San Francisco Chronicle's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
For 9,317 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 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:
9317 movie reviews
  1. Retains the earlier film's ability to delight the viewer with surprise effects and flights of fancy, only now the effects are better.
  2. The not-as-good news is that, like “Wall-E” and “Up,” Inside Out has a great opening, a satisfying finish, and something of a sag in the middle. But this time it’s only a sag.
  3. Segues confidently from broad humor to tense drama.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Starts as a taut thriller, but loses some momentum before picking up again, and Klaussner’s fine performance keeps us on edge through most of the film, even though we know the result.
  4. This has to be the first children's film to weave a Grand Theft Auto joke into the script -- and like most things in the movie, it's pretty amusing.
  5. A sturdy and sophisticated crime drama from the Philippines that takes a pretty gruesome situation and enriches its presentation with lots of human detail.
  6. Fabrice Luchini is one of the delights of world cinema, and in The Women on the 6th Floor he finds a role ideally suited to his odd mix of fussiness and sensitivity.
  7. Scrooged doesn't pack the wallop of "A Christmas Carol" - you won't cry or walk out resolving to become a better person - but it's a funny and imaginative high-class effort. Best of all, it stars Bill Murray, who has only to raise an eyebrow to get laughs. [23 Nov 1988, p.E1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  8. Always watchable, and occasionally great. And that’s probably more than even the most forgiving former Shyamalan fan ever thought they’d see again.
  9. Cage's great performance is matched by Shue, who becomes the focus by the middle of the picture.
  10. Watching this film will leave you with some dispiriting questions about America and its values.
  11. The movie becomes inventive in new ways and even cheery. It’s a true delight.
  12. For a big, floppy, silly movie that is in many ways the epitome of throwaway entertainment, Twins has its charms. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito make it seem they had so much fun making this flabby comedy that the fun becomes infectious.
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  13. Violent, gritty and probably too intense for very young children, but for anybody between the ages, say, of 10 and 10, it's certain to be a crowd pleaser with fascinating dark tones and menacing undercurrents that are quite a contrast from Saturday cartoon fare. [30 Mar 1990, p.E1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  14. Red Heat, the new Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie, avoids most of the usual action-movie gimmicks and is better for it. It co-stars Jim Belushi and opens around town today. [17 Jun 1988, p.E1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  15. Musician Charlie Sexton brings charisma and a haunted quality to Townes Van Zandt, the legendary Texas musician who was a Foley pal, drinking buddy and fellow teller of tall tales.
  16. One of the nicest things about Father of the Bride is that it's not ashamed to be old-fashioned and sweet. It's also not ashamed to get sappy and drippy and gooey, but you have to take the good with the bad. [20 Dec 1991, p.C1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  17. In a film that should be dripping with drama, there is surprisingly little tension.
  18. Despite its faults Rambo III has an undeniable momentum and, judged on its own terms, a certain comic-book appeal. [26 May 1988, p.E1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  19. With Body Snatchers you get a middling, respectable horror movie, one without any frightening unconscious echoes and with too much of a pedigree to try to scare you with something cheap, like gore. [18 Feb 1994, p.C3]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  20. Is Poison Ivy a total waste of time? Not really: there's a nice surprise in Barrymore's femme fatale performance, and more than a few pleasures from the gifted Sara Gilbert. Long may they act. [30 May 1992, p.C3]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  21. Look Who's Talking plays baby-picture cute almost beyond the limits of the tolerable, but it has enough spark and intelligence to be a very likable, occasionally riotous romantic comedy. [13 Oct 1989, p.E1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  22. Despite traversing such a familiar track, “F1” delivers something made expressly for the big screen experience. What keeps it from being purely the kind of “theme park” Martin Scorsese demeaned in his criticism of Marvel movies is the Pitt of it all; fortunately for “F1,” it’s always Sonny on the human side.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    This latest visitation from heaven, written and directed by Anthony Minghella, isn't as sappy, slick or saccharine as "Ghost" - thanks largely to the pert performance of Stevenson and the irascible character displayed by Rickman. [24 May 1991, p.E8]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  23. Beneath all that baloney and bombast, there's a lovely, inspiring story in Lorenzo's Oil. [15 Jan 1993, p.C1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  24. Directed by Andrew Bergman, a sometime playwright (''Social Security'') and film maker of modest talent (''The Freshman''), ''Honeymoon in Vegas'' is lightweight, palatable stuff -- the kind of instantly forgettable romantic comedy that Hollywood made in the '60s with Jack Lemmon or Tony Curtis. [28 Aug 1992, p.C1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  25. Dopey but rather sweet. [30 July 1993, p.C1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  26. Beyond some network television-quality production values, the sequel to the 2015 film is completely satisfactory family entertainment. It's hard to imagine anyone putting "Goosebumps 2" on their end-of-year worst movie list. And not just because it's hard to imagine anyone even remembering this film beyond next Tuesday.
  27. Ben Stiller seems the perfect actor to play Hollywood writer- turned-junkie Jerry Stahl in Permanent Midnight. He's got that bitter humor, the intense eyes betraying an inner life of pain. And he comes off as pathetic. The trouble is that it's hard to care -- even though the film is well-acted, artfully shot and at times haunting in its bleakness.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Unlike the game, Clue doesn't take murder seriously. Writer-director Jonathan Lynn has made a campy non-thriller rather than laying down the mystery and then having fun with it; the comedy kills the plot.
    • San Francisco Chronicle

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