Austin Chronicle's Scores

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For 8,784 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: 4,778 out of 8784
  2. Mixed: 2,559 out of 8784
  3. Negative: 1,447 out of 8784
8784 movie reviews
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  1. The Legend of La Llorona
    The story and screenplay by Cameron Larsen and Jose Prendes, respectively, take a significant liberty with the legend for the purpose of a last-minute revelation that’s more a yawner than anything. But even if the disclosure had worked, the film offers little authentic horror (the one jump scare doesn’t count) and its suspense is negligible, though some creepy imagery, such as scorched dismembered doll arms, may momentarily get under your skin.
  2. Idlewild
    There are moments in Idlewild that resonate with the painful "if only" of missed opportunity, and more than a few that just make you scratch your head. It's like some wildly overlong music video, minus the sexy thump 'n' grind. It's all blow, no pop.
  3. Evan Almighty
    Bland jokes and lazy contrivances.
  4. Pet Sematary II
    Like the dead dog that it is, though, Pet Sematary deserves to be buried very, very deep.
  5. Speed Racer
    There's more story, heart, and – cutting to the chase, the quick, and the dead – pure, unadulterated fun contained within a scant five minutes of Rockstar Games' new Grand Theft Auto IV video game than there is in the whole of Speed Racer.
  6. 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.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    John Dies at the End
    The whole movie is an inside joke, a shaggy-dog tale that asks us to pay close attention to its twists and turns, but never rewards us for doing so.
  8. Bruno
    The film may have only the best of intentions, but it tries way too hard and ends up being shallow, superficial, and only sporadically funny.
  9. The Sweetest Thing
    Christina Applegate, of Eighties white-trash pinup fame, is a comic foil par excellence, delivering a snazzy, self-assured performance that lands the biggest laughs in a movie made mostly of hollow chuckles. She, in fact, is the sweetest thing in this sour, sucky film.
  10. Next Friday
    A story disappointingly similar to the original.
  11. Little Women
    A serviceable cast of unfamiliar actors (the exception: Thompson as the family matriarch, Marmee); a serviceable script that takes few if any chances, with occasional wordless montages of shiny happy people; and serviceable direction that gets the job done and nothing more.
  12. The Art of War
    The Art of War must ultimately be chalked up as a strategic defeat.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Boxing Helena
    This film has all the pyschological depth of a wading pool. Anything you've imagined without seeing the movie is likely more interesting than what's here.
  14. Duets
    Only the most indulgent would fail to notice that this movie can't hold a tune.
  15. The Minus Man
    The most lackadaisical thriller I've ever seen, overly infatuated with not only the inexplicability of random evil, but also its mundanity.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Barnyard
    It's a fine message, but, in the case of the film itself, a little originality would have gone even further.
  17. Down Periscope
    There's barely a belly laugh here, and judging from the deafening silence in the theatre where I saw the film, it's not just me.
  18. Baggage Claim
    Although there’s a strong likability quotient for everyone onscreen here, which ought to keep the movie minimally afloat among its target audience of black viewers starved for a new Tyler Perry offering, Baggage Claim should be left behind at the carousel.
  19. Johnny English Reborn
    Atkinson's fans are likely to rejoice as the comedian twists his face and body to and fro, but the rest of us will not be recruited.
  20. In Praise of Love
    In all honesty I'd advise you to go rent the stunning (and brand-new) DVD of the director's great "Le Mépris (Contempt)," which seems to me to be much more Godardian and much less hopeless.
  21. The Mountain Between Us
    The annoyingly coy title of this non-epic about two people trying to survive a private plane crash in the high Rockies while a passive sort of romance develops during the descent pretty much says it all while simultaneously offering nothing of any great interest, much like the entire movie.
  22. Black Adam
    Maybe they thought that for the amount of time this movie had been gestating it just had to be something special. But for as long as this thing has been cooking, the end result is seriously underbaked.
  23. Independence Day: Resurgence
    Honestly, I could watch Goldblum and Gainsbourg – two of the most quirkily sublime multihypenate artists alive – reading phonebooks to each other and enjoy the experience thoroughly, but sadly even they seem wasted here.
  24. The LEGO Ninjago Movie
    Ninjago’s sprawling team of screenwriters – nine credits in all – throw every joke they can at the screen, but few of them stick in your memory for longer than a moment.
  25. Meet the Browns
    Perry tosses everything at his disposal into his movie gumbo, even a completely gratuitous appearance by his signature, self-performed, alter-ego in drag Madea – most likely to set up the premise for his next film "Madea Goes to Jail."
  26. Eddington
    America undoubtedly needs serious artists to explore the brain worms that the pandemic era gave the body politic, but Eddington most definitely ain’t it.
  27. Only God Forgives
    Long after Only God Forgives concludes, only its scuzziness remains. This artistic misfire will forever be knocking on heaven’s door.
  28. Incarnate
    Incoherent mashup of previous demonized tyke films and unfailingly inept pseudo-science and the result is about as devoid of suspense, much less genuine horror, as this specific sub-genre can be.
  29. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
    It's not a total wipeout: Czuchry embodies the Tucker Max(-ims) to a self-obsessed fault, and there are moments of rough comic brilliance scattered throughout, but really, this particular antihero is all anti- and zero hero.
  30. Criminal
    Criminal is a perfectly passable thriller, if you’re cool with no one here passing as an actual human being.
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