Variety's Scores

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For 17,760 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: 9,121 out of 17760
  2. Mixed: 7,003 out of 17760
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17760
17760 movie reviews
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  1. Big Momma's House
    The sight and sound of Lawrence in fat-lady drag remains engaging throughout; script may often let him down, forcing him to keep things afloat almost single-handedly.
    • 22 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    Running Free
    A profoundly disappointing attempt to reinvigorate the animal movie genre with the classic ingredients of physical poetry and mythical storytelling.
  3. American Virgin
    Ambitious but flawed comedy.
  4. Passion of Mind
    This small-scale, chamber piece, which boasts good acting from Moore, Skarsgard and Fichtner, has a strong built-in appeal for women but may experience harder times in going beyond the specialized arthouse circuits due to the narrowly-scoped, undernourished script.
  5. Shanghai Noon
    This enjoyable East-meets-Western likely will succeed on its own terms as a sure-fire, long-legged crowd-pleaser.
  6. Mission: Impossible II
    Even more empty a luxury vehicle than its predecessor, M:I 2 pushes the envelope in terms of just how much flashy packaging an audience will buy when there's absolutely nada inside.
  7. Small Time Crooks
    Breezy, enjoyable romp gratifyingly zigzags in directions that aren't apparent at the outset and features some intriguingly personal subtext for longtime Woody watchers.
  8. Road Trip
    Be forewarned: After you see Road Trip, it may be months, if not years, before you can order French toast with a straight face and a settled stomach.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man
    Tech elements, including music, lensing, costumes and production design are blazingly impressive and strikingly evocative on all levels.
  10. Dinosaur
    An eye-popping visual spectacle that serves up a vivid picture of what the planet might have looked like when reptiles ruled the Earth.
  11. Held Up
    A shoddy vehicle for Jamie Foxx to ride into the summer season on.
  12. Center Stage
    Unfortunately, Center Stage is directed and shot (by Geoffrey Simpson) in a way that doesn't let the audience feel the exhilarating pull of the dance world.
  13. Hamlet
    This slacker prince (Hawke) comprises a sinkhole at the center of adaptor-helmer Michael Almereyda's otherwise compelling contempo update.
  14. Screwed
    Latenight cable TV filler disguised as a feature film.
  15. Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000
    Yet the overall look, though derivative ("The Matrix," "Blade Runner," "Waterworld," etc.), rates as Battlefield's one non-guilty pleasure.
  16. Gladiator
    John Mathieson's widescreen cinematography is magnificent, and the pacing across 2½ hours is well modulated.
  17. I Dreamed of Africa
    Visually gratifying but dramatically weak, the film falls short of its aspiration to be a sweeping romantic epic.
  18. Up at the Villa
    This least affected of their (Haases) movies is also the most dramatically and emotionally convincing.
  19. Human Traffic
    Well cast, engagingly played and directed with a stylistic pedal to the metal, Human Traffic is a lot of energy adding up to very little.
  20. Michael Jordan to the Max
    Arguably the finest athlete in living memory deserves better than Michael Jordan to the Max, an honorific but unmoving portrait of the Chicago Bulls' No. 23.
  21. Into My Heart
    So understated as to sometimes lack a pulse.
  22. Frequency
    An oddly schizophrenic fantasy thriller that ultimately succumbs to a fatal case of sentimentality.
  23. The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
    Silly script, broad slapstick and overstated lead perfs by B-team cast might be acceptable to target audience.
  24. Bossa Nova
    Imagine a '30s screwball comedy played to a sensuous Brazilian beat and you're ready for Bossa Nova, a delightfully amusing romantic roundelay.
  25. Where the Heart Is
    Banal and trite where it could have been insightful and emotionally truthful, this Fox release is also notable for featuring the first disappointing performance by teen star Natalie Portman.
  26. Timecode
    If the satire feels familiar, and the dramatics often contrived, there's rarely a moment here when something funny, intense or cleverly interconnected doesn't keep one's synapses firing on overdrive.
  27. The Last September
    Like hard-edged "Masterpiece Theater."
  28. U-571
    The submarine goes deep but the story never does in U-571, a good old-fashioned WWII picture that is exciting in only the most superficial way.
  29. The Virgin Suicides
    Humor prevails throughout, but it doesn't deflate the disturbing elements of the tale, which miraculously manages to stay droll, heartfelt and poignant to the end.
  30. Love & Basketball
    The pic is so well directed and lead performance by Sanaa Lathan so charismatic that audiences will overlook the script's flaws and root for the central duo.
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