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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    • 90 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Hustler
    Unfoldment of the screenplay, based on novel by Walter S. Tevis, is far overlength, and despite the excellence of Newman’s portrayal of the boozing pool hustler the sordid aspects of overall picture are strictly downbeat.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Yojimbo
    Though this lacks the epic stature of Seven Samurai, Kurosawa here again shows his mastery of the medium.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pit and the Pendulum
    A physically stylish, imaginatively photographed horror film which, though needlessly corny in many spots, adds up to good exploitation.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
    Voyage is a crescendo of mounting jeopardy, an effervescent adventure in an anything-but-Pacific Ocean.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Guns of Navarone
    It faced the problem of a director-switch in mid-stream. But with a bunch of weighty stars, terrific special effects and several socko situations, producer Carl Foreman and director J. Lee Thompson sired a winner.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Parent Trap
    David Swift, whose writing, direction and appreciation of young Hayley Mills’ natural histrionic resources contributed so much to Pollyanna, repeats the three-ply effort on this excursion, with similar success.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    La Dolce Vita
    The performances are uniformly excellent. Mastroianni is perfect in the key role of the basically good and honest boy who succumbs to the sweet life. Ekberg is a revelation as the visiting star, while Furneaux almost runs off with the picture as the reporter's instinctive, possessive mistress. (Review of original release)
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Absent Minded Professor
    On the surface, Walt Disney's The Absent Minded Professor is a comedy-fantasy of infectious absurdity, a natural follow-up to the studio's Shaggy Dog. But deeply rooted within the screenplay [from a story by Samuel W. Taylor] is a subtle protest against the detached, impersonal machinery of modern progress.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Breathless
    There are too many epigrams and a bit too much palaver in all this. However, it is picaresque and has enough insight to keep it from being an out-and-out melodramatic quickie.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Misfits
    At face value, The Misfits, is a robust, high-voltage adventure drama, vibrating with explosively emotional histrionics, conceived and executed with a refreshing disdain for superficial technical and photographic slickness in favor of an uncommonly honest and direct cinematic approach. Within this framework, however, lurks a complex mass of introspective conflicts, symbolic parallels and motivational contradictions, the nuances of which may seriously confound general audiences.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    101 Dalmatians
    While not as indelibly enchanting or inspired as some of the studio’s most unforgettable animated endeavors, this is nonetheless a painstaking creative effort.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Where the Boys Are
    Mimieux, in a demanding role, gets by dramatically. Visually she is a knockout, and has a misty quality.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Grass Is Greener
    The Hugh and Margaret Wilson screenplay, adapted from their London stage hit, slowly evolves into a talky and generally tedious romantic exercise, dropping the semi-satirical stance that brightens up the early going.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Swiss Family Robinson
    The rather modest 1813 Johann Wyss tale has been blown up to prodigious proportions. The essence and the spirit of the simple, intriguing story of a marvelously industrious family is all but snuffed out, only spasmodically flickering through the ponderous approach.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Exodus
    Transposing Leon Uris' hefty novel to the screen was not an easy task. It is to the credit of director Otto Preminger and scenarist Dalton Trumbo that they have done as well as they have. One can, however, wish that they had been blessed with more dramatic incisiveness.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Sundowners
    Jon Cleary's novel is the basic source from which director Fred Zinnemann's inspiration springs. Between Cleary and Zinnemann lies Isobel Lennart's perceptive, virile screenplay, loaded with bright, telling lines of dialog and gentle philosophical comment. But, fine as the scenario is, it is Zinnemann's poetic glances into the souls of his characters, little hints of deep longings, hidden despairs, indomitable spirit that make the picture the achievement it is.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Village of the Damned
    Tapers off from a taut beginning into soggy melodrama. Wolf Rilla’s direction is adequate, but no more.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Butterfield 8
    Alterations made on John O'Hara's 1935 novel by the scenarists (among other things, they have updated it from the Prohibition era, spectacularized the ending and refined some of the dialog) have given Butterfield 8 the form and pace it needs, but the story itself remains a weak one, the behavior and motivations of its characters no more tangible than in the original work.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Magnificent Seven
    Until the women and children arrive on the scene about two-thirds of the way through, The Magnificent Seven is a rip-roaring rootin' tootin' western with lots of bite and tang and old-fashioned abandon.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Spartacus
    There is solid dramatic substance, purposeful and intriguingly contrasted character portrayals and, let's come right out with it, sheer pictorial poetry that is sweeping and savage, intimate and lusty, tender and bitter sweet.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Midnight Lace
    Director David Miller adds a few pleasant little humorous touches and generally makes the most of an uninspired yarn.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Hidden Fortress
    the picture is really director Akira Kurosawa’s, who takes what could have been a terribly unwieldy subject and makes it believable and highly entertaining. Ichio Yamazaki’s camerawork is first-rate.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Entertainer
    Tony Richardson, the director, makes several mistakes. But he has a sharp perception of camera angles, stimulates some good performances and, particularly, whips up an excellent atmosphere of a smallish British seaside resort.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Sunrise at Campobello
    In the journey from stage to screen this chapter from the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt loses none of its poignant and inspirational qualities, none of its humor and pathos.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Psycho
    Perkins gives a remarkably effective in-a-dream kind of performance as the possessed young man. Others play it straight, with equal competence.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Ocean's 11
    Laboring under the handicaps of a contrived script, an uncertain approach and personalities in essence playing themselves, the production never quite makes its point, but romps along merrily unconcerned that it doesn't.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Time Machine
    The social comment of the original has been historically refined to encompass such plausible eventualities as the physical manifestation of atomic war weapons. But the basic spirit of Wells' work has not been lost.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Inherit the Wind
    This is a rousing and fascinating motion picture. Producer-director Stanley Kramer has held the action in tight check.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Bellboy
    From an artistic standpoint, The Bellboy is minor-league screen comedy, the victim of its energetic star's limited craftsmanship.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Bells Are Ringing
    Better Broadway musicals than Bells Are Ringing have come to Hollywood, but few have been translated to the screen so effectively.
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