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. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
    A staggeringly bad picture: a shallow, cliche-ridden mess that keeps blowing up on screen.
  2. Songcatcher
    Any film about the folk tradition is required to have a stellar soundtrack, and Songcatcher does not disappoint.
  3. Sexy Beast
    A noir masterpiece with Oscar-caliber performances, Sexy Beast slowly turns up the heat until we squirm.
  4. Swordfish
    So fast, sleek and riveting it almost makes you expect miracles -- which never materialize.
  5. Dead or Alive
    Ultimately a disappointment because it refuses to take any aspect of itself seriously.
  6. Evolution
    This is "Ghostbusters" meets "Men in Black" meets a whole lot of butt humor.
    • Chicago Tribune
  7. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
    A well-told, vividly imagined movie that doesn't pretend to be more than it is and doesn't lean on pop-culture references to win over its viewers.
  8. Bride of the Wind
    It's a movie of elegant surfaces, great background music (by both the Mahlers), gossipy underpinnings and pretensions to romantic grandeur.
    • Chicago Tribune
  9. Divided We Fall
    Has the literary richness, depth of character and tone that such a morally difficult, powerful narrative requires.
    • Chicago Tribune
  10. What's the Worst That Could Happen?
    Packed with gratuitous dumb moments -- which is too bad, given that the premise has promise.
    • Chicago Tribune
  11. 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.
  12. A Real Young Girl
    Breillat has long been fascinated with the idea that women are not allowed to go through puberty in private but instead seem to be on display for all to watch, a situation that has no parallel with boys. A Real Young Girl seems acutely aware of this paradox.
  13. Rape Me
    Fast-moving shocker, but it's a dull shocker, so morally dead that it deadens you to watch it. After a while you couldn't care less if anyone is slaughtered or raped -- including the heroines.
  14. Big Eden
    By creating a kind of politically correct version of Andy Griffith's "Mayberry," director Bezucha has drained the movie not only of bigotry but also of dramatic conflict.
    • Chicago Tribune
  15. Himalaya
    Most of the performers have limited acting experience, but they are perfect for their parts, exhibiting the courage, stamina and wariness essential to live in such a harsh environment.
  16. The Road Home
    A great love story and a deeply moving celebration of simple lives.
    • Chicago Tribune
  17. Pearl Harbor
    A movie meant to explode off the screen -- and it's at its best when those explosions are going full blast.
  18. The Man Who Cried
    Though the film falls short of its aspirations, there's something magical about it. It's a poetic look at transience, betrayal, loss and doom.
    • Chicago Tribune
  19. Our Song
    Has an assured air, rich with scenes of affection, anger and reconciliation, along with moments of unfeigned humor.
    • Chicago Tribune
  20. Fast Food Fast Women
    Kollek's fondness for whimsical plot turns adds still more random elements to a movie that at times seems edited by a blindfolded monkey.
    • Chicago Tribune
  21. Angel Eyes
    Shot in Chicago, this is a picture that looks better than it sounds and is made much better than it deserves to be.
    • Chicago Tribune
  22. Shrek
    Alternately sweet and mean, sophisticated and vulgar, witty and base, dazzling and ugly, charming and charmless.
  23. Moulin Rouge!
    A landmark musical movie -- controversial, mercurial, even cheeky. It's the kind of film that wildly divides audiences and critics -- people tend to either love or hate it. I loved it.
  24. Startup.com
    Combining the immediacy of the Internet and the wise perspective of history, Startup.com proves that investing in real-life drama can reap rich dividends.
  25. The Trumpet of the Swan
    A lame duck.
  26. Bread and Roses
    As is often the case in Loach's films, all the acting is exemplary. Padilla, who learned English only shortly before making the film, is a natural actress, a smoldering presence.
    • Chicago Tribune
  27. A Knight's Tale
    There's much to love about this "Rocky" on horseback, and those laughable blemishes just fold into jokes that Helgeland likely intends audiences to laugh at.
  28. Sordid Lives
    A train wreck you can't help but watch.
  29. The King Is Alive
    Stands as a successful cinematic experiment and a gripping -- though a little too long -- study of humanity's most primitive instincts.
    • Chicago Tribune
  30. Performance
    An amazing film, still a shocker after all these years. [07 Sep 2001, p.C1]
    • Chicago Tribune
  31. Eureka
    Never feels inflated -- and it builds to an ending of unusual power.
  32. Time and Tide
    Gives you your money's worth and then some.
    • Chicago Tribune
  33. Under the Sand
    It stays in your memory, will not leave you in peace.
  34. The Mummy Returns
    Action junkies may enjoy this non-stop barrage, which barely pauses for anything but the most rudimentary (albeit complicated) plot exposition.
  35. One Night at McCool's
    Suggests a raunchier, cruder version of a Coen brothers comedy, but it's also a kind of honky-tonk "Rashomon."
    • Chicago Tribune
  36. Town & Country
    Has the air of a film and actor (Beatty)reaching clumsily for a golden past that's gone.
    • Chicago Tribune
  37. The Golden Bowl
    Dances in circles until you tire of admiring it.
    • Chicago Tribune
  38. Driven
    It's outrageously stereotypical and weirdly personal, so loonily exaggerated it keeps surprising you.
    • Chicago Tribune
  39. Harry Is Here to Help
    The actors and writing lend unexpected dimension to all of the characters, and Lopez's Harry is an indelible antagonist, one who manages to be genuinely big-hearted and evil.
    • Chicago Tribune
  40. Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles
    The film is surprisingly easy to sit through, digest and even enjoy. Why? A lot has to do with Hogan's well-documented charisma as a performer.
    • Chicago Tribune
  41. The Luzhin Defence
    You'll find heartbreakingly star-crossed lovers, a heartless villain (Wilson) and a dazzling backdrop of aristocratic life before and after the Russian Revolution.
  42. The Low Down
    Lightweight but likable and blessedly free of the posing and pretensions that mark the Hollywood crop of twentysomething coming-of-age films.
  43. Freddy Got Fingered
    Bad decision after bad decision occurs over 93 minutes.
    • Chicago Tribune
  44. The Center of the World
    All Center of the World has is the double entendre of its title, some unremarkable dramatic and sex scenes, and some embarrassing moments for its very game co-stars.
    • Chicago Tribune
  45. Lakeboat
    Though this film shows flashes of the electric writer Mamet was to become, Lakeboat is mostly distant thunder over choppy waters.
    • Chicago Tribune
  46. Brigham City
    Reminiscent of classic old Westerns.
    • Chicago Tribune
  47. Bridget Jones's Diary
    The Zellweger-Firth-Grant triangle works as irresistibly as Hepburn-Grant-Stewart in "The Philadelphia Story."
    • Chicago Tribune
  48. The Circle
    Panahi's simplicity accentuates the movie's power: its sense of life caught unobserved.
  49. Joe Dirt
    For all its promise of lively trailer-park humor, Joe Dirt digs, then lies in its own grave, killed by blah characters, lame jokes and cliches you can see coming a mile away.
  50. Josie and the Pussycats
    It’s a big, frothy, high-tech, cutesy-poo musical comedy.
  51. Kingdom Come
    A hit and miss proposition, with an abundance of laughs and emotional highlights to help brighten the dimly lit corners of cliche-mongering.
  52. Chopper
    A point is being made about how a criminal creates his own myth, but the ways Read twists and embellishes the truth become progressively less interesting.
    • Chicago Tribune
  53. Blow
    It's a real disappointment: too hasty, too scattered and superficial, and, in the end, disappointingly sappy and sentimental.
    • Chicago Tribune
  54. Along Came a Spider
    Freeman gives his overwrought, over-familiar scenes an unlikely shot of intelligence and dignity that cuts through the formulas and almost makes them work.
  55. Beautiful Creatures
    That it is a pseudo-hip filmmaking fantasy doesn't make it any less pretentious, or any less a turnoff.
    • Chicago Tribune
  56. The Day I Became a Woman
    Announces the arrival of an undeniable talent (Meshkini) that has come of age.
  57. Just Visiting
    Recycled French farce isn't a bad thing, but do they really like all those pratfalls?
    • Chicago Tribune
  58. Pokémon 3: The Movie
    This predictable, uninspired third installment to the endless saga won't win over non-believers.
  59. Shadow Magic
    Succeeds as a paean to movies and movie-watching.
  60. Booye kafoor, atre yas
    Farmanara, a gifted director, seems to be getting his artistic legs again, but he spends far too much time following his protagonist in and out of buildings as he smokes cigarettes and otherwise mopes about.
  61. The Tailor of Panama
    Like a Bach toccata or a frosty drink on a sunlit veranda, a first-class movie spy thriller can offer one of life's cooler, more elegant treats. The Tailor of Panama fits that category.
  62. Amores Perros
    A stunner: a fiercely brilliant film of such wrenching impact, nonstop drive and unpredictability that watching it becomes an exhilarating ride.
  63. Spy Kids
    A throwback to the family films of the 1970s, like one of Disney's goofy capers crossed with "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."
  64. Tomcats
    Just a schlock romance pumped with testosterone.
    • Chicago Tribune
  65. Someone Like You...
    Soft and predictable -- which might be OK if there were more laughs and insight.
    • Chicago Tribune
  66. Too Much Sleep
    No revelation, but it’s a more honorable, interesting effort than many of the crass, dopey recent big-studio schlockfests like "Say It Isn’t So" or "Tomcats" that tell similar coming-of-age tales.
  67. The Brothers
    Overall, The Brothers is glossy fun, but it should have given us more ideas and energy.
    • Chicago Tribune
  68. Heartbreakers
    Heartbreakers itself is something of a con game: an expensive imitation of older, better films from older, often better times.
    • Chicago Tribune
  69. Say It Isn't So
    Aside from providing a lesson about movies with titles that provide their own bad review, Say It Isn't So gives low humor a bad name.
  70. Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale
    It's worth seeing simply to make the acquaintance of Tobias, a really extraordinary old guy.
    • Chicago Tribune
  71. Enemy at the Gates
    A physically gorgeous production with a strong, clear conflict at its center. It's grueling but also exhilarating. Perhaps its ambitiousness is the film's biggest problem. Trying for dramatic sensitivity, historical scope, touching romance and shocking violence and suspense, it gets stretched too thin.
    • Chicago Tribune
  72. Memento
    A puzzle movie in which the puzzle is actually worth the time and effort to solve.
  73. The Dish
    The kind of movie some audiences are starved for, a comedy with a human face, warmth and spirit.
    • Chicago Tribune
  74. Kissing Jessica Stein
    Delivers that rare combination of winning traits. It's a low-key comedy with a risque hook -- a seemingly straight woman dabbles in lesbianism -- yet it maintains an old-fashioned faith in literate dialogue, believable behavior and themes that reach beyond the plot points.
  75. When Brendan Met Trudy
    This is only a movie. But a good one. May Roddy Doyle give us many more.
  76. Simon Magus
    An engaging character study, steeped in religion, demonology and community politics.
  77. 15 Minutes
    The surprise here isn't that 15 Minutes isn't a masterpiece; it's that the movie works at all.
    • Chicago Tribune
  78. The Gleaners & I
    Of all the movies I've seen in the past several years, this is one of the ones I love the most.
  79. Blow Dry
    A cute, well-acted film that tries to mix tones sharply.
    • Chicago Tribune
  80. The Caveman's Valentine
    The movie loses its magic by the time the solution is revealed.
    • Chicago Tribune
    • 55 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Series 7: The Contenders
    Series 7 does exactly what independent cinema should -- challenge audiences while it entertains.
    • Chicago Tribune
  82. Me You Them
    Manages to find the magic through its documentary style, and manages to find the erotic in the commonplace. Not since the glory days of Italian neo-realism has lust among the peasants looked so good.
  83. See Spot Run
    Give David Arquette credit. He shares nearly all his screen time in See Spot Run with a clever canine and a cute kid and still manages to pull off his usual nutty-slapstick routine with gusto.
  84. The Mexican
    Plays like a drawn-out outline of a better movie; no one got around to fleshing out the details or providing some soul.
  85. 3000 Miles to Graceland
    A mind-numbing, bloody, ridiculous experience.
    • Chicago Tribune
  86. Monkeybone
    Isn't much more creative than your average gross-out comedy.
    • Chicago Tribune
  87. Last Resort
    A film that celebrates simple human kindness. If the ending feels somewhat unsatisfying, it is perhaps because one hates to see this too-brief film end at all.
  88. The Widow of Saint-Pierre
    Has the resonance, eloquence and formal rigor of a piece of great literature.
  89. The Price of Milk
    This rich, gorgeous music and the wistful pastoral scenes create a rhapsodic mood that the rest of the film doesn't really sustain.
    • Chicago Tribune
  90. Company Man
    The political movie satire from hell.
    • Chicago Tribune
  91. Recess: School's Out
    An amusing and entertaining animated feature, and it's harmless enough for the elementary-school set.
  92. Sweet November
    Nice to look at but too calculated and clichéd to resonate beyond its surface slickness.
    • Chicago Tribune
  93. Journey to the Sun
    Though the final journey drags at times, the early expository scenes in the shadows of Saint Sophia and assorted mosques are impressive and quite moving.
  94. Saving Silverman
    The movie drags down everyone involved, regardless of their apparent talent.
    • Chicago Tribune
  95. Hannibal
    Hannibal, riding the malicious wit of Hopkins' sophisticated fiend, is a gorgeous, wild, sometimes sick thriller, a feast for enraptured eyes and strong stomachs.
    • Chicago Tribune
  96. The Taste of Others
    The storytelling is episodic, and the film takes a little while to get going, but it hits its stride.
  97. In the Mood for Love
    Shimmers and glows. But it also stings a little -- like the lovely flame that dies and the smoke that, in yet another Cole song, gets in your eyes.
    • Chicago Tribune
  98. The Invisible Circus
    When a movie is structured around the unveiling of secrets, you ought to care what the answers are. But writer-director Adam Brooks (Almost You), never offers any compelling reason to do so.
    • Chicago Tribune
  99. Nico and Dani
    While Nico and Dani presents itself as a no-frills coming-of-age tale, its soundtrack seems lifted from a teen comedy like "American Pie."
    • Chicago Tribune
  100. Head Over Heels
    This otherwise predictable romantic comedy does have several genuinely funny scenes, thanks to Monica Potter's comic delivery and charm.
    • Chicago Tribune
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