San Francisco Chronicle's Scores

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For 9,302 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 52% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 46% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Mansfield Park
Lowest review score: 0 Speed 2: Cruise Control
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5,160 out of 9302
  2. Mixed: 2,656 out of 9302
  3. Negative: 1,486 out of 9302
9302 movie reviews
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  1. World Traveler
    Dreary movie.
  2. Nine Queens
    Fast-paced and unerringly surprising.
  3. Chelsea Walls
    With most movies that fail, the fault can be ascribed to carelessness or lack or inspiration or cynicism. But Chelsea Walls, directed by actor Ethan Hawke, is clearly a labor of love.
  4. The Triumph of Love
    It could have been something special, but two things drag it down to mediocrity -- director Clare Peploe's misunderstanding of Marivaux's rhythms, and Mira Sorvino's limitations as a classical actress.
  5. The Cat's Meow
    Bogdanovich takes a tale of old Hollywood and infuses it with velocity and enthusiasm.
  6. Human Nature
    The result is a satisfying and original picture.
  7. Frailty
    Dumb but also unrelentingly dark and ugly, thereby depriving the viewer of any camp value.
  8. The Other Side of Heaven
    Handsome and sincere but slightly awkward in its combination of entertainment and evangelical boosterism.
  9. Changing Lanes
    Modern film noir done with flair and commitment.
  10. New Best Friend
    Great trash, one of those mediocre movies that in its own crass way is more enjoyable than most things that get nominated for Oscars.
  11. The Sweetest Thing
    Nothing but a showcase for the inherent comedic gifts of Cameron Diaz. The problem is she doesn't have any.
  12. Karmen Gei
    May be the most magnetic, most beautiful and bravest Carmen ever to grace a stage or film set.
  13. Lucky Break
    Pleasing but routine British comedy.
  14. Les Destinées
    The movie suffers from two fatal ailments -- a dearth of vitality and a story that's shapeless and uninflected.
  15. High Crimes
    Has some faults, but it manages to keep its audience either angry or jumpy from start to finish.
  16. Big Trouble
    It seems naive, almost delusional.
  17. Van Wilder
    Has to go down as a failed comedy. It's just not enough of a comedy.
  18. Crush
    Crush is that strange mixed bag -- an otherwise wretched movie in which an actress gets to do some of her best work.
  19. Teddy Bears' Picnic
    The satire is unfocused, while the story goes nowhere. Too bad. The material is ripe for satire.
  20. The Rookie
    Eschews cliches and cuts to the truth.
  21. The Piano Teacher
    Powerful and outrageous.
  22. Time Out
    "Human Resources" was a good, straightforward tale, but Time Out is better. It's haunting. It's like a poem.
  23. Death to Smoochy
    The spectacle is nothing short of refreshing.
  24. Panic Room
    Jodie Foster stars, and it's a pleasure, for once, to see her in something entertaining and mindless.
  25. No Such Thing
    An uneasy mixture of tragedy, satire, monster yarn and David Cronenberg creepiness, No Such Thing can't decide what it wants to be or how it needs to get there.
  26. Clockstoppers
    The result is mixed bag, an intermittently pleasing but mostly routine effort.
  27. Lola
    Soft, evanescent and bittersweet.
  28. Sorority Boys
    This comic gem is as delightful as it is derivative.
  29. Very Annie Mary
    Pryce is very good, but Very Annie Mary is a bit too eager to please.
  30. Son of the Bride
    Manages to be affectionate without drawing too deeply from a well of sugar and schmaltz.
  31. Blade II
    Duller than first version.
  32. Pauline and Paulette
    van der Groen, described as "Belgium's national treasure," is especially terrific as Pauline.
  33. Harrison's Flowers
    Melodramatic take on love and war.
  34. Showtime
    A disgrace to the talents of Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy, but it's not enough just to say that. It's also a disgrace to the talents of Rene Russo and whoever drove the coffee truck to the set every day.
  35. Y Tu Mamá También
    Frank, funny and true as "Ghost World."
  36. Promises
    Extraordinary.
  37. Resident Evil
    There's a psychological undercurrent. The movie occupies a zone where science fiction and nightmares collide and intertwine.
  38. Ice Age
    Comes closer than any other recent animated film to the Looney Tunes ideal. Just as Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny entertained without either condescending to kids or lobbing adult jokes over their heads.
  39. All About the Benjamins
    The strange case of a movie that clunks in every possible way but the ultimate way -- it entertains.
  40. Festival in Cannes
    Wry and sometime bitter movie about love.
  41. The Time Machine
    There's something wrong with a time-travel movie that allows an audience's interest to drift so that we have time to worry over where he's parked, and whether he remembered to take his key.
  42. Stolen Summer
    It would be a mildly lovely thing to be able to say the movie isn't bad. But it is.
  43. Pépé le Moko (re-release)
    It turns out that Pepe Le Moko is even better than "Algiers."
  44. Borstal Boy
    The result is a film that will probably please people already fascinated by Behan but leave everyone else yawning with admiration.
  45. We Were Soldiers
    One of the best war movies of the past 20 years.
  46. 40 Days and 40 Nights
    Builds up comic force in its first half. But then it blows it, leaving the audience feeling unsatisfied.
  47. How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
    Gets most of the big things wrong and almost all the little things right. For two-thirds of its running time, it's a nasty little delight with an amusing and curmudgeonly central character.
  48. The Cherry Orchard
    Alan Bates and Charlotte Rampling are the brave stars of this pretty but sterile adaptation of the Anton Chekhov stage classic.
  49. Big Bad Love
    Brown, is a good enough actor and director to keep the film afloat for long stretches.
  50. Maryam
    Forget the sometimes stilted acting. Forget the occasional scenes that are borderline cliched. Instead, focus on the message and the raw emotion.
  51. Mean Machine
    Takes a long time getting started and doesn't hit its stride until Danny starts coaching a team of fellow cons -- think "Bad News Bears," just nastier.
  52. Monsoon Wedding
    Contains an incest story line that's disturbing but shouldn't scare people away. Nair handles the subject with such grace and sensitivity that it becomes just another element in this complex celebration of family.
  53. Dragonfly
    Meandering and inert. Yet as an etching of an emotion and a vehicle for Costner, the movie makes a case for itself.
  54. Queen of the Damned
    Self-serious, pointless and silly.
  55. Return to Never Land
    This is pleasant, safe entertainment that ought to appeal to kids younger than 10, especially to girls, with its female-empowerment fantasy.
  56. Scratch
    It's a documentary that invites viewers inside its story to groove along with a genre that's changing the past, present and future of contemporary music.
  57. Hart's War
    Takes some admirable risks.
  58. Crossroads
    Fascinating in its own strange way, not as entertainment but as a cultural document.
  59. Super Troopers
    Mostly, Super Troopers is plain goofy.
  60. John Q
    More hokey than heartfelt.
  61. Much Ado About Something
    Has enough wit, energy and geniality to please everyone.
  62. Scotland, Pa.
    Succeeds because of the cast's communal vibe of arrogant stupidity.
  63. Rollerball
    Remarkably empty, remarkably noisy, remarkably pleasureless. It's unwatchable.
  64. Big Fat Liar
    The result is a children's movie that's almost worth seeing even when not accompanied by a child. It's certainly a painless experience, and at times it's quite funny.
  65. Collateral Damage
    Efficient action thriller.
  66. Swiri
    Suffers most from being overlong.
  67. Birthday Girl
    Black comedies are rare enough. Birthday Girl is a member of an even rarer species, the black romantic comedy.
  68. Slackers
    A discordant comedy that gives bad taste a bad name.
  69. Maelstrom
    Compelling parable from Canada that's open to a number of interpretations.
  70. The Son's Room
    Moretti's performance is low-key but detailed. He makes the psychiatrist a fascinating guy, rather austere and restrained, a Northern Italian, not an expressive Neapolitan.
  71. The Mothman Prophecies
    So restrained that viewers may start to yearn for a bogeyman to burst from the closet.
  72. Metropolis
    Superior animated film from Japan.
  73. Storytelling
    Solondz should have called this one "So-So Storytelling."
  74. The Count of Monte Cristo
    The stuff of high romance, brought off with considerable wit, too. People are going to love it.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Beijing Bicycle
    Moderately engaging tale.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    A Walk to Remember
    A movie for teenagers, and, as these things go, very entertaining.
  77. American Adobo
    The movie is stiff and schmaltzy and clumsily directed.
  78. Ha-Hesder
    The tone is balanced, reflective and reasonable. Avni is a major star in Israel, and he is an actor with world-class charm.
  79. Italian for Beginners
    Lone Scherfig, the writer-director, has made a film so unabashedly hopeful that it actually makes the heart soar. Yes, soar.
  80. Snow Dogs
    Don't let this dog out -- please.
  81. Brotherhood of the Wolf
    Too ludicrous to be taken seriously, but not entertaining enough to rate as camp.
  82. Orange County
    An almost successful comedy.
  83. What Time Is It Over There?
    Things happen in a flat, deadpan way.
  84. Impostor
    The last 15 minutes finally get it together for what passes as a movie experience with a considerable "gotcha!" quotient.
  85. Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time
    Enchanting documentary that also serves as an animated gallery of Goldsworthy’s uniquely ephemeral art.
  86. Charlotte Gray
    Cate Blanchett has the title role, and she does wonders with it, bringing a degree of passion but also suggesting something essentially unevolved in Charlotte's character.
  87. I Am Sam
    Not about the justice or injustice of the legal system. Rather it's about the tragedy of Sam's predicament.
  88. Dark Blue World
    A crackerjack combination of live action, special effects and recycled footage.
  89. Black Hawk Down
    It is an exceptional accomplishment.
  90. Gosford Park
    A British costume film that's funny but not at all fusty.
  91. Monster's Ball
    Dark and beautifully directed melodrama about the strange intersection of racism and emotional need.
  92. The Shipping News
    It's hardly possible to overstate what a welcome change of pace The Shipping News is for admirers of Kevin Spacey.
  93. Ali
    Connects so often and so persuasively that its shortcomings -- the movie goes slack from time to time -- really don't amount to much.
  94. The Majestic
    Channels the spirit of Frank Capra in this serio-sentimental fable about a man who loses his memory but finds his soul.
  95. Kate & Leopold
    The role of Kate, a spunky but romantically unfulfilled marketing expert, seems made for Ryan. Unfortunately, Ryan no longer seems made for it.
  96. A Beautiful Mind
    Inspiring and largely unsentimental, this is as much a love story as a tale of courage.
  97. How High
    Doesn't look like a movie somebody made. It looks like a movie somebody hallucinated and put up on the screen.
  98. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
    Inventive and intermittently amusing.
  99. Little Otik
    At 80 minutes, this might have been a delight. At more than two hours, it's so much of a good thing that it starts to become a bad thing.
  100. Joe Somebody
    An odd picture, a rumination on depression and self-discovery that's couched as an office comedy.
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