Chicago Reader's Scores
- Movies
For 6,312 reviews, this publication has graded:
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42% higher than the average critic
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2% same as the average critic
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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: | I Stand Alone | |
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| Lowest review score: | Old Dogs |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 2,983 out of 6312
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Mixed: 2,456 out of 6312
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Negative: 873 out of 6312
6312
movie
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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Reviewed by
J.R. Jones
The villainous turns by Jon Voight (as a hard-hearted Mormon bishop) and Terence Stamp (as a bloodthirsty Brigham Young) would have been more fun if they weren't part of such a clumsy campaign to lay this tragedy at the church's doorstep.- Chicago Reader
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Reviewed by
J.R. Jones
German supermodel Uschi Obermaier slept with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and all we get is this lousy biopic.- Chicago Reader
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Reece Pendleton
Aside from the waste of a talented cast, the only thing that really caught my attention was the tomblike silence of the audience--at least until the bong jokes started.- Chicago Reader
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Jonathan Rosenbaum
With so many dubious elements at play, even the half-good ideas get lost in the shuffle.- Chicago Reader
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Packed with gung ho war-movie clichés and subpar shock-and-awe visual effects, this terminally stupid sci-fi adventure pits an army of tentacled aliens piloting "Transformer"-style robots against a platoon of stoic warriors from the Fifth Marines' Second Battalion.- Chicago Reader
- Posted Mar 12, 2011
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Reviewed by
Lisa Alspector
Contrasting the erotic with the disgusting is usually provocative and can be funny, but not in this underdog comedy.- Chicago Reader
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J.R. Jones
The paltry theme is that we can't predict the future, but I spent part of the time calculating how many more feeble movies Allen will make, based on his productivity rate (one per year), his batting average (four duds for every success), his current age (74), and his father's longevity (Martin Konigsberg lived to be 100). Are you ready for 20 more remakes of "Manhattan"?- Chicago Reader
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The result is TV flavored, less a narrative than a haphazard succession of vignettes populated by crude stereotypes instead of credible characters.- Chicago Reader
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Reviewed by
Jonathan Rosenbaum
If you can swallow one more amnesia plot and one more recycling of favorite bits from Godard's Bande a part, pressed to serve yet another postmodernist antithriller about redemption, this has its compensations.- Chicago Reader
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J.R. Jones
Delivers state-of-the-art freeway thrills tenuously held together by an absurd plot, cheap but pretty leads (Martin Henderson, Monet Mazur), diner and gas station locations that look like they've been preserved in amber since the 1950s, and plenty of engine porn.- Chicago Reader
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Jonathan Rosenbaum
The mirthlessly sadistic gags tend to target people in wheelchairs or hospital beds and betray a mild if all-encompassing disgust for the source material and the audience.- Chicago Reader
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Jonathan Rosenbaum
Slick and effective escapism with a touch of poetry (a la "The Sixth Sense") that left me vaguely dissatisfied once the mystery was supposedly resolved.- Chicago Reader
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Jonathan Rosenbaum
One more sluggish, artfully framed thriller with Rembrandt lighting set in a New York borough--a kind of picture that's awfully hard to do in a fresh manner.- Chicago Reader
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J.R. Jones
As "Saw" demonstrated, Wan and Whannell have a carnivalesque sense of fun and a sure instinct for recycling classic horror tropes, but their characters are so flat and their plotting so listless that this low-budget feature fails to generate much suspense.- Chicago Reader
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Dave Kehr
Richard Marquand's dull, literal direction takes all the edge off this variant on the “Will he kiss her or kill her?” formula.- Chicago Reader
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J.R. Jones
Good movie roles have generally eluded her (Agnes Bruckner), and she labors in vain to keep this big-studio horror confection alive.- Chicago Reader
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- Chicago Reader
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Reviewed by
J.R. Jones
I'm a fan of director Bob Odenkirk, but my high hopes for this comedy were dashed by screenwriters Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, and Michael Patrick Jann, all alumi of "Reno 911"!- Chicago Reader
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Jonathan Rosenbaum
The film's hatred of Ricci and Channing and its affectionate tolerance of the hero's mousy hypocrisy and his mentor's negativity are familiar Allen motifs, but the faint echoes of his best work only make this one seem grimmer.- Chicago Reader
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- Chicago Reader
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Reviewed by
Pat Graham
Director Joe Roth (Streets of Gold) seems content with recycling the negative charms of the '84 original and hoping that nobody will notice or care. Roth's no stranger to coarse enthusiasms (he produced the amiably crass Bachelor Party, as energetic as it was inept), but this one's on automatic pilot all the way.- Chicago Reader
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Jonathan Rosenbaum
An empty-headed horror movie (1979) with nothing to recommend it beyond the disco-inspired art direction and some handsome, if gimmicky, cinematography.- Chicago Reader
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J.R. Jones
Written and directed by Tom Six--who doesn't seem to realize that movie theaters rely on popcorn sales--this nasty stuff plays like a cross between "Saw," "Naked Lunch," and "Bride of the Monster."- Chicago Reader
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Andrea Gronvall
Paul Bartel's "Death Race 2000" is a beloved camp item, but this slick, loud, violent remake is pitched at the video game crowd.- Chicago Reader
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There are fascinating moments... but these are overshadowed by an endless stream of sound bites and pep talks to volunteers.- Chicago Reader
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Reviewed by
J.R. Jones
Everything wrong with today's hipster comedy seems to coalesce in this toothless satire.- Chicago Reader
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Jonathan Rosenbaum
You can't be both political and incoherent, and even though Kelly's models are "Kiss Me Deadly" and "Blade Runner," this vision of the near-future suggests a random blend of "Dr. No" and "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!"- Chicago Reader
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J.R. Jones
As the title of this splatter comedy by writer-director Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator) indicates, he's like a bug stuck to her windshield, and that's about the level of humanity and insight one can expect here.- Chicago Reader
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Reviewed by
J.R. Jones
Whether you want to trace this romance back to "La Strada" or Allen's marriage to Soon-Yi Previn is your business, but on-screen it never registers as more than a writer's conceit.- Chicago Reader
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Andrea Gronvall
Platinum-selling singer Usher is one hell of a clotheshorse, but he's too amiable to be convincing as a leading man--not that anyone is particularly believable in this feeble comedy.- Chicago Reader
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