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. Unlawful Entry
    But after introducing these issues, director Jonathan Kaplan ("The Accused") takes the easy, unimaginative way out by turning Liotta's character into a complete lunatic in the manner of the psycho-husband who terrorized Julia Roberts in "Sleeping With the Enemy." How much more interesting "Unlawful Entry" might have been if his character had been played brighter and less easily dispatched than simply with a bullet. [26 June 1992, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  2. Est - Ouest
    Has great themes and great actors.
    • Chicago Tribune
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    My Dog Skip
    A film that proves even the tiredest genre can be reinvigorated in the right hands.
  4. Enduring Love
    A gripping, very intelligent British thriller. Slowly, inexorably, it ties you in knots.
  5. Carnage
    A lot of people have no use for Carnage, especially in its unapologetically hemmed-in film version. And yet there isn't a sloppily or casually considered shot in any of the 80 minutes.
  6. The New Age
    The film is organized in episodes, each one leading pretty much to the same conclusion, which is these are not folks we want contributing to our gene pool. Once that's understood, The New Age settles into a tiresome repetitiveness. Even its wittier turns-and, as "The Player" demonstrated, Tolkin has a caustic wit-play curiously flat. [23 Sept 1994, p.N]
    • Chicago Tribune
  7. Trance
    For a while, Trance had me guessing, and more or less hooked. Then the violence, motivations, double-crosses and fantasy/reality tangles became tedious.
  8. Lust, Caution
    Outside the bedroom, the wartime swirl of intrigue never develops beyond postcard imagery, however. This is one of the major disappointments of the film-going year.
  9. Transformers
    The climax of Transformers contains all that is proficient and slick and all that is drecky and soulless in Bay's work.
  10. Faraway, So Close!
    In Faraway, So Close we watch a city being reborn, an angel trapped in melodrama and a dream dying. All are moving. [23 Dec 1993, p.10N]
    • Chicago Tribune
  11. The Best Man
    Largely a disappointment.
  12. The Comfort of Strangers
    When the film at last reaches its supposedly shocking conclusion, it resembles an overinflated balloon that has finally burst. It is a film that demands that you pay close attention, then rewards none of your diligence. [12 Apr 1991, p.4]
    • Chicago Tribune
  13. Dead Snow
    May have a dull title, but it's lively, idiotic fun, at least until it goes too far past "too far" into the realm of "far too far."
  14. Dogville
    May be the most fascinating, richly accomplished screw-up you'll see all year. Von Trier, who has always had a talent for provocation, nails another heroine to the cross while playing his role to the hilt - a moviemaking rebel in his own dog days.
  15. At Any Price
    A roughly mixed but interestingly plotted offshoot of "Death of a Salesman."
  16. The War Within
    The War Within has within it a war of its own, one between docudramatic truth and familiar melodrama, however low-keyed.
  17. The Bourne Legacy
    "The Bourne Identity." "The Bourne Supremacy." "The Bourne Ultimatum." And now, "The Pointless, Confused and Then, For the Last Half-Hour, Exciting Bourne Sequel, After a Fashion," more commonly known as The Bourne Legacy.
  18. Elysium
    With most films, that'd be enough to cut out half the potential American audience. But effective, evocative science fiction, which Elysium is, has a way of getting by with an ILA (Insidious Liberal Agenda) in the guise of worst-case dystopia.
  19. Boynton Beach Club
    Here Seidelman's more interested in warm and fuzzy than in carbonation. That's fine, as far as this modest picture goes. But the actors deserve more, and better.
  20. The Lair of the White Worm
    Working from a forgotten Victorian thriller by Bram Stoker ("Dracula"), director Ken Russell has fashioned his most watchable film in a long while, largely by staying out of the way of the material.
  21. Sixteen Candles
    The best teenage comedy since last year's "Risky Business."
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Machinist
    A moody psychological thriller with a stunning performance by Christian Bale at its core.
  23. Biloxi Blues
    Biloxi Blues also wants to be a confessional, coming-of-age memoir, but again, it works better around the edges than it does in its central conception.
  24. The Monster Squad
    Crass but imponderable, bizarrely mixing glowingly back-lit sentimentality with stomach-churning violence and juvenile sex jokes.
  25. Masai: The Rain Warriors
    The French filmmakers lend it their special aesthetic/dramatic sense, and the Masai actors ground the story in everyday realism and humanity. Together, they create a film and a legend to remember.
  26. Keeper of the Flame
    An odd premise for a Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn film--an anti-fascist melodrama with Tracy as the no-nonsense reporter investigating a beloved but tarnished American icon, Hepburn as the icon's wife--but they give it their trademark polish. [24 Feb 2006, p.C7]
    • Chicago Tribune
  27. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
    The movie’s good even when it goes in too many directions at once, because it gets the kids right.
  28. The Wolverine
    It's simply a more focused scenario than usual, full of violence done up with a little more coherence and visceral impact than usual.
  29. Sicario: Day of the Soldado
    At its mean, snakelike best, it’s also a brutally assured commercial action picture, unburdened by the moral qualms or unnerving ambiguity of its predecessor.
  30. The Karate Kid
    Jackie Chan co-stars in Morita's old role of the humble maintenance man who coaches the Bullied One. The older Chan gets, the simpler and truer he becomes as a performer.
  31. An Amazing Couple
    A wry romantic comedy set among Bruno's targets, the Grenoble bourgeois.
  32. Emmanuel's Gift
    An inspirational movie about a inspiring figure: Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah of Ghana.
  33. Mo' Better Blues
    A messy but nonetheless compelling movie.
  34. Cahill U.S. Marshal
    A combination of toughness and sentimentality with John Wayne. [21 May 2000, p.38C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  35. Bad Trip
    I hate hidden-camera gags on principle and have since “Candid Camera.” It takes something at least as funny as the first “Borat” (and, at its sharpest and sweetest, the second one), or this movie, for my jaw to unclench long enough to enjoy the brutal slapstick and the faux human misery.
  36. Kingsman: The Secret Service
    Silly, sadistic and finally a little galling, Kingsman: The Secret Service answers the question: What would Colin Firth have been like if he'd played James Bond?
  37. Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
    Christina Hodson’s script is a madcap, irreverent roller coaster ride, the story relayed in a loopy, looping, nonlinear fashion through Harley’s hyperactive storytelling style.
  38. Kevin Hart: What Now?
    Hart's turn as 0054 is both a fun riff on the genre and a statement that Hart doesn't need to ask for permission to be Bond — because he can do whatever he wants.
  39. Saturday Night
    In 2024 a movie about a live-TV countdown to destiny, once upon a time in ’75, needs more than moderately skillful reverence, and reaction shots of people cracking up at colleagues, to show us what it might’ve been like to be there.
  40. Funny People
    50 percent good and 50 percent close.
  41. Absolute Beginners
    It remains an engaging, energetic film. [22 Jan 1987, p.9B]
    • Chicago Tribune
  42. Glastonbury
    Best of all though, we get to experience the whole fest itself, over four turbulent decades-an era from which Glastonbury, like Woodstock in its day, offers a halcyon "timeout."
  43. The Horn Blows at Midnight
    It's not all that funny -- but fascinating in a weird, knockabout way. [28 Aug 1998, p.O]
    • Chicago Tribune
  44. The Light Between Oceans
    It ends up more of a study in moral and ethical decision-making, than as an emotional catharsis or release, but it's a worthy journey nonetheless.
  45. Bad Hair
    While Bad Hair is more humorously incisive than truly terrifying, Lorraine, in the leading role, sells it, while Simien creates space to discuss the ways in which women enforce unfair standards of beauty on each other in a white patriarchal society, using the horror genre as a blunt but effective tool to clear the path.
  46. Katakuri-ke no kôfuku
    Though the result is a distant, hyperstylized exaggeration of form and movement, the film itself turns repetitive and exhaustive.
  47. The Emperor's New Clothes
    One of the most clever, most enjoyable historical fantasies to hit screens in a long time, The Emperor's New Clothes is a sumptuous showcase for Ian Holm, who delivers not one but two great performances.
  48. Ultimate X: The Movie
    After clawing their way into the Olympics, so-called extreme sports deserve respect, but this is no way to get it.
  49. The Lost City
    This one rolls right over any doubters, powered by Bullock and Tatum, in a film that lets them play to their strengths.
  50. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
    Larsson's leading characters have less to do in this wrap-up chapter. As Larsson wrote it and screenwriter and exposition-condenser Ulf Rydberg adapted it, it's a rather wobbly blend of courtroom drama and loose ends tied, albeit rather leisurely.
  51. I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
    If you’re a Chicagoan, if you have just a smidgen of interest in the city’s arts scene and if you’ve been around a while, there’s no way to be objective about I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.
  52. SPECTRE
    For all its workmanlike devotion to out-of-control helicopters, “Spectre” works best when everyone’s on the ground, doing his or her job, driving expensive fast cars heedlessly, detonating the occasional wisecrack, enjoying themselves and their beautiful clothes.
  53. Femme Fatale
    The film is De Palma's tribute to film noir, to Paris and to the cinema itself.
  54. Luminous Motion
    Never regains its raw power once the sultry Unger retreats from the front seat of her Chevy to the privacy of her suburban bedroom.
    • Chicago Tribune
  55. Stitch Head
    This touching and somewhat grotesque story is the perfect gateway for younger kids to dabble in more spooky, gothic content, as well as to take in the true lessons of Shelley’s original monster tale.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Them
    One of the most intelligent and unnerving horror films in recent memory.
  57. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
    The script’s a messy sort of mess. There are also clear signs of a nervy director at work.
  58. From Beyond
    We could do without the film's leather sex scenes, but otherwise From Beyond is a decent enough low- budget horror film that delivers what audiences have every reason to expect--a funny, horrific grossout. [24 Oct 1986, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  59. Our Idiot Brother
    It's sweet, and low-key. It's very '70s in its vibe, which helps when the script veers in and out of formula.
  60. 9
    Something has gone slightly awry, however, en route from the 11-minute film to the 79-minute edition of 9.
  61. The Guys
    A simple, eloquent drama.
  62. The Crime of Padre Amaro
    Carrera's style is hard-hitting, lucid and technically superior (if unimaginative). El Crimen del Padre Amaro eventually moves and stirs you, even if it often resembles those steamy Mexican TV dramas/soap operas called telenovelas.
  63. Overnight
    Overnight's only narrative hole is an inability to pinpoint why Miramax stonewalled him.
  64. Jagged Edge
    Fans of true-life crime stories should gain special pleasure from Jagged Edge, because the film does succeed in making its ending unpredictable--even though an unresolved ending would have been better.
  65. See How They Run
    Directed by Tom George from a screenplay by Mark Chappell, “See How They Run” is a throwback with a smirk. Or put more diplomatically: An old school whodunit reconceived as a farce. It’s self-referential (the characters end up snowed in at a country estate, just like in “The Mousetrap”) and simultaneously poking fun at the murder mystery form while also paying homage. If only it were actually funny!
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Cake Eaters
    In her first feature film, Masterson creates a slice of life that is very believable (especially if you've ever seen "The Jerry Springer Show") and often endearing.
  67. Johnny Handsome
    Johnny Handsome does indeed put Hill back in the ballpark, close enough to his best work to make its imperfections seem that much more maddening. [29 Sep 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  68. Wolfs
    Does it matter that Wolfs is about literally nothing except itself and its star packaging? Maybe not. On the other hand, Watts hasn’t written a single fleshed-out character. It’s about genre tropes, distilled to minimalist quipping amid maximalist mayhem.
  69. The Angry Birds Movie 2
    It’s a colorful, cuckoo-crazy, sometimes funny, often bewildering experience, to which you slowly become numb with every incongruous shot of Leonard the pig’s round, green butt. Come to think of it, it’s the kind of entertainment that could only be enhanced with a little green.
  70. Juice
    It's a perfectly competent film, but the title quantity is the one thing this dry and earnest movie hasn't got.
  71. Together
    It's hard to watch and listen to Together without, in some sense, having your heart lifted by its music.
  72. The Clearing
    Just an OK thriller, full of standard scenarios and cookie-cutter characters.
  73. Everybody's Famous!
    Likable comedy about ordinary people stumbling badly and then triumphing.
    • Chicago Tribune
  74. The Importance of Being Earnest
    Resonates and inspires rapid-fire bouts of laughter, perhaps even a few giggles from the author himself, whom posterity has rewarded the last laugh.
  75. The Many Saints of Newark
    As with the series, the best scenes here remain slightly off-plot yet wholly on-target and devoted to the characters as well as matters of corrupted, corrosive character.
  76. The Last Five Years
    A small, shrewd movie about large, messy emotions and regrets. It is a grown-up work about people who grow up the hard way, leaving one heart in disrepair and the other in reckless forward motion. It's a sad piece, but not maudlin.
  77. Mary Queen of Scots
    If all you do is look at their performances, the historical drama is worthy of praise. Step back, and the overall production stumbles through writing mistakes, has a drab look and a storytelling structure that puts the main event so deep into the tale it's almost an afterthought.
  78. Allied
    In a movie built around two characters, Pitt does not hold up his 50 percent.
  79. Fugitive Pieces
    The performances are often more compelling than the movie's sometimes static storytelling.
  80. Dredd
    Calling Dredd 3D a movie is sort of a lie. It's a premise, and there are levels to reach, and always there's another grimy hallway to stalk, and then you turn right or left, and then kill some more.
  81. The Adjustment Bureau
    What's striking about the picture, I think, is its lack of violent threat.
  82. Scream
    I wish this movie offered a little less running commentary and a little more running — anything, really, to get itself off the treadmill of self-critique and self-congratulation and actually going somewhere new.
  83. C.O.G.
    Modest and good-looking, the film starts as dark comedy and ends in pathos. Director Alvarez makes the Oregon scenery a character unto itself.
  84. The White Countess
    It's a very classy, finely made film, and, as one watches it -- particularly those last sweeping scenes of political turbulence and escape -- one feels both pain at their (Merchant-Ivory) parting and grateful for what, together, they achieved.
  85. Lightyear
    Lightyear’s dazzling first half showcases the wittiest comic action from the Pixar folks in many years.
  86. Good Boys
    Director Stupnitsky lacks finesse and an eye for framing at this stage of his directorial career. He is, however, well-attuned to catching moments on the fly.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Blind Mountain
    Li’s story is lean and economical, but deeply harrowing, as Xuemei--sympathetically played by debuting performer Huang Lu, the only classically trained actor in a cast of non-professionals--clings to her courage and tries again and again to escape.
  88. Motherless Brooklyn
    This is a solid and enjoyable mystery flick, but through all the twists, turns, tics and twitches Motherless Brooklyn works hard to impart its message. And what ultimately comes out is somewhat hollow.
  89. The Whale
    I love what The Whale is doing for Fraser’s career. But not since John Wells blanded out the movie version of “August: Osage County” has a well-regarded play looked quite so at sea on screen.
  90. Warm Bodies
    Levine has a strong instinct as a packager of moments, ladling on the alt-rock just so before ladling on another ladle's worth.
  91. Crawl
    A grim yet snappy little thriller.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Keeping the Faith
    Despite scattered bits of nice writing, the movie never quite comes together.
  93. With All Deliberate Speed
    As a document of his history, it's breathtaking, inspiring stuff. As an overlong documentary, it still manages to be inspiring, but also an uphill viewing experience.
  94. McFarland USA
    It's nice to see a movie that is, well, nice. Nice but not dumb. It's also a comfortable fit for Costner.
  95. The Neon Bible
    A lyrical work of sporadic great power, Neon Bible captures both the neon and the spirit, the heaven and hell.
  96. Stillwater
    Stillwater feels like a movie filmed in a slightly blurry state of mind, then reshaped in the editing stage into a whole new blur. You don’t know where it’s going, and that’s a plus. Yet director and co-writer Tom McCarthy’s drama is as uncertain as his good movies, “Spotlight” highest among them, are quietly confident in going about their business.
  97. Song of the Thin Man
    It just doesn't swing (or bop), but the stars always click. [15 Jul 2005, p.C8]
    • Chicago Tribune
  98. Cool Runnings
    A lame comedy about the quirky true story of the 1988 Jamaican bobsled team that competed in the Calgary Winter Olympics...The intelligence level of the comedy insults preteens. [1 Oct 1993, p.C2]
    • Chicago Tribune
  99. State of Grace
    The sentiments expressed are really no more noble or refined than those of a Chuck Norris picture, though Joano's style tries to stamp art all over the sequence. It sure isn't that, but it isn't good action either. [14 Sep 1990, p.B]
    • Chicago Tribune
  100. In Paris
    Dans Paris is a cohesive, albeit sometimes creepy, fabric of disparate modes and colors.
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