Austin Chronicle's Scores

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:
8784 movie reviews
  1. In the final analysis though, the only real thing being smuggled in National Security is unwitting patrons' admission fees.
  2. In terms of execution this movie is careless and unfocused.
  3. Told in a chaotic fashion, the movie jumps from scene to scene without a lot of continuity.
  4. All of this is fair "can you take it?" territory, but in he end you find yourself wondering where Nineties-era German cinema-transgressor Jörg Buttgereit is, and when he might deign to make "Nekromantik 3." As for Human Centipede 2, well, frankly it kind of sucks ass. And we mean that literally.
  5. It's likely there's going to be some “viewer disturbance” going on after audiences catch a whiff of this routine and thrill-less suspenser.
  6. You watch and wait for this underachieving film to ignite, then grow more and more exasperated as you witness its many misfires.
  7. Why the Pokémon fad hasn't died off yet is one of the great mysteries of the universe, right up there with the Pyramids of Gaza and the white stuff in Twinkies.
  8. The film is a TKO before it even had a chance to get off a decent hook.
  9. There are times when China’s brash marriage of national cinema and onscreen largesse can work for foreign audiences – bless you, The Wandering Earth, you madcap delight – but when the approach misses this badly, the results are excruciating. Consider The Rookies an easy miss for even the most dedicated Chinese action cinema fan.
  10. The very Thai-specific charms that made the original Shutter such an unforeseen, unpredictable delight when I first saw it – and when I screened it again, last night – are almost entirely absent here, eclipsed by the annoying blonde highlights of Taylor, ex-Transformer babe and forever, as the Thai say, farang.
    • 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…
  11. Never really sure what to say about its subject.
  12. Suffocates under its own good intentions and inexorable sense of doom.
  13. October Baby earns points for the originality of its protagonist but it has no chance of preaching to anyone but the choir.
  14. Mitchell's film would be another example of why former SNL cast members should choose their scripts wisely, except that Schneider wrote this one.
  15. Shoddily constructed out of bits and pieces of previous genre triumphs, She's All That is as dull and droning as the fluorescent lighting in your old study hall.
  16. Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Chicago, Gods and Monsters) takes over the directing reins for these final two parts; his most noteworthy contribution to the series so far is a terrifyingly staged birth scene that should turn the teen fan base off of sex altogether … which is precisely what this whole dumb, punishing series has been gunning for from the start.
  17. It comes off like so much poppycock -– to use the vernacular of the day.
  18. Adults may respond with a laugh every once in a while, but they’re unlikely to find Fifty Shades of Black a nonstop titter fest.
  19. Totally in the distance is the memory of "Swingers," whose hipster goof has been replaced by a stupid goof. This may be what is meant by the “dumbing down of America.”
  20. Basically a rehashing of previous genre films, Hopkins borrows heavily from such superior efforts as Philip Kaufman's The Wanderers (minus that film's gang motif, natch) hoping that no one will notice.
  21. Disappointing flop that is best left off your dance card.
  22. It’s as if Finding You was written by a computer program that studied 2000s rom-coms, taking the worst tropes and clunkily blending them together.
  23. Not stupid enough to qualify as good, dumb fun.
  24. Ugh. The Rules of Attraction is the kind of movie that leaves vague impressions and a nasty aftertaste.
  25. It's like "Jackass," but with a budget and no midgets.
  26. As witless and simpleminded as the irradiated humanoids that serve as the franchise’s bad guys.
  27. This film is a mess. It’s so grim and inept. There are a million plot holes at any given moment, that you must constantly pick up your eyes from rolling on the floor.
  28. Bar a brief boost from his performance as Konstantin Kovar in "Arrow," nothing can save Dolph Lundgren from C-grade hell, digital squibs, and schlocky crime flicks like Acceleration.
  29. Isn't for everyone, obviously; it might not be for anyone, come to think of it.

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