Chicago Sun-Times' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Select another publication »
For 8,156 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: 6,085 out of 8156
  2. Mixed: 1,243 out of 8156
  3. Negative: 828 out of 8156
8156 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. Eye for an Eye
    Movies like Eye for an Eye cheapen our character by encouraging us to indulge simplistic emotions - to react instead of analyzing. It provides a one-in-a-million situation and tries to teach us a lesson from it; thoughtful audience members will be aware they're not being treated fairly. This is filmmaking at the level of three-card monte. If you don't believe me, see "Dead Man Walking."
    • 30 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Two If by Sea
    The "Be Kind, Rewind" stickers on patrol car bumper stickers may well address the quick fate of "Two If by Sea," but there will be a lot worse comedies on the rack with greater reputations when that happens. [15 Jan 1996, p.31]
    • Chicago Sun-Times
  3. Twelve Monkeys
    Any laughs that it inspires will be very hollow. It's more of a celebration of madness and doom, with a hero who tries to prevail against the chaos of his condition, and is inadequate.
  4. Dead Man Walking
    This film ennobles filmmaking.
  5. Grumpier Old Men
    Grumpier Old Men is not terrifically compelling, although it is probably impossible not to enjoy Matthau and Lemmon acting together.
  6. Cutthroat Island
    Cutthroat Island is everything a movie named Cutthroat Island should be, and no more. It is a pirate picture, pure and simple, and doesn't transcend its genre except perhaps in the luxurious production. Leaner and meaner pirate movies have worked more or less as well, but this one gets the job done.
  7. Shanghai Triad
    There are two basic weaknesses. One is that the boy supplies the point of view, and yet the story is not about him, so instead of identifying with him, we are simply frustrated in our wish to see more than he can see. The other problem is that Gong Li's character is thoroughly unlikable.
  8. Nixon
    It takes on the resonance of classic tragedy. Tragedy requires the fall of a hero, and one of the achievements of Nixon is to show that greatness was within his reach.
  9. Heat
    Above all, the dialogue is complex enough to allow the characters to say what they're thinking: They are eloquent, insightful, fanciful, poetic when necessary. They're not trapped with cliches.
  10. Jumanji
    The film is a gloomy special-effects extravaganza filled with grotesque images, generating fear and despair.
  11. Cry, the Beloved Country
    We go expecting to be inspired and uplifted, and we leave somewhat satisfied in those areas, but with reluctant questions about how well the story has aged, and how relevant it is today.
  12. The City of Lost Children
    I am not one of you. But I have enough of you in me to pass along the word. Far out.
  13. Sabrina
    The new version is just as satisfying, if not as dry and cynical, as the original.
  14. Sense and Sensibility
    An enjoyable film, and yet it left me somehow unsatisfied...there is too much contrivance in the way [Austen] dispatches her men to London when she is done with them.
  15. Georgia
    A complex, deeply knowledgeable story about a truly lost soul and her downward spiral.
  16. Father of the Bride Part II
    Father of the Bride Part II is not a great movie and not even as good as its 1991 inspiration. But it is warm and fuzzy, and has some good laughs and a lot of sweetness.
  17. Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead
    On balance, I think it's an interesting miss, but a movie you might enjoy if (a) you don't expect a masterpiece, and (b) you like the dialogue in Quentin Tarantino movies.
  18. Wild Bill
    The movie tries for poetry and elegy in its closing scenes, and we can see where it's headed, although it doesn't get there.
  19. I Am Cuba
    Even its depravities and imperialist Yankee misbehavior seem quaint. But as an example of lyrical black and white filmmaking, it is still stunning.
  20. Casino
    Scorsese tells his story with the energy and pacing he's famous for, and with a wealth of little details that feel just right.
  21. Toy Story
    A visionary roller-coaster ride of a movie.
  22. The American President
    Watching The American President, I felt respect for the craft that went into it: the flawless re-creation of the physical world of the White House, the smart and accurate dialogue, the manipulation of the love story to tug our heartstrings.
  23. GoldenEye
    This is the first Bond film that is self-aware, that has lost its innocence and the simplicity of its world view, and has some understanding of the absurdity and sadness of its hero.
  24. It Takes Two
    The movie is harmless and fitfully amusing.
  25. The Crossing Guard
    What is good about this film is very good, but there are too many side trips, in both the plot and the emotions, for the film to draw us in fully.
  26. Mighty Aphrodite
    The movie reveals its serious undertones (with commentary by the Greek chorus, which occasionally breaks into song and dance) while at the same time developing a plot that lends itself to slapstick.
  27. Home for the Holidays
    Foster directs the film with a sure eye for the revealing little natural moment.
  28. Fair Game
    Fair Game works as a thriller for anyone who lives entirely in the present.
  29. Total Eclipse
    The poems can be read. The film must stand on its own, apart from the poems, and I'm afraid it doesn't. One admires the energy and inventiveness that Holland, Thewlis and DiCaprio put into the film, but one would prefer to be admiring it from afar.
  30. Leaving Las Vegas
    Cage and Shue make these cliches into unforgettable people.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »