% of its images are derived from existing sources and have been "tortured and recontextualized" to unusual and sometimes extreme effect.
  6. Real Women Have Curves
    Delightful coming-of-age comedy-drama.
  7. Abandon
    Passably interesting psychological study of emotionally wounded characters until it commits dramatic suicide by showing its true colors as a tricked-up "Fatal Attraction" wannabe.
  8. The Grey Zone
    Staccato, Mamet-style dialogue exchanges, breathless pacing and remarkably healthy, well-fed-looking actors create a cumulative sense of artificiality that seriously undercuts the devastating effect clearly being sought.
  9. Hansel & Gretel
    Pity the children for whom this is their intro to the world of Grimm, for while pic stays to basic outline of the original story in opening and closing sections, the large middle is stuffed with badly staged slapstick and painful stabs at hip dialogue in an arch attempt to cater to modern kids.
  10. Goyangileul butaghae
    Engaging, highly accessible movie that marks a slick feature debut by helmer Jeong Jae-eun.
  11. Auto Focus
    Schrader directs with a very smooth hand, providing a good-natured and frequently amusing spin to eventually grim material that aptly reflects the protagonist's almost unfailing good humor.
  12. The Ring
    Comes across in muted fashion, with uninvolving characters and lack of genuine excitement or fright creating a second-rate, second-hand feel.
  13. Formula 51
    There's an appalling amount of talent at waste up on the screen, starting with Jackson and Carlyle whose tall/short, silent/motormouth double act never clicks.
  14. Stealing the Fire
    Sometimes wavers, but its stylistic unevenness is trumped by its topicality.
  15. Comedian
    Gains much greater texture from the intercutting between the two performers than had it remained simply a Seinfeld promotional project.
  16. Brown Sugar
    As eye and ear candy, pic has its modest pleasures, beginning with the attractive Diggs and Lathan.
  17. Family Fundamentals
    Docmeister Arthur Dong brings empathetic balance and emotional heft to the discord between fundamentalist Christian parents and their gay children.
  18. Pokémon 4: The Movie
    Supposedly, Pokemon can't be killed, but Pokemon 4Ever practically assures that the pocket monster movie franchise is nearly ready to keel over.
  19. Knockaround Guys
    Young male auds should warm to its cool criminal ethos, sharp dialogue, charismatic cast and wry humor.
  20. Kwik Stop
    A screwball road movie set in a middle-of-nowhere town, Kwik Stop suggests "It Happened One Night" as reimagined by David Lynch or Hal Hartley.
  21. Below
    This hokey thriller reps what one can only hope will be a one-of-a-kind hybrid between a World War II actioner and a ghost story outfitted with innumerable false-alarm shock cuts and shot with enough colored lights and filters to delight Baz Luhrmann.
  22. The Rules of Attraction
    Gets an ambitious, sometimes inspired but ultimately less than satisfying screen treatment from Roger Avary.
  23. The Transporter
    So second-hand and disposable is it in every respect.
  24. Ash Wednesday
    Burns' films are invariably better directed and scripted than they are performed, and Ash Wednesday is no exception. Pic's biggest drawback is that the helmer has again cast himself in the leading role.
  25. Punch-Drunk Love
    Entirely unpredictable and marked by audacious strokes of directorial bravado.
  26. Tuck Everlasting
    Disney's tradition of intelligent, live-action family period cinema is magnificently revived in Tuck Everlasting.
  27. White Oleander
    Never rising above routine episodic storytelling, White Oleander nonetheless retains something of its source novel's ravaged emotional surface and cool, observant manner.
  28. Bowling for Columbine
    The sparks fly thanks to Moore's patented blend of curveball research, expedient juxtaposition, genuine satire and bottomless chutzpah.
  29. Swept Away
    A simple misfire rather than a world-class fiasco. This misguided attempt to remake Lina Wertmuller's corrosive 1974 satire as a wistful romance is only unintentionally funny in the last reel.
  30. How to Draw a Bunny
    Debuting helmer Walter assembles an aptly colorful package, with stylistic integration of elements from Johnson's delightful visual art. A major plus is the skittering percussion score by bebop jazz great Max Roach.
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