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 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. The Violent Heart
    Writer-director Kerem Sanga has a knack for delivering arresting, noir-like visuals, especially from medium- and long-shot distance, and the talented cast gamely tries to sell the material, but The Violent Heart is so muddled there are times we have to remind ourselves of the connection between certain characters, and the histrionics so over the top we’re hoping everyone will just take a deep breath and CALM THE HECK DOWN.
  2. Death Wish
    Again and again, Death Wish feels anything but real.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Gray's Anatomy
    Rather than trusting in the verbal powers of this master storyteller, who requires only a desk to sit behind, Soderbergh subjects him to light-show effects, tilted camera angles and projected backdrops -- urban setting, forest, eyeball blowup. [1 August 1997, p.27]
    • Chicago Sun-Times
  4. The Numbers Station
    Director Kasper Barfoed defaults to intense replays of surveillance audio recordings, frantic strokes on computer keyboards, and standard-issue chases.
  5. A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy
    A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy is so low-key, so sweet and offhand and slight, there are times when it hardly even seems happy to be a movie.
  6. Shanghai
    The mystery is muddled, the romance is tepid and scenes that should be electric with tension are almost dull.
  7. The Haunting in Connecticut
    A technically proficient horror movie and well acted.
  8. The Brady Bunch Movie
    The film establishes a bland, reassuring, comforting Brady reality - a certain muted tone that works just fine but needs, I think, a bleaker contrast from outside to fully exploit the humor.
  9. Abigail
    The acting, practical and special effects and production design are all superb. The script is repetitive, tedious and a whole lot of ho-hum.
  10. Herod's Law
    The film is bold and passionate, but not subtle, and that is its downfall.
  11. Airport '77
    The movie’s a big, slick entertainment, relentlessly ridiculous and therefore never boring for long.
  12. Uncle Nino
    A family movie that some will find wholesome and heartwarming and others will find cornball and tiresome. You know who you are. I know who I am. This is not my kind of movie.
  13. Roman J. Israel, Esq.
    Roman J. Israel, Esq. has pockets of intrigue, and writer-director Gilroy and Washington have teamed up to create a promising dramatic character. We just never get full delivery on that promise.
  14. Friday After Next
    I guess there's an audience for it, and Ice Cube has paid dues in better and more positive movies ("Barbershop" among them). But surely laughs can be found in something other than this worked-over material.
  15. Herbie Fully Loaded
    The movie is pretty cornball. Little kids would probably enjoy it, but their older brothers and sisters will be rolling their eyes, and their parents will be using their iPods.
  16. Ready to Rumble
    The plot is easily summarized: "Dumb and Dumber Meet Dumbbell."
  17. Sweet Dreams
    Sweet Dreams begins with more energy than it is able to sustain.
  18. Identity Thief
    It wants to be "Midnight Run" meets "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," but it carries little of the dramatic heft and real-world semi-plausibility of those much superior efforts.
  19. The Big Uneasy
    Unfortunately, I was also convinced that trapped within this 98-minute film is a good 30-minute news report struggling to get out. Shearer, who is bright and funny, comes across here as a solemn lecturer.
  20. Saving Grace
    We're left with a promising idea for a comedy, which arrives at some laughs but never finds its destination.
  21. Ghostbusters: Afterlife
    When it’s time to answer the question of Who ya gonna call, Ghostbusters: Afterlife comes across as a well-intentioned and sincere but unfortunate misdial.
  22. Lucky Numbers
    The plot becomes a juggling act just when it should be a sprint. And there's another problem: Is it intended as a comedy, or not?
  23. The Warriors
    The Warriors is a real peculiarity, a movie about street gang warfare, written and directed as an exercise in mannerism. There's hardly a moment when we believe that the movie's gangs are real or that their members are real people or that they inhabit a real city. That's where the peculiarity comes in: I don't think we're supposed to. No matter what impression the ads give, this isn't even remotely intended as an action film. It's a set piece. It's a ballet of stylized male violence.
  24. She's the One
    She's the One plays like an overhaul of “The Brothers McMullen” with a larger budget, and it's time for him to move on.
  25. The Shipping News
    But, lord, the characters are tireless in their peculiarities; it's as if the movie took the most colorful folks in Lake Wobegon, dehydrated them, concentrated the granules, shipped them to Newfoundland, reconstituted them with Molson's and issued them Canadian passports.
  26. The Pink Panther 2
    Peter Sellers was a genius who somehow made Inspector Clouseau seem as if he really were helplessly incapable of functioning in the real world and somehow incapable of knowing that. Steve Martin is a genius, too, but not at being Clouseau. It seems more like an exercise.
  27. The Stunt Man
    A film that depends on deceiving us has got to play by its own rules. If we are going to be deceived in general, fine, but then we can't be cheated on particulars.
  28. Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer
    A film that little kids might find perfectly acceptable. Little, little, little kids. My best guess is, above fourth-grade level, you'd be pushing it.
  29. Romeo + Juliet
    I have never seen anything remotely approaching the mess that the new punk version of "Romeo & Juliet" makes of Shakespeare's tragedy.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Super Mario Bros.
    Super Mario Bros. is not without its charms. Chief among them is its army of giant, overcoat-draped Goombas: cheerfully stupid creatures with tiny reptile heads - and a soft spot for schmaltzy waltzes. And any chance to see Hopper get down with his bad reptilian self is not one to dismiss out of hand. He has a fine time with his dino-furrowed hair, flashing an exceptionally long forked tongue and instructing the pizza delivery man to hold the worms...But otherwise, King Koopa seems bored. [31 May 1993, p.21]
    • Chicago Sun-Times
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »