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 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
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  1. Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
    Feels a little soft and boomer-indulgent with its 10,000th rehash of the Nixon years and its soundtrack of trite 60s anthems.
  2. Diminished Capacity
    When a respected actor moves into the director's chair, he can usually draw a pretty good cast, which is certainly the case here... But Sherwood Kiraly's slight script only makes this embarrassment of riches seem more embarrassing.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Holding Trevor
    Gorski's script is full of catty gay banter, especially hilarious when delivered by Jay Brannan (Shortbus) as the hero's promiscuous best friend.
  4. Hancock
    As popcorn movies go, this is fleet, funny, and even thoughtful: its central question, nicely underplayed by director Peter Berg, is why power and altruism never seem to intersect.
  5. Tell No One
    Cluzet's brooding performance propels the movie, and writer-director Guillaume Canet, best known here for his own acting work in "Joyeux Noel" and "Love Me If You Dare," skillfully orchestrates the cascading revelations.
  6. Finding Amanda
    Offers a steady supply of clever lines but suffers from the patina of self-loathing common to industry lifers and the unfortunate miscasting of straight-arrow Broderick as a depressed, cynical hack.
  7. WALL-E
    The movie's first half is largely free of dialogue, playing like silent comedy, while the second act offers a breathtaking tour of the cosmos.
  8. Wanted
    Big, cruel, stupid actioner.
  9. Elsa y Fred
    This begins to get interesting in the home stretch, as the woman's chronic deception begins to catch up with her, but for the most part it's an extended Geritol commercial.
  10. Gunnin' for That #1 Spot
    With no personalities established and nothing at stake, it's no more interesting than a pickup game on your local court.
  11. The Last Mistress
    Breillat may be serious about creating period ambience, but she also can't resist patterning her heroine after Marlene Dietrich's Concha in "The Devil Is a Woman" (even though Argento sometimes suggests Maria Montez in the pleasure she takes in her own company).
  12. Get Smart
    Remaking Get Smart without Don Adams and Barbara Feldon is like remaking "My Little Chickadee" without Mae West and W.C. Fields--the best possible outcome is disappointment.
  13. The Love Guru
    This Mike Myers vehicle exemplifies American comedy's continuing slide into infantilism.
  14. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
    A crime wave gives the heroine a mystery to solve and provides most of the comedy, but the film is stronger in its dramatic stretches.
  15. Brick Lane
    The movie is notable for its perceptive take on issues facing immigrants, and atmospherically photographed by Robbie Ryan (Red Road), but its flat, static quality belies the novel's richness.
  16. Medicine for Melancholy
    Wyatt Cenac, the latest addition to "The Daily Show" With Jon Stewart, is the best reason to see this easygoing romantic comedy.
  17. The Happening
    Wahlberg turns in one of his worst performances ever, but then he's saddled with preposterous scenes.
  18. The Incredible Hulk
    There's enough adrenaline pulsating throughout this bang-up Marvel Comics adaptation to erase 2003's Hulk from memory (Ang who?).
  19. Beauty in Trouble
    Writer Petr Jarchovsky and director Jan Hrebejk collaborated on the formidable "Up and Down" (2004), and this 2006 feature, which takes its title from a Robert Graves poem, is equally impressive for its mastery, intelligence, and ambition in juggling intricate plot strands and memorable characters.
  20. Chris & Don. A Love Story
    Becomes more engrossing as its focus shifts from Isherwood to Bachardy, who began as the bashful boy toy of a famous author but gradually emerged in his own right as a portrait artist of striking (and merciless) insight.
  21. My Winnipeg
    The movie is dominated by Maddin's usual black-and-white photography, silent-movie syntax, and deadpan melodrama.
  22. Encounters at the End of the World
    Werner Herzog is a stranger in a strange land as soon as he gets out of bed in the morning: in this travelogue of Antarctica, his perverse curiosity and zest for the harshest extremes of nature transform what might have been a standard TV special into an idiosyncratic expression of wonder.
  23. Kung Fu Panda
    Tongue-in-cheek dialogue, inventive slapstick and fight sequences, and luminous production design make this a treat.
  24. You Don't Mess with the Zohan
    Though a bunch of the jokes are milked too thin, there are some absurdly goofy sight gags--like a hacky sack game enlisting a family pet--and a lineup of fun, silly cameos by guests from Chris Rock to Mariah Carey.
  25. Mother of Tears
    Argento is admired for his voluptuous use of color and his operatic bloodletting; this is lovely to look at, if you can stand to.
  26. The Promotion
    Chicago native Steve Conrad, who scripted "The Weather Man" and "The Pursuit of Happyness," makes his feature directing debut with this low-budget comedy, which isn't as broad as its premise might suggest.
  27. Bigger Stronger Faster*
    Bell presides over this insightful, often droll survey like a sweeter, buffer version of Michael Moore, trolling gyms, universities, and Congress to grill assorted experts.
  28. The Foot Fist Way
    It plays exactly like a Will Ferrell comedy, but better, because Ferrell's not in it.
  29. Savage Grace
    Julianne Moore proves game for anything in this pitch-black true-crime reconstruction.
  30. Sex and the City
    So much has been written about the show's emotional importance to single women that I can't possibly add anything, except to say that, in both its TV and movie incarnations, the empty materialism and sincere longing for love always manage to cancel each other out, leaving behind nothing but what this started out as--a sitcom.
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