San Francisco Chronicle's Scores

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For 9,307 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 2.1 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: 5,163 out of 9307
  2. Mixed: 2,658 out of 9307
  3. Negative: 1,486 out of 9307
9307 movie reviews
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  1. Cet amour-là
    It is a great story, but it hasn't been translated to the screen. It is never a good sign when the biographical notes have more emotional wallop than the movie.
  2. One from the Heart (re-release)
    When the movie is viewed with fresh eyes, the most captivating feature is this surreal Vegas -- its neon signs askew, as if reconfigured by Andy Warhol, and its preternaturally glistening streets a siren's call to an ever-new batch of suckers.
  3. Dark Blue
    While Dark Blue may not be easy to watch, it's exceptionally well made.
  4. Two Men Went to War
    If whimsy isn't your mug of tea, stay away from Two Men Went to War. You have to be in the mood for a little sweetness to enjoy this resolutely old- fashioned comedy.
  5. Bread and Roses
    Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty draw everything in simplistic, overstated terms. The good guys are pure and spunky, the bad guys bellicose and one-dimensional, the conflicts stripped of nuance.
  6. Michael Jordan to the Max
    Monotonous.
  7. Disappearances
    A heartfelt effort, if at times a bit heavy-handed.
  8. Burden
    Burden is a film of integrity, with something even better than a social conscience. It has a social purpose. If you see it, you’ll learn something.
  9. Flash of Genius
    An enjoyable way to start the Oscar season.
  10. Brother to Brother
    Fascinating context but awkwardly told.
  11. It's Complicated
    The sum is a comedy that starts out slow and talky, picks up speed - and sexiness, and hysterics - somewhere in the middle, then drags to a stop when everyone starts confessing their feeeelings.
  12. Back to the Future Part II
    Some of the best bits of the original movie are replayed here but lose their punch the second time around - the horse manure bit, the skate board sequence. Maybe people who never saw the first movie will get a big kick out of them. [22 Nov 1989, p.E1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  13. Havoc
    There’s no way to call Havoc a good movie, but as bad movies go, this is a good one. Depending on your mood, its variety of craziness could be what you’re looking for.
  14. I Origins
    I Origins is at its best when it's a personal story about relationships, and it has a strong first hour.
  15. Casanova
    A light film, airy, likable and set in Venice.
  16. War Dogs
    A solid piece of in-the-moment entertainment that fails in its attempt to be something more.
  17. The Equalizer
    The Equalizer is silly but irresistible, taking situations of inherent gut-level impact and exploiting them for every bit of emotion and tension. It could never have been a great movie.
  18. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
    Even with its thrifty set pieces and smaller ambitions, this attempt to reboot the series based on Tom Clancy characters does the most important thing right: It almost always feels like a Jack Ryan movie.
  19. Sherlock Holmes
    Guy Ritchie is the worst screenwriter in the world, but, to be fair, he is not the worst director. He is only the worst director of the people who actually get to make movies.
  20. Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations
    The documentary is eye-opening and very much worth seeing, even though it can’t help but be disheartening.
  21. Skins
    Graham Greene ("Dances With Wolves") in one of the year's best performances, he's a fully dimensional character: pathetic and shrewd, tragic and bitterly funny.
  22. Brotherhood of the Wolf
    Too ludicrous to be taken seriously, but not entertaining enough to rate as camp.
  23. Cecil B. DeMented
    It's an audacious little comedy with bursts of hilarity and a certain giddy energy.
  24. White Christmas
    Sixty-seven minutes in, I looked up and noticed the movie had 53 minutes left to go, even though every plot element had been resolved. And that's precisely where the movie went to hell. [23 Nov 2014, p.M21]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  25. Ghosts of Mississippi
    Ghosts of the Mississippi doesn't glorify in happy endings. That's because it haunts with the reminder that racism remains an unhealed wound.
  26. The First Grader
    For all of its brutal flashbacks and heavy-handed devices, The First Grader works best when it works quietly.
  27. Dogfight
    I loved the picture, without being blind to its faults. But you don't judge a movie with a scorecard but by what it gives you, and this one gives more than anything I've seen in months. [04 Oct 1991, p.D1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  28. Opal Dream
    It's tear-jerker material but ends up being quite touching, and it's a good choice for family viewing.
  29. The Kingdom
    The opening is spectacular, but the rest is fairly routine.
  30. Extraction
    Not surprisingly for a movie of this type, there are lots of scenes of violence, including hand-to-hand combat. The fight choreography is exceptional. In the “John Wick” movies, the violence seems almost like a ballet. Here the fighting is just as intricate, but it also seems like actual fighting, and Hemsworth seems like an actual person who’s doing it.
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