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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  1. Quadrophenia (re-release)
    Plays more like a gritty, episodic British independent film powered by a soundtrack of Who songs that illuminate the main character's turbulent emotions.
  2. Dark City
    Proyas' movie lacks a truly rich or compelling story -- although the city secret is certainly a rich and compelling idea. All too often, Dark City seems a great production design in search of a movie, an ultimate modern film noir pastiche, in which the images are so strong they overpower the drama. [27 Feb 1998]
    • Chicago Tribune
  3. The Lady in the Van
    Shepherd, apparently, was a genuine, needle-sharp wit and the way Smith plays her, the character's tart rejoinders are superhumanly perfect.
  4. Waterloo Bridge
    This one features the heartbreaking young Vivien Leigh with her flower-like face, flashing eyes and seductive fragility; Robert Taylor is a little stiff as the hero. (isn't he always?), but it's a nice lush MGM production. [31 Oct 1999, p.34]
    • Chicago Tribune
  5. Overnight
    Overnight's only narrative hole is an inability to pinpoint why Miramax stonewalled him.
  6. 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.
  7. The Grandfather
    At once proudly conservative, passionately idealistic and beautifully assured.
  8. Closed Circuit
    The satisfactions of the film are in seeing what a screen full of excellent players can do to steer you around the holes. Bana never quite seems enough to anchor a picture for me; all the same, he acquits himself sharply here.
  9. Rumble in the Bronx
    Chan is so good, so much fun to watch, that he often transcends his vehicles. And that's the case with Rumble in the Bronx, his big bid to crack the American market. [23 Feb 1996, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  10. Red Heat
    The world of his films may be violent, but Hill's vision is a delicate, subtle one-of individuals packing away the tiny bit of meaning and emotion life has granted them, and fighting to protect it at all costs. It's not a sentiment that can survive in cartoons; that it emerges at all in Red Heat is a tribute to Hill's still great talent. [17 Jun 1988, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  11. Requiem for a Dream
    Often, Requiem for a Dream is as technically inventive and daring as the Scottish heroin film "Trainspotting," but it has more resonance and feeling. And when Burstyn is on screen, it often becomes heartbreaking.
  12. Killing Them Softly
    Killing Them Softly isn't anything major. But it's a pungent minor film only vaguely resembling the one The Weinstein Co. is advertising, and that's fine with me.
  13. Patti Smith: Dream of Life
    If one thing holds the picture back, it’s the self-conscious album-cover aesthetic of Sebring’s visual approach.
  14. La Bamba
    As played by the smooth-faced, cheerful Lou Diamond Phillips, there seems to be something almost supernatural about the young man of La Bamba. He's a chosen one, and his rise to the top will be swift and smooth. If only he could shake those nightmares about a crashing plane . . . . [24 July 1987, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  15. Bowfinger
    One of the best and funniest things that Martin, as writer and actor, has ever done.
  16. The Ides of March
    I would see The Ides of March again just for the way Jeffrey Wright takes command of the screen in the secondary role of a senator who is either a cipher, a sphinx, a two-faced sphinx, a lying sack of D.C. dung or a steely man of principle.
  17. Father of the Bride
    The film's real subject is the unacknowledged intensity of the father-daughter bond and the difficulty of separation, though Shyer, true to his name, shies away from the more painful implications of the material. [20 Dec 1991, p.B]
    • Chicago Tribune
  18. De-Lovely
    Kline, though, does give one of the great movie performances of the year so far.
  19. Open Water
    A slow drip, but one all the more intense for its Gothic minimalism and its underlying parable of naturalistic determinism: It's no fun to fool with Mother Nature.
  20. A Few Good Men
    Works because it's able to draw so many side issues into its central conflict, spreading its concerns culture-wide. [11 Dec 1992]
    • Chicago Tribune
  21. The Aristocrats
    But though you'll laugh your head off, the whole film kind of morphs into a blur, with one poop/sex/abuse joke after another. It's exhausting, really. And save for the very best tellings, you do start to wonder: What's so funny?
  22. Jerry Maguire
    A hip, funny, knowing romantic sports comedy that gets a little strained when it tries to expose its heart. [13 December 1996, Friday, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  23. The Secret Agent
    This new version is quite faithful to Conrad's novel, not only in content but also in tone. [13 Dec 1996]
    • Chicago Tribune
  24. Cats Don't Dance
    Cats Don't Dance is a cinematic anomaly: an animated film that could have more appeal for adults than for children.
  25. Ocean's 11
    Frank Sinatra and his Clan knock over Vegas. [07 Dec 2001, p.C1]
    • Chicago Tribune
  26. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
    Birdman proves that a movie — the grabbiest, most kinetic film ever made about putting on a play — can soar on the wings of its own technical prowess, even as the banality of its ideas threatens to drag it back down to earth.
  27. The Lion King
    It bears repeating that The Lion King is quite entertaining as children's fare goes these days. But Disney has established a standard so high on animated features that anything less than a classic leaves you feeling that something's missing.
  28. Straight-Jacket
    A talented craftsman of dark raillery, Day and his fixation on Hollywood melodrama are indulged to delicious effect in his sophomore effort.
  29. Fear of a Black Hat
    If you are offended by jokes about sex, sex organs, sex, bodily functions, sex, the L.A. riots or sex, you should probably stay far away. But if you're up to the challenge, you should find Fear of a Black Hat to be a clever piece of work-a nasty satire with savvy and sass. [17 Jun 1994, p.J]
    • Chicago Tribune
  30. 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
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