Chicago Reader's Scores

  • Movies
Select another publication »
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 4.9 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
view
per page
  1. The Tempest
    For a filmmaker like Julie Taymor, Shakespeare's language isn't nearly as enticing as Prospero's violent manipulation of the elements, and this screen adaptation of the play-like her egregious Beatles movie "Across the Universe" (2007)-is primarily an exercise in eccentric (and, I would argue, empty) spectacle.
  2. The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
    After nine years, Duffy has coughed up a sequel, and like the first movie it's energetic, proudly juvenile, and reverently derivative.
  3. Monster-in-Law
    To boost this movie's rating to "worth seeing" would make me feel like a publicist or simply a dope.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Return
    A soporific ghost story.
  5. The Ten Commandments
    The panoramic backgrounds have a silky beauty, but the characters are cheaply rendered with doll faces, enlarged musculature, tiny joints, and clunky movement. It's like watching Max Headroom lead his people out of Egypt.
  6. They
    The grad student and her boyfriend (Marc Blucas) are blandly written and the story never develops any psychological depth; the paranormal explanation for what's going on is equally slight.
  7. City of Ember
    A murky, directionless plot sinks this big-budget fantasy despite Martin Laing's elaborate production design; the dark, industrial-looking sets often recall "Brazil" but without that film's thrilling sense of an imagination run amok.
  8. The Thing
    Carpenter's direction is slow, dark, and stately; he seems to be aiming for an enveloping, novelistic kind of effect, but all he gets is heaviness.
  9. Behind Enemy Lines
    The end justifies the means as long as everything turns out OK for the not-too-obedient American soldier and everyone else who enjoys Coca-Cola.
  10. Keeping Mum
    Director Niall Johnson struggles to find the proper tone: the serial murders aren't horrible enough to be funny, and the characters don't respond as if they're horrible at all. As a result the black humor thins into gray fog.
  11. The Pacifier
    Director Adam Shankman (Bringing Down the House) can't block a sight gag to save his life.
  12. Biker Boyz
    This motorcycle melodrama is so stupid that during the press screening my colleagues' laughter threatened to drown out the roar of the engines.
  13. Clash of the Titans
    This remake is interesting mainly for the chance to see top-flight acting talent labor over dialogue so leaden you could cast bullets from it.
  14. Hollywood Dreams
    Jaglom's 14th consists of his usual weakly improvised relationship comedy.
  15. Bride of the Wind
    Director Bruce Beresford -- not intending to be funny but succeeding wildly.
  16. Mr. & Mrs. Smith
    A deeply stupid and offensive action comedy-romance.
  17. Broken Bridges
    Keith is an awkward, galumphing presence, but he's more fun to watch than Kelly Preston as the girl's uptight mother.
  18. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
    Though we are largely spared Leonard Nimoy's stentorian presence as a performer, we must endure his miscalculations as a director: the dialogue scenes are often hilariously turgid; the action scenes—when Nimoy can be bothered to descend from his podium and film them—are zanily maladroit.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Performance
    The narrative decays more quickly than the characters.
  20. All the Rage
    Two generic ideas amount to nothing in this theatrical dark comedy about violence and information overload.
  21. Fatal Instinct
    Considering the degree to which Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct are already self-parodies, writer David O'Malley and director Carl Reiner don't have to do much to show how silly they are; in order to understand how silly this movie is, on the other hand, all you have to do is sit through it.
  22. Next
    When the story finally collapses in a heap at the end, you'll probably want your money back, but that's where the title comes in: "Next!"
  23. The Boys from Brazil
    Franklin J. Shaffner's deadpan adaptation of Ira Levin's silly story about Hitler clones. The plot is less suspenseful than the overacting contest between the two leads, Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck, who spend most of their screen time one-upping each other in affectations.
  24. A Few Good Men
    I'm usually a sucker for courtroom dramas, but Rob Reiner's highly mechanical filming by numbers of Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of his own cliched and fatuous Broadway play kept putting me to sleep.
  25. Snow Falling on Cedars
    Loaded with facile social themes, opaque characters, pointlessly intricate flashbacks, and inflated technique.
  26. Agora
    The drama is torpid, the astronomy lessons pedantic, and the spear-and-sandal production values flat-out cheesy. The whole thing is also historically ludicrous.
  27. The Suburbans
    The movie's repeated attempts to combine seriousness and humor as in a blender give it a dysfunctionally earnest tone.
  28. Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
    Though some of his one-liners are pretty good, his shtick can't sustain this dutifully scripted comedy. Megyn Price, who's done time on the sitcom Grounded for Life, is a welcome distraction as the waitress with a crush on Larry.
  29. Fired!
    The video is heavy on actors and other showbiz types, and the self-centered Gurwitch doesn't distinguish between a factory worker laid off after decades on the job and an actor getting rejected during tryouts.
  30. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
    This kind of wheel spinning comes from having the desire to speak but nothing much to say, and Smith, who's made a slight movie about his being a slight filmmaker, seems to know this.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »