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. As a heartwarming tribute to the courage of firefighters, Ladder 49 delivers.
  2. Inspiring and shows just how far a couple of guys, a few computers, and a good sense of humor can go.
  3. Moog is an inventor's movie all the way.
  4. Stupendously dull and infuriatingly obtuse.
  5. A genuine cri de couer in the director’s long-running battle against the forces of censorship and a banal societal (and cinematic) status quo. And for those reasons along it deserves to be seen.
  6. It’s a frequently riveting gambit, and the actors give it their all. However, the mood and the stylized camerawork make the proceedings too arch to completely succeed.
  7. My favorite line from the movie: "The god---- truth won't fit in your brain." How's that for cheap gimmicks for getting out of having to make a movie make sense?
  8. The most original comedy from either side of the pond in years.
  9. "Dr. Goodlove," or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Proletariat" might have been a better title for this ingratiatingly loopy origin story about prerevolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
  10. Duigan has the makings of a good yarn, but instead of trusting the story and his characters, he becomes fatally bogged down in trying to make statements.
  11. By the time it's over you find yourself wondering why more films don't have the chutzpah to delve deeper into the battle-weary heart.
  12. This is your standard genre fare: Smart-a-- player gets schooled, finds love, and is redeemed in time for the final big game.
  13. Everything here from costuming and production design to the note-perfect score from Edward Shearmur works in tandem to create not so much a film as a singular and joyous tribute to a vanished age when wonder only cost a nickel and played three time daily at the Bijou.
  14. Innocence is possessed of a highly literate, almost classical story.
  15. Terribly tender, good-hearted picture.
  16. There’s definitely ore to be mined in Silver City but Sayles’ pan comes up with only particles of dust.
  17. Movies about cons, if well done, are hard to resist – and such is the case with Criminal.
  18. Despite the movie’s lack of anything resembling a narrative center, Testosterone isn't an entire waste of film stock – Sutcliffe, Sabato Jr., and especially the great Braga all act up a storm.
  19. It's mad, bad nonsense of the summer, popcorn variety, disposable but oh-so-much fun to endure, a roller coaster on a wobbly cinematic track.
  20. Fans of the video game will doubtless love it all but for true fans of the gnashing dead – and we count ourselves among them – this is strictly second-tier terror.
  21. Everything else here – from the gross caricatures to the so-called comic mayhem – is sour to taste.
  22. The most costly and the most popular film in South Korean history is also one of the most gripping and epic war films ever made, and certainly the only one I can think of the portrays the Korean war from the viewpoint of both sides of the conflict.
  23. This American version can't hold a candle to its French counterpart, which was deeply, eerily resonant where this is only frustrating, a Rubik's cube, minus its colorful signage.
  24. All this would be fine if the script by Forrest Smith had more wit and fewer clichés, or the direction by former makeup artist Abascal had more inventiveness.
  25. This movie has precious little satirical edge. What is needs is more emphasis on the "vanity" and less on the "fair."
  26. Instead of building suspense and tension, Suspect Zero devotes its efforts to creating a weird and creepy milieu that will leave fans of police procedurals wanting and avant-garde enthusiasts scratching their heads.
  27. Gets its teeth in you and shakes. Once it’s over, you find yourself replaying it on an endless loop in your head.
  28. Clearly the film is archly trying to connect the dots between Rove and the supreme mishandling of Iraq – and a compelling case might be made – but it isn't made here.
  29. A terrific piece of work.
  30. The real problem isn't that Anacondas is bad – it's just so bland, so unremarkable, so by-the-numbers, and so instantly forgettable that bad might be a step up.

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