San Francisco Chronicle's Scores

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For 9,306 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: 5,162 out of 9306
  2. Mixed: 2,658 out of 9306
  3. Negative: 1,486 out of 9306
9306 movie reviews
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  1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
    Though an estimable success overall, The Return of the King has several scenes too many and too great a concentration on battles.
  2. Kill Bill: Vol. 2
    All [Tarantino] has to do is trim a full hour out of "Vol. 1" and a half hour out of Vol. 2, combine what's left and he'll have something not just amusing and idiosyncratic, but outstanding.
  3. The Lovers
    In a sense, Jacobs has made a movie about sex that’s not about sex at all. We often hear about “sexual sublimation,” but The Lovers depicts the reverse, which is probably more common, in which sexual adventure becomes the most available substitute for cherished lost dreams.
  4. True Grit
    If there's one big difference between this version and the old, it's in the attitude toward violence. The new version may be more graphic, but it doesn't present violence as inevitable or necessary, just ugly.
  5. Mid-August Lunch
    From its first minutes, Mid-August Lunch establishes a special tone and quality that could only be Italian. It's a mixture of warmth and gentle farce, tender observation and absurdity.
  6. The Space Race
    The Space Race is an illuminating, absorbing film about an underreported storyline in our astronaut programs.
  7. Stalag 17
    Although the mix of buffoonery and earnestness often doesn't work, it's priceless to see director Otto Preminger (who was Jewish) play a peevish Nazi commander who has his boots put on simply for a phone call to Berlin. [19 Mar 2006, p.32]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  8. Raising Bertie
    Byrne is the furthest thing from being a manipulative filmmaker. But Raising Bertie is moving nonetheless.
  9. Queen to Play
    Bottaro finds ways to dramatize chess, and the environments are fascinating throughout.
  10. Gossip
    Has a high-gloss, heightened style reminiscent of that of the film's executive producer, Joel Schumacher.
  11. The Score
    This is a solid suspense thriller that's fun. These stars have put it together in a spirit of playfulness -- as in playacting.
  12. Innocent Voices
    Heart-wrenching.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Filth and the Fury
    Above all, it makes one thing clear: This group was wickedly funny.
  14. The Red Violin
    Some will say this film is overly ambitious, but what the hell. The man put five years of his life into making this epic mystery. We can surely give it two hours of ours.
  15. Bill Nye: Science Guy
    Nye’s focus on work has had a deleterious effect on his social life. Some of Nye’s issues are no doubt the result of lifelong fears that he may be struck by a neurological condition called Ataxia that runs in his family, but which so far has not affected him.
  16. Bleed for This
    Teller’s work is the film’s soul, and he completely convinces us of Vinny’s affability, flaws and steely determination. The performance has intelligent touches, some of them comic — such as the hint that Vinny’s rehab battle is heroic but also a bit goofy. It’s the kind of thing that first-rate actors can pull off.
  17. The Lookout
    A solidly above-average thriller.
  18. Untamed Heart
    If you went by the coming attractions and the advertisements, you might expect a predictable romance pitched on the level of a TV sitcom. But Untamed Heart is a movie of rare sweetness. [12 Feb 1993, p.D1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
  19. Ten Canoes
    Offers another way into these complex indigenous people, through storytelling as haunting as their artwork.
  20. The Bubble
    The Bubble surprises us at every turn.
  21. Hamlet 2
    Like its low-key star, Hamlet 2 is more likely to elicit quiet chuckles than raucous laughter.
  22. Quartet
    Quartet is buoyed by the Scottish charm of Billy Connolly, as a lovable flirt and extrovert - he is a delight and also a locus of truth in every scene he's in.
  23. God Knows Where I Am
    A dead woman tells her own harrowing story in the documentary God Knows Where I Am. It’s the kind of movie you need to be prepared for — its most intense moments have echoes of tragic literature.
  24. The Great Gatsby
    The good news about Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of the Fitzgerald masterpiece is that he doesn't use the novel as a mere pretext for his own visual invention, but genuinely tries to capture the Fitzgeraldian spirit, and for the most part, despite some vulgar lapses, he succeeds.
    • San Francisco Chronicle
      • Posted May 9, 2013
  25. Following
    That the movie succeeds as thoroughly as it does -- getting deeper and creepier as it goes along -- is evidence of a far-seeing creative imagination. Nolan is a compelling new talent.
  26. Buck
    The documentary shows Buck over the course of a year, as he travels and teaches. Along the way, Robert Redford is interviewed about Buck's contribution to "The Horse Whisperer" (1998). Redford likes him, so he can't be a phony.
  27. 3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets
    The straightforward, well-edited trial scenes speak volumes, not only about the defendant, but also about the racism that still haunts our country.
  28. Katy Perry: Part of Me
    As it stands, her music gets under your skin and makes you feel good - and the movie makes you feel good about Katy Perry.
  29. ParaNorman
    As for Butler's screenplay, it's less beguiling than preachy.
  30. The Sandlot
    Sandlot is no ''Stand By Me'' -- it lacks the dramatic, us-vs.- them power of that popular '80s film. The look is simple, direct, often gimmicky with the big dog purposely overdone as a clunky animatronic figure. The movie is also a little long. But somehow its contrived tone and style become minor charms. You walk away feeling that perhaps people aren't as mean as the movies make them out to be these days and that maybe there's hope after all. Or at least there was in 1962. [7 Apr 1993, p.C1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
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