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 1.4 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: 5,106 out of 7601
  2. Mixed: 1,473 out of 7601
  3. Negative: 1,022 out of 7601
7601 movie reviews
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    • 44 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Rush Hour 3
    Rush Hour 3 is DOA.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    The Final Season
    Viewers who don’t flee the intrusively uplifting soundtrack and choking sentiment get just what that opening promised: a by-the-numbers, based-in-reality inspirational sports movie, thick with overwhelming pride and nostalgia for small-town farmland America.
  3. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
    The result is a weak "Carrie" versus Jason finale after Jason has impaled about eight young people, mostly women. The filmmakers have mastered the blood but not the tedium of all of the predictable killings. Nor have they eliminated the "hate-women" subtext to the entire series of films. [20 May 1988, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  4. Argylle
    It’s lousy, and a frantic bore, squandering its on-screen talent and making bland visual hash of its preening, recreational slaughter.
  5. 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.
  6. Poltergeist II: The Other Side
    Poltergeist II offers no fresh hooting interest. To put it simply, there is nothing to like about Poltergeist II.
  7. Aspen Extreme
    The whole movie seems designed to point out that there are far better things in life than being a ski instructor in Aspen, Colo.
  8. Swing Kids
    None of the characters has been written with any personality, and none of the actors succeeds in discovering any. [05 Mar 1993]
    • Chicago Tribune
  9. The Muppet Christmas Carol
    A talky, plodding film that seems likely to bore children and adults in equal measure. [11 Dec 1992, p.B2]
    • Chicago Tribune
  10. Wish Upon
    Wish Upon isn't over-the-top wacky or campy, and in fact, feels slightly low-energy at times, but it's the kind of simple filmmaking coupled with absolutely insane writing and plot points that make it an ideal candidate for so-bad-it's-good viewing.
  11. The Next Karate Kid
    It should be obvious to anyone at this point in time that Kid is getting a little long in the tooth. As Miyagi might say: Those who keep milking same idea . . . end up killing cash cow.
  12. 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.
  13. Kalifornia
    Kalifornia is that deadliest of combinations: a pretentious B movie. It repeatedly smacks the viewer in the face and then pretends that it has some intellectual reason for doing so. [03 Sep 1993]
    • Chicago Tribune
  14. Transylvania 6-5000
    DeLuca is not a director. And he isn`t much of a solo writer either. Maybe 1 percent of his gags work.
  15. The Bonfire of the Vanities
    With its general spirit of tabloid scandalmongering and frequent cutaways to an oddly enhanced Melanie Griffith in scanty panties, the point of reference seems less Victorian fiction than Victoria's Secret.
  16. The Loss of Sexual Innocence
    With The Loss of Sexual Innocence, director Mike Figgis reaches an almost comical low in the pursuit of what appears to be a desperate need to express deeper, uh, depth. Figgis' deliberate obfuscation may delight him, but it leaves the viewer mystified and bitter. [18 Jun 1999]
    • Chicago Tribune
  17. Elektra
    Devotees of awful filmmaking can't go wrong with this one.
  18. Waiting...
    Could have been a funny movie. There are a few truths about food-service that McKittrick gets right but doesn't fully exploit.
  19. Basic Instinct
    Verhoeven does not explore the dark side, but merely exploits it, and that makes all the difference in the world.
  20. Reform School Girls
    The performers never find the right spin on the dialogue, and DeSimone never finds the right rhythm in his pacing, to make these deliberate cliches take off into comedy. A stodgy literalness in DeSimone`s approach suffocates the joke.
  21. Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach
    Comedy doesn't have to be refined or original to be entertaining, but it ought to have a little flair. The gags of this "Academy" are blunt and literal, delivered without the careful set-ups or rhythms that, in the hands of a Laurel and Hardy, can make physical comedy into its own kind of poetry. [22 Mar 1988, p.C3]
    • Chicago Tribune
  22. The Identical
    Playing the title role as well as the Dream role, real-life Elvis tribute artist Blake Rayne is more convincing when he's singing than when he isn't. But he has little to explore beyond bashful smiles.
  23. Russkies
    Its message is that if we get to know each other, everything will be okay. Admirable, that. But the way in which it is delivered is so hampered by stereotypes and lathered in cute that one is never able to trust its intentions or swallow its story. [06 Nov 1987, p.56C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  24. Summer School
    It has a lack of ambition and energy that is almost total: It's the most this movie can do to roll over and ask for a little more lotion on its back. [22 July 1987]
    • Chicago Tribune
  25. Jake Speed
    Jake Speed isn't a movie. It's just a financial deal.
  26. Extremities
    Fawcett isn`t half bad--she works hard and doesn`t commit any egregious technical faults--but she doesn`t have the resources to give her slimly written character a sufficiently commanding inner life, and it`s difficult to get beyond her sunny, fashion-model good looks. It`s another sad case of the clown who wanted to play Hamlet.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Room
    Williams does a fine job with her role. I was pulling for her throughout her dreary journey. It's too bad it didn't get anywhere.
  28. Waking Up in Reno
    Its jokes aren't funny. Its sloppy direction comes courtesy of Jordan Brady, who made "The Third Wheel," another reportedly failed comedy gathering cobwebs at Miramax.
  29. Mac and Me
    Raffill and Steve Feke take credit for the original screenplay, though Steven Spielberg might have a different opinion. [15 Aug 1988, p.2]
    • Chicago Tribune
    • 45 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
    Morgan Spurlock is a living, breathing cautionary tale. Take a good, long look, kids: This is what happens when society validates really annoying people.
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