Chicago Reader's Scores

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For 6,312 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 42% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 56% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 I Stand Alone
Lowest review score: 0 Old Dogs
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,983 out of 6312
  2. Mixed: 2,456 out of 6312
  3. Negative: 873 out of 6312
6312 movie reviews
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  1. Mr. Jones
    Another chapter in the ongoing struggle between the talented Mike Figgis (Stormy Monday, Internal Affairs, Liebestraum) and studio recutters and reshooters, this intriguing but unsatisfying love story between a manic-depressive (Richard Gere at his best) and his sympathetic therapist (Lena Olin) makes memorable uses of both its west-coast settings and its cast (which also includes Anne Bancroft), but, like Liebestraum, it seems to come to us with several parts missing.
  2. The A-Team
    Carnahan stays true to the source material by delivering carnage without consequence (the machine gun-toting bad guys still can't hit a barn from the inside), his convoluted plot and multiple villains may challenge the attention span of the target demographic.
  3. The Passion of the Christ
    If I were a Christian, I'd be appalled to have this primitive and pornographic bloodbath presume to speak for me.
  4. Just Friends
    Chris Klein steals the film as a rival ex-nerd, now the most gorgeous guy in town, while director Roger Kumble (Cruel Intentions) cribs from the Farrelly brothers and the Three Stooges.
  5. 24 Hours on Craigslist
    Even 82 minutes seems an eternity...The net effect is weirdly reminiscent of taking part in any online community, where a "relationship" is more like a juxtaposing of egos.
  6. The Other Side of the Bed
    Despite a brisk opening and some agreeable (if sloppy) choreography at the very end, I was less than tickled by the premise of David Serrano's script, that the characters lie to and betray one another as naturally as they breathe.
  7. Hey Arnold! The Movie
    The simplistic drawing is closer to "Peanuts" than "The Lion King," and the dialogue is strangely anachronistic.
  8. Anything But Love
    So lackluster both as an homage and as a story in its own right that I was already forgetting it before it was over.
  9. Perfect
    Apart from Curtis, no one seems to be trying very hard (least of all director James Bridges, whose excellent work in the 70s seems long behind him here), and the film falls apart from a horribly evident lack of interest, conviction, and imagination.
  10. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
    The action has been transferred from suburbia to New York City, but otherwise the filmmakers stick like glue to the formula of the original: a little boy from a well-to-do family left on his own is threatened by low-life working-class crooks whom he repeatedly foils and tortures, and upscale property values prevail.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 0 Critic Score
    Forces of Nature
    Monstrously offensive movie.
  12. The Thing Called Love
    Mathis and Bullock are especially good, and Phoenix and Mulroney, playing out a jealousy-prone friendship as if they were Jeff Bridges and Timothy Bottoms in Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show, do a fair job with their roles.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Around the Bend
    Roberts never surmounts the cracker-barrel contrivance of the plot, but his low-key humor, clear affection for the characters, and strong cast are enough to put this gentle drama across.
  14. Autumn
    McGee has taken Hitchcock's idea of the MacGuffin to such an extreme that the plot becomes a set of nesting dolls with nothing at the center, but the players conjure up a smoky mood of existential sadness.
  15. Newsies
    A Disney musical with an undistinguished score (Alan Menken and Jack Feldman), fair to middling choreography (Kenny Ortega and Peggy Holmes), and clunky direction (Ortega) that still manages to be entertaining in spots because of its story.
  16. The Dilemma
    The ugly emotional mess is so respectfully handled that the story resonates far beyond its comic designs.
  17. Typhoon
    Eventually develops into a pleasantly bombastic Bond-style adventure.
  18. Payback
    The comic timing and Gibson's mugging are skillful, but the movie fulfills expectations of plot twists and ironic atmosphere only after having made clear that it won't be offering much else.
  19. Dr. Dolittle
    Nat Mauldin and Larry Levin's screenplay, indifferently directed by Betty Thomas, is simply an excuse for tired scatological jokes involving animal characters with the voices of well-known actors.
  20. The Dead Pool
    An episodic thriller that certainly has its moments, but eventually peters out into dull formula standbys; Eastwood's Harry seems weary of his own sarcastic witticisms, and the ones here won't make anybody's day.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Red Tails
    George Lucas served as executive producer for this effects-heavy action film about the Tuskegee Airmen, and it feels as synthetic and dull as "The Phantom Menace."
  22. Mercy
    The end is swollen with macho brooding before the hero finds the inner strength to accept the advances of another incredible dish.
  23. Agnes and His Brothers
    This scathing study of middle-class angst plays like a cross between Buñuel and Almodovar, but the satire never achieves liftoff despite the actors' best efforts.
  24. The Flowers of War
    Bale admirably shoulders the burden of Western identification figure, but the heart of the story is the ongoing tension between the schoolgirls and the hookers, who see in each other aspects of womanhood that are out of their respective reach.
  25. Flirt
    This is in some ways my favorite Hartley picture - because it takes the most risks and gives the mind the most to do.
  26. Clay Pigeons
    Its blurring of the line between parody and exploitation only makes it totally innocuous.
  27. Deliver Us from Eva
    So stale and complacent that it could be a rerun of "Love American Style."
  28. The Nanny Diaries
    The characters are instantly reversible--the bratty kid turns out to be a sweetie pie, the mother just needs to be told off. Only Giamatti, as the cliched businessman husband, is irredeemable.
  29. Reservation Road
    A powerful Christian parable, painful but illuminating, about crime and redemption.
  30. Picture Perfect
    Olympia Dukakis and Illeana Douglas come off poorly in silly supporting roles that make Aniston seem to have screen presence by default. Her character's habit of compulsively adjusting her bodice ensures our attention has the proper focus.
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