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. Betsy's Wedding
    The film flies away in 50 directions, leaving only a vague, unctuous impression behind. [22 Jun 1990, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  2. Dick Tracy
    A visual delight and a dramatic letdown. [10 Jun 1990, p.4C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  3. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
    It is indeed the kind of movie - crude and anarchic, filled with shotgun satire and gross-out jokes - designed to drive parents crazy and fill adolescent hearts with joy. For unfastidious adults, too, it's a great time at the movies, maniacally and often breathtakingly funny. [15 Jun 1990, p.B]
    • Chicago Tribune
  4. Another 48 Hrs.
    This is a generic action picture. What also is missing are scenes in which Nolte and Murphy could relate to each other quietly and with some wit. [8 Jun 1990, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  5. Total Recall
    From first to last frame, Total Recall is in your face. Its rather elegant little science-fiction story is as suffocated as the Martians are. The director has violated his own movie, going so far over the top he's still out there-weightless. [1 June 1990, Friday, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  6. Back to the Future Part III
    Part III has the more adult emotions of the original, and with the presence of Steenburgen it recalls the quality of her other fine time-travel romance, "Time After Time." [25 May 1990, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  7. Cadillac Man
    Though there is an artist's instinct behind Cadillac Man-an instinct that does surface here and there, with a particularly piercing line of dialogue or powerful gesture-it`s quickly blotted out by the Williams formula.
  8. Bird on a Wire
    Crass, shoddy and crudely exploitative of the public's worst instincts, John Badham's Bird on a Wire reflects just about everything that's wrong with American movies right now.
  9. Class of 1999
    The violence of Class of 1999 is so extreme, so redundant and so meaningless that Lester ends by nullifying his own message - it seems that brutality in the name of law and order is wrong, but that brutality in the name of entertainment is just fine. [11 May 1990, p.E]
    • Chicago Tribune
  10. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
    It's a movie that's too naive to be pornography and too callous to be art. [25 May 1990]
    • Chicago Tribune
  11. Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
    The film's rhythm is sluggish, with gore strategically placed in case the audience nods off. [08 May 1990, p.3C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  12. Last Exit to Brooklyn
    Credit for the triumph of this picture must go to West German director Uli Edel, who works on a canvas as large as Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America. [11 May 1990, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  13. Wild Orchid
    The silliness still outweighs the steaminess. [1 May 1990, p.2]
    • Chicago Tribune
  14. The Guardian
    The film becomes far too explicit much too quickly, as if Friedkin, frustrated by his inability to build a genuine suspense, had decided to move to the main course as quickly as possible. [27 Apr 1990, p.B]
    • Chicago Tribune
  15. Q & A
    Watching the systemized corruption of Q&A is like watching a traffic accident in slow motion: You can't take your eyes away from the broken bodies and spirits.[27 Apr 1990, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  16. Spaced Invaders
    With its old-timey special effects, multiple plots and silly humor, it scampers through its 102 minutes untethered to the demands of strict logic, continuity or character development. This film is just out to have a good time. Often, it succeeds. [27 Apr 1990, p.D]
    • Chicago Tribune
  17. Miami Blues
    A brilliant comeback by a filmmaker, George Armitage, who never should have been away.
  18. Lisa
    A scintillating thriller in which writer/director Gary Sherman takes some familiar sitcom elements and force-marches them in an unexpected and terrifying direction. [11 May 1990, p.D]
    • Chicago Tribune
  19. Crazy People
    It's the premise of Crazy People that what the American public really responds to in advertising is absolute honesty. If that were true, then the ads for the film would proudly point out that "Crazy People" is cloying, derivative and never more than mildly funny. [11 Apr 1990, p.2C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  20. The Gods Must Be Crazy II
    Whereas the original film had a grain of originality and social commentary in its story of what happens because of the surprise appearance of a Coca-Cola bottle, the new picture offers only tired jokes. [13 Apr 1990, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  21. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
    Greenaway's regard is certainly unblinking, though it's hard to see where the seriousness and compassion come in. The thematic oppositions are primitive and are not fleshed out by the characters, who remain flat and puppetlike. [6 Apr 1990, p.G2]
    • Chicago Tribune
  22. Ernest Goes to Jail
    Ernest movies would still seem to be an acquired taste, but this one affords the adult viewer a few unexpected pleasures.
  23. The First Power
    The First Power is nowhere above average for the genre, and frequently far beneath it. [09 Apr 1990, p.2C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  24. Cry-Baby
    Cry-Baby doesn`t have a subject, but only a format-a rickety framework erected to suport a few broad gags and a few indifferently filmed production numbers.
  25. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    Barron concentrates on keeping the action moving at a brisk clip, drawing on his music video experience to serve up an entertaining series of odd camera angles, gratuitous camera movements and complicated lighting schemes. The results are lively and funny enough to keep adults enthralled as well as kids.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Side Out
    There are few sports the movies haven't tackled. Side Out (1991) found one: volleyball. Thirtysomething star Peter Horton brings his shaggy dog sincerity to his role as Zack, the former king of the beach who gets a chance at redemption when he becomes mentor to C. Thomas Howell. [17 Sep 1991, p.3C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  27. Pretty Woman
    It sounds like standard Cinderella stuff (and the script comes complete with plenty of allusions to princesses in towers), but it's played here with an emphasis on possessions and possessing that borders on the obscene… It's a pretty ugly movie. [23 Mar 1990, Friday, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  28. The Fourth War
    Part philosophical dialogue, part macho thriller, John Frankenheimer's The Fourth War never really finds its identity as a movie. [23 Mar 1990, p.O]
    • Chicago Tribune
  29. A Shock to the System
    An ambitious screenplay (by Andrew Klavan) is done in by wavering direction (by Jan Egleson) in A Shock to the System, an independent feature that is still worth seeing for its well-chosen cast of medium-priced performers, including Michael Caine, Elizabeth McGovern, Peter Riegert, Swoosie Kurtz and Will Patton. [23 Mar 1990, p.H]
    • Chicago Tribune
  30. Blue Steel
    The sole curiosity in Blue Steel is the sight of Jamie Lee Curtis in cop`s uniform. There is nothing more to it than that-no tension, no character.
  31. Lord of the Flies
    The tale, while oversimplified, is told with visual style, particularly in the use of the boys' dream sequences, having to do with rescue and the comfort of adult authority. [16 Mar 1990, p.F]
    • Chicago Tribune
  32. House Party
    House Party aims for the mainstream and hits it- perhaps too often.
  33. Joe Versus the Volcano
    The film works best once Hanks gets to the island along with love interest Meg Ryan. But it takes too long to get there. A fresh but needlessly drawn-out story. [9 March 1990, p.C2]
    • Chicago Tribune
  34. Bad Influence
    The main performances are fine; it's the script that's cheap. [09 Mar 1990, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  35. The Handmaid's Tale
    The film is madly, compulsively overcontrolled, from its funereal pacing to its pristine red, white and blue color scheme; those moments when it loses its dignity are irresistibly comic, and in this grim context, infinitely precious.[16 Mar 1990, p.B]
    • Chicago Tribune
  36. The Hunt for Red October
    An idealized, dreamy fantasy of life in the business world-harmless as airplane reading, a bit dull on the big screen. [2 Mar 1990, Friday, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  37. Cinema Paradiso
    A few moments of sly inspiration are not enough to carry an entire feature; along with the tears, it leaves behind an aftertaste of phoniness. [16 March 1990, Friday, p.H]
    • Chicago Tribune
  38. Nightbreed
    Barker unleashes the full force of his special effects crew and the movie implodes in a cataclysm of jelly-fleshed creepy-crawlies. It simply loses its grip. [17 Feb 1990, p.3C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  39. Glory
    Glory has a genuine moral basis, and it makes all the difference in the world. [12 Jan 1990, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  40. Revenge
    It's corny, cussed and carnal.
  41. Madhouse
    In Madhouse, writer-director Tom Ropelewski doesn't so much serve up an idea as force-feed it down our gullets. It takes a game bird to sit through the entire movie. [16 Feb 1990, p.K]
    • Chicago Tribune
    • 45 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Stella
    Stella is a mother-daughter, best friend, Mom-must-sacrifice-all movie that will surely force a good many members of the audience to weep, sob, bawl, blubber, whimper, lament and/or shed a few tears. Yes, folks, this one's a bit lugubrious. [9 Feb 1990, p.J]
    • Chicago Tribune
  43. Tremors
    While liberally dosing the action with humor, Underwood is able to preserve an undertone of genuine menace and substantial suspense. His shooting style is clean and classical, distinguished by camera movements that emphasize the line of the action without becoming conspicuous in themselves.
  44. Internal Affairs
    Figgis (Stormy Monday), here making his American debut, doesn't possess the tight control necessary to really charge up the material. The result is a stylish but oddly slack film, which still features a couple of fine performances (from Andy Garcia and Laurie Metcalf) and a few effectively perverse moments.
  45. Ski Patrol
    A most unfunny comedy about hijinks on the slopes, featuring a short ski patrol leader, a flatulent dog, assorted cutups and a stereotypical black patrol member who sings and dances a lot more than he skis. [19 Jan 1990, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  46. The Plot Against Harry
    Roemer's comic style draws brilliantly on the '60s vein of twitchy psychological realism first explored by Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and his humor is backed by a fine eye for sociological detail. [16 Feb 1990, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  47. Sidewalk Stories
    Too sympathetic to really dislike, but too benign to leave an impression. [05 Jan 1990, p.G7]
    • Chicago Tribune
  48. Akira
    Akira remains the work of a cartoonist, rather than a born animator: Too much of the movie is played out in the static frames of a comic strip, and when movement is used it isn't to define character (as in Disney) or establish a rhythm (as in the Warner cartoons) but simply for its physical impact. Pounding away, it becomes monotonous. [30 Mar 1990, p.D]
    • Chicago Tribune
  49. Always
    It's the film in which an entertainer at last becomes an artist, dealing with manifestly personal, painful emotions and casting them in a form that gives them philosophical perspective and universal affect. It's Spielberg's finest achievement, a film that will look better and better with the passage of time. [22 Dec. 1989]
    • Chicago Tribune
  50. Tango & Cash
    The jokes seem lame and the rivalry fraudulent, as the two boys play with their big guns.
  51. Born on the Fourth of July
    for all its flaws, Born on the Fourth of July provides the final proof that Tom Cruise is the real thing-a movie star with all the natural, unforced ability to connect with an audience that the title implies. [20 Dec 1989, p.1]
    • Chicago Tribune
  52. Roger & Me
    It's very funny, and at times exhilaratingly so. But when real life tragedy is used as a basis for movie comedy, some consideration of responsibility has to enter the equation.
  53. We're No Angels
    We're No Angels is a small, quiet film trapped inside a big, noisy one; no longer a tale of transcendence, its a sad lesson in the weight of Hollywood machinery. [15 Dec 1989, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  54. The Wizard
    A feature-length commercial for the Nintendo electronic games system, so thinly disguised that it wouldn't even fool a Reagan-appointed FCC commissioner. [15 Dec 1989, p.G]
    • Chicago Tribune
  55. Family Business
    The film doesn't move to a satisfactory conclusion as much as it fizzles out in a series of protracted anti-climaxes. [15 Dec 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  56. Blaze
    Blaze is a high-spirited, though slightly botched follow-up to Shelton's appealing Bull Durham of 1988, drawing on the same combination of enthusiastic heterosexuality and cozy male bonding. Politics here takes the place of baseball in the earlier film: another all-American team sport, with its veterans and rookies, official rules and unspoken scams, high idealism and casual corruption. [13 Dec 1989, p.1C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  57. She-Devil
    This has to be one of the greatest casting coups and consequently blown opportunities of recent years...Streep isn't that funny in what is a frivolous role, and Barr is only mildly successful in her angry moments. [8 Dec 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  58. The War of the Roses
    It can't be easy to keep a comedy on track when the underlying emotions are so vicious, and indeed DeVito's staging slips more than once -- too realistic here, too broad there -- resulting in a film that is at least as often funny-peculiar as it is funny-haha. [8 Dec 1989]
    • Chicago Tribune
  59. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
    The third and easily the worst in the series of hapless adventures of the Griswold family of suburban Chicago. [1 Dec 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  60. Back to the Future Part II
    A movie that must spend most of its running time explaining its hopelessly complicated premises, which leaves very little room for anything much to happen. [22 Nov 1989, p.C1]
    • Chicago Tribune
  61. Valmont
    Valmont is a superb piece of craftsmanship, impeccable in every detail from lighting to costuming, but as a work of art it remains tentative and blurred. [17 Nov 1989]
    • Chicago Tribune
  62. Harlem Nights
    In Harlem Nights, Eddie Murphy continues his one-man war against the female gender. Those women he doesn't kill outright are punched, maimed and slugged with garbage cans. But apparently they deserve it-there isn't a single female character in the film who isn't a prostitute. [17 Nov 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  63. All Dogs Go to Heaven
    Charlie, who owes an obvious debt to Chuck Jones' Wile E. Coyote, comes equipped with one of the most expressive faces in cartoon history: Bluth keeps his features-ears, snout, mouth, eyes-in constant flux, a beautiful blend of line and volume that represents the pinnacle of the animator's art. [17 Nov 1989]
    • Chicago Tribune
  64. The Little Mermaid
    It may not be a transcendent masterpiece of the Disney canon, but The Little Mermaid is still very heartening: It suggests the Disney magic isn't lost after all.
  65. My Left Foot
    My Left Foot celebrates the nurturing, healing power of the family unit while avoiding every cliche about the disabled. [2 Feb 1990, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  66. Dad
    It's a deeply, creepily dishonest piece of work. [27 Oct 1989, p.G]
    • Chicago Tribune
  67. Henry V
    There is a great deal of value in Branagh's version, not least in his own lead performance as a soft, indefinite Henry who defines himself over the course of the play. [15 Dec 1989]
    • Chicago Tribune
    • 53 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Next of Kin
    This one is a winner. [27 Oct 1989, p.F]
    • Chicago Tribune
  69. Fat Man and Little Boy
    Fat Man and Little Boy tries to cover too much territory by introducing corny romantic subplots involving Oppenheimer's mistress and a relationship between a young scientist (John Cusack) and a nurse (Laura Dern). These awkwardly written sequences remind us that we are watching a conventional movie and destroy any documentarylike reality. [20 Oct 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  70. Look Who's Talking
    Though the film has a plot a simpleton could follow, its hallmark is confusion. Its sense of time and place and its point of view are muddled. [13 Oct 1989, p.L]
    • Chicago Tribune
  71. The Fabulous Baker Boys
    Smooth and smoky, The Fabulous Baker Boys is an impressive debut for Kloves; he's a filmmaker who will be heard from. [13 Oct 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  72. Drugstore Cowboy
    A study of junkie culture from the inside (not a fashionable point of view these days), Drugstore Cowboy is funny, depressive and strangely noble, often all at once. [27 Oct 1989]
    • Chicago Tribune
  73. An Innocent Man
    This 1989 movie looks much of the time like an old idea that's been too enthusiastically colorized. The prison sequences work best, and they seem almost like a completely separate film.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 88 Critic Score
    Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser
    Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser is quite probably the finest documentary about jazz ever made. [08 Dec 1989, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  75. 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
  76. Black Rain
    Director Ridley Scott's Black Rain belongs to the blunt instrument school of filmmaking. This cop thriller, set largely in Osaka, Japan, is so full of screeching tires, flashing neon and extravagant violence that it's almost physically painful to watch, yet that seems to be the effect the director had in mind. If you smack the audience around enough, you'll be respected for your power.
  77. A Dry White Season
    This is filmmaking meant to engage the heart-and other visceral organs-more than the mind; its effects are simple, broad and directly put.
  78. Sea of Love
    Both Pacino and Barkin are quite good playing battle-scarred veterans of mature relationships. Just like New Yorkers who lock their doors, these two characters have locked their hearts. This is Pacino's quietest and best performance since The Godfather Part Two. Credit director Harold Becker for helping to keep Pacino from spitting his way through another role.
  79. The Big Picture
    One of the smartest and funniest films of the year, at least for those who care about its subject. Every regular filmgoer should. Through the story of a talented but naive film school graduate (Kevin Bacon`s Nick Chapman) who suddenly becomes the hottest property in Hollywood, Guest assembles a deadly accurate sociology of the contemporary film industry-and its accuracy makes The Big Picture both hilarious and terrifying.
  80. Sweetie
    One of the freshest, most exciting first features to appear in a very long time. [19 May 1989, p.1]
    • Chicago Tribune
  81. Shirley Valentine
    They trusted their property and, while it may not win them awards for special effects, or a cult following, their trust has paid off in a comedy of cozy appeal.
  82. The Package
    Jones does a very good job as the cynical mercenary; Hackman's role doesn't give him enough real moments to make the story credible. [25 Aug 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
    • 26 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Millennium
    Millennium is a throwback to 1950s, B-grade science fiction movies in which the love story and the concepts had to cover for special effects that weren't too special. [30 Aug 1989, p.3C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  84. Let It Ride
    Let It Ride looks like it was vastly overshot and overwritten, then whittled down to something which resembles a movie but is really a long commercial for the joys of the racetrack. [22 Aug 1989]
    • Chicago Tribune
  85. Casualties of War
    DePalma`s camera is relatively restrained-for him-and the result is a small movie that looks more like an outdoor stage play than an exercise in freewheeling combat. Penn`s performance has resonances of Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro in their Vietnam films; Fox gains credibility as the movie progresses.
  86. Uncle Buck
    As long as Hughes is content to provide a simple, flexible format for Candy, Uncle Buck is very entertaining. Hughes seems to have relaxed his usual controlling, compulsively tidy style, taking full advantage of the improvisational talents of his star.
  87. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
    Using a style heavily indebted to music videos - lots of fast cutting, odd angles and gratuitous camera movements - Hopkins keeps the energy level up, though his manner is a bit too choppy to keep all of the diverse elements together. [11 Aug 1989, p.B]
    • Chicago Tribune
  88. The Abyss
    The Abyss is at its best during such moments of reverie-when the abstract metaphors and the unique physicality of the deep sea setting come together to produce powerful, unvoiced meanings. The film does have its beckoning depths; what it needs is a more polished surface. [9 Aug 1989, Tempo, p.1]
    • Chicago Tribune
  89. sex, lies, and videotape
    Sex, lies, and videotape discovers a distinctive, laconic rhythm right from the start, thanks to Soderbergh's taste for holding his shots just a bit longer than conventional, slick editing technique would allow. [11 Aug 1989, Friday, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  90. Parenthood
    Ron Howard's first-rate dramatic comedy Parenthood, with Steve Martin headlining a first-rate cast in a most clever script about the joy and pain of being both a parent and a child. [4 Aug 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  91. Turner & Hooch
    Imagine "Twins" with the Danny DeVito part played by a dog, or "Lethal Weapon" with the mastiff standing in for Mel Gibson. [28 July 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  92. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
    It seems that as long as Jason can keep his costs down-by hiring unknown young actors, desperate for any kind of a break, and hiring directors (Rob Hedden this time) straight out of television or film school-he`ll be with us forever. Conveniently devoid of any personality (a variety of anonymous stunt men have filled the role over the years), he`s as infinitely reproducible as one of Warhol`s soup cans, though considerably less expressive. [31 July 1989, p.C3]
    • Chicago Tribune
  93. UHF
    Viewing UHF may be injurious to your sense of humor. Rarely has a comedy tried so hard and failed so often to be funny. [21 Jul 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  94. Shag
    Shag still has its pleasures, though they're mostly among the casting. Annabeth Gish, as the shy Pudge, remains one of the most refreshingly natural performers in American films; a master of understatement, she scales down her gestures and reactions in a way that draws the camera to her, never asking for attention but quietly commanding it. [21 July 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  95. Licence to Kill
    If Licence to Kill has one of Bond`s best heavies, it also has one of his best heroines in Carey Lowell, a strapping brunet who plays an ex-Army pilot reluctantly enrolled on Bond`s side. Lowell`s line readings may be only adequate, but she moves with the grace and vigor an action movie needs.
  96. When Harry Met Sally...
    From his long experience in television, [Reiner] has learned how to create characters with just enough depth to hold together but not so much that they become too individualized, too stubbornly complex. [12 July 1989, Tempo, p.1]
    • Chicago Tribune
  97. Lethal Weapon 2
    Yet another disappointing summer sequel, Lethal Weapon 2, with Danny Glover and Mel Gibson reprising their cop-buddy roles in pursuit of South African drug lords. [7 Jul 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  98. Do the Right Thing
    This is a sumptuous work, from its unconventional title sequence of a woman dancing hard in the streets to its provocative ending with conflicting quotes from Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr .[30 June 1989, Friday, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  99. The Karate Kid Part III
    Perhaps the series is simply getting cynical and tired.
  100. Great Balls of Fire!
    What's missing most conspicuously from Great Balls of Fire is an interest in the historical and cultural context that made Lewis' career possible - that moment when a dying rural tradition intersected with a booming urban economy to create a whole new kind of music and with it, a whole new America. McBride treats the '50s as a joke - a montage of "Leave It to Beaver" complacency and H-bomb panic. The truth is more complex than that, and a better story. [30 June 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
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