Variety's Scores

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For 17,847 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: 9,172 out of 17847
  2. Mixed: 7,036 out of 17847
  3. Negative: 1,639 out of 17847
17847 movie reviews
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  1. The Long Day Closes
    Strength of Davies’ vision is the crux, and it holds the line to the final, confident fadeout.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    Super Mario Bros.
    There are plenty of gags, but not one laugh in the whole farrago...There’s nothing original about “Mario,” and the absence of tension or an interesting narrative makes it tedious in the extreme.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Made in America
    Made in America has the distinction of being better than the last movie involving a sperm bank, Frozen Assets, though at times the humor - overplayed to nearly shrill levels - seems to come from the same test tube.
  4. Menace II Society
    Fierce, violent and searing in its observation, the film makes previous excursions seem like a stroll through the park.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sliver
    Blame it on the editing and reediting, but even the sex scenes aren’t all that steamy, and the movie suffers from some choppy moments and highrise-size lapses in logic.
  6. Hot Shots! Part Deux
    If the first mission made roughly $50 million domestically, the sky could be the limit for this much better sequel -- a clever spoof of "Rambo" and a dozen other movies that employs the usual scattershot "Airplane!" approach but boasts a higher shooting percentage than its forebear. Look out, comedy fans: Fox is coming to get you.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Map of the Human Heart
    An immensely ambitious and audacious love story spanning 30 years and two continents.
  8. Posse
    Despite all its agreeable revisionism and breezy bonhomie, Posse has the feel of a mish-mash of elements all thrown into a big pot and stirred. Lacking dramatic grounding and structuring, even the pertinent revelations that will be most surprising and interesting to modern audiences carry more intellectual than emotional resonance.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dave
    A delightful, buoyant new take on an old theme, deftly mixing political cynicism with elements of Mr Smith Goes to Washington.
  10. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
    The brief, meteoric, tragic life of martial arts star Bruce Lee forms the basis of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. The film is an unlikely pastiche of traditional biography, Hollywood saga, chopsocky set pieces and inter-racial romance. Seemingly contrary elements and styles nonetheless mesh into an entertaining whole and the result proves extremely touching and haunting.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Blood In, Blood Out
    Producer-director Taylor Hackford clearly wants this to be a major cinematic exploration of the Latino experience, from its ponderous near-three-hour length to its more-than-occasional sermonizing. Unfortunately, disjointed storytelling and uneven performances undermine those aspirations.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Night We Never Met
    Wonderfully atmospheric use of New York locations and familiar characters brings “Night” to life. Unfortunately, there are many scenes, particularly those of Anderson and his obnoxious pals, that kill time and detract from the romantic leads. Ultimately it’s not really an ensemble piece but closer to a film with alternating casts or vignettes.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Dark Half
    The writer's desk intriguingly becomes a gladitorial arena for warring manifestations of the same personality in The Dark Half, George A. Romero's adaptation of Stephen King's 1989 bestseller, a classic Jekyll-and-Hyde story.
    • Variety
  14. Benny & Joon
    Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson render such startling performances in the romantic fable Benny & Joon that they almost overcome the trappings of an emotional tale that is not particularly well written or directed.
  15. Indian Summer
    Awash in romantic nostalgia for bygone childhood spent in summer camps, Indian Summer is a sentimental, TV sitcom-like, feel-good film. However, its humor and first-rate acting could ensure a strong opening and modest longterm B.O. life.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Boiling Point
    Low-key and bland in the extreme, it’s strictly for film buffs.
  17. This Boy's Life
    Unfortunately, after a relatively promising warmup, pic actually proceeds to flatten out the characters in the latter sections and to make them less dimensional and interesting than they initially seemed.
  18. Indecent Proposal
    This is one of those high-concept pictures with a big windup and weak delivery.
  19. The Sandlot
    Sweet and sincere, the film is also a remarkably shallow wade, rife with incident and slim on substance.
  20. The Crush
    In fact, with its basic shortage of gore and only brief glimpses of nudity, it’s hard to imagine what in the film prompted an R rating, unless it stands for “ridiculous.”
  21. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
    The music is overbearing, the camera and lighting too bright and obvious, and the production design borders on the cheesy. Performances range from competent to just plain embarrassing.
  22. Point of No Return
    If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then “Point of No Return,” a soulless, efficiently slavish remake of “La Femme Nikita,” creates a whole new category of homage-paying.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.
    Although the film is punched up by some energetic cutting and hip-hop music, many dialogue scenes, particularly early on, are badly written and awkwardly staged.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    CB4
    Tamra Davis, a music video director with the well-received feature debut Guncrazy on her resume, might have really had something here had she settled on any one of the many paths the movie starts down.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Fire in the Sky
    A truly harrowing sequence in the final reel fails to save Fire in the Sky, an otherwise prosaic approach to the gee-whiz genre of UFO aliens snatching a human specimen for examination.
  26. Swing Kids
    Apart from its appealing young cast and period score, it has precious little to entice audiences into movie theaters.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Amos & Andrew
    A one-joke sketch that doesn't work as a feature, Castle Rock's Amos & Andrew raises the question: "How did this film ever get made?" Few audience members will sit through its entirety to ponder that issue.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    El mariachi
    Spanish lingo crime meller has a verve and cheekiness that's partly a smart wedding of such influences as Sergio Leone, George Miller and south-of-the-border noir.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Army of Darkness
    Blending almost nonstop violence with humorous parody, Sam Raimi's latest excursion into horror-kitsch seems more like an irreverent "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court."
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Groundhog Day
    The film is inconsistent in tone and pace; fortunately the pay-off works, bringing some much needed warmth to the area.
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