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. Bel Ami
    What distinguishes Pattinson in the role is the sense he conveys of someone roiling and churning beneath a surface that is almost, but not quite, calm.
  2. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
    Even within the rules of its own peculiar world - a world well stocked with talking savanna denizens and monkey-powered superplanes - the film is completely irrational.
  3. Prometheus
    Try as it might, the movie is hardly profound, and the murky atmosphere and the leaden pace drag things down.
  4. High School
    The screenplay is so cognitively impaired that the filmmakers might have been better off hacking up "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Dazed and Confused" and "Dude, Where's My Car?" and then sticking together random bits with masking tape. At least that would have made some sense.
  5. The Color Wheel
    As an indulgence in creative verbal abuse, the film offers some nasty fun.
  6. The Intouchables
    Some of the elements in the film are inexplicable and some are undeveloped, but there are a handful of nicely crafted set pieces.
  7. For Greater Glory
    If For Greater Glory were a person, it would be wearing two different socks. It is a scattered mess, as earnest as a folk song, but like a folk song that goes on for two hours and 23 minutes. Not only does it never justify its epic length, it gets even the small things wrong.
  8. Moonrise Kingdom
    The formality of Moonrise Kingdom - the orderly structure and dreamlike perfection of it all - is as poetic as any film I've seen this year.
  9. Snow White and the Huntsman
    Suffers from a problem in its rhythm. It's not that its pace is too slow, but that it's too regular, and this lack of syncopation makes it feel slow.
  10. Keyhole
    I liked this movie somewhat, even if I'm not sure exactly what it means. Possibly it has something to do with arriving home, in the broadest sense. But in a Maddin film, uncertainty comes with the territory.
  11. Hysteria
    There is no denying that every time Gyllenhaal steps into a frame she takes a sleeping movie and wakes it up.
  12. Polisse
    The style is documentary-like, in that it feels like life and that anything might happen. There is also a nice sense of being in the midst of the action and right there in the room with the characters.
  13. Whores' Glory
    Whores' Glory, is as sad a film as you can possibly see. To experience it is to be haunted by the bleakness and ugliness of prostitution, the hopeless trap of it, and the defeat of love that it represents.
  14. Men in Black III
    If you're looking for cinema verite, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a fun, fizzy sequel in a franchise left for dead 10 years ago, have at it.
  15. Where Do We Go Now?
    By the time the women pull off their climactic stunt, the film's been undone by its ungainly mix of heavy-handed comedy and melodrama.
  16. Mansome
    So you get comments from the likes of Paul Rudd, Adam Carolla and Judd Apatow, all trying to be funny, but not one says anything remotely amusing or worth hearing.
  17. Elles
    Elles has about half of a story stretched to feature length, and it manages to end just as a good story might have been kicking in. But that is often the way with foreign cinema: The Europeans know how to do sex, but we know how to do stories.
  18. Bernie
    You should have the opportunity to experience the movie the way I did, in complete ignorance, enjoying its every weird turn.
  19. What to Expect When You're Expecting
    In the end, What to Expect, isn't an inspired movie, but a manufactured one, but one with some laughs and some moments. Plus, it has Chris Rock, who gets to liven things up as the ringleader of a beleaguered fathers' group.
  20. Battleship
    It's loud, it's large, it's stupid, and its best gag involves a chicken burrito.
  21. The Dictator
    The Dictator's over-the-top rant against the rank lunacy of authoritarianism deploys comedy like an act of violence; it's outrageous, quick and leaves us breathless, whether from laughter or shock.
  22. Michael
    A film that's hard to watch and hard to recommend.
  23. Here
    Whether the role is small or large, the acting across the board is utterly convincing.
  24. Last Call at the Oasis
    One can argue the movie's finer points, but in the end, there's no escaping its creeping pile-up of evidence that Mother Earth is critically dehydrated - and we need to do something, fast.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    First Position
    Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of First Position is the relationship between aspirant and teacher.
  26. God Bless America
    At no point during the movie does it strike him that mass extermination might be classified as "rude." No, Frank has the courage of his convictions, which include the belief that most of America has already flushed itself down the toilet.
  27. The Perfect Family
    A useless film in every possible way.
  28. Dark Shadows
    There are times, not too many, when the movie drags. But when you consider all the pitfalls avoided, and all the laughs and pleasures it provides along the way, Dark Shadows is a satisfying and skillful effort.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Gerhard Richter - Painting
    Delivers on the promise of its title. It shows us the world's most famous living painter, who turned 80 in February, at work with greater intimacy than any other film portrait of a contemporary artist provides.
  30. The Fairy
    One's enjoyment of The Fairy depends a lot on knowing why it's worth seeing. It's a comedy with two or three big laughs, but it's not side-splitting. Nor does it have a particularly compelling story. Its appeal is rather in watching people who have devised their own original style of comic performance and have taken it to a rare level of refinement.
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