Austin Chronicle's Scores

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For 8,788 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: 4,781 out of 8788
  2. Mixed: 2,560 out of 8788
  3. Negative: 1,447 out of 8788
8788 movie reviews
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  1. Better Than Chocolate
    For all its flaws, Better Than Chocolate is a fair enough entertainment value -- certainly no less meritorious overall than, say, Runaway Bride. But, like many other films that have boasted both a high likability quotient and a positive social message, it seems to be getting a bit more credit than it really deserves. And as far as I'm concerned it's no favor to allow a filmmaker of Anne Wheeler's obvious gifts to operate so far below peak efficiency.
  2. Lemon
    Although guaranteed to split critics and viewers alike, nobody can argue that Bravo and Gelman haven’t put their all into this absurdist, existential farce. The question remains: Will Lemon make or break that all-important first date comedy connection? (Personally, I’m sticking with Ruggero Deodato.)
  3. Tower Heist
    To a one, they nail the humor, all right, but they also, quite crucially, humanize the high concept.
  4. Untamed Heart
    There's no getting around this dumb script that's just too silly for words.
  5. Sarah's Key
    Although Sarah's Key sometimes seems as though it's about to create a moral equivalency between the two tales, it never crosses that delicate line.
  6. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
    The performances have remained continuously excellent throughout The Hobbit trilogy, and they remain so here; likewise Howard Shore’s score, which is particularly righteous – bloodthirsty when it needs to be, keening when a particularly major character is cut down.
  7. The Silent Twins
    Although the film allows us a certain emotional proximity to the twins, it never rewards us with understanding or dramatic resolution. Their story draws us in, but distant (and silent) outsiders they remain.
  8. Don't Move
    Cloyingly melodramatic film.
  9. Army of Darkness
    A poor man's "Excalibur," but the fact of the matter is that the film displays far too little of the incisor-sharp wit and out-of-control mayhem readily available in the other two films. It just doesn't work.
  10. All Is True
    Some of the interplay between Branagh and Dench as a refamiliarizing couple is also delightful. However, apart from fleeting pleasures, All Is True is mostly a goodie bag stuffed for Shakespeare completists.
  11. Winter Solstice
    Neither a change of seasons nor truly wonderful performances can breathe life into the dismally enervated Winter Solstice.
  12. Anywhere But Here
    Strives to depict its love-hate relationship in emotionally neutral terms, but the sympathies are ultimately lopsided.
  13. Happenstance
    A clever idea that never stretches beyond just that -- a caterpillar that never blooms into a butterfly.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The First Wives Club
    As a satire this film would be hilarious, but writer Robert Harling's ("Soapdish") script doesn't quite hit the mark.
  15. Dragon Ball Super: Broly
    The underlying narrative theme of sons who become greater – and better – men than their fathers is underdeveloped. Meanwhile, the animation feels oddly dated, as the decision to give visual continuity to three and a half decades of storytelling re-enforces this as fan service.
  16. Humane
    If Brandon absorbed daddy dearest’s predilection for body horror and new flesh, then Caitlin has clearly studied his razor wit and grasp of metaphorical social commentary.
  17. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
    For both kids and adults, CWCM2 is little more than a vague memory as soon as it’s over.
  18. The Djinn
    With their debut, Charbonier and Powell proved a rare grasp of childhood horror, and keeping the perspective of youth among adult sins. The Djinn is even more reliant on that ability, and on their extraordinary relationship with the returning Dewey.
  19. Godzilla vs. Kong
    Of course, everything leads to the massive final battle, the pay-off we've been promised, and Wingard delivers.
  20. Terrifier 2
    It’s hard not to admire a filmmaking team asking you to endure such a prolonged amount of ruthless, blood-splattering bad taste. It indulges in all of its innate, nasty impulses, and then just keeps going (… and going …).
  21. 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.
  22. Go for Sisters
    Go for Sisters is writer/director Sayles’ best film in a number of years, and since this icon of the American independent cinema can always be counted on to deliver maverick work, his latest alternative to the mainstream is welcome indeed.
  23. What's Love Got to Do with It?
    Between the half-formed romance, the uneven comedy, and the observations that stop just short of real insight, it's a wedding invite that's easy to skip.
  24. No Hard Feelings
    Overall, No Hard Feelings is a breezy, welcome return to the sex comedy, even if it’s a bit more tempered than it would have you think. It’s a breath of fresh air that hopefully signals a change for the better, bolder, and filthier in mainstream cinema.
  25. Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles
    If what you want is a fancier episode of The Great British Baking Show, then you'll "ooh" and "ah" at all the right moments as Ottolenghi assembles his kitchen of world-class patisserie chefs and jelly experts.
  26. Doctor Sleep
    He's (Flanagan) never trying to one-up Kubrick or King. Instead, he's trying to push past his own best work, and he may well have achieved that in one supernatural scene that is as shocking and captivating as the fall of the bent-neck lady. In honoring both Kubrick and King, Flanagan's greatest achievement is not being swallowed by the Overlook's shadow.
  27. Cape of Good Hope
    Cape of Good Hope is a hopeful piece of humanism that is difficult to begrudge too much.
  28. The Contender
    A potpourri of issue-oriented drama enlivened by superlative performances and smart dialogue.
  29. The Princess Blade
    The Princess Blade opens with one of the most note-perfect action sequences ever committed to film.
  30. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
    The Lost World (unlike Spielberg's original film) leaps head first into the action, rushing, it seems, to get the film's real stars -- the dinosaurs -- to the screen as quickly as possible, and it does so with considerable verve.
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