Austin Chronicle's Scores

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:
8778 movie reviews
  1. For Sandler's core audience of developmentally arrested males, it may all be a little too cute.
  2. Although the villainous parts of this Tarzan are a bit hazy and the animal attraction between Tarzan and Jane a bit chaste, the film, nevertheless, works both for children and the adults.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    This big-screen version of Wilde's stylish match of deceit and honor, loyalty and betrayal, is more parry than thrust.
  3. The rush subsides, however, the minute the movie ends, and leaves the viewer with the faint aftertaste of a processed sugar high.
  4. Highly recommended for graduate psychology students in aberrant sexuality, but others can probably skip sans regret.
  5. There's no denying the fact that Jackson is woefully miscast here, and as a result spends much of his time struggling to define his role as a “serious” collector of objets d'art in this muddled-though-gorgeous omnibus film.
  6. It's all fab, baby, a kicky, wiggy sequel that scores on all levels, from the sexy to the sublime.
  7. Buena Vista Social Club is obviously intended less as a concert film than as a set of cinematic liner notes about the vanishing musical culture.
  8. There's plenty of solid, intelligent content here to stir the mind and heart, assuming you're able to overlook the distinctly patronizing presentation.
  9. Excellent performances and the steadying camerawork of Haskell Wexler make Limbo a supremely engaging work, but this place to which Sayles condemns his viewers is just one rung removed from Purgatory.
  10. Fumbles on so many levels it's just plain silly. To paraphrase the film's tagline: The Thirteenth Floor: You can go there, but why would you want to?
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Funny, bright, sly, and unabashedly romantic, Notting Hill combines fluffy, fairy-tale fantasy with big laughs, snappy dialogue, and small moments of pain and unease to create a surprisingly satisfying two hours.
  11. This is a gutsy, oddly inspiring film that embodies both the risks and rewards of artistic boldness.
  12. If you can tune into its somber, hypnotic wavelength, you may be surprised at the raw emotional impact it delivers in key scenes, and at its ability to provoke your imagination long afterward.
  13. The entire film is curiously soulless, with major characters making their entrances and exits (some of which are unexpectedly final) as if they were breezing in from some other screening next door.
  14. For my money the most gloriously, enchantingly trivial play in the Shakespearean canon, A Midsummer Night's Dream may also be the most screwup-proof of the bard's works.
  15. 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.
  16. Contemplative, though riddled with humor, After Life reveals itself gradually.
  17. Make no mistake -- this Mummy is an effects film all the way.
  18. Green and Henson make an inspired comic team, Sawa has the befuddled stoner thing down pat, and Alba is, in a word, yummy.
  19. Mamet's dialogue is still on the mark, rapid-fire, and as cutting as an antique straight razor.
  20. If it's a good heist movie you're after, there are surely better ways to go than with this limp caper.
  21. It's a glorious mess, though, with genuine bits of comic genius strewn amidst the rubble, not unlike a plane crash in its own way.
  22. An inoffensive, eminently forgettable bit of fluff.
  23. In the game of eXistenZ it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.
  24. A fine, near-seamless film that finally suffers slightly from an inability to wrap up its tale.
  25. This Life may not be everlasting, but it sure gives us a good run for our money.
  26. Merendino's film is lacking the streamlined cohesion it needs to spike itself in your cortex as hoped, but it is about as accurate a punk film as I've seen in some time, especially when it comes to the horrors and boredoms of small-scene life.
  27. Rare two-for-one Chan special.
  28. Go
    Relentless and mercurial, this new outing by "Swingers" director Liman takes off somewhere around Mach 3 and never lets up, leaving you with either a pounding headache or a wicked grin, or perhaps both.

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