Chicago Sun-Times' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Select another publication »
For 8,158 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 73% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 25% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 6.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 Falling from Grace
Lowest review score: 0 Jupiter Ascending
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6,087 out of 8158
  2. Mixed: 1,243 out of 8158
  3. Negative: 828 out of 8158
8158 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. Godzilla
    While it has its moments of baffling plot development and the human characters aren’t exactly Shakespearean in depth, there’s some pretty impressive CGI monster destruction here, and the talented English director Gareth Edwards clearly respects the thought-provoking sci-fi roots of the original.
  2. Wristcutters: A Love Story
    The movie isn't laugh out loud funny, under the circumstances, but it is bittersweet and wistfully amusing; the actors enjoy lachrymosity. We witness the birth of a new genre, the Post-Slasher Movie.
  3. Jacob's Ladder
    This movie left me reeling with turmoil and confusion, with feelings of sadness and despair. Those are the notes it strives for.
  4. Killer Joe
    One hell of a movie. It left me speechless. I can't say I loved it. I can't say I hated it. It is expertly directed, flawlessly cast and written with merciless black humor by Tracy Letts.
  5. Lord of War
    A bleak comedy, funny in a "Catch-22" sort of way, and at the same time an angry outcry against the gun traffic.
  6. Prelude to a Kiss
    Prelude to a Kiss is the kind of movie that can inspire long conversations about the only subject really worth talking about, the Meaning of It All.
  7. Dead Man
    Dead Man is a strange, slow, unrewarding movie that provides us with more time to think about its meaning than with meaning.
  8. Bitter Moon
    Bitter Moon is wretched excess. But Polanski directs it without compromise or apology, and it's a funny thing how critics may condescend to it, but while they're watching it you could hear a pin drop.
  9. Kon-Tiki
    Kon-Tiki reminds us how important it is to expand our horizons by making discoveries, exploring new worlds and pushing ourselves to the absolute limits of human endurance.
  10. CHAOS: The Manson Murders
    While the documentary doesn’t provide conclusive proof of a link between any covert government operations and Manson, it’s at least fodder for lively debate (not to mention a Netflix documentary).
  11. The German Doctor
    Puenzo’s initial premise is more promising, though, than her sensational tone.
  12. American Dharma
    This is a surprisingly and disappointingly tame film, in which Morris is almost deferential to Bannon.
  13. 100 Days to Live
    Although sometimes convoluted and occasionally implausible, this is a well-filmed and ambitiously creative first effort from writer-producer-director Ravin Gandhi.
  14. White Fang
    Movies like this are an antidote to the violent and defeatist thrillers a lot of younger moviegoers seem to be hooked on. It's an adventure, it's exciting, it stirs the imagination, and there are scenes of terrific suspense.
  15. Begin Again
    When the songs work well, as a few of them do, much can be forgiven.
  16. The Dying Gaul
    It leads to one of those endings where you sit there wishing they'd tried a little harder to think up something better.
  17. Shopgirl
    A tender and perceptive film.
  18. Saving Grace
    We're left with a promising idea for a comedy, which arrives at some laughs but never finds its destination.
  19. Made
    A peculiarly entertaining comedy, revisits the rapport that Favreau and Vaughn had in "Swingers" (1996), and rotates it into a deadpan crime comedy.
  20. Ocean's Thirteen
    Ocean's Thirteen proceeds with insouciant dialogue, studied casualness, and a lotta stuff happening, none of which I cared much about because the movie doesn't pause to develop the characters, who are forced to make do with their movie-star personas.
  21. The Duchess
    This is not one of those delightful movies based on a Jane Austen novel. It is about hard realists, constrained in a stifling system and using whatever weapons they can command.
  22. The Source Family
    Anyone interested in the appeal of cults and the psychological lure of a charismatic leader will appreciate The Source Family.
  23. Patty Hearst
    The entire film centers on the remarkable performance by Natasha Richardson as Hearst. She convinces us she is Hearst, not by pressing the point, but by taking it for granted.
  24. Shooting Stars
    An entertaining docudrama that rarely digs beneath the surface but serves as a bright and inspirational reminder of a time when basketball was the glue forging a bond among five young boys who started playing together when they were around 10 years old and remain close friends to this day.
  25. Beautiful Boy
    Chalamet is asked to hit some big notes in this performance, but we never see him acting. That’s true greatness in the making.
  26. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
    Was a sequel really necessary? Probably not, but thanks to Burton’s offbeat genius and a fine cast that is game for anything and everything, it’s a welcome exercise in ghostly nostalgia.
  27. Big Eyes
    As eccentric as his subjects are, Burton plays things relatively straightforward. This is one of the most mainstream movies he’s ever done. It’s also one of the more entertaining movies of the year.
  28. Postmen in the Mountains
    The movie consists of the journey, the conversations, the scenery, the little human stories. No big drama. No emergencies. Just carrying the mail, which over the years has supplied the threads to bind together all of these lives.
  29. Air Force One
    A fairly competent recycling of familiar ingredients, given an additional interest because of Harrison Ford's personal appeal.
  30. OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
    For a parody, the movie is surprisingly competent in some of the action scenes, when the dim-witted hero turns out to have lightning improvisational skills.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »