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. Catch Me If You Can
    Brilliant performances by DiCaprio as Frank Jr. and Christopher Walken as his fallen father - and an enjoyable one by Tom Hanks.
  2. Morvern Callar
    What gives the movie real flesh and fantasy is the actress playing this part, the incandescent Morton.
  3. Two Weeks Notice
    Lead actors seeming like they're taking it easy is one thing. But a filmmaker trying to construct a smart romantic comedy actually must do some work.
  4. Narc
    With such skilled filmmaking and committed acting on display, Narc is far more a score than a bust.
  5. Gangs of New York
    A magnificent throwback to an almost vanished era of epic filmmaking by great filmmakers in thrall to their own passions, rather than to the studio bookkeepers.
  6. Spider
    A shocker for devotees of stylish angst and psychological torment. You'll have to watch it with patience and great attention, but it richly rewards that patience.
  7. The Wild Thornberrys Movie
    With braces on her teeth and preteen gawkiness, Eliza's a nerdy girl on the surface, but her backbone and chutzpah manage to save human and animal family alike. Move over Bond; this girl deserves a sequel.
  8. Antwone Fisher
    Washington, typically, is rock-solid in front of the camera, conveying ample warmth and sympathy. Behind the camera, he's a relatively straightforward storyteller, strategic in his use of lyrical touches.
  9. 25th Hour
    25th Hour struck me as one of the best movies of 2002, but it's also a film that will strike some of its audience as ethically dubious or threatening.
  10. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
    Moviegoers should be almost as entranced by the teeming, glorious landscapes and dark, bloody battlegrounds of Two Towers: astonishing midpoint of an epic movie fantasy journey for the ages.
  11. The Guys
    A simple, eloquent drama.
  12. Maid in Manhattan
    The comedy part of the equation is awfully mild, however. This is a movie that aims for warm smiles rather than belly laughs.
  13. The Hot Chick
    The first half hour of Hot Chick, before the switch, plays like soft-core porno from the '60s. The rest plays like a bad "Saturday Night Live" sketch stretched to the breaking point.
  14. Evelyn
    If the real-life story is genuinely inspirational, the movie stirs us as well.
  15. About Schmidt
    This is a superb film and one of Nicholson's great performances, tamped down but magnetic.
  16. Drumline
    That it's got a positive message may strike some as decidedly not "edgy" -- but they should be too busy stomping their feet to notice.
  17. Star Trek: Nemesis
    This is a better movie than the vacuous "Insurrection," thanks largely to a sympathetic screenwriter, longtime "Trek" fanatic John Logan ("Gladiator"), and a crew (headed by Patrick Stewart's Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and Brent Spiner's android Data) determined to go out in glory.
  18. Intact
    Mix of stylish action and meta-musings, provides plenty of confusing, satisfying surprises, though it could have used more tightness and punch.
  19. Pellet
    Despite an abrupt ending, Mana gives us compelling, damaged characters who we want to help -- or hurt. Perhaps most important, El Bola forces us examine our personal motivations for each impulse and their consequences.
  20. Analyze That
    Turns out to be a Hollywood sequel of surpassing silliness and wasted talent.
  21. Adaptation.
    There's only one proper Hollywood ending to this story. Next year, Charlie and the surreal "Donald" Kaufman (listed as co-writers in the playful credits) should win twin Oscars for best adapted screenplay. They've earned it -- really.
  22. Equilibrium
    Not a picture that makes you think very much -- except to wonder why the studios keep making movies like this.
  23. Empire
    While Reyes seeks his own ambitious style, he can't quite step out from under De Palma's shadow and thematic choices. Everything from the voiceover narration to the final frame in Empire looks and feels like a low-budget hybrid of "Scarface" or "Carlito's Way."
  24. Russian Ark
    Extraordinary film, one that, like the museum itself, captures and shows three centuries of Russian culture and history in all its beauty, confusion, terror and majesty.
  25. Rabbit-Proof Fence
    Characters are so well-drawn, so human - that even in the harsh light of history - it remains difficult to understand how Australia allowed such inhumanity to become institutional, mechanized and accepted.
  26. Eight Crazy Nights
    Its humor stems precisely from our enjoying its lead character's rotten behavior.
  27. Solaris
    Solaris, an exploration of outer space and inner anguish, reminds us that science fiction can embrace adult ideas and human drama as well as technology and futuristic action.
  28. The Emperor's Club
    It's an extraordinary performance in an often brave and intelligent film that, unfortunately, tends to collapse around him in the end -- just as the world of Kline's character, tweedy but likable William Hundert, deconstructs around him.
  29. Die Another Day
    You leave feeling like you've endured a long workout without your pulse ever racing. The exercise ultimately is product placement, with Bond the biggest product of them all.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Friday After Next
    Ultimately, the lazy, cynical underpinnings of Friday After Next are as visible as the film's soundtrack is obnoxious.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Phantom
    A muddy, dreamlike Portuguese offering.
  32. Talk to Her
    Great filmmakers push their ideas and characters to the limit, unafraid of consequences - which is what Pedro Almodovar has done in Talk To Her, his latest film and, I think, his best.
  33. The Quiet American
    An instant classic and a dramatic beauty, a film that gets us to the core of Greene's chilly, dark and romantic view of the post-war world.
  34. Personal Velocity: Three Portraits
    The movie's title refers to a comment about how people grow at their own rates. Miller's movie has its moments of impressive velocity, but it never quite takes off.
  35. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    It remains an expertly assembled companion piece to its source material, with charms you can't overlook. But the great Harry Potter should be casting a more powerful spell.
  36. Interview with the Assassin
    Neil Burger's sharply conceived, inventive movie is a highly involving piece of work.
  37. The Way Home
    Director Lee has a true cinematic knack, but it's also nice to see a movie with its heart so thoroughly, unabashedly on its sleeve.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Bánk bán
    An operatic rarity worth catching even if you don't happen to be an opera fan.
  39. Ararat
    This toweringly ambitious picture confronts a brilliant director, Atom Egoyan, with a major historical event and a profound theme.
  40. Half Past Dead
    What we get, while rarely boring, is a succession of senseless scenes bathed in formula-thriller blue light, full of blazing Uzis, exploding helicopters and sentimental male bonding.
  41. Standing in the Shadows of Motown
    Gordy barely is mentioned, even though he was the artistic leader who presumably profited most from the Funk Brothers' labors. Discussing Motown solely through the prism of the musicians is like assessing Picasso's works on the basis of the paint quality.
  42. 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.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite
    In her (Audrey Tautou) latest film, a quest for romantic and religious fulfillment called God Is Great, I'm Not, she stretches her range to encompass one more personality trait: annoying.
  44. 8 Mile
    Flaws and all, it really does show a star being born.
  45. The Bread, My Sweet
    Exactly the sort of personalized, non-assembly line treat some audiences are always trying, in vain, to find.
  46. Far From Heaven
    There's an incongruous but ravishing beauty in Far From Heaven, and in its three excellent central performances, that counteracts the seeming kitschiness of the story.
  47. Femme Fatale
    The film is De Palma's tribute to film noir, to Paris and to the cinema itself.
  48. Treasure Planet
    Combining cutting-edge computer animation with traditional two-dimensional characters, Treasure Planet pops off the screen, reviving Stevenson's adventure with surprising accuracy.
  49. The Santa Clause 2
    No question, the new movie is amiable family entertainment, and Allen is such an affable actor that maybe kids won't begrudge him seeking romantic fulfillment in order to remain their favorite Santa.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Santa vs. the Snowman
    The movie has an avalanche of eye-popping visual effects, including a bustling Santa's village, nifty "Jimmy Neutron"-type gadgets and "Stars Wars"-like igloo walking robots - and, of course, the requisite heartwarming happy ending.
  51. Daughter from Danang
    Brilliant documentary.
  52. I Spy
    An overblown clunker full of bad jokes, howling cliches and by-the-numbers action sequences.
  53. The Weight of Water
    Despite the deftness with which Bigelow handles the transitions, the modern story never attains the intrigue and tension of the period tale.
  54. Roger Dodger
    Revives the art of smart, scathing movie conversation as it skewers Manhattan's singles scene while providing a goodly number of laughs. Like its subject, the movie may have its prickly moments, but it's awfully fun to watch.
  55. Waking Up in Reno
    Its jokes aren't funny. Its sloppy direction comes courtesy of Jordan Brady, who made "The Third Wheel," another reportedly failed comedy gathering cobwebs at Miramax.
  56. The Truth About Charlie
    Demme gets a lot of flavor and spice into his "Charade" remake, but he can't disguise that he's spiffing up leftovers that aren't so substantial or fresh.
  57. Frida
    The film seems a mad mix of staid PBS bio-drama, flamboyant musical comedy and surreal cartoon nightmare.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Bank
    Like the film itself, Jim Doyle is smart enough to be engaging and lovely to look at, but he's too one-dimensional to be satisfying.
  59. Paid in Full
    It's good, hard-edged stuff, violent and a bit exploitative but also nicely done, morally alert and street-smart.
  60. All or Nothing
    The acting in All or Nothing is superb. Everyone creates a character we can immediately register and recognize as true.
  61. All the Queen's Men
    The British intelligence operation at Bletchley Park that cracked the Enigma code is truly the stuff of great drama. But that story doesn't offer Matt LeBlanc in a wig and heels.
  62. Ghost Ship
    An adequate horror movie for the Halloween season, but it too easily sinks into haunted-house-film conventions, even if the haunted house is decked out as an Italian luxury liner.
  63. Goyangileul butaghae
    The film has many strengths, but one of its major assets is its solid sight line. Though we might expect it to go sentimental - with its cute cat, torn families and sympathetic, pretty protagonists - it doesn't.
  64. Le bossu
    De Broca never develops the transforming love onscreen and ends up with an awkward and indigestible movie.
  65. Abandon
    The biggest surprise may be what the filmmaker doesn't show; he withholds a big dramatic payoff, so the audience must fill in the blanks.
  66. The Grey Zone
    There are better holocaust dramas than Grey Zone -- "Schindler's List" for one, and due later this year, Roman Polanski's magnificent "The Pianist." But few will disturb you like The Grey Zone -- mostly because it won't try for tears.
  67. Real Women Have Curves
    It's a warmly realistic comedy-drama that pulls you right into its lively, well-drawn L.A. milieu.
  68. Formula 51
    It's a movie that puts Samuel Jackson in kilts, Robert Carlyle in a red Jaguar, and the audience -- if they have any sense at all -- out in the lobby, looking for another picture.
  69. Naqoyqatsi
    The film is a disturbing and frighteningly evocative assembly of imagery and hypnotic music.
  70. Auto Focus
    Skates over depravity when, like Crane, it should have dug down deeper.
  71. The Ring
    Ends up a few frames short of the perfect horror film, but very few.
  72. Kwik Stop
    This is the debut feature for Columbia College graduate Gilio, and it shows great promise.
  73. The Rules of Attraction
    Some of its parts are nifty, but the sum of these parts is nothing.
  74. Bowling for Columbine
    Moore's best movie, and one of the most blisteringly effective polemics and documentaries ever.
  75. Safe Conduct
    This is one of those films that encapsulate most of its maker's key thoughts and feelings while also connecting us vividly to a fascinating past. No one who loves French film (or movies in general) should miss it.
  76. Comedian
    A film that comes close to re-creating the funny-but-serious environment of stand-up comedy.
  77. Swept Away
    One hopes that this is Hollywood's last go-round with Swept Away. Watching this fiasco, I kept having nightmares about a possible cartoon version, co-starring Cruella de Vil and Shrek.
  78. White Oleander
    The whole film, in fact, seems too fast for its own good. It plays like a synopsis, jumping from scene to scene, grief to grief, and it doesn't let us relax into the various worlds it's creating.
  79. Punch-Drunk Love
    An Adam Sandler movie with class, and if that sounds like an oxymoron, so be it. The movie is a happy nightmare of silly-smart movie comedy that defies category - and challenges expectations involving Sandler and his pictures.
  80. Knockaround Guys
    There's nothing original about the father-son conflict that forms the core of the film, nor is there enough suspense and drama.
  81. Pokémon 4: The Movie
    Surprising less moldy and trite than the last two.
  82. Brown Sugar
    Ambitious, yes. Does it work? Not really. While it's genuinely cool to hear characters talk about early rap records (Sugar Hill Gang, etc.), the constant referencing of hip-hop arcana can alienate even the savviest audiences.
  83. Below
    Twohy pulls all the strings to create an inventive genre piece.
  84. The Transporter
    Muddles through as a film so uninterested in character, it doesn't bother assigning names to them.
  85. Tuck Everlasting
    Although bright, well-acted and thought-provoking, Tuck Everlasting suffers from a laconic pace and a lack of traditional action.
  86. Welcome to Collinwood
    Even at a mere 82 minutes, the movie is guilty of killing time. It's not a complete Kaputschnik, but it's sure no Bellini.
  87. Heaven
    The result is both engrossing and moving, a poem about a love that breaks barriers and passes understanding.
  88. Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
    Jonah may resemble an 83-minute Sunday school lesson, but at least it's a playful, colorful one, with spunky peas and tomatoes, chirpy kids' tune-- and bright animation that may not rival "Monsters, Inc." or "Shrek" but gets its points across.
  89. Bloody Sunday
    By re-imagining a pivotal, terrible 24 hours, Greengrass has made a must-see film that is timely - and timeless.
  90. Red Dragon
    Red Dragon is very much a product, and a superior one, of our times. So is Anthony Hopkins' top-notch fiend, the bad doctor.
  91. Wasabi
    At least Reno is around -- and he's the only spice in this stale, slick stew
  92. Skins
    Dark as it is, the humor makes it work, especially Greene's typically witty and compassionate portrayal of Mogie.
  93. The Man from Elysian Fields
    It's a movie that starts off nicely, offers two marvelous performances (by James Coburn and Mick Jagger) and then slowly, unaccountably loses itself.
  94. Shanghai Ghetto
    A salute to those who were blessed not only with savvy and courage, but something between an uncanny sense of foresight and an unforeseen stroke of good fortune.
  95. The Tuxedo
    A breakthrough for karate comedy king Chan, but not necessarily the kind we've all been waiting and hoping for. It's an ultra-digitized DreamWorks show crammed with elaborate special effects, the kind that physical-stunt specialist Chan has always avoided.
  96. Biggie and Tupac
    Those not well versed in the rap music world may be a little lost at times, but you don't need to know your Ice-T's from your Cool-J's to realize that as far as these shootings are concerned, something is rotten in the state of California.
  97. Sweet Home Alabama
    This movie is phony, phony, phony -- from its Disneyland version of the Deep South to its pious lessons about the values of simple rural living.
  98. Moonlight Mile
    The movie doesn't really jell. Glossy, good-looking and well-produced, it affects you and even sometimes moves you, but it doesn't really convincingly connect.
  99. Just a Kiss
    Marisa Tomei turns in a blitzkrieg performance.
  100. The Trials of Henry Kissinger
    While the filmmaking is standard documentary fare and the approach overtly biased, the narration, with tales of intelligence intrigue and ruthless foreign policy, is compelling and convincing.
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