Chicago Tribune's Scores

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For 7,603 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 1.4 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: 5,107 out of 7603
  2. Mixed: 1,474 out of 7603
  3. Negative: 1,022 out of 7603
7603 movie reviews
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  1. Christmas in the Clouds
    I won't pretend there aren't moments of sweetness here--there are, aplenty. But the promise of true emotion goes bust with bad acting, cheap writing and false sentiment.
  2. Bamboozled
    Starts out hilarious and then turns very, very grim.
    • Chicago Tribune
  3. Doc Hollywood
    Director Caton-Jones has given the film a few moments of charm and gentleness, though the movie would be a lot more beguiling if it weren't so sure of itself. Its charm has the practiced, impersonal touch of the professional salesman.
  4. Hereafter
    Morgan and Eastwood are scrupulous in keeping their notions of the afterlife as general and inoffensive as possible. They have no religious or spiritual worldview to sell. As I say: Many admire this film to no end. I found its use of recent tragic events, including the London underground bombing, to be more than a little cheap.
  5. The Croods: A New Age
    Because the movie starts at an 11 and doesn’t let up, the runtime feels overly long. However, the voice performances are excellent, especially Cage, who brings his signature sense of yearning pathos to Grug the Neanderthal.
  6. Death Becomes Her
    Insistently grotesque, relentlessly misanthropic and spectacularly tasteless, Death Becomes Her isn't a film designed to win the hearts of the mass moviegoing public. But it is diabolically inventive and very, very funny.
  7. The Minus Man
    Minimalism be damned; even a postmodern noir needs more than Minus Man gives us. So do the actors.
  8. Phone Booth
    A lean, mean tension machine, setting up its premise, executing it with smarts, throwing in enough twists to keep things interesting, and wrapping it up before anyone can get fatigued or reflective. It's on the money.
  9. The Ladykillers
    Done with an enticing mixture of lacerating comedy, lush Roger Deakins cinematography, robust acting and juicy lines, the Coens' Ladykillers is often glorious fun to watch. It won't please everyone, of course.
  10. Troy
    In a league with Hollywood's top historical epics, ancient or otherwise. It's stunningly handsome film, with an equally stunning cast and engrossing story.
  11. Men of Honor
    Inspirational biographical movie that really works.
  12. Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
    Meadows clearly has a flair for working with actors and for depicting the rough-and-tumble of ordinary provincial lives. If he could go just a bit deeper, the truly great Midlands movie just might surface.
  13. Fast X
    My affection for a lot of the earlier F&F movies has everything to do with the people on the screen, and the squealing of the tires. Not so much the world destruction. Outlandish mayhem needs better visual stylists than Leterrier.
  14. 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.
  15. Throw Momma from the Train
    A comedy with a curious tone of depressive whimsy. It manages, somehow, to be both aggressively cute and oppressively sordid. [11 Dec 1987, p.G]
    • Chicago Tribune
  16. Touch
    It may be a bit enigmatic and cerebral for some tastes, but if you don't mind your spirituality being served from a cracked chalice, you may find Touch is exactly what you've been seeking. [14 Feb 1997, p.G]
    • Chicago Tribune
  17. Bottle Shock
    Wine may be sunlight held together by water, as Galileo said, but Bottle Shock is held together only by Alan Rickman.
  18. 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
  19. Pretty in Pink
    What we have here is a much less radical movie than writer Hughes probably believes he has created. Yes, he's given us an individualistic girl, but she swoons like a robot after the first reasonably human WASP or WASC asks her for a date. [2 Feb 1986]
    • Chicago Tribune
  20. December Boys
    Juvenile viewers may well benefit from the movie. But, for the adult, it’s ultimately a film that arrives too early for the season in its title and too late in terms of style and impact.
  21. Then She Found Me
    A strength of Then She Found Me, from Elinor Lipman's novel, is its straightforward, uncomplicated storytelling that keeps the threads untangled and blends the everyday and the absurd with natural ease.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Sangre De Mi Sangre
    The acting is impeccable, with Hernandez radiating an air of sleazy charm and Ochoa doing terrific work as a bitter man who's just lonely enough to have chinks in his well-developed armor.
  23. Ghostbusters II
    The film gets by on the sheer good-naturedness Reitman is able to place in all of his efforts, though it doesn't seem likely to inspire the same level of affection as the original. Innocence is one quality that can never quite be recaptured. [16 Jun 1989, p.28]
    • Chicago Tribune
  24. The Running Man
    Wright makes the argument that in such a dystopian, fascist state, there are only a few things that will save us: class solidarity, physical media and literacy. It’s a powerful and potent message that cuts through any and all of the bombastic busyness of The Running Man.
  25. Dinner for Schmucks
    A remake for schlemiels, or at least easy marks when it comes to formulaic Hollywood comedy. But the film's peculiar sluggishness and nagging hypocrisy probably won't get in the way of its popularity.
  26. Dinosaur
    Of course, you expect talking animals in a Disney cartoon; you just may not initially realize that Dinosaur is the three-dimensional equivalent of one.
    • Chicago Tribune
  27. The Recruit
    It suddenly morphs into one more overly slick, empty show.
  28. The Cable Guy
    If nothing else, The Cable Guy will make you think twice before trying to pick up a free movie channel. [14 June 1996, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  29. Alive
    Alive represents one of Hollywood's increasingly rare attempts to create a religious drama, but that novelty aside, the film is stiff, overlong and frequently risible. [15 Jan 1993, p.F]
    • Chicago Tribune
  30. Joy
    Lawrence is very good in the role, as far as the role goes. But the script never jells; the comedy feels forced and mechanically boisterous, particularly in the crucial early passages.
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