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. Eighth Grade
    Eighth Grade works you over, audience wincing followed by audience gratification, narrative tension followed by release, crises leading to just-in-time catharsis.
  2. No Hard Feelings
    This relaxed, agreeable comedy, filmed near but not in Montauk, works because the stars make it work, and the premise — a little hoary — doesn’t sweat the logic part. Lawrence has fantastic timing and a kind of take-it-or-leave-it confidence that energizes a formulaic comedy.
  3. Tape
    Tape may not be a great movie, but it's a great demonstration of creativity within severe limitations.
  4. The Bread, My Sweet
    Exactly the sort of personalized, non-assembly line treat some audiences are always trying, in vain, to find.
  5. Ira & Abby
    The film may be slight, but it is not stupid, and director Robert Cary keeps both stickiness and shtickiness at bay.
  6. Little Buddha
    There's something ridiculous in the picture, but something sublime as well. It would be a shame to miss either, a pity not to open your eyes as well as your heart. [25 May 1994, p.1C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  7. Elvis & Nixon
    It's a small film, perhaps less ambitious or probing (even in a comic vein) than it might've been. But it's a good one, and the actors go to town without turning Elvis & Nixon into a chance meeting between an Elvis impersonator and Rich Little.
  8. Shadow of the Vampire
    His (Dafoe's) re-creation of Schreck is an Oscar-level performance, but more than that, it's an unforgettable one: great, scary, horrifically funny.
  9. Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant
    It’s the best film he’s made in years.
  10. Evelyn
    If the real-life story is genuinely inspirational, the movie stirs us as well.
  11. The Shape of Things
    LaBute never loses sight of what shape he wishes this crafty story to take. In the end, his aim is true.
  12. Fatal Attraction
    Lyne indulges in baroque touches-he is fond of open-grate elevators and water, be it rain or from faucets-but mostly he tells the story in well- tailored vignettes that range from horrifying to humorous. [21 Sep 1987, p.5]
    • Chicago Tribune
  13. Chances Are
    Though the gags make great use of embarrassment, they stop short of actively humiliating the characters, a gesture that these days counts as something fine and noble. [10 March 1989, p.E]
    • Chicago Tribune
  14. Honeydripper
    Typical of a pretty good Sayles movie. There are few, if any, heroes and villains.
  15. Cinderella
    Branagh's regular composer, Patrick Doyle, delivers a persistent dribbling stream of forgettable mood music, and that's too bad; most of the scenes are acted so well, you don't want anything competing with them.
  16. Invictus
    Damon is becoming one of the truest, most reliable actors of his generation. And Eastwood has more films in development, proving, at 79, that 79 is just a number like any other.
  17. Titanic Town
    As solid as the earth, rich as a good meal and sometimes funny as hell.
  18. Spy Game
    If you like Redford, Spy Game will be a real treat: a fast electric thriller full of the old Sundance charm and pizzazz.
  19. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
    Destined to be remembered as the one that handed the screen Harry his first kiss. Like much of the film, the smooch comes and goes briskly, without a lot of fuss.
  20. Swimming with Sharks
    There is much that is hilarious about this bleak house of horrors, based on the real-life traumas of writer-director George Huang. Most of the humor surfaces early--including a clever opening restaurant scene--as Buddy (Kevin Spacey, in a terrific performance) gives his new assistant, Guy (Frank Whaley), a harsh lesson in subjugation. [12 May 1995, p.H]
    • Chicago Tribune
  21. Bad Trip
    I hate hidden-camera gags on principle and have since “Candid Camera.” It takes something at least as funny as the first “Borat” (and, at its sharpest and sweetest, the second one), or this movie, for my jaw to unclench long enough to enjoy the brutal slapstick and the faux human misery.
  22. Nope
    The best, eeriest parts of director Jordan’s Peele’s third feature, “Nope,” are as good as anything in “Get Out” or “Us,” and they’re very different from either of those earlier triumphs of imagination. This one is a three-fifths triumph, which means whatever you want that to mean. To me, it means go.
  23. The Paradine Case
    A Selznick-produced Hitchcock: a courtroom melodrama of murder and romantic degradation for which Hitch wanted Laurence Olivier, Greta Garbo and Robert Newton, but had to settle for Gregory Peck, Alida Valli and Louis Jourdan. [26 Nov 1999, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  24. South Central
    South Central treats its violent, often melodramatic storyline with a spareness and deliberation that lends the material an unexpected, quiet power. [18 Sep 1992, p.F]
    • Chicago Tribune
  25. Born in East L.A.
    Moving away from the gag-based comedy of his films with Chong, Marin has discovered a richer humor of character and circumstance, and although old habits surface long enough to permit unfortunate lapses in continuity and consistency, he proves surprisingly adept at his new mode. [24 Aug 1987, p.C5]
    • Chicago Tribune
  26. Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
    I'm Your Man has at its spiritual center a troubadour with a distinctive, cagey mellowness about him.
  27. Bleed for This
    Don't expect miracles. Not every biopic needs to reinvent the form. Sometimes it's enough to inhabit it, engagingly.
  28. Paranormal Activity 2
    Demons of mediocrity, be gone! Here we have a shrewd sequel a touch better than the original.
  29. Parents
    A funny, funky trip through a '50s suburban subdivision. [7 Apr 1989, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  30. A Love Song for Bobby Long
    Bobby Long can enchant you. It's a film that feels lived in, confident despite its conventions.
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