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. Somewhat byzantine in execution and confusing in its logic, the film's second half never achieves the catharsis you'd expect.
  2. Director Winterbottom and screenwriter Hossein Amini could have given the story a bit more resonance, particularly in character development, if they had allowed some of the scenes to go a little longer.
  3. With its complexity of viewpoints, Get on the Bus has to be seen as one of Spike Lee's most mature visions to date.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    An adequate, inoffensive thriller that, every so often, shows itself to be a little smarter than it needs to be… even if it isn't often enough to make this thriller anything more than average.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Neeson's performance as the legendary Irishman reminds us of how large a presence the actor is: He fills up the frame with his voice, his hands, and his gestures.
  4. The movie is a lot of fun if you don't think about it too much, the stuntwork should satisfy the genre fanatics in the crowd even though it doesn't set any new plateaus, and the rapport between Davis and Jackson is enough to keep the sticklers for realism in abeyance at least until the final credits roll.
  5. Trees Lounge gives the appearance of being slight, spontaneous, and effortless. It would be easy to write off Buscemi's maiden effort as a serendipitous fluke, but just like that squirrely face of his, you know that surface values are merely the outer layer.
  6. For all its noble intent, Hopkins' film falls flat halfway through, mired in bad philosophizing and too-beautiful killing fields, neither bark nor bite mean much here.
  7. Microcosmos is more about reverie than revelation. Still, don't be surprised if you come away from it with that feeling, like the aftermath of a deep, strange dream, that your consciousness has been enlarged in a subtle but very real way.
  8. What's more, they toss a few original twists into a familiar generic set-up and thereby create a thoroughly entertaining and stylish thriller.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    In his first effort at directing a feature film, Hanks chooses his material wisely and writes it with witty, beguiling charm.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 11 Critic Score
    The Glimmer Man is simply a spectacular belly-flop of an action movie -- neither good enough nor bad enough to be anything but instantly forgettable, though not necessarily painless.
  9. Secrets & Lies, despite my dwelling on its problems, is a really solid and enjoyable movie. It's just not what I would call "best of the fest."
  10. On the whole, there are some good moments in the movie, but altogether, 2 Days in the Valley is about one day too much.
  11. Any sincere investigation of the situation's ethical dilemmas is hampered by a plot run amok with transparently nefarious evildoers and ever-more ludicrous complications, until it sputters to a conclusion and a thoroughly preposterous epilogue in which all animosities are neatly put to rest. Somebody call a doctor.
  12. Big Night is, in a word, delicious.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    As a satire this film would be hilarious, but writer Robert Harling's ("Soapdish") script doesn't quite hit the mark.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    From Lloyd Ahern's breathtaking, earth-toned cinematography to Freeman Davies' uncommonly graceful editing, Last Man Standing is a real class act, an old-fashioned thriller propelled by wildly violent, decidedly modern action sequences.
  13. Indeed, the biggest acting coup here comes by way of Courtney Love, whose cameo as an obliging waitress is the best thing the film has going for it.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    From gawky, gladdening parades across the grasslands to breathtaking aerial acrobatics, Fly Away Home is a feast for the soul and for the eye.
  14. Dickerson's newest film is an embarrassment of near epic proportions.
  15. Koepp's film examines the interconnections between man and the electronic society, and the terrors that are unleashed once those connections are severed, and does so in a wholly original and unnerving manner.
  16. As kids' comedies go, this one's fairly topical and, better yet, amusing.
  17. Nothing about the movie makes much sense.
  18. A white-trash riff on Little Red Riding Hood, the oddly titled Freeway is a road movie that hits a dead end.
  19. Hideously directed with all the comic subtlety of Oliver Stone on speed, A Very Brady Sequel misses almost every single mark it sets for itself, from the disastrously ill-conceived animation that marks Roy's hallucinogenic mushroom trip at the family dinner table to the persistent background hiss on the film's soundtrack. Even Sherwood Schwartz would've hated this dog.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    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.
  20. Frankenheimer resorts to gunfire and explosions to bring the film to its predictable end. It's when things get mundane that you find yourself wishing that Brando would reappear on the screen to make things interesting again.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    To paraphrase a passage from one of the character's journals, Girls Town illustrates how these young women express themselves in ways that compensate for the words they do not yet have.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    If you've got money to waste and enjoy pain, go ahead and see this movie. Or just play a round of golf. Six of one…

Top Trailers