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. Very Bad Things
    There is a line between gallows humor and tastelessness, but Very Bad Things apparently doesn't have a clue where that might be.
  2. A Bug's Life
    From the pure entertainment standpoint, ABL's nonstop action helps it avoid the slack moments that marred “Antz”. The dialogue, kiddie-accessible though it is, is plenty intelligent for adult enjoyment.
  3. Babe: Pig in the City
    You couldn't have gotten a more pleasantly bizarre film if Salvador Dali himself had directed, which says a lot for Miller's rabid talents.
  4. Waking Ned Devine
    Predicated on the slimmest of notions, this debut by Jones is so cuddly-cute in its desire to be pleasing that it's all but transparent.
  5. Celebrity
    Purportedly a seriocomic contemplation on a civilization that's lost its way, the movie jabs at America's fascination with its false idols without ever hitting its target.
  6. Central Station
    The story is much less about its resolution than the experience along the way. At its best, Central Station is a movie of small textures and fleeting moments, the intangibles that pass between people.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Rugrats Movie
    The ensuing adventure has a few giggles and a warm, sweet ending, but The Rugrats Movie is more like a pleasant Sunday drive in a big smooth sedan than the TV show's riotous joyrides in a fast, shiny convertible.
  8. Enemy of the State
    A kicky, knockout thriller that ingeniously taps into the current climate of paranoia surrounding personal privacy in the Information Age.
  9. Meet Joe Black
    Meet Joe Black flows nicely, and the whole of the film is bathed in some of the most sumptuous cinematography (courtesy of "Like Water for Chocolate's" Emmanuel Lubezki) of the year.
  10. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
    You want REAL terror? If this second outing proves profitable, we'll be looking at Yet Again I Recall the Summer Before the Summer Before Last. Now that's scary.
  11. Velvet Goldmine
    In terms of sheer, unrelenting visual invention, Velvet Goldmine is a wonder.
  12. The Siege
    The good news, then, is that The Siege is hardly the ticking time bomb of racial slurs some would have you imagine, and the bad news is that it doesn't matter because it's all too damn pedantically serious to take seriously.
  13. The Waterboy
    It's not "Billy Madison," quite, but The Waterboy is still pure Sandler. If you like that sort of thing.
  14. Elizabeth
    Despite the florid trailers' emphasis on bodice-ripping romantic imagery, Elizabeth is above all a political thriller.
  15. Gods and Monsters
    So much of the credit must be laid at the feet of Ian McKellen, whose portrait of Whale is a study in acting excellence.
  16. Belly
    The rap stars-turned-actors who populate this film exude a real presence, if not a wealth of acting chops. Williams' script is a real muddle, however, reinforcing the worst clichés about video directors who make the leap to feature filmmaking.
  17. Living Out Loud
    Unfortunately, there's not much of a story to go with Hunter's engaging performance and LaGravenese's words.
  18. Vampires
    It's interesting, though, to think of double-billing Woods' Crow with Pacino's Prince of Darkness from Devil's Advocate: Scenery-chewing never looked so good.
  19. American History X
    A violent, sober cautionary tale, strictly middle-of-the-road when it comes to its much-ballyhooed politics and grimly obvious in its telling.
  20. Life Is Beautiful
    Manages to incorporate all these things into a moving yet unsentimental story about the beauty of maintaining one's wits while stumbling blindly in the insane no man's land that lies beyond wit's end.
  21. Pleasantville
    The movie's simplistic storyline does not match its stunning visual accomplishments: Pleasantville's story is drawn from a palette that's strictly limited to black-and-white.
  22. Apt Pupil
    It's not perfect King, but it is jarringly close, which these days remains pretty much all one could hope for.
  23. Orgazmo
    Like everything else Parker puts his mind to -- is equally outlandish, part skewed morality play, part sophomoric slapstick, and wholly ridiculous.
  24. The Cruise
    Miller has somehow, inadvertently by his own admission, managed to capture the essence of the human throng, in all its maddening, scintillating permutations. It's a tour unlike any you have ever taken.
  25. The Last Days
    Moll's film is a far cry from the elegiac poetry of, say, Night and Fog; it's a document more than an examination, and its power of record is inarguable and incorruptible. And then, at the end, somehow you find yourself with that least likely of expressions on your face, a smile, courtesy of Representative Lantos.
  26. Happiness
    Corrosively funny yet emotionally devastating.
  27. Beloved
    The performances of all the central and secondary characters match the passionate intensity of the film's behind-the-scenes collaborators.
  28. Practical Magic
    It's just a little too ironic (to quote Okay Pop Singer Alanis Morrisette) that a movie with the word "magic" in its title should be such a perfect example of the difference between competence and inspiration.
  29. Bride of Chucky
    It's not quite as relentless as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, but Bride of Chucky is still sick and wrong in all the right ways.
  30. Holy Man
    All the advance signs looked discouraging, but I still kept thinking: How bad could a comedy starring Eddie Murphy and Jeff Goldblum really be? Well, let's put it this way … you won't ever hear me asking that particular question again.
  31. The Celebration
    This Danish film is an alternately funny and harrowing look at a family crisis, a meltdown that blends the needs of the truthsayers with the instincts of the let's-bury-our-heads-in-the-sand-and-pretend-none-of-this-is-happening types.
  32. What Dreams May Come
    Like most dreams revisited with eyes wide open, this one's content dissolves into a transparent puddle of inchoate thoughts and predictable iconography.
  33. A Night at the Roxbury
    What is love? Haddaway asks in the omnipresent soundtrack song. Not this time-wasting bilge, that's for sure.
  34. Antz
    Without a doubt, the animation is vibrant and electrifying; it's only the story that lacks.
  35. I Stand Alone
    I Stand Alone uses a cannon ball to shatter the psychological horror at the heart of human society.
  36. Clay Pigeons
    Dobkin, in his directorial debut, seems ready and willing to ply the conventions of film noir in the harsh Montana daylight, but Clay Pigeons never manages to reach the crucial suspense plateaus that noir demands.
  37. Ronin
    It remains head and shoulders above what little competition there is by virtue of its stellar casting, editing, and above all, Frankenheimer's fluid, explosive direction.
  38. Urban Legend
    Spottily directed and lacking the dubious merits of even the Friday the 13th franchise, this is one slasher film that should die a quick and lonely box-office death.
  39. Pecker
    As a whole, Pecker is enjoyable but also feels scattered and transitory.
  40. Monument Ave.
    Leary, Demme, and screenwriter Mike Armstrong have come up with a brilliant, harrowing portrait of misplaced loyalties and savage valor that may be one of the best character-driven ensemble pieces to come around in some time.
  41. One True Thing
    A formulaic family melodrama whose craftsmanship and sensitivity to its characters raises it to the level of sublime group portrait.
  42. Rush Hour
    There may be nothing new under the sun, but you can bet your life there's absolutely nothing new about Rush Hour at all.
  43. A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries
    The story's accumulation of scattered impressions is exactly what bedevils the film's overall impact. The story lacks focus, sustained development, and direction.
  44. Permanent Midnight
    Despite its subject matter and some humorous moments, the film lacks any real verve and punch, and brings little new to the table in the already tired new genre of junkie confession. The performances are solid and there are flashes of humor, but on the whole Permanent Midnight is in the dark.
  45. Rounders
    That is the heart of what's missing here: the buzz that unites these games and players, the seductive lure that excites as it also placates. The dramatic throughline is murky as well...Undeniably good are the performances, however.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Simon Birch
    Only masterful performances keep this frankly sentimental film from foundering in a sea of syrup.
  47. Cube
    It's an existential, Kafka-esque nightmare with no real resolution, although if you've been biding your time waiting to see some high-strung, ham-handed bickering on-screen, this is your A-ticket.
  48. Without Limits
    It's a good, solid little film about a man whose story deserves better.
  49. Knock Off
    In essence, the whole Knock Off experience can be summed up neatly in four words: loud, stupid, blurry, frenetic.
  50. 54
    It's a noble effort, but aficionados and the mildly interested are recommended to seek out VH-1's excellent Studio 54 documentary in lieu of this shallow morality play.
  51. Dead Man on Campus
    A dark comedy caught in a white-light washout, it's neither mean enough to be funny, nor funny enough to mean much.
  52. Your Friends & Neighbors
    LaBute's narrative structure and visual strategies are rigorously crafted, bespeaking an almost mathematical calculation that, in compellingly contradictory ways, both enhances the dramatic experience while undermining its very authenticity.
  53. Next Stop Wonderland
    The premise works despite its inbred hokiness due to Anderson's sure direction and the lovely central performances of Hope Davis and Alan Gelfant.
  54. Blade
    "Interview With the Vampire" it's not, but marginally thrilling nonetheless, and besides, any film that features a house party in which the ceiling-mounted fire extinguishers expel freshets of crimson goo in place of H2O gets my vote.
  55. The Eel
    It's no wonder Imamura has now collected not one but two Palmes d'Ors; The Eel is a flash of quiet brilliance that resonates long after the images have faded from the screen.
  56. Slums of Beverly Hills
    A very funny and well-acted comedy about the slings and arrows of outrageous adolescence.
  57. How Stella Got Her Groove Back
    The filmmakers go to obvious pains to add a bit of nutritive value to their sweet, frothy confection.
  58. The Avengers
    This new film version, sad to say, is a hollow shell of the original series.
  59. Return to Paradise
    There are, of course, the requisite trial sequences, and some mildly horrific shocks along the way, but Ruben and company fail to make any of this very interesting.
  60. Snake Eyes
    After it has ended, you may want to view it all over again, just to see if you can beat the odds and pick up on what you missed the first time around.
  61. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
    Miner strives to imbue the film with the requisite autumnal haze of the original but then gives up midway through and instead resorts to the standard stalk 'n' slash formulas.
  62. BASEketball
    Sick, twisted, and very funny, Parker and Stone have arrived. Again.
  63. Ever After
    The playful and well-meaning spirit of the film carries it through its shakier moments of awkward narration and inscrutably busy camerawork.
  64. The Governess
    The film is an atmospheric work, a period piece set in the 1840s during the dawn of the Age of Photography with a dense and moody visual style that befits its Brönte-esque subject matter.
  65. The Negotiator
    The Negotiator falls short of greatness by a country mile; it's too chatty for its own good sometimes. But it's still a solid shoot-'em-up.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Parent Trap
    Vanilla and sweet, it's an overly generous helping that, if it doesn't make you sick, will put you in a good humor all day long.
  67. Saving Private Ryan
    A bitter, bloody masterpiece with adrenalized emotions and hyper-realized images, this is perhaps as close to battle as any sane human being should ever hope to tread.
  68. Western
    Many have already heralded Poirier as the cutting edge of the new French cinema, and while that may be overstating things a bit, it's worth noting that this is a road movie unlike any other you've yet seen.
  69. Lolita
    However, Lyne (whose sexually exploitative works include such popular box-office fare as "Flashdance," "9 1/2 Weeks," "Fatal Attraction," and "Indecent Proposal") has turned in a Lolita that is remarkably tame and tasteful. This is a Lolita for the English Lit crowd rather than the raincoat crowd.
  70. The Mask of Zorro
    A pleasantly vicarious slice of summertime falderol, innocuous in its presentation and often genuinely fun.
  71. There's Something About Mary
    A surprisingly large number of the laughs work, although, understandably, a good number of them also fall flat. You can bet that whenever the story slows down to advance the plot concerning its paper-thin characters, the film takes a noticeable dip.
  72. Pi
    Brilliant, surreal, and emotionally draining, this first feature from American Film Institute grad Aronofsky recalls such low-budget sci-fi epics as "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" and more traditional paranoiac suspense films (Adrian Lyne's "Jacob's Ladder" in particular, but also Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby") and yet manages to be a wholly original animal.
  73. Lethal Weapon 4
    Not only is the franchise growing hoary, by now it's become downright laughable, leaving Lethal Weapon 4 feeling more like a bad Fox sitcom than anything else.
  74. Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary
    Yet a nigh-miraculous blend of high spirits, poignancy, gentle satire, and unpretentious insight into the nature of human aspiration make this one of the most impressive films you're likely to see this year.
  75. Armageddon
    It's big, it's stupid, it's pretty kick-ass.
  76. Out of Sight
    Hardly a serious caper film, Out of Sight instead takes a lighter approach, effortlessly offering up as many unexpected chuckles as it does bullets.
  77. Smoke Signals
    The cast is uniformly excellent in their roles, and Eyre's persistent use of long, trailing shots reinforces the story's elegiac tone.
  78. Buffalo '66
    In the end, it's a love story after all, but a peculiarly Gallocentric one -- cheap, nasty, but salvageable nonetheless.
  79. Dr. Dolittle
    Given a choice between the puerile but essentially innocent whimsy of Dr. Dolittle and the dimwitted nastiness of, say, "Dirty Work," parents should be grateful for the Eddie Murphys and Jim Carreys of the world for at least providing a kinder, gentler option.
  80. I Went Down
    I Went Down is a small, unexpected treat that promises full satisfaction.
  81. The X Files
    Solid, workmanlike stuff, and enough to keep the legions of X-philes sated until next September. And since I realize some of you are dying to know, no, Mulder's butt remains, as always, fully clothed.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 89 Critic Score
    Mulan
    Disney's latest animated feature hearkens back to its heyday fare, a sweet and captivating tale that pits gentle, enduring goodness against dark, malevolent forces.
  83. Henry Fool
    With Henry Fool, however, Hartley has made his most dynamic and accomplished film to date.
  84. Edge of Seventeen
    The film's cast, all unknowns with the exception of comic/Broadway performer DeLaria, acquit themselves well, with the skinny, innocent-eyed Stafford a credible Candide navigating a new world of experience. His grounded performance charters Eric's stumbling progress to a sense of self that befits Edge of Seventeen: without apology.
  85. High Art
    A work that shellacs itself into your consciousness.
  86. Six Days Seven Nights
    In short, there's nothing remotely real or appealing about it.
  87. 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.
  88. Dirty Work
    Macdonald is unaccountably bland here, which is unexpected since his lo-level, monotone snottiness is usually at least good for a grin or two. With Dirty Work though, he's fashioned an 80-minute harangue out of 10 minutes of material, an SNL sketch gone horribly awry, and one that drags on long after its daily ration of humor has been exhausted.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Perfect Murder
    Tasteful, chilly, and polite, it is foul play at its traditional best: Anglo-Saxon, urban, and upper class.
  90. The Truman Show
    It's unusually provocative and challenging for a Hollywood movie and, surprisingly, allows the audience to piece things together without too much external direction.
  91. Mr. Jealousy
    As an ensemble comedy that at best is only firing on four cylinders at any given moment, Mr. Jealousy is a slight contrivance, one that dawdles around in your head for a brief while before vacating the area to make room for more pressing issues.
  92. The Last Days of Disco
    It is a story about loyalty, friendship, and honor. In other words, it's less titillating than you might expect.
  93. Hope Floats
    Hope doesn't float in this film so much as it rises to the surface and then stagnates.
  94. The Opposite of Sex
    Even some third-act deus ex machina scrambling can't homogenize the film's darkly cynical punch. Tough as nails and twice as hilarious, it's a remedy for summer treacle.
  95. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
    There's something about that extra layer of distancing that a book can offer and the screen can't, which in this case might account for why film viewers feel vaguely discomforted by an icky fifth-wheel sensation.
  96. Bulworth
    This political satire that's as fresh and exhilarating as anything we've seen come out of Hollywood in quite some time.
  97. Godzilla
    This Godzilla is lacking both the awesome spirit of the original and the sublime silliness of the more recent Toho outings.
  98. The Horse Whisperer
    A countrified, monolithic thing of beauty -- gorgeous to behold despite the fact that its overlong two-hour-and-45-minute running time plays off Redford's weather-beaten golden boy good looks far too often for its own good.
  99. Clockwatchers
    Clockwatchers may not be a Grapes of Wrath for the Nineties, but its intelligence, slow-boil outrage over grunt workers' dehumanization, and subtle assertion of their power to resist make it a terrific piece of pro-labor propaganda.
  100. Quest for Camelot
    Although the film starts off a bit slowly, things pick up as the two heroes venture into the mysterious forest in search of Excalibur. There the images start twisting themselves into wacky animated fun. But still, events are interrupted by way too much singing, a prospect not helped much by the caliber of the instantly forgettable tunes composed by David Foster and Carole Bayer Sager.
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