San Francisco Chronicle's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
For 8,691 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:
8691 movie reviews
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Moore’s admirers made this biography an homage, and if you’re not already a fan, you may tire of the valentine.
  1. There is not one line of dialogue or one sight gag in About My Father that can’t be found in other bad comedies, and Maniscalco . . . and director Laura Terruso seem to believe the path to humor is to go as far over the top as possible.
  2. After 96 minutes with these people, you’ll care even less than you do now.
  3. It’s an action and suspense film, and, like Butler’s earlier 2023 flick “Plane,” a good one. Impressive set pieces include a car chase through a small-town bazaar, and a midnight shootout between Tom, outfitted with night-vision goggles, and a helicopter.
  4. In its modestly comic way, the movie delves into the question of when it’s better to lie than tell the truth.
  5. The Little Mermaid origin story lacks room for this more feminist take. It simply is not deep enough.
  6. Sean Mullin’s documentary It Ain’t Over is literally inside baseball. The film is essentially a Berra family project, an attempt to rehabilitate the professional reputation of someone who often doesn’t get his due as a player.
  7. This new iteration may be interesting from a cultural perspective, if not particularly worthwhile on its own — unless you’re a Jack Harlow fan.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    It’s revolutionary due to Sadiq’s care and close attention to detail with all of his characters. It’s a love letter to a place and people he knows intimately, and I hope to see much more of his work soon.
  8. The pace of Master Gardener is measured, but there’s nothing relaxing about it.
  9. If you love the “Fast & Furious” franchise, you will like Fast X. If you merely like the series, the new movie will leave you indifferent. And if you’ve never seen a “Fast & Furious” movie, Fast X is not the place to start. It’s a middling installment, a big step down from the stupid-wonderful “F9: The Fast Saga,” but with just enough of the crazy stunts and chases that you can’t find anywhere else.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Smith deserves a 21st century reassessment, but you won’t find it here.
  10. There is a great deal of movie-backlot sleight of hand that looks fine while you’re watching, but when you think about it comes off as mostly façade. In that way, at least, Rodriguez successfully links form to content.
  11. Lacking the velocity and excitement of an action movie and the reality of good drama, The Mother is the worst of both worlds.
  12. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is irresistible. While his Alex P. Keaton of “Family Ties” and Marty McFly of “Back to the Future” are beloved characters, the actor who gave them life is much more interesting and real.
  13. BlackBerry was ultimately left behind — in the cemetery plot next to Myspace. Still, if you ever had a BlackBerry, there’s something not only entertaining but nostalgic in watching this movie.
  14. Book Club was, at best, a pleasant diversion. But Book Club: The Next Chapter is something more. It’s a movie that proves that it’s possible to make an entertaining, full-length picture with practically no story.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Indian director Shekhar Kapur, who returns to film after more than a decade, is known for “Bandit Queen” (1994) and “Elizabeth” (1998), so this may be considered among the acclaimed director’s lighter films. But the Academy Award-winner’s skillful steering of characters allows the movie to showcase a diverse milieu rather than become a narrow East versus West portrayal.
  15. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is overstuffed and a tad too long. But it’s also a humorous, heartfelt farewell by Gunn to his band of misfits. While the film takes pain to emphasize that the Guardians will go on, whatever comes next will certainly be different without him.
  16. Lowery doesn’t stray too far outside the lines — this is still a Disney movie based on a beloved family property — but he also doesn’t shy away from mining a familiar tale for meta commentary. Far from deconstruction, it’s heartfelt and introspective.
  17. In her feature debut, Manzoor does something truly bizarre here, and not in a good way. She gets a whole audience rooting for love to triumph but then tries to make a lovable heroine out of the irrational, malevolent character who wants to undermine everything the audience is looking forward to.
  18. Beautifully acted and suffused with warmth and humor, Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret is a film worthy of the long wait in bringing Judy Blume’s classic 1970 children’s book to the screen.
  19. Funny, heart-tugging, intermittently awesome and a loving if ambivalent homage to the heyday of martial arts cinema, writer-director Larry Yang’s film may not blend tones as seamlessly as Chan’s best work from the 1980s and ’90s did. But “Ride On” is moving and thrilling enough to be a worthy capper to the Chan canon.
  20. You’ll see lots of movies in 2023, and you’ll forget most of them. But Carmen is so sincerely passionate and peculiar that you’re bound to remember it.
  21. Ghosted is repellent without ever quite being obnoxious and worthless without ever being boring.
  22. Blume’s insistence on first-person realness, on the page and in life, centers this thoroughly delightful documentary from directors Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok, who met at Stanford University. But don’t expect the same degree of exploration Blume brought to her own protagonists.
  23. A structure might have inhibited Aster’s impulse for meaningless excess. Instead, we get a movie that’s all talent and no discipline, which, in practice, is even worse than a movie that’s all discipline and no talent. At least the latter tries to please the audience; the former just pleases the filmmaker.
  24. It exists within a franchise but doesn’t add anything to it, ultimately feeling as hollow as the reanimated corpses it centers on.
  25. What Ritchie is able to convey is the terrifying nature of this kind of small-scale combat, with the enemy coming out from nowhere and from every direction. Even if you’ve never experienced anything like this, there’s something about what Ritchie does here that feels authentic.
  26. This sometimes clever, outrageously gory and slickly violent horror comedy is more “John Wick” than Tod Browning, and that’s just the tip of its tonal confusion.

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