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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    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Boston Strangler
    The Boston Strangler, based on Gerold Frank's book, emerges as a triumph of taste and restraint with a telling, low-key semi-documentary style. Adaptation is topnotch not only in structure but also in the incisive, spare dialog which defines neatly over 100 speaking parts.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Barbarella
    Despite a certain amount of production dash and polish and a few silly-funny lines of dialog, Barbarella isn’t very much of a film. Based on what has been called an adult comic strip, the Dino De Laurentiis production is flawed with a cast that is not particularly adept at comedy, a flat script, and direction which can’t get this beached whale afloat.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Finian's Rainbow
    Overall, the $4 million film has an ethereal quality: it’s a blend of real elements, such as love, greed, compassion, prejudice, and other aspects of human nature both noble and otherwise; yet it’s also infused with mystical elements of magic, leprechauns, pixies and wishes that come true.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Romeo and Juliet
    Rarely will audiences be moved to throat-gulping by the plight of the young couple. For all Hussey’s prettiness and Whiting’s shy charm it is clear that they do not understand one tenth of the meaning of their lines and it is a drawback from which the film cannot recover.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Shalako
    The film is a slow starter while the various characters are being established and has an over-abrupt and inconclusive ending. Intriguing are the relationships between members of the hunting party.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Night of the Living Dead
    Although pic’s basic premise is repellent – recently dead bodies are resurrected and begin killing human beings in order to eat their flesh – it is in execution that the film distastefully excels.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Charly
    Considering the innumerable stumbling blocks, cast does well. Cliff Robertson seems to overdo the external manifestations of retardation, but he is excellent in the post-operative scenes. With more help from the script he could have been a movingly tragic figure.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Funny Girl
    Barbra Streisand in her Hollywood debut makes a marked impact.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Who's That Knocking at My Door?
    Zina Bethune, as the girl, is believable but Harvey Keitel, as the anti-hero, is alternatively boorish or bewildered. Scorsese occasionally brings the film to life.... Generally, however, his script and direction lack any dramatic value and give far too much exposure to sexual fantasies on the part of the boy.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Rachel, Rachel
    Rachel, Rachel is a low-key melodrama starring Joanne Woodward as a spinster awakening to life. Produced austerely by Paul Newman, who also directs with an uncertain hand, it marks Newman's feature debut in these non-acting capacities. Offbeat film moves too slowly to an upbeat, ironic climax.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hang 'Em High
    Hang 'em High comes across as a poor-made imitation of a poor Italian-made imitation of an American western.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Inspector Clouseau
    Film is a lively, entertaining and episodic story of bank robbers. Good scripting, better acting and topnotch direction get the most out of the material.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Thomas Crown Affair
    the Norman Jewison film tells a crackerjack story, well-tooled, professionally crafted and fashioned with obvious meticulous care. McQueen is neatly cast as the likeable, but lonely heavy. Dunaway makes an excellent detective who gradually develops a conflict of interests regarding her prey. The only message in this film is: enjoy it.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Rosemary's Baby
    Several exhilarating milestones are achieved in Rosemary's Baby, an excellent film version of Ira Levin's diabolical chiller novel. Writer-director Roman Polanski has triumphed in his first US-made pic. The film holds attention without explicit violence or gore.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Odd Couple
    The Odd Couple, Neil Simon's smash legit comedy, has been turned into an excellent film starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Simon's somewhat expanded screenplay retains the broad, as well as the poignant, laughs inherent in the rooming together of two men whose marriages are on the rocks.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Planet of the Apes
    Planet of the Apes is an amazing film. A political-sociological allegory, cast in the mold of futuristic science-fiction, it is an intriguing blend of chilling satire, a sometimes ludicrous juxtaposition of human and ape mores, optimism and pessimism.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    2001: A Space Odyssey
    A major achievement in cinematography and special effects, 2001 lacks dramatic appeal and only conveys suspense after the halfway mark; Kubrick must receive all the praise - and take all the blame.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Blackbeard's Ghost
    Blackbeard's Ghost, a lively and entertaining Walt Disney production, features Peter Ustinov in a tour de farce title role as the restless spirit of the famed pirate. Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette share top billing. Robert Stevenson's direction is highlighted by several very amusing chase and special effects sequences.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
    A curious amalgam of the visually striking, the dramatically feeble and the offensively sadistic.
  20. The Graduate
    The Graduate is a delightful, satirical comedy-drama about a young man's seduction by an older woman, and the measure of maturity which he attains from the experience.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Doctor Dolittle
    Leslie Bricusse’s adaptation retains the delightful aspects while taking considerable liberty with the plot. His music and lyrics, while containing no smash hits, are admirably suited to the scenario.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Valley of the Dolls
    Parkins and Tate, the latter particularly good, suffer from under-emphasis in early reels, and corny plot resolution.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bedazzled
    Bedazzled is smartly-styled and typical of certain types of high British comedy.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Samurai Rebellion
    This Toho-Mifune production represents all the best in the Japanese period film.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Fearless Vampire Killers
    Ferdy Mayne is the menacing Dracula, and Sharon Tate, lady in question, looks particularly nice in her bath. Alfie Bass, the innkeeper; Iain Quarrier as the count’s effeminate son, who has some fangs all his own; Terry Downes, the toothy hunchback castle handyman (who might be Quasimodo returned), and Jessie Robbins, innkeeper’s spouse, lend proper support.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Cool Hand Luke
    Newman gives an excellent performance, assisted by a terrific supporting cast, including George Kennedy, outstanding as the unofficial leader of the cons who yields first place to Newman.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hour of the Gun
    Unfortunately, for any filmmaker, probing too deeply into the character of folk heroes reveals them to be fallible human beings – which they are, of course – but to mass audiences, who create fantasies, such exposition is unsettling. Reality often makes for poor drama.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Wait Until Dark
    Wait Until Dark emerges as an excellent suspense drama, effective in casting, scripting, direction and genuine emotional impact.
    • Variety
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