Chicago Tribune's Scores

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For 7,609 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 1.5 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: 5,113 out of 7609
  2. Mixed: 1,474 out of 7609
  3. Negative: 1,022 out of 7609
7609 movie reviews
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  1. Shrek 2
    Shrek is something of a poignant hero here and not terribly ogre-like; Myers obviously wasn't being paid per giggle generated. Diaz's Fiona feels increasingly fleshed out, while the "annoying talking animals" provide most of the laughs.
  2. The Fountain
    It's possible to admire or respect a movie without enjoying it too much, and that's partly the reaction I had to Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. It's an incredibly ambitious film of sometimes thrilling visual achievement, but it didn't connect fully to my mind and nerves.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Wristcutters: A Love Story
    Quite a bit darker than most mainstream romantic comedies. As you might not expect, it’s also quite a bit more inventive and far wittier than most mainstream romantic comedies.
  4. The River
    The River is nothing more than a conventional, albeit pretty, melodrama. [11 Jan 1985, p.4N]
    • Chicago Tribune
  5. Need For Speed
    When the actors are in cars, the movie's fun. When they get out to argue, or seethe, it's uh-oh time. Happily, director Scott Waugh comes out of the stunt world himself, and there's a refreshing emphasis on actual, theoretically dangerous stunt driving over digital absurdities.
  6. Dean
    Martin's a smooth enough director to make fuller and more ambitious pictures than Dean. This one's a promising start.
  7. Beaches
    I heard some sniffling among some audience members, but the story goes for one situation that is guaranteed to produce sympathy. Aside from that, we never accept Midler in her relationship with John Heard. Only her occasional singing redeems an otherwise emotional roller coaster that travels in slow motion. Barbara Hershey is wasted in a boring role.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Return to Me
    These characters deserve more than storybook plotting, as do we. The movie has won our hearts. It shouldn't be so timid about challenging our minds.
  9. San Andreas
    I enjoyed large chunks of San Andreas, largely because the actors give it a full load of sincerity, and there's some bizarrely effective comic relief thanks to Hugo Johnstone-Burt and Art Parkinson as Brits who picked the wrong week to visit the Bay Area.
  10. Street Fighter
    It is beautifully shot and the production design is first-rate. Another strong point is the presence of some excellent actors in small roles. Unfortunately, they all have to work opposite Van Damme, who keeps trying to be witty and smart, but still comes across as a bit of a lunk.
  11. Robin Hood
    While it plays fast and loose with loaded political iconography, this Robin Hood brings a whole new dimension to this age-old tale.
  12. Out of the Furnace
    Affleck, in particular, finds something fierce and noble in uneven material and in his character's rage. He's not like any other actor in American movies.
  13. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
    Despite my McConaughey resistance I got more guilty chuckles from Ghosts of Girlfriends Past than "Failure to Launch" or "Four Christmases."
  14. The Eagle
    The Eagle becomes more interesting the further north it travels.
  15. Levity
    A film of almost paralyzing gravity and large ambitions that, almost inevitably, it can't quite meet.
  16. Steal This Movie
    Feels more like a music video than a serious look back at a time, a place and a very smart, funny and unconventional man.
  17. Young Adult
    Cody would likely acknowledge she's working through her own contradictory feelings toward her protagonist - and that she may have been a draft or two away from shaping those feelings into a terrific black comedy, rather than a pretty interesting one.
  18. Swing Vote
    This one may be soft and derivative. But the actors establish a groove and stay on-message.
  19. Funny People
    50 percent good and 50 percent close.
  20. Maleficent
    This is almost entirely Angelina Jolie's show...this is a performance that goes from point A to point B without seeming rote, or ho-hum.
  21. Injeong sajeong bol geot eobtda
    A flashy, splashy and violent chase thriller.
  22. The Singing Detective
    Despite intelligent, sympathetic direction by Gordon, a brilliant lead performance by Robert Downey Jr. and an adapted script written by Potter himself before his 1991 death, this "Detective" pales next to its predecessor.
  23. Year One
    It's the knockabout biblical lark Mel Brooks never got around to making.
  24. Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
    Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead is surprisingly authentic and fun for this kind of nostalgia-baiting remake material, which is naturally formulaic. It’s the focus on character and allowing the actors to shine that makes this one sing, and it should make a star out of Jones, who, like her character, manages to hold it all together.
  25. Cradle Will Rock
    Cradle Will Rock is the masterpiece that wasn't, a magnificent opportunity blown to hell.
    • Chicago Tribune
  26. The Architect
    It's a fairly well-written piece and an even better acted one. And these days, when independent films are increasingly the salvation of the serious American dramatic movie, it's heartening to see something like The Architect, which tries to reawaken a major American dramatic tradition and sometimes succeeds.
  27. Chi-Raq
    If Chi-Raq disarms even a small percentage of those who see it, and provokes any reflection about a gun culture, the uses of satire and the plight of a sadly emblematic city, it was worth the effort. However mixed-up the results.
  28. Agnes of God
    What`s lacking is a clear conception on Jewison`s part as to what this film is about.
  29. Noah
    Neither fish nor fowl, neither foul nor inspiring, director and co-writer Darren Aronofsky's strange and often rich new movie Noah has enough actual filmmaking to its name to deserve better handling than a plainly nervous Paramount Pictures has given it.
  30. Racing Stripes
    Endearing but predictable.
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