Chicago Sun-Times' Scores

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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
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  1. Mimic
    But Mimic is superior to most of its cousins, and has been stylishly directed by Guillermo Del Toro, whose visual sense adds a certain texture that makes everything scarier and more effective.
  2. American Violet
    American Violet, it's true, is not blazingly original cinema. Tim Disney's direction and the screenplay by Bill Haney are meat and potatoes, making this story clear, direct and righteous.
  3. What's the Matter with Kansas?
    What's interesting is that every single person in this film is seen as themselves, is allowed to speak and seems to have a good heart. I've rarely seen a documentary quite like it. It has a point to make but no ax to grind.
  4. God Bless America
    Here is a film that begins with merciless comic savagery and descends into merely merciless savagery. But wow, what an opening.
  5. Religulous
    You may very well hate it, but at least you've been informed. Perhaps you could enjoy the material about other religions, and tune out when yours is being discussed. That's only human nature.
  6. Jumping the Broom
    The cast is large, well chosen and diverting. The ceremony is delightful.
  7. Ironweed
    The movie generates little suspense and no relief. And yet it is worth seeing as a chamber piece, an exercise in which two great actors expand their range and work together in great sympathy. Both Nicholson and Streep have moments as good as anything they have done.
  8. The Family Stone
    Silly at times, leaning toward the screwball tradition of everyone racing around the house at the same time in a panic fueled by serial misunderstandings. There is also a thoughtful side.
  9. The Glass Castle
    It’s a well-made film with strong performances, and it by no means shies away from some of the more shocking and tragic episodes from Jeannette’s upbringing. But when “The Glass Castle” reaches for late-movie moments of closure and self-revelations and forgiveness...it rings sour and false.
  10. Genius
    Even as I was rolling my eyes, I was digging just about every stylized visual flourish, every big performance, every overly dramatic confrontation featuring first-rate actors letting loose with unabashed gusto and veracity, even when they were bellowing lines stating the obvious.
  11. The Crazies
    A perfectly competent genre film in a genre that has exhausted its interest for me, the Zombie Film.
  12. Iron Will
    Iron Will is an Identikit plot, put together out of standard pieces. Even the scenery looks generic; there's none of the majesty of Disney's genuinely inspired dog movie, "White Fang."
  13. Adam
    Adam wraps up their story in too tidy a package, insisting on finding the upbeat in the murky, and missing the chance to be more thoughtful about this challenging situation.
  14. The Unknown Woman
    It's a spellbinder with a lot of Hitchcock touches and an Ennio Morricone score to match. But does it play fair with us?
  15. Claire Dolan
    If a movie like this had a neat ending, the ending would be a lie. We do not want answers, but questions and observations.
  16. Cabin Fever
    The movie adds up to a few good ideas and a lot of bad ones, wandering around in search of an organizing principle.
  17. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
    Mike Hodges' gritty new film noir I'll Sleep When I'm Dead begins in enigma and snakes its way into stark clarity.
  18. Radioactive
    This is a movie with a deeply split personality, and despite some flashes of creativity from a talented director and cast, neither the straightforward biography nor the flights of creative fancy are particularly resonant.
  19. Race
    There’s a memorable movie to be made about the amazing, inspiration and controversial life of Jesse Owens. This is not a bad film and it’s a decent history lesson for those that don’t know the story of Owens and the ’36 Games, but it’s a long, long way from greatness.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    The End of Love
    This is Webber's flawed but treasured document of his son, an attempt to share a portrait of their developing relationship, and — later on — a chance for Isaac to see his dad's parental reflections captured on-screen.
  21. Midnight's Children
    There’s simply too much going on here — too many subplots, too many symbols, too many expendable characters — and certain interesting threads aren’t able to develop fully.
  22. On the Road
    Although Jack Kerouac's On the Road has been praised as a milestone in American literature, this film version brings into question how much of a story it really offers.
  23. You're Not You
    A movie about this subject matter is a tough sell, but Swank and Rossum are brilliant, and in its own unique way, You’re Not You is one of the best buddy movies of the year.
  24. The Indian Runner
    It's impressive, how thoughtfully Penn handles this material.
  25. Nightbitch
    Nightbitch positions itself as an edgy, body-horror film with shock-value imagery, and there’s no denying the validity of its premise that even in 2024, the sacrifices of motherhood are taken for granted and underexamined.
  26. Watchmen
    It's a compelling visceral film -- sound, images and characters combined into a decidedly odd visual experience that evokes the feel of a graphic novel. It seems charged from within by its power as a fable; we sense it’s not interested in a plot so much as with the dilemma of functioning in a world losing hope.
  27. The Omega Man
    The ghouls are a little too ridiculous to quite fulfill their function in the movie. They make all the wrong decisions, are incompetent and ill-coordinated.
  28. Saints and Soldiers
    Saints and Soldiers isn't a great film, but what it does, it does well.
  29. The Chorus
    Does it by the numbers, so efficiently this feels more like a Hollywood wannabe than a French film. Where's the quirkiness, the nuance, the deeper levels?
  30. Deadpool & Wolverine
    I’m not sure there’s ever been a film with more callbacks, more surprise cameos, more inside-showbiz references — even a couple of jokes about the personal lives of certain participants. It’s all great fun, and it’s just enough to overcome the uninspired direction, mid-level special effects and hit-and-miss humor.
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