Chicago Tribune's Scores

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For 7,601 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 62% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 36% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.4 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 Autumn Tale
Lowest review score: 0 Car 54, Where Are You?
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5,106 out of 7601
  2. Mixed: 1,473 out of 7601
  3. Negative: 1,022 out of 7601
7601 movie reviews
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  1. Withnail and I
    It's difficult to see, too, what exactly all of this has to do with the twilight of the '60s. With his frequent sentimental allusions to the end of an era, Robinson seems to be grasping for a profundity that his anecdotal reminiscences don't merit or really need. Marwood, the film implies, will leave this life behind and go on to great things, while Withnail will be mired in it forever, a forgotten Falstaff to Marwood's striding Prince Hal. Self- dramatization is one thing; self-Shakespearization is something else. [10 July 1987, p.C]
  2. The Silence of the Lambs
    Billed as one of the most frightening, depraved films ever made. Would that it were so. Instead, this is a case of much ado about nothing. [15 February 1991, Friday, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  3. Beasts of the Southern Wild
    But even with the great good efforts of Wallis, the results, to some of us, betray a distrustworthy slickness reminiscent of a British Petroleum oil spill clean-up commercial.
  4. Husbands and Wives
    All of the film`s female characters are shrill, manipulative and irrational-their only appeal is masochistic.
  5. Aliens
    Toward the end, the film resorts to placing a young girl in jeopardy in a pathetic attempt to pander to who knows what audience. Some people have praised the technical excellence of Aliens. Well, the Eiffel Tower is technically impressive, but I wouldn`t want to watch it fall apart on people for two hours.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Tropical Malady
    Extremely slow--unbearably so at certain points. And even when there's no action, there's very little dialogue, and we're asked to follow the disjointed and dreamlike story line without the help of anything resembling a narrative.
  7. Django Unchained
    By the two-hour mark the fun had oozed out of the movie for me. It's long. Or feels it.
  8. I'm the One That I Want
    If only the film had been a more visually satisfying experience.
    • Chicago Tribune
  9. Cinema Paradiso
    A few moments of sly inspiration are not enough to carry an entire feature; along with the tears, it leaves behind an aftertaste of phoniness. [16 March 1990, Friday, p.H]
    • Chicago Tribune
  10. Human Resources
    Works so well for the first 40 minutes or so, that when the bottom falls out of it, I felt more than disappointed. I felt betrayed.
  11. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
    It’s a strange, grimly comic collection offering many grotesque sight gags, the occasional moment of seriousness and a general wash of melancholic, photogenic, elegiac Old West atmosphere. I liked the least jokey tale the best; by the time it came along, in the fifth-out-of-six slot, I’d had it with the kidding.
  12. Manufactured Landscapes
    Feels constrained and rather dutiful, no matter how passionate these people are about what they're observing.
  13. The Thin Blue Line
    It is an intriguing subject, though so far all that Morris has brought to it is a combination of the morbid and the cruel; he needs to develop some sympathy, too. [16 Sept 1988]
    • Chicago Tribune
  14. Diamond Men
    Diamond Men's potential as a diamond in the rough turn out to be more "rough" than "diamond."
  15. Jungle Fever
    Jungle Fever may be a failure, but it is the kind of failure that engenders hope: It finds Lee refining the skills he already possesses and striking out in encouraging new directions. The next ''Spike Lee Joint''
  16. The Substance
    [Moore's] gripping in ways the rest of the picture is not, transcending the thesis points and comic exaggerations simply by playing against the comic extremes and holding a card or two, always, in reserve. She reminds us here how good, and tough, she is at her best, when she gets half a chance.
  17. Logan
    Logan is deadly serious, and while its gamer-style killing sprees are meant to be excitingly brutal, I found them numbing and, in the climax, borderline offensive.
  18. The Disaster Artist
    Fans of “The Room” — they’re everywhere — will get something out of it, though I’d argue not enough; director Franco’s camera sense is neither quite in synch with Wiseau’s (thank God) or quite distinct enough in its own style.
  19. My Beautiful Laundrette
    The style and acting of Laundrette is triumphant, and its substance a true but altogether pedestrian cliche.
  20. Boyz n the Hood
    Boys N the Hood wants to be “The Learning Tree'' and “Super Fly'' at once, an ambition that doesn't seem quite honest. [12 July 1991]
    • Chicago Tribune
  21. House Party
    House Party aims for the mainstream and hits it- perhaps too often.
  22. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
    The problem with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is this: The closer the many-hands screenplay gets to the Christ-like sufferings and resurrection of Lord Aslan, the lion (voiced by Liam Neeson), the more conflicted the filmmakers' efforts become.
  23. The Naked Gun
    It’s not bad. The reboot of The Naked Gun tosses off a few sharp and/or stupidly effective gags of the hit-and-run variety, nice and quick.
  24. Ruben Brandt, Collector
    A satisfying heist movie, animated or live-action, requires more selectivity and less clutter than this one. The movie dashes by door after door, but it lacks the key.
  25. Down by Law
    Jarmusch's whole method consists of reversing expectations. The problem with that method is that you quickly begin to expect the reversals; the unpredictability becomes predictable. Jarmusch is a talented filmmaker, with an original sense of humor and a sharp and distinctive visual style, but he won't be a great filmmaker until he stops approaching his material from the outside.
  26. The Wolf of Wall Street
    The movie's benumbed by its own parade of bad behavior. Like some of Scorsese's other second-tier works — "Casino," "Bringing Out the Dead" — the gulf between virtuoso technical facility and impoverished material cannot be bridged. It's diverting, sort of, to see DiCaprio doing lines off a stripper's posterior, but after the 90th time it's like, enough already with heinous capitalistic extremes.
  27. The French Dispatch
    In his fastidious, exacting, extraordinarily blinkered creation, writer-director Anderson this time has driven straight into a cul-de-sac, stranding every sort of good and great actor in the cinematic equivalent of a design meeting.
  28. John Wick: Chapter 2
    John Wick 2 stages its gun-fu melees sleekly and sometimes well, from the catacombs of Rome to the subway platforms of New York City.
  29. Born on the Fourth of July
    for all its flaws, Born on the Fourth of July provides the final proof that Tom Cruise is the real thing-a movie star with all the natural, unforced ability to connect with an audience that the title implies. [20 Dec 1989, p.1]
    • Chicago Tribune
  30. Radio Days
    Allen`s over-reliance on narration to create his emotional effects reminds us that his art is primarily, if not exclusively, a verbal one. He has never engaged the visual side of movies, never grasped film`s capacity to express emotions and ideas in images. Allen is a teller, not a shower.
  31. Flushed Away
    After the fourth electrocution gag, the 10th smack in the face and the 12th assault on a wee rodent crotch, we could all use something quiet.
  32. Awakenings
    Awakenings is a film that unquestionably succeeds on its own terms, though those terms are deeply suspect. It is a canny piece of false art, one that consistently swaps meaning for superficial effect. [20 Dec 1990, p.1]
    • Chicago Tribune
  33. Dangerous Liaisons
    Though the costumes are beautifully designed, the chateau locations carefully chosen and the dialogue full of curling locutions, something cloddish and naive still comes through in Frears' direction, and not only because he can seldom get his shots to match. [13 Jan 1989, Friday, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    In the Realms of the Unreal
    If this documentary were about a serious painter, it would be judged a travesty not unlike commercials that goose up the couple in "American Gothic" or show the Mona Lisa laughing.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    La faute à Fidel!
    Gavras’ ending makes it clear where her sympathies lie. In the process of building to that conclusion, she overplays her metaphor a bit, but still, political tracts rarely come this sweet and sympathetic.
  36. 28 Days Later...
    Boyle's new movie is mostly a zombie fiasco, closer to the vacuities of "The Beach" than the scintillating social satire of "Trainspotting."
  37. Matewan
    Sayles must have meant his movie to stir and provoke, but the self-contained look of it yields something else-a sense of quaintness, of harmless nostalgia.
  38. On the Rocks
    Seeing what may be Coppola’s least compelling film has a way of reminding you of all her better ones, especially in the seriocomic vein. Those include the aforementioned “Lost in Translation,” along with “The Bling Ring,” “Somewhere,” even the playfully anachronistic “Marie Antoinette.” If they’re new to you, have at them.
  39. Show Me Love
    A light, breezy, often charming little film, with a good cast playing mostly shallow characters.
    • Chicago Tribune
  40. Of Mice and Men
    If anything, this new film version is cornier and more conventional than the first screen adaption of the novel. [2 Oct 1992, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  41. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
    The Unbearable Lightness of Being is anything but light, though it very nearly is unbearable.
  42. Wicked
    Too often, though, the magic in Wicked remains stubbornly unmagical. And whenever Erivo isn’t around to make us believe, and take the mechanics of Wicked to heart, Part I reveals what’s behind the curtain, an adequate set-up for next November’s second act.
  43. Wind River
    Wind River is roughly 50 percent strengths, 50 percent contrivances. Often they collide in the same scene.
  44. Dust Bunny
    Fuller demonstrates a strong command over his visual domain, but the pat allegory he presents about the monsters with whom we have to learn to live feels a bit muddled.
  45. American Sniper
    The film is rarely dull; it's one life-and-death sequence after another, and the filmmaking's efficient, crisply delivered. But Eastwood honors his subject without really getting under his skin.
  46. Beyond the Mat
    Surprisingly lacking in revelatory moments.
    • Chicago Tribune
  47. Gran Torino
    Eastwood's foursquare directorial aesthetic tends to heighten, rather than camouflage, a screenplay's shortcomings.
  48. Friendship
    The teaming of Robinson and Rudd periodically gets Friendship in gear. But the film’s primary comic impulse equates to the sound of gears grinding, in an attempt to shift from second to third.
  49. Presumed Innocent
    Though it`s a handsome film, carefully staged and courageously low-key, the transition to the screen only exaggerates the disposable nature of the material while depriving it of the novel`s one stylistic strength, its unreliable narrator.
  50. Hellboy
    Hellboy's adventures may take him to you-know-where and back, but the movie remains in limbo.
  51. Brick
    Challenging to follow, at best.
  52. Truly Madly Deeply
    Truly, Madly, Deeply, which takes on bereavement and regeneration, uneasily straddles the delicate line between the charming and the cloying. [24 May 1991, p.L]
    • Chicago Tribune
  53. Holes
    With the movie's attentions spread so thin, almost everything begins to seem peripheral - even if almost every loose end is tied together, no matter how unlikely the connection.
  54. Macbeth
    Partly, I think, the problem lies in Kurzel and his key performers being so determined to make the language conversational and naturalistic, they forgot to make the individual scenes move.
  55. Revoir Paris
    While many will find Revoir Paris moving, for me it’s because the performances do the heavy lifting, effortlessly, while the material lays everything out too neatly. The mess of life, the anguish of what Mia is going through, deserves a clear-eyed exploration and a little less gloss.
  56. The Mighty Quinn
    There is little to dislike in The Mighty Quinn, but neither is there any compelling reason to see it. [17 Feb 1989, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  57. Drinking Buddies
    The skillful quartet at the center of Drinking Buddies reveals the weaknesses in the material.
  58. The Yes Men Fix the World
    What are they trying to accomplish and is this really the best way to accomplish it?
  59. Manon of the Spring
    By imitating the gestures and outlines of a vanished cinema, Berri can only provide a cold simulation. The surface is smooth and refined; the insides aren't there. [23 Dec 1987, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  60. Galaxy Quest
    It's a clever premise but not one that lends itself to an hour and 42 minutes of high jinks. You get the joke quickly.
    • Chicago Tribune
  61. Roger & Me
    It's very funny, and at times exhilaratingly so. But when real life tragedy is used as a basis for movie comedy, some consideration of responsibility has to enter the equation.
  62. Barfly
    O'Rourke acts way over the top; Dunaway is more effective because she seems more desperate. Both characters are the kind of people who want to be left alone. That's what you may feel like after you spend a few minutes with them in one long brawl after one long argument after one long soliloquy.
  63. The Emperor's New Groove
    A bright and zippy, but alarmingly over-campy and lighter-than-fluff cartoon feature.
    • Chicago Tribune
  64. Freaky Friday
    Freaky Friday commits a lot of sins; luckily, it has Curtis and a few others to cover them up.
  65. Gunner Palace
    Tucker has done a bang-up job, distancing and hypnotizing us with his frenzied, fragmented, sexy images. But war isn't a video game.
  66. Lethal Weapon 2
    Yet another disappointing summer sequel, Lethal Weapon 2, with Danny Glover and Mel Gibson reprising their cop-buddy roles in pursuit of South African drug lords. [7 Jul 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Caramel
    The film itself, while charming and gently funny, is entirely unexceptional.
  68. RoboCop
    Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop is a stylish piece of work that leaves a sour aftertaste. [17 Jul 1987]
    • Chicago Tribune
  69. It Might Get Loud
    Why isn’t the film better? Guggenheim doesn’t seem to have prodded his subjects in any interesting directions.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Big Trouble
    These isolated pockets of comic invention are balanced by long stretches of general choppiness in editing and pacing. Shot by shot, the movie is crisply staged and photographed, but the gags don`t work and the timing`s off in much of the aborted fun.
  71. Louder Than Bombs
    Louder Than Bombs never quite comes together. You keep waiting for it to gel, but it just drifts along until it drifts away.
  72. Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal
    I’m not saying the film needed to be formally experimental. But as it is, the documentary feels deeply pointless.
  73. Happy Christmas
    Swanberg may be one of the few American filmmakers who'd benefit from reading one of those "10 Rules for Mediocre Hollywood Screenwriting" how-to books. Many find a kind of truth and life and rough domestic magic in his films. Here and there, now and then, I see what they're talking about.
  74. Chalk
    The problem with the movie is that all this improvisational verisimilitude never finds its way into fully developed stories.
  75. Dung che sai duk
    Ashes of Time Redux remains a hermetic and rather frustrating work, dotted by lonely, windblown figures dwarfed by the sand dunes of western China.
  76. The Opposite of Sex
    For all Ricci's zingers, the actress who gets the most laughs here is Kudrow, who has an amazingly right-on offbeat comic sense and rhythm. Playing a bright, sexually repressed Indiana teacher, she displays priceless timing. [19 June 1998]
    • Chicago Tribune
  77. Cinderella Man
    Ultimately, it's Paul Giamatti ("Sideways"), playing Braddock's manager Joe Gould, who shines. In another actor's hands, Gould would be a secondary character lost in Crowe's shadow, but Giamatti outshines his co-stars at times with his everyman looks and delivery.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt
    Proves a less-than-satisfying examination of the country singer's art, career and demons.
  79. It
    That narrative change works fine in principle. The larger question is one of rhythm, and the diminishing returns of one jump scare after another.
  80. Digging for Fire
    The actors save it, periodically, from itself, simply by setting a natural tone and finding some truth in an extended sketch.
  81. A Shock to the System
    An ambitious screenplay (by Andrew Klavan) is done in by wavering direction (by Jan Egleson) in A Shock to the System, an independent feature that is still worth seeing for its well-chosen cast of medium-priced performers, including Michael Caine, Elizabeth McGovern, Peter Riegert, Swoosie Kurtz and Will Patton. [23 Mar 1990, p.H]
    • Chicago Tribune
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Small Time Crooks
    It's a sweet little snack of a movie that leaves the heavier courses for some other outing.
  83. Farewell, Home Sweet Home
    This is a big-hearted film with admirable ambitions, and the ending is appropriately bittersweet, with victory and comeuppance occupying the same time and frame.
  84. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
    The director's lack of restraint and overabundance of ambition makes "Altar Boys" not boring, but troubled.
  85. The Company of Wolves
    It seems that director Neil Jordan is trying to make some comment on the way classic fairy tales try to force adult attitudes on young, free spirits, but the method by which we are brought to that realization is tortuous. [22 Apr 1985, p.4C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  86. Tenet
    I wish Tenet exploited its own ideas more dynamically. Nolan’s a prodigious talent. But no major director, I suppose, can avoid going sideways from time to time.
  87. Le bossu
    De Broca never develops the transforming love onscreen and ends up with an awkward and indigestible movie.
  88. Wendell & Wild
    Wendell & Wild may not succeed, but I took heart from this: At least it doesn’t succeed in unconventional ways. That’s a sign of serious talents struggling with two of the most dreaded and unavoidable words in commercial cinema: “story problems.”
  89. Raising Arizona
    Quickly and fatally, the overlooked form peels away from the slight, frail content, and the film starts to look like an episode of "Hee Haw" directed by an amphetamine-crazed Orson Welles. [20 March 1987]
    • Chicago Tribune
  90. Echo In the Canyon
    How did an apparently sincere tribute turn into such a weirdly clueless vanity project?
  91. The Fault in Our Stars
    Woodley is an ace at handling laughter through tears — "my favorite emotion," as a character in "Steel Magnolias" once said. She improves with each new film, even when the films themselves aren't much.
  92. Salvador
    Wexler told his story in credible human terms. Writer-director Stone felt the need to jazz up his action with wacked-out characters who belong in a ''Saturday Night Live'' sketch.
  93. A League of Their Own
    Penny Marshall, the sitcom actress ("Laverne and Shirley") turned filmmaker ("Big," "Awakenings"), manages to make even such elementary material seem labored and phony. The film, which was shot in and around Chicago last summer, is a major disappointment.
  94. Chain Camera
    Absorbing in places, but considering the large and diverse pool the filmmakers had to draw from, it's a surprisingly repetitive and predictable collection of big-city sagas.
  95. Akira
    Akira remains the work of a cartoonist, rather than a born animator: Too much of the movie is played out in the static frames of a comic strip, and when movement is used it isn't to define character (as in Disney) or establish a rhythm (as in the Warner cartoons) but simply for its physical impact. Pounding away, it becomes monotonous. [30 Mar 1990, p.D]
    • Chicago Tribune
  96. Crazy, Stupid, Love
    This is the "Babel" or "Crash" of ensemble romantic comedies, with screenwriter Dan Fogelman mapping out several narrative surprises that throw you for little loops as they're delivered.
  97. Apocalypto
    With "Braveheart," "Passion" and now Apocalypto, Gibson clearly has established his priorities as a director. History is gore, plus a few hearthside family interludes. The trick is instilling the audience with enough rageful bloodlust to make the story work.
  98. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
    A character comedy requires some notion of respect and integrity. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has none. [14 Dec 1988, p.1]
    • Chicago Tribune
  99. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
    I laughed at a good deal of the movie, but a good deal more of it left me with (Cohen’s intention, probably) the taste of ashes in the mouth.
  100. The Adventures of Tintin
    I fear Spielberg and Jackson hitched their wagon to the wrong technological star here.
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