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. Big Fat Liar
    Plays so flat, so to close its "movie message" formula, that it seems as if we've seen this movie before.
  2. Birthday Girl
    A paper-thin wish-fulfillment comedy about escaping small-town repressions and blasting conformity.
  3. Slackers
    Not only is Slackers painfully bad, but it's also about as morally unpleasant as a teen sex comedy can be.
  4. Domestic Violence
    Be forewarned: The movie lasts three hours and 16 minutes, and nearly all of it deals with subjects that polite society (and even rude society) tends to ignore or evade.
  5. Storytelling
    Almost as uncompromising, and sometimes as funny, as "Dollhouse" or "Happiness."
  6. Maelstrom
    Another of those excellent foreign films that sometimes slip though cracks, considered too strange or eccentric for domestic tastes. Strange it is, but delightfully so
  7. The Son's Room
    Moretti gives us something different but very important. He shows us how life goes on.
  8. The Count of Monte Cristo
    This seems to be a movie made by people who love the old classic movie swashbucklers but don't have a clue how to make or modernize them.
  9. The Mothman Prophecies
    A gaudy yet grim science-fiction horror movie of such surpassing silliness, humorless intensity and stylistic overkill that watching it may actually put you in a state of paranoia.
  10. Metropolis
    Here is a film of staggering technical and visual virtuosity, filled with utterly amazing images, that's also entertaining and engaging for children and adults on several levels.
  11. Escaflowne: The Movie
    Plenty of dramatic action, stunning imagery and an operatic score add weight to Escaflowne. It may not appeal to fans of traditional animation.
  12. A Walk to Remember
    Good performances in bad movies are nothing new, but it's sad that Moore's first major cinematic outing scrapes the bottom of the melodramatic barrel.
    • Chicago Tribune
  13. Beyond the Ocean
    Never quite measures up to Pemberton's reach, but there remains enough to be excited about to wonder what will follow this imperfectly made though valuable work.
  14. Ha-Hesder
    Hobbled with pedestrian direction, a dull visual style and a last act awash in obvious bang-bang melodrama.
  15. Italian for Beginners
    This is a movie that doesn't depend for its effects on star performers or stylized wish-fulfillment sexuality but on realism, sharp observation and honest humor.
  16. Snow Dogs
    Amiable Gooding still smiles through it all, weathering the cold, physical abuse and implied racism, doing his best to make his audience believe that Snow Dogs isn't offensive mush. But he can't bring it off.
  17. Brotherhood of the Wolf
    Avoid it if you object to seeing people devoured by wolves, but see it if you want to howl at the moon.
    • Chicago Tribune
  18. Orange County
    Black delivers the best line (“Do you want me to get naked and start the revolution?”), and Lithgow scores a giggle for calling his ex-wife “coyote ugly” to her face, but neither of them can disguise this lemon.
  19. Impostor
    It's a Hitchockian "wrong man" story, but there's a twist.
    • Chicago Tribune
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time
    I know of no documentary on a contemporary artist that conveys so much about the artist's work so lyrically and directly.
  21. Black Hawk Down
    It's one of the most ferociously convincing physical re-creations of warfare ever put on screen.
  22. Charlotte Gray
    This is a movie that, for all its often high intelligence and skill, seems emotionally underdone, bogged down in tony literary and cinematic cliches.
    • Chicago Tribune
  23. I Am Sam
    The role sounds like a sentimental trap, but Penn doesn't fall into it. It's a sensational performance, and he illumines a movie that sometimes seems in danger of descending into modish Hollywood political correctness.
  24. Dark Blue World
    The film mixes unashamed kitsch, thrilling airfight scenes and dark historical drama. But what gives it a special charge is its portrait of the Czech RAF group: what happened to them before, during and after the war.
  25. Monster's Ball
    A serious movie made by seriously talented people, and I never quite came 'round to it.
  26. Gosford Park
    It's a scintillating comedy-drama and one of Altman's most richly moving and entertaining pictures.
  27. Ali
    We've seen Ali as the charismatic star of the real-time drama of his life. "Ali," for all its flashy filmmaking, just doesn't compare.
  28. The Shipping News
    Beside its major virtues, it contains a vice: that one flat lead performance. Who would have thought Kevin Spacey would ever go dull on us?
  29. Kate & Leopold
    An oppressively cute Manhattan time-travel romantic comedy that’s lost in time, space and cliches.
  30. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
    Clever and funny, with a dense surface of ideas and moods.
  31. A Song for Martin
    Viveka Seldahl and Sven Wollter will touch you to the core in a film you will never forget -- that you should never forget.
  32. A Beautiful Mind
    Though the role might seem a real stretch for an actor who just won an Oscar for his Charlton Heston turn as Maximus in "Gladiator," he and the movie ace the test.
  33. The Majestic
    A real sentimental journey -- and luckily they've got both the right director (Darabont) and the right actor to squeeze our heartstrings.
    • Chicago Tribune
  34. How High
    Like Ice Cube's "Friday," How High probably will survive as an underground classic, until it's pushed further underground and forgotten by the next disposable "cult classic" to hit video.
  35. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
    An extraordinary work, grandly conceived, brilliantly executed and wildly entertaining. It's a hobbit's dream, a wizard's delight. And, of course, it's only the beginning.
  36. Joe Somebody
    If "American Beauty" were a bland comedy, it would be Joe Somebody.
  37. Iris
    It's good, but not great -- despite the heights to which Dench and Broadbent drive it. But those heights are lofty, the pain still stings.
  38. Lantana
    More intent on engaging the heart as it explores the mysteries contained within - mysteries that, as Lawrence and his spot-on cast demonstrate, are far more compelling than simple murder.
  39. The Royal Tenenbaums
    More flat-out funny than "Rushmore," but in neither film is the humor joke-based. What you're laughing at is the behavior of characters who are so fixed in their idiosyncratic worldviews that they can't help but careen into each other like out-of-control bumper cars.
  40. Kandahar
    Watching this film wakes you up; it is a window on an Iran and an Afghanistan we should have taken account of long ago -- seen though a master's eye, felt through a poet's touch.
  41. Vanilla Sky
    Crowe's chilliest movie. In part this is by design. Like "Open Your Eyes," to which Crowe is mostly faithful, Vanilla Sky is a head trip that merges thriller, romance and science-fiction elements while playing with our notions of dreams and reality.
  42. Piñero
    It wisely lets us hear Pinero's words for ourselves, and in the end, they echo louder than the images that accompany them.
  43. Not Another Teen Movie
    It can't help but fall prey itself to a final deadly genre cliché: Its soundtrack outsparkles the movie.
  44. Behind the Sun
    When a culture offers little more than death upon death, appreciating life's everyday beauty is as good an answer as these characters -- and this filmmaker -- can provide.
  45. Segunda piel
    The gay sex in Second Skin is vividly displayed and erotically charged, while the heterosexual material is presented discreetly.
  46. Baran
    A film that uses beautiful tableaux and convincingly raw actors to build to a climax of shatteringly understated poignancy and power.
  47. Last Orders
    A movie I loved on first sight and, even more important, love in remembrance. Taken all in all, there's only one last thing to say about it. Go.
  48. No Man's Land
    In the remarkable, ferociously intelligent new film No Man's Land, Bosnian writer-director Danis Tanovic gives us a movie portrait of the Bosnian War, a conflict that has devastated his country, friends and neighbors -- and found in it both shocking humor and searing, relentless tragedy.
  49. Ocean's Eleven
    Good, expensive, easygoing fun. It's no masterpiece, but why should Soderbergh -- or anybody -- get three in a row?
  50. Tuvalu
    It is filled with imposing and beautiful imagery, though it becomes increasingly monotonous.
  51. The Business of Strangers
    This is a movie that really has little to offer but performances and ideas. For a while, that's enough.
    • Chicago Tribune
  52. The Affair of the Necklace
    Rife with wrong people in major jobs, which leads to a movie that lacks the requisite verve to make to it sparkle.
  53. Texas Rangers
    I can only hope that this film was a lot of fun to make. That way, someone will have enjoyed the experience.
  54. Behind Enemy Lines
    A pumped-up, flag-waving, outrageously hokey and ridiculous -- but sometimes incredibly exciting -- war movie.
  55. Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys
    Code Unknown is a film you think more than feel. Though each scene is executed close to flawlessly, the cumulative effect is often oppressive. But at the center of the film -- the real reason it was made -- is Binoche, one of the genuinely radiant presences in movies today.
  56. The Independent
    May be the only movie in recent memory unworthy of its own genuinely hilarious Web site, www.finemanfilms.com.
  57. Bangkok Dangerous
    Always watchable and cinematically lively, but it never quite engages the emotions -- despite torrents of sentimentality and would-be heart-tugging scenes interspersed with the carnage.
  58. In the Bedroom
    It sneaks up on you and shakes you: a tale of the cold hell surging up beneath that windy, sensuous Wyeth landscape.
  59. Sidewalks of New York
    It's by far the best cast Burns has assembled -- so much so that, unlike his other films, he doesn't come near dominating it.
  60. Così ridevano
    This is a film precisely constructed, brilliantly imagined.
  61. Spy Game
    If you like Redford, Spy Game will be a real treat: a fast electric thriller full of the old Sundance charm and pizzazz.
  62. Black Knight
    But in the end everything comes down to Lawrence, who has yet to develop a truly distinct comedic sensibility.
  63. Out Cold
    This sophomoric little gimmick picture -- although at times, serving as no more than a showcase for daredevil snowboarding -- provides enough powder power to keep the audience laughing, even over the rocky parts.
    • Chicago Tribune
  64. The Devil's Backbone
    Fine ensemble performances and a tight balance of the supernatural against the historical make The Devil's Backbone a well-crafted, white-knuckled cinematic journey.
  65. Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy
    Too full of worship and the culture of celebrity to ever pose the questions that should be asked.
    • Chicago Tribune
  66. Novocaine
    The absurd meets the violent meets the droll, and we just watch from the outside, never having been drawn in by anything resembling believable feelings or behavior.
    • Chicago Tribune
  67. Bombay Eunuch
    A short film with a unique subject matter. But you won't soon forget its people, its places or its sad, surprising revelations about all the sexes.
  68. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
    Does it immerse the uninitiated into a new, fabulous world? Yes. To the book's many readers, does this feel like the real "Harry Potter"? For the most part, yes.
  69. Shallow Hal
    So intent on driving home its worthy if not mind-blowing message that it becomes surprisingly conventional.
    • Chicago Tribune
  70. Heist
    Mamet takes exactly those qualities that we most prize in genre movies -- characters, cleverness and high style -- and refines them to a high shine.
    • Chicago Tribune
  71. Everything Put Together
    Takes a couple of curious turns that you will either applaud or hiss at, depending on the type of film you are looking for.
  72. Happenstance
    The movie is funny, but it's also touching and poetic -- and Bertin's scenes are devastating.
  73. Monsters, Inc.
    The climax, featuring what's essentially a suspended roller coaster of closet doors, is as thrilling as it is imaginative.
  74. Amélie
    This is the Paris -- and the mad, beautiful young Parisienne -- we look for in dreams.
  75. Tape
    Tape may not be a great movie, but it's a great demonstration of creativity within severe limitations.
  76. Domestic Disturbance
    There's almost no reason to see the movie, unless you have no qualms about wasting your time.
  77. The One
    Hits the ground running and never lets up.
  78. The Man Who Wasn't There
    Like all the Coens' movies, "Man" is supremely self-aware and darkly, hellishly funny. It's also brilliantly written and acted to a fare-thee-well by an outrageously good cast.
  79. K-PAX
    The images are lustrous, the cutting is brisk and the acting of the two leads is right on the money.
  80. The Town Is Quiet
    The movie may not be as toxic and ultimately hopeless as Todd Solondz's "Happiness," but it also fails to find humor, dark or light, in anything.
  81. Life as a House
    This movie lets you feel something. Like George's house, if not his life, it's built well and full of heart.
  82. Thirteen Ghosts
    It's an event film, all about flash and spectacle, even though the movie itself is void of any real substance.
  83. Donnie Darko
    Just another self-absorbed teen chronicle, with the added twist of a little time travel and a surprise ending.
  84. Trembling Before G-d
    The rigidity of most of the rabbis interviewed in the film is balanced by the presence of openly gay Orthodox Rabbi Steve Greenberg, who offers a more liberal, but no less scholarly, interpretation of the Torah.
  85. Cool and Crazy
    It's so thoroughly engaging, so beautifully made, strikingly shot and chock-full of humor and humanity, I can't imagine any intelligent audience not falling in love with it - if only they take the leap of faith to see it.
  86. Intimacy
    Vibrating with humanity, it's a potent portrait of love, ranging from the purely carnal to the impurely sublime.
  87. Focus
    It's a good film but an over-obvious one. I wish I'd liked it more.
    • Chicago Tribune
  88. From Hell
    Lacks the energy and urgency of its source material.
    • Chicago Tribune
  89. The Last Castle
    An outrageously unlikely prison action movie made with lots of eye-catching pizzazz and undeserved expertise.
    • Chicago Tribune
  90. Riding in Cars with Boys
    It's just another case of mourning over what might have been.
  91. Waking Life
    The film is truly special, truly different -- a wondrous talky roundelay about and for people who love life.
  92. One Week
    Deftly uses the conventions of the urban buddy/ romance film to create a fast and loose, often humorous, atmosphere.
    • Chicago Tribune
  93. Berlin Babylon
    This film would be an excellent companion piece to Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire," which deals with angels looking down on this scarred city. Berlin Babylon isn't nearly as lush, but in its own curious way, it's every bit as spiritual.
  94. Bandits
    The picture is written and acted as a lark and a romp.
  95. Iron Monkey
    The characters may be speaking Chinese, but such rousing entertainment needs no translation.
    • Chicago Tribune
  96. Mulholland Dr.
    Like "Memento," Mulholland Drive is an amnesiac noir in the tradition that goes back to "Spellbound" and "Somewhere in the Night."
  97. My First Mister
    Offers something rare for a modern movie: an uncynical depiction of the redemptive power of human relationships.
    • Chicago Tribune
  98. Corky Romano
    Worth your time and money? Fuhgeddaboutit.
    • Chicago Tribune
  99. Fat Girl
    It's sensuality with a stinger, and Fat Girl is an adolescent sex drama that takes no prisoners.
  100. Grateful Dawg
    A multilayered documentary that explores music and friendship, and in its own quiet way, the battle with fame.
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