Austin Chronicle's Scores

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For 8,778 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 6.7 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: 4,774 out of 8778
  2. Mixed: 2,557 out of 8778
  3. Negative: 1,447 out of 8778
8778 movie reviews
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  1. Herbie Fully Loaded
    Sort of annoying, and it doesn't do what you want it to do, but you know, it's so scrappy and persistent that it seems kind of cute in spite of itself.
  2. The Perfect Man
    The Perfect Man is like Teen People come to life. It's perfectly PG, and it's probably not the worst thing a young lady could see, depending on your criteria. Cinematically, it's like watching your lawn grow.
  3. Heights
    Terrio's technically proficient film is mature, modern, and minus the all-important passion and risk.
  4. Me and You and Everyone We Know
    July sees the world in a most unexpected way, and it's a shame that Me and You's preciousness sometimes overwhelms that uniqueness of vision.
  5. My Summer of Love
    When compared with most of what passes for honest teen drama these days, My Summer of Love is a real reprieve.
  6. Batman Begins
    At times it feels almost too busy with plotting. There's so much going on, and so much to take in, that it leaves you winded. But that's origin stories for you. No one ever said setting up a savior would be simple.
  7. Mr. & Mrs. Smith
    Uneven, ineffective mash-up of sex comedy and artillery-heavy action.
  8. The Honeymooners
    It’s a shame when a movie brings together so many underutilized thespians of color – even Ajay Naidu of "Office Space" is in here someplace – and gives them absolutely nothing to do.
  9. High Tension
    Stylistically thrilling but ultimately tedious French import.
  10. The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D
    A strange Hollywood film, but for a home movie it's one bang-up job.
  11. Howl's Moving Castle
    The voice acting, from new Batman Bale to the almost unrecognizable Bacall is fine – even Crystal reigns in his usual Borscht Belt bravado – if a little plain.
  12. 5x2
    Ozon's take on this marriage in particular is notable – apart from Freiss and Bruni-Tedeschi's bracing performances – for his unwillingness to let things spiral out of complete control.
  13. Chrystal
    Even at its most contrived, the filmmakers believe in this project so passionately that its atmosphere seems absolutely real.
  14. The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam
    The wraparound storyline is unnecessary and continually interrupts the vastly more interesting story of Khayyam's history.
  15. Cinderella Man
    He's a saint in the flesh, but not one who inspires great drama.
  16. Lords of Dogtown
    Works best when it seems like it's not working at all.
  17. Rock School
    Paul Green seems more interested in what rock school can do for him than for the kids.
  18. Apres Vous (After You)
    Intends to be a farce, not a drama. The film never quite achieves either definition.
  19. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
    The easy, fast-talking rapport between the four young women is The Sisterhood’s biggest selling point. Too bad, then, that the premise demands they spend most of the film away from each other.
  20. The Longest Yard
    Consistently entertaining, athletically brutal, and, more often than not, well-acted.
  21. Madagascar
    Forget life lessons: I much prefer a lemur king doing the robot.
  22. A League of Ordinary Gentlemen
    The first 15-20 minutes of this documentary are solid gold.
  23. The Fearless Freaks
    Provides that rarest of documentary accomplishments: a glimpse into the artists' sunny, dark hearts.
  24. Saving Face
    Surprisingly fresh and charming overall.
  25. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
    A vast improvement over the previous two outings, but still and all, it's no "Star Wars."
  26. Mindhunters
    Another unthrilling Renny Harlin thriller.
  27. Kicking & Screaming
    Roughly as entertaining as watching your neighbor's kid's soccer game, not because you want to, but because you have to.
  28. Monster-in-Law
    How much better this would have been had someone like Brian De Palma stepped behind the camera.
  29. Unleashed
    Unleashed suffers from a surfeit of sentimentality at times (blame Besson for that), but it's Li's first major Western role of any depth and he acquits himself admirably as both mad dog and melancholy master.
  30. Mad Hot Ballroom
    In contrast to its great title, Mad Hot Ballroom is anything but: Let’s just say I was not spellbound.
  31. Layer Cake
    Layer Cake is suffused with a stately sense of menace and a sort of doomed existential suave.
  32. Crash
    It's the most compelling American movie to come around in a long, long time.
  33. House of Wax
    Expect lots of Slasher Movie 101.
  34. Kingdom of Heaven
    The story's parallels with the present are sometimes inescapable, as when Saladin's fireballs catapulted at Balian's castle strike an eerie resemblance to the "shock and awe" of the U.S.-led coalition's initial assault on Iraq.
  35. Mysterious Skin
    The film's content is adult – and for the first time in Araki's career, so is the director.
  36. Brothers
    It's interesting and well-performed, but it's no Cain and Abel.
  37. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    It's nonstop chaos, and the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink style of comedy is taxing despite the frequent moments of pure comic genius.
  38. xXx: State of the Union
    10 times too much, a nonstop orgy of bullets, bombs, and booty that aims low and hits the bull’s-eye with enough firepower to sink the Bismarck.
  39. 3-Iron
    It sounds high-minded, but 3-Iron is in fact simple and economical, blessedly straighforward, absorbing, and hard to forget.
  40. Funny Ha Ha
    Funny Ha Ha is often offhandedly funny, and Bujalski has a knack for letting scenes build and then cutting out abruptly, duplicating the flow of a life in flux.
  41. Ladies in Lavender.
    Any film in which grande dames Maggie Smith and Judi Dench share the screen is one worth seeing, if only to marvel at their deft skills in the art of acting.
  42. The Interpreter
    The Interpreter is ultimately fluent in many things, but an out-and-out thriller it is not.
  43. A Lot Like Love
    The whole production is simply as mediocre and half-baked as Hollywood gets.
  44. King's Ransom
    The comic equivalent of a lump of coal.
  45. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
    Despite these biases, the movie helps the average American understand the nature of the shell games perpetuated by Enron and how "synergistic corruptions" can corrupt absolutely.
  46. One Missed Call
    All we're left with is a second-rate J-Horror entry that bores rather scares.
  47. The Amityville Horror
    Images seem to be grafted into the film that have little to do with the actual story.
  48. House of D
    Here's an interesting surprise: Dour, dry Duchovny's directorial debut is more weepy than creepy.
  49. It's All Gone Pete Tong
    A smart albeit uneven jab at everything from the clubbing life to the male inclination toward Peter Pan.
  50. Torremolinos 73
    All this and not a glimmer of General Franco makes for a surreal – and sporadically inspired – comedy of Spanish mores back when naughty was nice.
  51. Palindromes
    You could call this film repugnant and abrasive, and Solondz would probably agree.
  52. Sahara
    Just don't go expecting complex moral and ethical quandaries and you'll likely never think of "Ishtar" even once.
  53. Fever Pitch
    Ultimately, it's a bore. Don't see the movie – read the book, play the game.
  54. Kung Fu Hustle
    It's a short, sharp, shock to the cinematic system that's virtually impossible to dislike, and if you don't leave the theatre grinning your face off, then buddy, movies just aren't for you.
  55. Eating Out
    Here's hoping someone breaks down and buys Brocka some more toys, if only to distract him from embarking on another flesh-and-blood production.
  56. Winter Solstice
    Neither a change of seasons nor truly wonderful performances can breathe life into the dismally enervated Winter Solstice.
  57. ...And They Lived Happily Ever After
    The movie is kind of a mess – all over the place tonally, hastily paced, and overly reliant on the ostensible truisms of romantic comedy.
  58. Sin City
    Honestly, this ultra-noir adaptation of Frank Miller's black-and-white cult comic series is a visual feast ripped straight from the original medium's blood-soaked pages.
  59. Dust to Glory
    My be a gearhead's delight, but its appeal to middle-of-the-roaders will be stop-and-go.
  60. Control
    Though the story is thinly conceived, Antal throws a fantastic curveball in the second act. Kontroll is a hot ticket.
  61. Look at Me
    Look at Me marks the character's shift from being the object of attention to the subject of her own dreams.
  62. Beauty Shop
    There's an amiability that permeates the movie and carries it through most of the rough patches and split ends.
  63. Oldboy
    While the climax is admittedly something of a letdown after all the build-up, it's a hopelessly, helplessly original film, all guts, no glory.
  64. Guess Who
    The makers of Guess Who appear to have given more thought to targeting an audience than building a believable movie.
  65. The Ballad of Jack and Rose
    Strong performances and Miller's equivocal stance toward her characters save the movie from its symbolic overload and melodramatic crash course, but in the end there may be less here than meets the eye.
  66. Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous
    Without better material, Bullock’s talents will remain undercover.
  67. Mondovino
    As is, it's simply too much information crammed too haphazardly into a running time that at times borders on interminable.
  68. Ice Princess
    Mercifully, the frosted icing-icky title bears little relation to the film's actual content.
  69. The Ring Two
    It's only at film's end that you realize the whole soggy, overlong mess isn't going to go anywhere.
  70. Melinda and Melinda
    These days, Allen's pictures are more like snuff films, in which the viewer must suffer both gifted actors committing screen hara-kiri and a once-brilliant filmmaker soldiering on with his long, bullheaded decline.
  71. Steamboy
    If Victorian Manchester had been remotely like this, H.G. Wells never would have bothered to pen "The Time Machine" – he'd have just stepped outside and into the fray.
  72. Hostage
    Director Siri has a stylish eye that makes this film resemble a film noir outing, but the script (by Doug Richardson) is at first routine before growing increasingly outlandish.
  73. Robots
    The movie can be funny in fits, but too often the scripters go for the obvious and uninspired.
  74. The Upside of Anger
    The two fantastic performances by Allen and Costner that anchor The Upside of Anger are the reason to see this contemporary drama.
  75. Millions
    It's childhood done just right: part cotton candy angels, part gurning adult frighteners, and all wide-eyed kidhood bravado.
  76. In My Country
    There is great material here and ample food for thought, but the presentation is lacking.
  77. Mail Order Wife
    The best surprise is Yuan, the daughter of Hong Kong actress Cheng Pei-Pei. She has great screen presence and invests Lichi with a mix of kitty-cat cuteness and hellcat ferocity.
  78. Don't Move
    Cloyingly melodramatic film.
  79. Dot the I
    The actors are all good, although not much rapport is conveyed, despite one hot sex scene.
  80. Off the Map
    Ultimately the film manages a warm, offbeat appeal despite its flaws, and it has real heart.
  81. Be Cool
    It's a messy, overlong film, but it's impossible to take seriously and therefore more than a little entertaining.
  82. The Jacket
    Visually, The Jacket has a lot of flash, but it hardly compensates for the fuzzy story.
  83. The Pacifier
    Is it funny? Not for a minute.
  84. Dear Frankie
    I’m all for ambiguity, but Dear Frankie’s multiple dangling threads indicate incoherent storytelling, not profundity.
  85. Gunner Palace
    With so many soldiers interviewed, some only fleetingly, it's impossible to keep track of them all.
  86. Walk on Water
    Walk on Water makes you wonder what the Mossad is teaching its field agents these days.
  87. Cursed
    Genre fans and newcomers alike should skip this monstrosity and go rent "Ginger Snaps" instead.
  88. Diary of a Mad Black Woman
    Cruelty, church redemption, miraculous healings of limbs and junkie relatives – all have their moments onscreen.
  89. Man of the House
    Silly and implausible.
  90. Up and Down
    Has the look and feel of Euro-Altman (vastly superior to Euro-Disney, mind you).
  91. Turtles Can Fly
    An emotional triumph.
  92. Because of Winn-Dixie
    Veterans Eva Marie Saint and Cicely Tyson make welcome appearances.
  93. Constantine
    Constantine will likely hold far more interest for devoted fans of the series, but it's not necessary to have read the books to appreciate the film's sumptuous visuals and art direction.
  94. Son of the Mask
    But for anyone who assumed Kennedy's experiment couldn't sink any lower than "Malibu's Most Wanted," there are, it appears, ever deeper depths in the realm of comedic misfires.
  95. Nabbeun namja
    A well-told tale that uses minimal dialogue, striking imagery, and vivid violence to weave a depressing portrait of obsessive love and a no-win battle of wills.
  96. Bigger Than the Sky
    Awash in the obvious and sports a patently predictable outcome. Somewhere, Stanislavsky is shrieking as well.
  97. Downfall
    Much has been made about the film's "humanizing" of Hitler, but he's only human here in the most prosaic of terms.
  98. Schultze Gets the Blues
    A sweet German movie by a first-time filmmaker, who, I would bet, is more than a little familiar with the early work of Jim Jarmusch or just about any Aki KaurismŠki film.
  99. The Animation Show 2005
    This second incarnation of the Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt-produced animation anthology is, if anything, even better than the first.
  100. Ong Bak
    But the best way to enjoy Ong Bak is on its own gritty, low-budget level, skins, brains, and guts galore, a viscerally entertaining slice of Thai filmmaking that will leave you grinning ear to ear.
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