Austin Chronicle's Scores

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For 8,783 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 41% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 57% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 58
Highest review score: 100 The Searchers
Lowest review score: 0 Gummo
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,778 out of 8783
  2. Mixed: 2,558 out of 8783
  3. Negative: 1,447 out of 8783
8783 movie reviews
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  1. Grumpy Old Men
    Grumpy Old Men is supposed to be about how love reinvents life and I'm not even really sure where it gets lost, but it ends up going nowhere.
  2. The Mauritanian
    The Mauritanian wants to be a fusion of Papillon and A Few Good Men, but it cannot work out whether it wants to make a purely emotive argument, or engage in a brutal cross-examination of the legal system.
  3. Imaginary Heroes
    Weaver and Hirsch's flawless performances elevate the film above and beyond the ranks of "Ordinary People" pastiches, and in the end it stands on its own merits.
  4. Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission
    While Man on a Mission doesn't precisely neuter Garriott's weirder ways, it does push them aside for a more boilerplate message of the father/son bond.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Multiplicity
    These elements fail to rescue Multiplicity from its moronic plot devices, orchestrated by husband-and-wife writing team Chris Miller (National Lampoon's Animal House) and Mary Hale. Despite my better judgment, each movie with Andie MacDowell makes me think that she'll have improved her acting skills. Unfortunately, Multiplicity proves me wrong once again.
  6. Destroy All Neighbors
    Destroy All Neighbors has all the verve of a blood clot.
  7. Trolls Band Together
    What resonates most about Trolls Band Together are its lessons about self-acceptance and letting go of perfectionism. It’s a great message for young kids to internalize, and perhaps a good reminder for adults in the audience, too.
  8. Aladdin
    As much as the original Genie was an extension of Robin Williams' onstage persona, so does Smith’s Genie springboard off two decades of action-comedies. It may not always work, but nobody else could even come close.
  9. Keeping Mum
    Smith is excellent as the potty Grace, with both Atkinson and Thomas equally fine in their roles. But the fact is plainly seen: The Ealing of yore is gone.
  10. Piranha 3-D
    Gratuitous in every sense of the word, this second remake of 1978's Joe Dante-directed/Roger Corman-produced "Jaws" knockoff is ridiculous summertime drive-in fun.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    John Dies at the End
    The whole movie is an inside joke, a shaggy-dog tale that asks us to pay close attention to its twists and turns, but never rewards us for doing so.
  12. The Forever Purge
    The Forever Purge does have its finger on the pulse of America at a particularly violent moment in time, but for a series defined by glorious chaos, this one paints pretty much by the numbers.
  13. Emancipation
    Despite so many pieces that fail to fit together, Emancipation succeeds on entertainment alone.
  14. Ma
    There are times when Spencer’s character feels less subversive and more like a gonzo Annie Wilkes from Misery; it’s clear that the filmmakers understand how to write Sue Ann in opposition to tropes, less clear that they know how to turn that into something meaningful.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 11 Critic Score
    Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
    Unlike great spoofs like Airplane or I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, this gagfest lacks both structure and momentum, and, also unlike those aforementioned classics, the folks behind Don't Be a Menace don't simply seem to be taking good-natured jabs at a genre they truly love.
  16. Lost and Delirious
    Isn't much more than a self-indulgent picture about the feeble delirium of a lovesick girl -- lightweight stuff that labors to seem terribly important.
  17. Vanity Fair
    This movie has precious little satirical edge. What is needs is more emphasis on the "vanity" and less on the "fair."
  18. Tea with Mussolini
    Franco Zeffirelli's contrived autobiographical film about his youth in fascist Italy has little social grace -- it's embarrassingly awkward, like a dilettante playing the doyenne.
  19. De-Lovely
    Affectionate but uninsightful biopic.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Johnny Suede
    DiCillo's humorous insight into the post-modern culture manifests into vivid characterizations that are enhanced by credible cast performances.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Race with the Devil
    This is some dumb, thoroughly predictable, drive-in flotsam, but between the cast and the nonstop action, it's fun nonetheless.
  22. Palindromes
    You could call this film repugnant and abrasive, and Solondz would probably agree.
  23. We Broke Up
    There are a million reasons why couples break up. If only We Broke Up had landed on one, they might have really had something here.
  24. Lost Highway
    Lynch, who penned the screenplay with novelist Barry Gifford (Wild at Heart), seems to be attempting to capture not just a sense of place and time (it never works -- Lost Highway is wholly, irrevocably, out of place and without any linear time or time line to speak of), but also a sense of madness.
  25. Apres Vous (After You)
    Intends to be a farce, not a drama. The film never quite achieves either definition.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Amateur
    Amateur offers the inimitable Hartley style with a harder edge than his earlier films, and while the thriller elements of Amateur prove entertaining on a bigger scale, this entertainment may not endure for viewers not completely committed to Amateur's characters and Hartley's slow-motion storytelling.
  27. Flag Day
    Flag Day desperately wants to be an impassioned testament to the lives of both Jennifer and Dylan, but is hardly ever able to escape the myopic lens of its craftsman.
  28. Hysteria
    Rather born to wear a frock coat, Dancy shares the stammer-blush, winning-grin methodology of countryman Hugh Grant, only with more probity and better posture.
  29. We Are Marshall
    There are football movies, and then there's this 800-pound gorilla of a gridiron weepie, which should be penalized for roughing the viewer.
  30. The Amazing Maurice
    It's still not quite Pratchett-y, still a little static – most especially in the oddly flat animation – and still not quite snappy enough. But that doesn't stop Maurice being an entertaining way to convince kids to pick up the book.
  31. The Phantom
    The Nintendo generation may not “get” The Phantom any more than those original Thirties fans would have understood Bruce Wayne's tortured psyche, but that aside, Wincer's updating of an old warhorse is lovingly done. It's a Saturday afternoon matinee for the Nineties, 60 years old and totally new.
  32. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
    It takes great skill to make something so ponderously stultifying as this third film entry in the ongoing adaptation of C.S. Lewis' series of splendidly imagined children's books.
  33. Landscape with Invisible Hand
    It's an incisive, intriguing, and ultimately moving look at America's ongoing socioeconomic collapse: The whole "kids streaming their first slow dance" thing is just one aspect of this rich and nuanced drama.
  34. Penguins of Madagascar
    A merry entertainment that never pretends to greatness, Penguins of Madagascar is all about antics, verbal and visual.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    She's the One
    The film's tagline describes it as “a romantic comedy about two brothers...and the one thing that came between them.” This “thing” appears to be the women in their lives, and if this description sounds even slightly misogynistic, perhaps it does so for a reason.
  36. The Hudsucker Proxy
    Hudsucker Proxy works more like a fairy tale in which all implausibilities are acceptable and none of it has to play by real-world rules. But it's a fairy tale without any lessons, a satire without any targets.
  37. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
    Although handsomely mounted, this latest star in the Marvel Universe is not a leading light. But it probably has enough juice to keep the galaxy spinning until something more original comes along and knocks it out of orbit.
  38. Focus
    A movie worth viewing. Besides, it's the only movie to boast NYC millionaire mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg as its executive producer.
  39. Enemy at the Gates
    Enemy at the Gates is a disappointment primarily because it seems so rich with possibilities.
  40. Knock Knock
    Knock Knock is a nasty bit of business, and fans of Roth are not likely to be disappointed. But for everyone else, the joke's on them.
  41. On a Magical Night
    Basically a meaner French version of schmaltzy Matthew McConaughey romcom "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" (itself one of the worst adaptations of A Christmas Carol) mixed with a French bedroom farce, On a Magical Night shackles itself, as if with Marley's chains, to a thoroughly unlikable protagonist.
  42. The Journey
    Spall and Meaney are mesmerizingly watchable in a film that’s 40% gruff dialogue and 60% seething silences.
  43. Rent
    Despite the grating, workmanlike direction of Chris Columbus (he's no Robert Wise, and Rent is nobody's idea of "West Side Story"), this boisterous adaptation is both a vivacious, wiseacre musical and an inarguable morality lesson: Love is all you need. Oh, and rent, of course.
  44. Another Stakeout
    Like last year's "Lethal Weapon 3" -- another ridiculously uninspired sequel -- Another Stakeout starts with a terrific bang and goes nowhere fast.
  45. Renfield
    Despite its faults, the affection the movie has for its predecessor (most notably in its opening black-and-white sequences) is clear and contagious. There’s also fun work being done by the players rounding out the support group, clueless to the gravity of Renfield’s situation until it’s too late.
  46. Free State of Jones
    As it is, Newt Knight, the forward-thinking white liberal, is the only character with whom we might connect. And that’s a shame because this compelling episode of American defiance is so much richer than that.
  47. Sharp Stick
    This pandemic-made feature teems with fertile ideas and observations – about social media, California Goopiness, reproductive trauma, feminist porn – that don’t always feel fully formed – more like purged – and her essential glibness undercuts the potential for real catharsis.
  48. Mr. Popper's Penguins
    In the sea of mediocrity that passes for children's films these days, Mr. Popper's Penguins has enough originality (and silly physical comedy) to make it stand out.
  49. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween
    Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween knows what its target demographic wants but also resonates with adult audiences, thanks to the zippy plot and across-the-board excellent performances from the totally game cast.
  50. A Good Woman
    With its jellyfish direction, A Good Woman throws its actors overboard to see if they can swim.
  51. Truth to Power
    Tankian has crafted a movie with an overt political ideology and cast himself as the well-intentioned face of a cultural revolution. But none of this takes away from the issues at the center of the film – public recognition of the Armenian genocide for one, the enduring challenges of democracy in post-Soviet countries for another – and the countless people who looked to Tankian and System of a Down to help spread their stories across the world.
  52. The Killer Inside Me
    The Killer Inside Me is hardly uninteresting, and you get the sense that everyone involved tried really hard to pull off this difficult adaptation. But it would be impossible to view The Killer Inside Me as anything but a vast miscalculation.
  53. The Rocker
    Wilson is buoyed by a sporadically witty script, and while there are no surprises whatsoever in the story, his goofy, puppylike charm renders what could have been a disaster merely an unfortunate event.
  54. Finding Your Feet
    The familiar narrative gambits of Finding Your Feet aren’t the problem here as much as their heavy-handed execution.
  55. The Tender Bar
    The occasional sudden zoom or quick comedic cutaway make for brief moments of respite, and it’s hard to truly hate a film aiming for such kindly emotional resonance. But whatever slight wisdoms or truths are to be found here are squandered in a big nothing of a story trying to render them meaningful.
  56. Bachelorette
    Bachelorette – at least in its first half – is a dangerously funny movie about four old college friends on the eve of one member's nuptials.
  57. On Any Sunday: The Next Chapter
    What’s missing here is the full adrenaline rush associated with this dangerous but exhilarating sport and pastime. The documentary’s start/stop narrative structure never allows anything to accelerate full throttle.
  58. Silent Night, Deadly Night
    Acheson channels exploitation legend Sid Haig as Charlie, and it’s just delightful to see Nelson give one of the all-time “oh, it’s that guy” bit part specialists a truly memorable role. That it’s in that rare remake that successfully inverts an old favorite while staying true to its grisly inheritance makes it even more of a gift.
  59. Muppets from Space
    A fairly uninspired, albeit entertaining, Muppet movie that falls short of the original outing from Jim Henson's creature shop while still managing to bring in a few lesser chuckles.
  60. A Goofy Movie
    If A Goofy Movie was one-fifth as demented as Tiny Toons, it might have been worth watching. Instead it is bland, a barely television-length cartoon stretched out to fill a feature, and not much fun.
  61. Gnomeo and Juliet
    Novelty alone does not a good idea make, and in the case of Gnomeo and Juliet, it's rather a disturbing, even fetishy one.
  62. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
    It’s disappointing to stop rooting for a blockbuster behemoth horror series, but The Conjuring movies’ quality and talon-tight hold has rapidly deflated over time.
  63. Wanderlust
    Wanderlust is flawed, too, but for its exploration of financial ruin and alternative lifestyles, it shows once again that Aniston, at the very least, knows which way the wind is blowing.
  64. Hypnotic
    This is Rodriguez the lover of the C-movie, the kind of filmmaker that Roger Corman would have adored. Hypnotic has that run-and-gun energy, rough around the edges but not in a way that impinges on the fun. It's also Rodriguez flexing some old action muscles, with that opening heist arguably his most bruising and well-constructed practical set-piece in a couple of decades.
  65. The Moment
    Making a movie about how annoyed you were that your label tried to force you to make a concert movie is just 103 minutes of Charli xcx relitigating an argument she already won, just with added product placement.
  66. American Underdog
    While Levi gives you someone to genuinely root for, once the movie reaches Warner’s debut game for the Rams in 1999, all nuance goes out the window as you’re pounded into semi-hysterical submission to cheer for a proverbial win for the gipper.
  67. Five Feet Apart
    Perhaps the fault lies not in our stars, but in our shameless need for a sappy ending.
  68. Pokémon Detective Pikachu
    The film’s plot is either too much or too little, but whatever you decide, it’s best to give up on any expectations of true logic and just go with the flow because you know what, Jake: Forget it. It’s Pokémania.
  69. The Lucky Ones
    More than a story about Iraq war veterans, The Lucky Ones is a movie about carefully considering one's options.
  70. The Book of Eli
    Much has been made of the film's ending, vis-à-vis whether or not it's a pro- or anti-organized religion commentary of some sort. The Hughes Brothers, for two, say they just wanted to make a kickass piece of contemporary entertainment, and I, for one, believe them.
  71. Australia
    Luhrmann wants it all – comedy and tragedy, bombast and wet-eyed sentimentality. When it works, his kid-in-a-candy-store giddiness is infectious. When it doesn't – when he goes from silly to turgid in 60 seconds flat – he punctures Australia's proportions down from epic to simply overwrought.
  72. Long Weekend
    Long Weekend had all the tools to make a wistful, escapist romance that explores and overcomes some of the stigmas of mental health, but it flatlines.
  73. 40 Days and 40 Nights
    Doesn't do much to further distinguish Lehmann's career. As for those of us waiting for the year's first worthwhile date movie, the wait continues.
  74. The Dark Half
    The Dark Half never really comes to life, even in Romero's capable hands, this seemingly surefire story ends up stillborn.
  75. Girls Will Be Girls
    It’s part camp, part trash, and part cabaret, with a delightfully retro Hollywood Hills palette and zingy dialogue served up with relish.
  76. Beauty Shop
    There's an amiability that permeates the movie and carries it through most of the rough patches and split ends.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Earth to Echo
    Despite the shaky-cam aesthetic, Dave Green’s first feature still makes for a brisk, appealing adventure capably anchored by four young actors.
  78. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain
    All together, it is a wearying display of defensiveness from a man who – by any barometer, not just his own – is wildly successful.
  79. Samba
    In its inclusive attempt to be all things to all people, Samba ends up inadvertently trivializing the topics it’s trying to stand up for.
  80. Malcolm & Marie
    All in all, Malcolm & Marie is less a coherent narrative than it is a beautified slideshow of ideas. These ideas are often compelling – but still, just ideas.
  81. Astro Boy
    It's a totally serviceable reboot for young people who are just discovering the joys of manga, but I can't help but miss the raw animation and even rawer emotional aesthetics of Tezuka's original televised animé series.
  82. Year of the Fish
    Lovely to look at, Year of the Fish is an animated feature that pops off the screen like a goldfish leaping free of its bowl.
  83. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
    It's all a bit much, yes, a bit exhausting, that's true, but then why on earth would anyone expect otherwise?
  84. Point of No Return
    Badham, however, keeps the whole thing up and running expertly -- it's interesting to note, also, that this Americanized version contains far more big-bang explosions and an elevated body-count than the French source material. Big deal. In a story as well done as this, a few extra bullet-hits only add to the delightful mayhem.
  85. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
    Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is a hobbled parade.
  86. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
    The sketchy visual traits that differentiate the many characters in this avian universe will leave viewers crying, "Who, who" along with the owls.
  87. Stick It
    Like "Bring It On," Stick It is so much better than most of its insipid teen-movie peers yet like her earlier movie, Bendinger's new one is also not all it might be.
  88. Eight Legged Freaks
    An occasionally charming mix of campy fun and dodgy computer-generated effects.
  89. The Heart of Me
    It’s all veddy stiff-upper-lip -– this is romance from a masochist’s point of view -– and the intimacy of the emotions often feels cramped.
  90. Sky Blue
    The result is a riveting, eco-wise epic that'll do fans of both Ralph Nader and Katsuhiro Otomo proud.
  91. Luther: The Fallen Sun
    One of the main pleasures of the TV series was how Cross and co. always had Luther caught in the crosscurrents of two conflicting agendas, and the tension of that juggling act provided much of the pleasure, especially when it all (mostly) worked out. Fallen Sun is a rote and simpleminded letdown by comparison.
  92. Marley & Me
    Sweet and wise and often laugh-out-loud funny (just like Grogan's book), Marley & Me isn't just for dog people; it's just not for Cruella De Vil.
  93. The Hollars
    A standard-issue family reunion dramedy, The Hollars has several genuine moments of human interaction that are near-magical to observe because they feel so plucked from real life.
  94. Can't Hardly Wait
    Nobody's going to give this one an Oscar, sure, but as far as the venerable teen sex comedy goes, this one actually makes it to third base.
  95. I.S.S.
    For a film with such weighty aspirations, I.S.S. lacks gravity.
  96. Red Sparrow
    Coming so close on the heels of another clumsy female-led spy adaptation, "Atomic Blonde" (which at least had the good grace to be stylish in its stupidity), Red Sparrow plummets to Earth.
  97. Carrie
    Carrie has proved itself to be a remarkably resilient tale that’s not likely to be plugged up anytime soon.
  98. Apt Pupil
    It's not perfect King, but it is jarringly close, which these days remains pretty much all one could hope for.
  99. Measure of a Man
    Cooper acquits himself as the main character, but between the pratfall/character-building montages and the endless platitudes imparted by the wise, old mentor, Measure of a Man does him few favors, and the film becomes a tedious haul through to the redemptive third act.
  100. The Cutting Edge
    The skating sequences are also well-thought out and fun to watch. The movie loses momentum at times with directionless subplots about Kate and her boring fiance, Doug and his family back home who think that taking up figure skating is tantamount to turning a gay blade and the manipulations of Kate's father whose vicarious attachments almost put a permanent hex on her life. Certainly, The Cutting Edge is a well-timed vehicle for those who couldn't get enough of the Winter Olympics on TV, but it pushes past simple opportunism to deliver a backstage story that works in any season.
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