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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    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Fourth War
    Tightly directed by Frankenheimer with an eye for comic relief as well as tension maintenance, The Fourth War holds the fascination of eyeball-to-eyeball conflict.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blue Steel
    A taut, relentless thriller that hums with an electric current of outrage. Director and cowriter Kathryn Bigelow makes the most of her hook - the use of a female star (Jamie Lee Curtis) in a tough action pic - by stressing the character's vulnerability in remarkable early scenes.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Lord of the Flies
    Director Harry Hook’s literal, unimaginative visual approach makes the tale seem mundane and tedious.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Blind Fury
    Blind Fury is an action film with an amusing gimmick, toplining Rutger Hauer, as an apparently invincible blind Vietnam vet who wields a samurai sword with consummate skill.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    House Party
    House Party captures contemporary black teen culture in a way that’s fresh, commercial and very catchy.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Joe Versus the Volcano
    An overproduced, disappointing shaggy dog comedy.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Bad Influence
    Bad Influence proves a reasonably taut, suspenseful thriller that provides its share of twists before straying into silliness. Rob Lowe doesn’t really project enough menace or charisma to pull off his role as Alex, a babyfaced psycho who slowly leads Michael (James Spader) through a liberating fantasy that ultimately turns into a yuppie nightmare.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Handmaid's Tale
    Though helmer Volker Schlondorff succeeds in painting the bleakness of this extrapolated future, he fails to create a strong and persistent connection with the heroine’s plight.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Hunt for Red October
    The Industrial Light & Magic special visual effects unit does yeoman work in staging the action with cliffhanger intensity.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Cinema Paradiso
    Tornatore is an able storyteller who knows the value of cute kids and easy emotion.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Nightbreed
    Writer-director Clive Barker's Nightbreed is a mess. Self-indulgent horror pic [from his novel Cabal] could be the Heaven's Gate of its genre, of obvious interest to diehard monster fans but a turnoff for mainstream audiences.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Revenge
    This far-from-perfect rendering of Jim Harrison's shimmering novella has a romantic sweep and elemental power that ultimately transcend its flaws.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hard to Kill
    It ain’t pretty, but it gets the action fans off.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Stella
    The semitragic Stella Dallas shows her years in this hopelessly dated and ill-advised remake.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tremors
    An affectionate send-up of schlocky 1950s monster pics, but with better special effects, Tremors has a few clever twists but ultimately can’t decide what it wants to be – flat-out funny, which it’s not, or a scarefest.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Internal Affairs
    Figgis never lets the pace slow long enough to expose the story’s thinness despite, in retrospect, a moderate amount of action.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Plot Against Harry
    The Plot against Harry is hilarious and often poignant.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
    Hard-driving, riveting film will be tough for many to take, but Henry – Portrait of a Serial Killer marks the arrival of a major film talent in the person of director, coproducer and cowriter John McNaughton.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Akira
    A remarkable technical achievement in every respect, from the imaginative and detailed design of tomorrow to the booming Dolby effects on the soundtrack, pic’s only drawback is the slight stiffness in the drawing of human movement.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Always
    Always is a relatively small scale, engagingly casual, somewhat silly, but always entertaining fantasy.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Tango & Cash
    Tango & Cash is a mindless buddy cop pic, loaded with nonstop action that's played mostly for laughs and delivers too few of them. Inane and formulaic, the film relies heavily on whatever chemistry it can generate between Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell, who repeatedly trade wisecracks while facing life-or-death situations.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Born on the Fourth of July
    Oliver Stone again shows America to itself in a way it won't forget. His collaboration with Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic to depict Kovic's odyssey from teenage true believer to wheel-chair-bound soldier in a very different war results in a gripping, devastating and telling film about the Vietnam era.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Driving Miss Daisy
    Bruce Beresford's sensitive direction complements Alfred Uhry's skillful adapation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    We're No Angels
    Pug-faced, slack-jawed and marble-mouthed, De Niro and Penn mug their semiarticulate proles with relish, but as religioso fish out of water their con game becomes a tiresome joke.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Family Business
    Director Sidney Lumet has crafted a film with real pathos while writer Vincent Patrick (adapting his own novel) injects enough bawdy humor to create a delightful mixed bag spiced with almost a European sensibility.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    She-Devil
    The casting is a real coup, with Barr going her everywoman TV persona one better by breaking the big screen heroine mold, and Streep blowing away any notion that she can’t be funny.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The War of the Roses
    Trying to wring yocks from a deranged couple locked in mortal combat over possession of their house is more suited to film noir than black comedy.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
    Solid family fare with plenty of yocks...For the most part, helmer Jeremiah Chechik makes an adept debut, injecting plenty of energy and spirit.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Back to the Future Part II
    The energy and heart which Robert Zemeckis and story-writing partner Bob Gale (who takes solo screenplay credit this time) poured into the ingenious story of part one is diverted into narrative mechanics and camera wizardry in Future II.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Steel Magnolias
    Field does some spectacular underplaying through the bulk of the action, revealing layer after layer of the feelings of this kindly tempered, deeply worried mother.
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