Chicago Sun-Times' Scores

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For 8,159 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: 6,088 out of 8159
  2. Mixed: 1,243 out of 8159
  3. Negative: 828 out of 8159
8159 movie reviews
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  1. Regarding Henry
    It's so neat, so formula, so contrived, I was thinking about "The Graduate" instead of about characters I had spent two hours with. So, I suspect, was Nichols.
  2. The Box
    This movie kept me involved and intrigued, and for that I'm grateful. I'm beginning to wonder whether, in some situations, absurdity might not be a strength.
  3. RED 2
    Red 2 not only delivers the action, laughs and thrills of the original — in many ways it surpasses it.
  4. The Whole Nine Yards
    A subtle but unmistakable aura of jolliness sneaks from the screen.
  5. Failure to Launch
    During the course of Failure to Launch, characters are bitten by a chipmunk, a dolphin, a lizard and a mockingbird. I am thinking my hardest why this is considered funny, and I confess defeat.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Pee-wee's Big Adventure
    Pee-wee's Big Adventure goes up and down the hills of Pee-wee shtick, without much concern for things like cohesiveness and consistency. What makes it wear so well is the balance achieved between Pee-wee's nitwit nervousness and his pathetic optimism. [12 Aug 1985, p.35]
    • Chicago Sun-Times
  7. Simon Magus
    The more I think about Simon Magus, the less I'm sure what it's trying to say.
  8. Hotel
    Most audiences will find it baffling and unsatisfactory. Those who are open to its flywheel peculiarities may find it bold, funny, peculiar and delightful.
  9. The Girl Next Door
    This is a dishonest, quease-inducing "comedy" that had me feeling uneasy and then unclean. Who in the world read this script and thought it was acceptable?
  10. Same Kind of Different as Me
    Yet again we have a film with a lovely, life-affirming, uplifting message — unfortunately delivered in such a heavy-handed, gooey-sweet manner that audiences will exit the theater in a near-diabetic coma.
  11. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
    The dialogue is schmaltzy and often painfully unfunny. The special effects are often so 1980s-bad... Time and again, terrific actors sink in the equivalent of cinematic quicksand, helpless against the sucking sound of this movie.
  12. He's Just Not That Into You
    This is a very far from perfect movie, and it ends on an unsatisfactory note.
  13. The Matrix Revolutions
    To the degree that I was able to put aside my questions, forget logic, disregard continuity problems and immerse myself in the moment, The Matrix Revolutions is a terrific action achievement. Andy and Larry Wachowski have concluded their trilogy with all barrels blazing.
  14. Love and Bullets
    Love and Bullets is a hopelessly confused hodgepodge of chases, killings, enigmatic meetings and separations, and insufferably overacted scenes by Steiger alternating with alarmingly underacted scenes by Bronson.
  15. Jennifer's Body
    It's not art, it's not “Juno,” it's not “Girlfight,” for that matter, but as a movie about a flesh-eating cheerleader, it's better than it has to be.
  16. Bad Teacher
    Of these characters, the rival played by Lucy Punch is the most colorful, because she's the most driven and obsessed. The others seem curiously inconsequential, content to materialize in a scene, perform a necessary function and vaporize.
  17. Frankie & Alice
    A cringe-inducing mess.
  18. Lions for Lambs
    There is a long stretch toward the beginning of the film when we're interested, under the delusion that it's going somewhere. When we begin to suspect it's going in circles, our interest flags, and at the end, while rousing music plays, I would have preferred the Peggy Lee version of "Is That All There Is?"
  19. Heartbreakers
    Heartbreakers is "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" plus Gene Hackman as W.C. Fields. I guess that's enough to recommend it. It's not a great comedy, but it's a raucous one, hard-working and ribald, and I like its spirit.
  20. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde
    In the real world, Elle Woods would be chewed up faster than one of little Bruiser's Milk-Bones.
  21. Ladder 49
    Because it is attentive to these human elements, Ladder 49 draws from the action scenes instead of depending on them. Phoenix, Travolta, Barrett and the others are given characters with dimension, so that what happens depends on their decisions, not on the plot.
  22. Flight of the Phoenix
    Because I had, in a sense, already seen this movie, it didn't have surprises or suspense for me, and the actors on their own aren't enough to save it.
  23. Burlesque
    Burlesque shows Cher and Christina Aguilera being all that they can be, and that's more than enough.
  24. Restless
    All of the performances are pitched correctly. Nobody pushes too hard. Nobody underlines anything. Perhaps calmed by Van Sant, the characters seem peaceful, not troubled (as they should be).
  25. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
    The whole thing is just so sloppy and dumb and overflowing with clichés.
  26. The Razor's Edge
    At the end I didn't feel engaged. I didn't feel that the hero's attention had been quite focused during his quest for the meaning of life. He didn't seem to be a searcher, but more of a bystander, shoulders thrown back, deadpan expression in place, waiting to see if life could make him care.
  27. Pushing Tin
    The movie is worth seeing, for the good stuff. I'm recommending it because of the performances and the details in the air-traffic control center.
  28. Swing Vote
    The movie is a genial comedy, but it has significant undertones. Like some of Frank Capra's pictures.
  29. Choke
    Some stretches are very funny, although the laughter is undermined by the desperation and sadness of the situations.
  30. Lisa Frankenstein
    Lisa Frankenstein has some surface similarities to films such as “Weird Science” and “Edward Scissorhands,” but the gross-out gags involving Zombie Boy are more disgusting than hilarious and the scares are few and far between. Turns out Lisa Frankenstein’s creation might have been more interesting in her imagination than he is as a walking corpse.
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