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. The Nomi Song
    Andrew Horn, writer of “East Side Story,” directs, stylishly.
  2. Rory O'Shea Was Here
    Constrained by formula but executed with heart and humor.
  3. Sunset Story
    Friendship is portrayed here in its finest form.
  4. Alone in the Dark
    Brain-dead adaptation of a popular video game.
  5. Hide and Seek
    De Niro gives a crafty performance, and director John Polson (Swimfan) maintains a pleasantly low-key suspense. But the ending is a disappointment.
  6. Aliens of the Deep
    The science is compelling, though Cameron and codirector Steven Quale undermine the movie's scholarship with a silly sci-fi ending.
  7. Lost Embrace
    Argentinean writer-director Daniel Burman uses a shaky handheld camera and voice-over narration to take us inside Ariel's head, which gets a bit exhausting, even in the more emotionally satisfying second half.
  8. Are We There Yet?
    Ice Cube tries his hand at family comedy in this phony story.
  9. Beautiful Boxer
    Uekrongtham handles the material with reasonable restraint, and you can't help but cheer on the hero.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Head-On
    Director Faith Akin has skill and panache, and the lead actors are likable. But the film's high energy can't compensate for the muddled conception.
  11. Watermarks
    Unfortunately their story ends just as it becomes most provocative.
  12. Assault on Precinct 13
    Less suspenseful than the original but more ethically nuanced, politically pointed, and violent.
  13. Machuca
    A respectable entry in the Bicycle Thief school of art-house cinema, which uses a child's coming of age to explore an era of political and social turmoil.
  14. Coach Carter
    In the end I couldn't be sure whether its morality was complex or just confused. Like its young athletes, it earns a gentleman's C.
  15. Elektra
    This doesn't exactly set the world on fire, but I was charmed by its old-fashioned storytelling, which is refreshingly free of archness, self-consciousness, or "Kill Bill"-style wisecracks.
  16. Racing Stripes
    Dumb but harmless live-action comedy for kids.
  17. The Chorus
    The excellent cast in Christophe Barratier's loose remake of a 1945 Jean Dreville film ensures that the predictable, nostalgic ride remains enjoyable throughout.
  18. Appleseed
    The stock characters and leaden stretches of expository dialogue are welcome evidence that there's still no computer program capable of telling a decent story.
  19. About Baghdad
    Shot in July 2003, this collectively made video documentary is by far the most comprehensive account I’ve seen of how Iraqis view the U.S. war and occupation.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    White Noise
    Muddled and boring.
  21. Sky Blue
    Attractively animated.
  22. In Good Company
    A missed opportunity, though as usual Quaid is dazzling.
  23. The Merchant of Venice
    Overall this is an intelligent and thoughtful reading of the play, marred only by the implausibility of Portia.
  24. A Love Song for Bobby Long
    This is mainly the girl's story, though the numerous southern archetypes out of Tennessee Williams and Carson McCullers (who's explicitly referenced) keep threatening to overwhelm her.
  25. The Assassination of Richard Nixon
    Powerful, haunting, but ultimately disappointing. Few American movies address abject failure as forcefully as this one, and Sean Penn delivers an intense performance as Bicke.
  26. Fat Albert
    Weak comedy.
  27. The Woodsman
    Bacon conveys the weight of his character's anguished struggles through his economy of movement, and the powerful, spare script is refreshingly devoid of cant.
  28. Donkey Skin (re-release)
    It doesn't come off, despite a dazzling color design and imaginative sets, perhaps because Demy's extremely rarefied talent for fantasy needs to be anchored by a touch of the real.
  29. Meet the Fockers
    The movie gets off to a weak start, but the jokes get progressively more bent.
  30. The Phantom of the Opera
    Teen romance and operetta-style singing replace the horror elements familiar to moviegoers, and director Joel Schumacher obscures any remnants of classy stage spectacle with the same disco overkill he brought to "Batman Forever."
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