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 1.3 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. Manic
    This clear-eyed, low-budget drama is populated by troubled teens whose stories aren’t packaged in neat little bows. Their histories are sad, their feelings raw, their futures uncertain.
  2. City of Ghosts
    In some ways it's not a film that surprises us much. But it's a notable directorial debut anyway -- smartly written, very well cast and skillfully done.
  3. House of Fools
    A humane and fantastic work, and it touches us precisely because Konchalovsky shows the reality of both the soldiers and the madhouse inmates. His movie is just what he intended: a nightmare that speaks the truth.
  4. The Real Cancun
    This movie thrusts you so close to these intoxicated idiots that you practically have to wipe off secondhand tequila, sweat and spit stains afterward.
  5. A Decade Under the Influence
    As wide and deep as the directors fish for anecdotes, it's surprising that there isn't more focus, more context.
  6. Onmyoji: The Yin Yang Master
    The movie is rich with detail, characters and a specific historical context, even if its narrative is incoherent. But its cheap, gauzy veneer and primitive special effects are fun on their own terms.
  7. Lilya 4-Ever
    What's remarkable as we watch Lilya's plunge (and the brief, false rays of light that illuminate it) is how real Moodysson makes her plight, how intensely he makes us empathize with Lilya.
  8. 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.
  9. Winged Migration
    This French documentary gives us unprecedented intimacy and sweep.
  10. Malibu's Most Wanted
    Doesn't aim for more than padding a plot around Kennedy so he can do his Brad "B-Rad" Gluckman character full-force. And the joke soon wears thin.
  11. Chasing Papi
    It's a shame that these actors, stars already in the Latino community, with most also having played small parts in Hollywood's more white-bread movies, got such a poorly written script for their American coming-out party.
  12. A Mighty Wind
    The tweaking here feels affectionate, yet you soon suspect that these subjects make for awfully easy pickings.
  13. Love and Diane
    One of the most searing, heartbreaking and ultimately triumphant mother/daughter stories ever put on film.
  14. Bulletproof Monk
    First-time director Paul Hunter delivers a quick-cut, loud movie that betrays his MTV roots -- but then again, the script never demands that he do much more than exactly that.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    The Young Unknowns
    There is nothing to redeem this movie, and no real reason to see it.
  16. Anger Management
    Without insult to either film, Anger Management could be called "Punch-Drunk Love" for the masses.
  17. Better Luck Tomorrow
    The film lacks a single emotionally authentic moment.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ghosts of the Abyss
    Ultimately, this talking dog don't hunt.
  19. XX/XY
    What makes XX/XY so engaging; it attempts to define love through broken characters who know neither themselves nor the meaning of love.
  20. Levity
    A film of almost paralyzing gravity and large ambitions that, almost inevitably, it can't quite meet.
  21. Cowboy Bebop the Movie: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
    Magnetic, beautiful stuff.
  22. The Man Without a Past
    A powerful film made with minimal means, it's a story of poor people on the fringes of society, done without sentimentality or condescension but with wicked humor.
  23. Phone Booth
    A lean, mean tension machine, setting up its premise, executing it with smarts, throwing in enough twists to keep things interesting, and wrapping it up before anyone can get fatigued or reflective. It's on the money.
  24. DysFunktional Family
    Griffin may well get there, but he's not there yet.
  25. What a Girl Wants
    Were it not for young star Amanda Bynes' energetic good nature in the face of drab dialogue and wooden stereotypes, What a Girl Wants might have been a career-ending movie violation rather than just an embarrassing fender-bender.
  26. A Man Apart
    Sometimes, you can use a smaller devil to catch the Devil, the movie suggests. But in this case, the entire movie goes to hell in record time.
  27. The Good Thief
    There's a zest and brilliance in Neil Jordan's racy heist thriller The Good Thief that makes it almost intoxicating to watch.
  28. Cet amour-là
    The film, like its lovers, is fond, giddy and poetic about love and death.
  29. Fellini: I'm a Born Liar
    Its fascination may be limited to those already very familiar with his works and collaborators - and his sensual, highly subjective style.
  30. The Core
    Elaborate misfire, which misuses an unusually good cast.
  31. Stevie
    So troubling and unflinchingly honest that watching it becomes a test of empathy and compassion.
  32. Assassination Tango
    The movie is an odd mix of tones and styles, and the thriller plot is casually introduced, shoved aside and reintroduced. But, like all Duvall's work, Assassination Tango breathes with humanity.
  33. Basic
    The movie, one of those surprise-twist detective stories, doesn't really stand up to scrutiny in the cold light of the theater lobby.
  34. Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie
    Advertised as having a Southern-influenced point of view, the jokes are witty and universal enough for everyone.
  35. Head of State
    The difference between Head of State and a good comedy is like the difference between Chris Rock and a real actor.
  36. Raising Victor Vargas
    In the tradition of indie films "Girlfight" and "George Washington," Sollett's emotive, sub-improvising style leads to pitch-perfect performances from a watertight cast in a loose, joyfully fresh film.
  37. View from the Top
    Why Paltrow, who was accepting a best actress Oscar four years ago, would take this clumsily written role is anyone's guess.
  38. Dreamcatcher
    Most novels can't be encapsulated well enough in a conventional two-hour movie format, and Dreamcatcher may be one of them -- a miniseries gone wrong.
  39. Boat Trip
    Technically it does not qualify as one of the worst American-made movies ever. It only feels that way. The movie's offenses are too numerous to catalog.
  40. Down and Out with the Dolls
    The movie belongs to the women, and they perform with attitude and power.
  41. Piglet's Big Movie
    With its welcome lessons on friendship and self-esteem, is not only appropriate for preschoolers, but it also has enough sophistication for older kids.
  42. Japan
    The work of a remarkable new talent. By the movie's towering, final tracking shot, this imaginative, dazzling film achieves distinction.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Willard
    This faithful resurrection of the original "Willard," a twisted gem in its own right, also is funny.
  44. The Hunted
    Engrossing as it is, The Hunted is more a showcase for formidable talent than anything else. It's a brainy, exciting but shallow show -- an expert's action movie that almost runs out of breath.
  45. Agent Cody Banks
    With her low voice, jumpsuits, cleavage and Segway, Miles (Harmon) is all satire all the time, and we love her for that.
  46. Spun
    Makes you want to run home and shower, but Rourke's performance gets under your skin.
  47. Bend It Like Beckham
    Much of the value -- entertainment and otherwise -- of seeing a culture-specific movie is to connect with a larger world than your everyday life offers.
  48. Tears of the Sun
    Fairly entertaining and often exciting, expertly done in a way, but not especially engaging or new, and not as emotionally involving as its title suggests.
  49. Nowhere in Africa
    A lovely film with a deeply humane perspective.
  50. Bringing Down the House
    Leans on just as many stereotypes as it tweaks.
  51. Irreversible
    What's wrong is the decision to let all the actors improvise their lines...At the end, Irreversible looks less like captured or even distorted life than an acting class.
  52. Laurel Canyon
    Laurel Canyon itself feels musical: languid, rich in color and light, and deliciously sensual.
  53. The Safety of Objects
    Presented with such confidence, such care, that we love all of the characters, even if we don't like them.
  54. Ten
    A film made by a master, with a simplicity that is really revolutionary. It's a work capable of changing the ways you look at the movies - and at life.
  55. Poolhall Junkies
    Like too many sports-related movies, this one falls back on that One Big Game, the final score that will set everything right.
  56. Cradle 2 the Grave
    Replete with audience-insulting writing and blatantly hateful jokes, storytelling like this makes most video game plots look like "Moby Dick."
  57. Till Human Voices Wake Us
    Pearce and Bonham Carter are remarkably photogenic, but the movie is fitful and mannered to a fault, full of watery allusions and stormy scares.
  58. Old School
    The movie is never more than the sum of its scattershot jokes; it's sloppily put together, with scenes seemingly cut mid-dialogue.
  59. The Life of David Gale
    By turns brilliant and simplistic, moving and preposterous, the movie takes one of the ultimate hot-button American issues -- the morality of capital punishment -- and dissolves it into a volatile mix of psychological thriller and socio-political fable.
  60. Gods and Generals
    Has the unfortunate effect of overtipping the dramatic scales in favor of the Southern generals and turning almost everybody into waxen idols who spout flowery rhetoric.
  61. Lawless Heart
    So well crafted, so original, that each overlapping scene swells with new life and interpretation.
  62. Open Hearts
    An emotionally honest character piece that avoids moralizing or offering soggy excuses.
  63. Dark Blue
    Unlike the intrigue and winding switchback of moral mysteries that defined "L.A. Confidential," Dark Blue travels on flat, predictable terrain.
  64. Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony
    Told with such sadness and exaltation, such mastery of image and sound, that watching it makes you feel renewed and hopeful.
  65. All the Real Girls
    A small movie about big emotions, with Green capturing the rush of love and sting of heartbreak with great vividness.
  66. Gerry
    Casual moviegoers may enjoy it, too, if they follow a simple rule: Stop looking for the way out and let yourself get lost.
  67. Painted Fire
    Another masterpiece from one of the world's more neglected great directors, a master artist who here reveals the soul of another.
  68. The Jungle Book 2
    At its core, a movie for children. There is no hidden adult story line, not much sexual innuendo and very little dry humor.
  69. Daredevil
    Slick, expensive and filled with good-looking actors flexing muscles, but once it grabs our attention it doesn't really reward it...this movie doesn't have fear -- or sheer wonder and marvel -- enough.
  70. He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not
    Though I wouldn't call He Loves Me a total success, it's smart, intriguing and quite ambitious, a first film by a talented young filmmaker that displays superstar Tautou's gifts in an eerie new light.
  71. Stone Reader
    Moskowitz may soon find himself in the same boat as many of the artists he is analyzing, because Stone Reader is going to be one tough act to follow.
  72. Shanghai Knights
    Chan and Wilson's easy camaraderie remains eminently watchable, but the rough edges from last time out are missed.
  73. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
    I can't think of much that might happen on a date evening that could be more annoying than this movie.
  74. Deliver Us from Eva
    A welcome respite from verbal nastiness and sexual cynicism. It's nice to see characters who enjoy falling in love, even if it's to a schmaltzy light-soul score.
  75. May
    McKee, like Amenabar, knows how to position his film against type -- which ultimately makes May a refreshing, macabre tale.
  76. Lost in La Mancha
    You can interpret Lost in La Mancha as a sort of triumph of the creative spirit. Gilliam's darkest gallows humor always comes with a smile.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Biker Boyz
    Unintentional comedy that will bore even the 15-year-olds at which it is undoubtedly aimed.
  78. The Recruit
    It suddenly morphs into one more overly slick, empty show.
  79. Final Destination 2
    Despite some imaginative fatalities, is less a movie than a slick video game.
  80. The Guru
    Hits more laughs than it misses and its characters are likable, empathetic people.
  81. Blind Spot. Hitler's Secretary
    The movie, in the end, is devastating because of the banality it reveals, and because its terseness and plainness cut a mass killer down to size.
  82. Amen.
    Costa-Gavras' powerful, awkward Amen is a dramatically uneven historical thriller.
  83. Darkness Falls
    A lamebrained attempt at horror that is just a derivative pastiche of ideas lifted from other bad films.
  84. A Guy Thing
    Sometimes funny, often strained comedy.
  85. National Security
    Lawrence and Zahn generate enough comic tension and mayhem to jump-start this mass of action-comedy cliches into a fairly amusing show.
  86. Divine Intervention
    About the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it treats war as a cosmic joke and its participants as hapless but recognizably human clowns.
  87. City of God
    A visual and aural feast that combines elements of classic gangster melodramas, crime epics such as "The Godfather" and playful non-linear narratives such as "Amores Perros," City of God explores a deadly culture while feeling more alive than anything that's hit the big screen in years.
  88. Kangaroo Jack
    The film's crude humor and violence -- cartoonish, but still violent -- should offend parents of younger kids. Yet its ultra-broad, pratfall-filled comedy will satisfy only the most indiscriminate teens.
  89. Crimson Gold
    A stark, minimalist near-masterpiece about the creation of a murderer in modern Iran.
  90. Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
    Watching Le Cercle Rouge, we're caught up in a world that, however improbable some of its twists and turns seem, strikes us as a perfect, imaginative creation.
  91. The Son
    It's a movie imbued with a fierce intimacy -- a tone and style similar to cinema verite documentary -- but it's not a banal realism, even if the characters and settings in contemporary working-class Liege initially seem mundane.
  92. Just Married
    Just Married is what industry people refer to as "January Junk," cinematic flotsam that gets tossed ashore once they have cleared the shelves of Oscar contenders.
  93. WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3
    While sci-fi conceits still permeate the plot (alien DNA, rogue scientists), attention to personal detail float world-weary, superbly-drawn protagonists in a rare movie-a character-driven animated film.
  94. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
    Reflects the sensibilities of its director, whose comedic performances in particular have indicated a game spirit and droll sense of humor.
  95. Love Liza
    Louiso has a confident touch and a good eye, and there isn't a scene in the film that wasn't intelligently done. Besides Hoffman's near-great performance as Joel, there isn't a bad or mediocre acting job on view either.
  96. Chicago
    Zeta-Jones can belt out her numbers, Zellweger can purr hers, and Gere-a musician who played his own cornet solos in "The Cotton Club"-can sell his songs and even dance a spiffy little tap dance. They're better than you'd expect-and so is the movie.
  97. The Pianist
    A great movie on a powerful, essential subject -- the Holocaust years in Poland -- directed with such artistry and skill that, as we watch, the barriers of the screen seem to melt away.
  98. Max
    A flawed film but an admirable one that tries to immerse us in a world of artistic abandon and political madness and very nearly succeeds.
  99. The Hours
    Cunningham's and Woolf's novels are dedicated to capturing a person's essence through the events of a single day, and Daldry's film is faithful to that aim. But the range of life presented here feels constricted; the movie misses the sublime for all of the despair.
  100. Nicholas Nickleby
    McGrath's version of Nicholas Nickleby cashes in on age-old show biz wisdom of "always leave 'em wanting more." It's a pity we're only allowed such a small nibble of one of Dickens' richest works.
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