San Francisco Chronicle's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
For 9,315 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:
9315 movie reviews
  1. A shrewd thriller that takes the time-honored plot about an innocent man wrongfully accused and gives it a film-noir twist.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    As touching and original a movie as you're likely to see this year.
  2. Sordid, brutal and depressing.
  3. All Black, all the time, and could easily have been an exhausting mess. But the movie is coherent, hilarious and surprisingly sweet.
  4. Mirthless and barely musical.
  5. One of the year's sweetest surprises. It sneaks up on you, disarming you with its modesty and tenderness, its remarkable lack of self-infatuation.
  6. The musical numbers are the only real drag on this otherwise odd and appealing picture.
  7. Stays funny despite rickety gags because Ben Stiller and 81-year-old Eileen Essel are old pros at playing it straight.
  8. The action sequences are novel, the performances are slightly askew, and the camera work is vigorous and mostly effective.
  9. Chalk it all up to prettiness, if you like, but Lane's case has more to do with spirit -- with warmth and emotional readiness, plus a kind of open-book quality that makes her both lovely and comical, usually at the same time.
  10. Surprisingly good as a quirky triumph of human spirit.
  11. Disjointed.
  12. Surprisingly lighthearted, thanks to Israeli director Eytan Fox's deft touch with comedy and old- fashioned romance.
  13. Well-scripted, well-acted and occasionally sexy, but just isn't all that interesting.
  14. Documentaries can be informative, entertaining and provocative, but rare is the documentary that makes you feel so engaged (and enraged) that it prompts you to action somehow. Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion is that kind of film.
  15. As haunted-house thrillers go, Cold Creek Manor is more ludicrous than the average but at the same time more handsomely produced.
  16. A coming-out comedy that mines every cliche of cloistered Italian culture. But like "Greek Wedding," Mambo has enough funny moments to save it.
  17. By humanizing an immigrant/refugee crisis that is not abating, Winterbottom does a cinematic service that happens to be damn interesting, too.
  18. This seemingly good idea results in disaster. Allen has no insight into the current generation of young people, and his film is just a jumbled rehash of themes and motifs that he's explored elsewhere.
  19. A creeping equanimity is taking over the work of John Sayles, a quality that in personal terms might be wise and coolheaded but in terms of drama is absolute death.
  20. Gets its punch from simple scenes and conversations.
  21. Coming-of-age schmaltz fest.
  22. A warm comic story that's fairly engaging even when no one is singing.
  23. Could use script transfusion, or at least a few quarts of levity.
  24. There isn't a film filled with richer, more colorfully imaginative images currently playing in theaters.
  25. A silly Hong Kong action flick from actor-turned-director Corey Yuen, fits nicely in the "bimbo fu" genre.
  26. A clever look at con artists and their games of deception.
  27. As a thriller, Cabin Fever falls short, filled with characters so obnoxiously stupid that just watching their skin slowly melt off doesn't seem like enough punishment.
  28. A delicate, beautifully observed study of impossible romance, Lost in Translation is one of the best films this year.
  29. Excellent.

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