San Francisco Chronicle's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
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:
9306 movie reviews
  1. The film isn't very interesting because it isn't well made.
  2. That closing-credits sequence is by far the funniest thing in the disappointing movie,
  3. A mediocre college comedy that blends bits of "Revenge of the Nerds," "Mean Girls" and "Legally Blonde" and doesn't have much to show for it.
  4. Ponderous, repetitive and lacking a single rousing action sequence.
  5. An enjoyable if fairly predictable film.
  6. While the songs are recycled, Across the Universe stands out just by existing.
  7. Oversaturated with sweetness and light.
  8. A thoroughly entertaining film by a director at the height of his ability.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    For the most part it is an effective, disturbing and - a rarity for Haggis - subtle exploration of the stateside war story.
  9. A similar blend of comedy and a grumbling skepticism about the essential goodness of human beings makes Ira & Abby feel, at times, like one of those great stage comedies of yesteryear transferred to the screen.
  10. Mike Cahill's King of California reminds me of those '70s-era pictures beloved of the counterculture about appealing rebels who go down in flames of moral victory.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Mr. Woodcock may be a nasty tyrant, but he also knows his domain is small. "For Christ's sake," he tells Farley at one point, "it was just a PE class, you fruitcake."
  11. Beautiful but flimsy film.
  12. Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard are incredibly compelling and hold your attention despite Jordan's deliberately slow pacing.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    With impressive clarity and sweep, The Rape of Europa recounts the Nazi theft and destruction of European art and architecture.
  13. All the requisite talking heads pop up - Dylan, Springsteen, Baez - but it is Seeger himself who towers over the landscape. The filmmakers treat this aged curmudgeon almost too reverently, but it is hard not to be awed by this gentle, resolute soul because of the ideas he steadfastly and faithfully represented.
  14. Difficult to watch, and the film is sabotaged by an impossibly naive lead character and the repetitive auditions that become gratuitously depressing.
  15. The finest American Westerns have a characteristic that 3:10 to Yuma shares. In a way that's almost mystical, they suggest a truth beyond the specifics of the tale.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Plays like a movie that some teenage boy cooked up in his chemistry lab. There are lots of potent things floating around in it - sexual initiation, drugs, fantasy-land wealth, brute violence, primitive rituals, Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland - but the mix just sits there without producing any notable reactions.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    For those of us too young, this will give you an idea of what it meant to watch those baby steps that led to one giant leap.
  16. Attempts something startlingly original by melding light opera with soap opera.
  17. Shoot 'Em Up is not only the title of Hollywood's latest descent into nonsensical mayhem but pretty much sums up the entire inane plot as well.
  18. Had a lot of promise, but ultimately isn't very funny.
  19. The Bubble surprises us at every turn.
  20. A complete bust, but the ways in which it fails are interesting.
  21. The spectacular scenery and compelling message counterbalance the somewhat plodding pace and wooden performances.
  22. Garlin's directing has little pacing, and many of the borderline gags could have been salvaged with some sharper editing. And there's a shocking amount of jokes and situations that just don't work.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Almost everything about the movie lands with an emphatic, preordained thud.
  23. The producers have stated that they're going after an American market that supports Spanish-language TV networks, radio stations and newspapers. This niche audience may well respond to not being required to read subtitles, for once, in a movie geared to them.
  24. Filmgoers looking for copious amounts of mindless violence won't be disappointed.

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