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. Center Stage
    The strained romantic plot is a slow fizzle.
  2. Hamlet
    It commits the only crime that can be committed against Shakespeare: It makes him boring.
  3. Screwed
    Gives stupid, vulgar comedy a bad name.
  4. Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000
    Is it worth seeing once? Sure.
  5. Gladiator
    At 2 1/2 hours, Gladiator is a long ride, but it doesn't drag.
  6. Luminarias
    An occasionally charming, sometimes amateurish film .
  7. La Nouvelle Ève
    It's fascinating.
  8. The Basket
    Amiable though slow-going.
  9. I Dreamed of Africa
    Surprisingly dull and predictable in its characterizations.
  10. Up at the Villa
    In the most extreme moments, Thomas hits her career pinnacle.
  11. Adorenarin doraibu
    A goofy genre-buster that takes its amateur criminals as seriously as ``Pulp Fiction'' or ``Run Lola Run'' did theirs.
  12. Human Traffic
    This British film also mocks the rave culture it celebrates, and it's charming in a way that is hip but surprisingly down to earth.
  13. Michael Jordan to the Max
    Monotonous.
  14. The Idiots
    Fascinating, obnoxious and poignant.
  15. Frequency
    A fairly wonderful movie about fathers and sons and the mystery of time.
  16. The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
    Fast falls from interestingly loopy to tiresome.
  17. Bossa Nova
    Does have a certain classy charm because of its upscale setting. One could wait for the video.
  18. Where the Heart Is
    Sloshes between comedy and drama, never quite hitting stride as either.
  19. Timecode
    Story pitches are made. Coke is snorted. There is lesbian sex. Fellatio. An earthquake. A murder. Just another day in Hollywood.
  20. Committed
    It's a fizzle as as comedy. Still, the film has character.
  21. The Big Kahuna
    The dialogue is loaded with depth charges that take a while to explode beneath the surface.
  22. From the Edge of the City
    Gratuitous, yes, but Giannaris has the visual finesse to make it work.
  23. The Last September
    The quality of acting in September, coupled with Idziak's images, warrant a visit.
  24. Gossip
    Has a high-gloss, heightened style reminiscent of that of the film's executive producer, Joel Schumacher.
  25. U-571
    Two hours of nonstop, nail-biting tension and anxiety.
  26. Croupier
    A very smart noir about gambling, smartly directed by Mike Hodges -- until almost the very end. It craps out in the decisive London casino heist scene.
  27. The Virgin Suicides
    Coppola infuses her movie with a dreamy poetic tone, and deftly translates the essential metaphors of youth, sexuality and death without sacrificing an earthy humor.
  28. Love & Basketball
    Love and basketball -- if you like either one, here is a movie for you.
  29. Where the Money Is
    A forced, implausible flick that loses its energy as it tries to gain momentum.
  30. The Girl Next Door
    An intelligent, well-made film about a seemingly well-adjusted, likable and loquacious woman.
  31. Keeping the Faith
    The audience is made to wait a long time for an ending that's not worth waiting for.
  32. East Is East
    At its simplest level, East Is East is a broad comedy, but Puri's acting, so honest and heartbreaking, gives the film weight.
  33. American Psycho
    Harron validates and largely clarifies the work.
  34. 28 Days
    Mostly it seems forced, pat and didactic.
  35. Return to Me
    Saved throughout by its inviting atmosphere and richness of characters.
  36. Southpaw
    Totally involving.
  37. Me Myself I
    At heart this is a thoughtful, well-made movie about something serious.
  38. Rules of Engagement
    But the single most compelling performance may belong to Australian actor Guy Pearce.
  39. Est - Ouest
    It is well-made in an old-fashioned way, and its straight-arrow lack of cynicism may be old- fashioned as well.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Filth and the Fury
    Above all, it makes one thing clear: This group was wickedly funny.
  41. Joe Gould's Secret
    (Holm) nails one of the best roles of his career.
  42. Ready to Rumble
    Numbskull cinema scrapes new depths.
  43. Black and White
    Toback presents specific characters dealing with specific problems and, through their stories, somehow manages to take the temperature of the times.
  44. Price of Glory
    A boxing movie that exists in that gray area between prototypical and typical, the quintessential and run-of-the-mill.
  45. The Road to El Dorado
    Glitters, but it's not pure gold.
  46. The Skulls
    So inept it's almost entertaining.
  47. High Fidelity
    Terrific.
  48. Beau Travail
    Riveting.
  49. X
    Too bad the plotting is jumbled, and the characters too numerous and undifferentiated.
  50. The Color of Paradise
    This is a transcendent film, deeply committed and beautifully wrought. It will make anyone who sees it look at the world with new eyes.
  51. Here on Earth
    Late in the picture, Sobieski has some line-readings that are so emotionally full, strange and truthful that really nothing more need be said.
  52. Such a Long Journey
    A deftly layered drama.
  53. Waking the Dead
    One of the most powerful romances of recent years, it is as generous as they come.
  54. Winter Sleepers
    A movie by a man who adores film and relishes its potential.
  55. Romeo Must Die
    Li is a phenomenon.
  56. Erin Brockovich
    The ultimate Julia Roberts movie.
  57. Final Destination
    Playful and energized enough to keep an audience guessing.
  58. Beyond the Mat
    A skillful exposition of the pain of pro wrestling, and the high price participants pay in terms of physical and ego injuries.
  59. Deterrence
    One of the pleasures of Deterrence is that it does not tell the audience what to think.
  60. Mission to Mars
    Something so sappy, no one would believe me if I told them. It has to be seen to be disbelieved.
  61. The Ninth Gate
    Summoning silliness Roman Polanski salutes and spoofs satanic thrillers .
  62. The Next Best Thing
    That's a few too many agendas for one film.
  63. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
    Jim Jarmusch has come up with something strange and amazing.
  64. Drowning Mona
    A funny comedy for about 90 seconds. Then Bette Midler goes off a cliff.
  65. What Planet Are You From?
    It's good for a few guffaws and chuckles, but in between the screen has a tendency to stretch at the corners and go flat.
  66. 3 Strikes
    This is a sloppy hash of a movie, poorly directed and plotted in a way that looks as if it were improvised on the spot.
  67. Judy Berlin
    With skill and also with love, writer-director Eric Mendelsohn creates a delicate and airy mood, a kind of cinematic haiku.
  68. Mifune's Last Song
    A vital, sexy and touching movie that goes to the heart of what human caring is all about.
  69. Theeviravaathi: The Terrorist
    It's hard not to come away in awe of a director in complete control of every frame.
  70. Reindeer Games
    One of the smartest action thrillers to come along in the past few years. It's also one of the freshest.
  71. The Closer You Get
    Gentle, wacky, down-to-earth and romantic.
  72. Wonder Boys
    The sentimentality overtakes Wonder Boys when, in the last half hour, it tries to make nice with its characters and fashion a deep message from a trivial story.
  73. Beautiful People
    For a bighearted effort like this one, some patience on the audience's part is not too much to ask. Go ahead. Take a chance.
  74. Boiler Room
    Fascinating -- up to a point.
  75. Hanging Up
    Father-daughter relationship lacks impact.
  76. The Whole Nine Yards
    For quite of few of The Whole Nine Yards, it appears that the most clever thing in the movie is going to be the opening credits, monstrous close-ups of the morning toothbrushing routine.
  77. Not One Less
    It's an excellent movie for kids, because it is about how amazing children can be.
  78. Pitch Black
    This half-baked sci-fi horror film, filled with jerky, washed-out, highlighted, blurred and toned imagery, is a tiresome experience.
  79. Cotton Mary
    Acted with almost maniacal force by Jaffrey, Mary is at once fascinating and despicable.
  80. Sex: The Annabel Chong Story
    Has many grotesque sex scenes, interspersed with sights of Chong rambling in a dissociated way as she sits in her squalid apartment.
  81. Snow Day
    Chase is so dull in this film, he looks as if he's sleepwalking.
  82. The Tigger Movie
    Fans have cause to cheer.
  83. The Beach
    It's a movie to feel. Even when the thinking isn't all there, the emotions are, all the way to the film's poignant last seconds.
  84. Gun Shy
    It's implausible, cartoonishly overdrawn.
  85. Scream 3
    Campy, overwrought and gleefully cannibalistic in the way it references and regurgitates horror flicks of yore, Scream 3 fulfills its modest ambitions by delivering a glib slasher spoof for the mall crowd.
  86. The Cup
    The glimpses of religious life bumping into secular passion are touching and warmly comic.
  87. Eye of the Beholder
    Attempts to convey emotional dislocation and passion at the same time. All we get is distance.
  88. Isn't She Great
    Leaves an unintentional unpleasant aftertaste.
  89. The Big Tease
    Aims to do nothing but please, and it accomplishes its modest aim with charm and intelligence.
  90. Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
    Things isn't linear, and it isn't all that lively. But it captures the experience of some modern women, and it feels from the heart.
  91. Down to You
    A pleasant addition to the time-honored genre of terminally cute youth romance movies, roughly equivalent to staring at a saccharine greeting card for a while.
  92. Supernova
    Though predictable, isn't half bad.
  93. My Dog Skip
    Though its sentiment may be lost on the very young, the movie is strictly two-hanky fare.
  94. Next Friday
    An extremely funny movie, and this is coming from someone who barely cracked a smile during ``Friday,'' the first installment of this franchise.
  95. Fantasia 2000
    A millennial medley to the max.
  96. The Hurricane
    (Washington) raises it to the level of importance with an acting job that's one unbroken chain of intense emotion.
  97. Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
    (Morris's) strangest and most disturbing portrait yet.
  98. The Third Miracle
    An earthy, sexy mystery.
  99. Play It to the Bone
    Either Shelton knows this world well, or he's such a great bluffer it doesn't matter.
  100. Titus
    A film of audacity and total gut-level appeal.
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