Variety's Scores

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:
17760 movie reviews
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Sharply written, with a lavish look and top-drawer effects adding to the appeal of its large and talented cast, pic achieves a nice balance of fondness and satiric snap, character laughs and goofy action.
  1. The characters in The Thomas Crown Affair are cool -- too cool, in fact, for the film to develop much of a pulse.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Acid House makes "Trainspotting" look like a mild-mannered youth comedy.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Despite its p.c., humanistic overtones, the film manages to integrate the humor and action of a kid’s adventure tale and the message of a political allegory without beingheavy-handed.
  2. Borderline dull to sit through, The Sixth Sense is actually rather interesting to think about afterward because of the revelation of its ending.
  3. Lacks narrative push...atmospheric drama that casts a minor but distinctive spell.
  4. The central idea is quite clever and appealing, and that the charm meter is turned up all the way.
  5. Powered by exceptional displays of physical filmmaking, Deep Blue Sea is pulled back to shore by the usual suspects -- weak plotting and weaker dialogue.
  6. A relatively pain-free, if brain-free, diversion.
  7. A new standard for wretched excess is established by Inspector Gadget, a joyless and charmless disaster in which state-of-the-art special effects are squandered on pain-in-the-backside folly.
  8. A wannabe horror classic that turns deadly dull once the sense of anxious expectation wears off.
  9. To be sure, Kelley's Emmy-winning brand of off-kilter humor and cockeyed affection for rural folk is on display, but his attempt here to blend the citified angst of "Ally McBeal" (co-star Bridget Fonda was Kelley's first choice as that series' lead) with the countrified absurdisms of "Picket Fences," plus bits out of the Peter Benchley playbook, doesn't hold water.
  10. This rambling and episodic autobiographical saga of three friends coming of age in Inglewood, Calif. (aka The Wood) in the '80s is so determined to be likable that it forgets to be interesting.
  11. A riveting, thematically probing, richly atmospheric and just occasionally troublesome work, a deeply inquisitive consideration of the extent of trust and mutual knowledge possible between a man and a woman.
  12. An intensely imaginative piece of conceptual filmmaking that also delivers the goods as a dread-drenched horror movie.
  13. A modestly clever comedy in which nothing gets seriously out of hand.
  14. An intelligent, insidiously plotted Hitchcockian thriller directed in souped-up, modern expressionistic style.
  15. Cheesy homage to a level of horniness Austin Powers could only imagine will be a dream movie for many a teenage boy.
  16. A kaleidoscopic but engrossing study of the shifting sands of friendship among a group of Parisians, "Late August, Early September" reps a major advance by writer-director Olivier Assayas in warmth and maturity of observation.
  17. Summer of Sam is never less than absorbing but feels just a bit like yesterday's news, both narratively and cinematically.
  18. As impressive as the industrial-style special effects may be, they're both too much and not enough for this mild mild West.
  19. Bigger, Longer & Uncut will make it harder still to dismiss, or kill, this cultural mini-phenom — not least because the feature is a more clever diversion than anyone had any right to expect.
  20. Abetted by an excellent cast, vet writer Weber weaves a simple premise into comedy gold.
  21. While the loyal male-teen aud core will not be disappointed with the spate of gags just for them, story contains solid date-movie material.
  22. Swings, even if it doesn't always soar.
  23. Shines like a freshly minted coin in Oliver Parker's adaptation.
  24. A highly accomplished, compact feature, which, while it may be light on depth, is rich in humor, rhythm, energy and inventiveness.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The cinematic equivalent of a disposable airplane read, a hokey, kinky military thriller that's twisty and compelling enough to hook viewers in the mood for a trashy good time.
  25. Fails on a number of counts, mostly because the individual stories aren't very gripping.
  26. Script just doesn’t have it in terms of fresh narrative developments or individual gags.

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