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. The Importance of Being Earnest
    A comedy in the last century and a drama in the new one. At least, that's the dumbfounding impression left by writer-director Oliver Parker's utterly miscalculated film adaptation of Wilde's play.
  2. Late Marriage
    As wrenching as it is funny.
  3. The Believer
    Those who see it at fests, and in carefully tailored specialized release, will be struck by the adroitness with which it addresses touchy issues, as well as by the outstanding performance of Ryan Gosling in the difficult leading role.
  4. About a Boy
    Pleasant and engaging, rather than laugh-out-loud funny or emotionally involving.
  5. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
    George Lucas has reached deep into the trove of his self-generated mythological world to produce a grand entertainment that offers a satisfying balance among the series' epic, narrative, technological and emotional qualities.
  6. Cremaster 3
    Matthew Barney delivers his masterpiece in Cremaster 3, unquestionably the 35-year-old sculptor-performance artist-filmmaker's most linear, most narratively inclined work to date.
  7. Standing by Yourself
    In the post-Columbine era, Koury's film has its finger on something particularly potent.
  8. Ultimate X: The Movie
    Most impressive in an objective sense, as a technical exercise -- its staccato technique preventing greater involvement.
  9. Blackwoods
    Tries to salvage its dopey premise with frantic final-reel plot contortions.
  10. Janice Beard
    Starts out on an exhilarating high but gradually loses steam, Janice Beard 45 WPM tries hard to overcome its inconsistency with relentless whimsy.
  11. The Lady and the Duke
    History comes alive with verve and cold-sweat suspense in The Lady and the Duke.
  12. Unfaithful
    This refitting of Claude Chabrol's 1968 classic "La Femme Infidele" is less concerned with suspense and dramatic fireworks than is the usual American "erotic thriller," and much more devoted to nuances and the minutiae of how men and women behave, pretend and lie in duplicitous situations.
  13. The New Guy
    Overall aroma of movie junk food.
  14. Diamonds and Rust
    Expertly edited chronicle doesn't lead to any major explosion, but reveals plenty -- little of it pleasant -- en-route.
  15. Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
    Neither pure masala musical nor pure masala meller, Lagaan is an involving, easily digestible hunk of pure entertainment that could be the trigger for Bollywood's long-awaited crossover to non-ethnic markets.
  16. A Man's Gotta Do
    A cut above the average Aussie crazy-clan comedy.
  17. Home Movie
    A modest charmer.
  18. The Mystic Masseur
    Succeeds as light entertainment -- even if at the cost of the material's greater potential.
  19. A Shot at Glory
    Mediocre, dramatically flat picture.
  20. The Captive
    An elegant but empty and frustrating meditation on desire, obsession, love and possession, The Captive intellectualizes those subjects almost beyond the level of art-film parody.
  21. Dirt Boy
    Intelligent, low-key suspenser.
  22. Warm Water Under a Red Bridge
    A film with a terrifically engaging concept that overstays its welcome by quite a stretch.
  23. ABC Africa
    Kiarostami shoots Africa with an uncanny verisimilitude, coming close here to his idea of a "poetic cinema" indebted more to poetry and music than the theatrical novelistic storytelling tradition.
  24. Hollywood Ending
    For those always on the lookout for the "funny" Allen, this one definitely has its moments, but too much of the picture is flat, dispiriting and frankly unbelievable in fundamental ways that defy the granting of poetic license.
  25. Fleeing by Night
    An embarrassing failure at almost every level.
  26. Spider-Man
    Pic's happiest surprise is Tobey Maguire in the title role, as the young actor provides an emotional openness and vulnerability that gives this $120 million production its most distinctive flavor.
  27. Circuit
    All-encompassing drama.
  28. Sex with Strangers
    Doesn't compare favorably with David Schisgall's similarly themed "The Lifestyle," released to arthouses last year.
  29. Vulgar
    Inexplicably mixing lamer-than-lame "bad taste" comedy with yea worse traumatized-assault-victim histrionics, pic's only entertainment value lies in viewer weighing whether pic is primarily a.) offensive b.) amateurish c.) pathetic or d.) a cry for help.
  30. Dogtown and Z-Boys
    A fascinating story, albeit with some missed opportunities in the telling.
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