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. A witty, energetic adaptation.
  2. A thorough indictment of the Bush administration's focus on Iraq.
  3. An eerily affecting domestic drama combining elements of "The Lost Weekend'' with "Lost Highway.''
  4. While the fourth "Exorcist" movie may have unmitigated disaster written all over it, the finished product is somehow sort-of-kind-of not all that bad.
  5. A dreary, distasteful exercise, "Off the Leash'' favors dogs over humans, framing canine high jinks with an ugly story of domestic abuse.
  6. Dax Shepard from MTV's "Punk'd," in his first major big-screen role, steals Without a Paddle. Not that it's too hard to do.
  7. Take a wretched premise. Imagine the worst picture that could be made from it. Then imagine something even worse. That's Alien vs. Predator.
  8. One of the greatest of all epics.
  9. A movie for adults, of a kind that usually isn't made in America,
  10. With no subtitles to explain what's going on in Yu-Gi- Oh!: The Movie, there's no reason for adults to come anywhere near it.
  11. Danny Deckchair offers some welcome cinematic comfort food in a summer filled with bloated special-effects movies and bad teen comedies.
  12. Offers enough glossy good cheer to appeal to everyone.
  13. While the battle scenes are impressive, they are repetitive; and while the characters are likable, they never rise above the level of cliche.
  14. A hell of a movie.
  15. Capable of astonishing even the already cynical.
  16. An extremely good picture that, with a little tweaking, might have been a great one.
  17. Updates a classic premise -- the struggle for personal freedom -- by pairing it with ethical and moral quandaries.
  18. An awkward and aggressively unfunny film.
  19. The nagging desire to help these people underscores the involvement of the audience in this superbly told story. You can almost taste the saltwater, and the fear.
  20. Collateral is a good idea for a movie, backed up by expert execution... It's straight-up entertainment, not something to see and then talk about a month later, but definitely something to enjoy.
  21. Must-see cinema for any serious rock fan.
  22. Stay far, far away.
  23. A fun afternoon for preteen moviegoers that has just enough charm, humor and game- for-anything actors to keep parents halfway interested as well.
  24. The Village seems poised to become as cheesy in its effects as a low-budget horror film. Shyamalan's gracefulness keeps his movie just out of that abyss.
  25. A strange almost-thriller.
  26. Pretty standard stuff, mixing a few truly clever moments with facile drug humor and throwaway female characters.
  27. [Streep] isa pleasure to watch -- and to marvel at -- every second she's onscreen.
  28. Takes its name from the king protea, the national flower of South Africa. The stunning, artichoke-like shrub may be fragrant, but the movie's pretty much a stinker.
  29. About as awful as a film can be without being the ultimate awful, which is boring.
  30. What the movie lacks -- a big lack, not a fatal lack -- is a compelling character at its center. Everyone in Garden State is fun, skewed, strange and singular.

Top Trailers