Chicago Tribune's Scores

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For 7,599 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: 5,104 out of 7599
  2. Mixed: 1,473 out of 7599
  3. Negative: 1,022 out of 7599
7599 movie reviews
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  1. Ernest Goes to Jail
    Ernest movies would still seem to be an acquired taste, but this one affords the adult viewer a few unexpected pleasures.
  2. The First Power
    The First Power is nowhere above average for the genre, and frequently far beneath it. [09 Apr 1990, p.2C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  3. Cry-Baby
    Cry-Baby doesn`t have a subject, but only a format-a rickety framework erected to suport a few broad gags and a few indifferently filmed production numbers.
  4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    Barron concentrates on keeping the action moving at a brisk clip, drawing on his music video experience to serve up an entertaining series of odd camera angles, gratuitous camera movements and complicated lighting schemes. The results are lively and funny enough to keep adults enthralled as well as kids.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Side Out
    There are few sports the movies haven't tackled. Side Out (1991) found one: volleyball. Thirtysomething star Peter Horton brings his shaggy dog sincerity to his role as Zack, the former king of the beach who gets a chance at redemption when he becomes mentor to C. Thomas Howell. [17 Sep 1991, p.3C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  6. Pretty Woman
    It sounds like standard Cinderella stuff (and the script comes complete with plenty of allusions to princesses in towers), but it's played here with an emphasis on possessions and possessing that borders on the obscene… It's a pretty ugly movie. [23 Mar 1990, Friday, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  7. The Fourth War
    Part philosophical dialogue, part macho thriller, John Frankenheimer's The Fourth War never really finds its identity as a movie. [23 Mar 1990, p.O]
    • Chicago Tribune
  8. A Shock to the System
    An ambitious screenplay (by Andrew Klavan) is done in by wavering direction (by Jan Egleson) in A Shock to the System, an independent feature that is still worth seeing for its well-chosen cast of medium-priced performers, including Michael Caine, Elizabeth McGovern, Peter Riegert, Swoosie Kurtz and Will Patton. [23 Mar 1990, p.H]
    • Chicago Tribune
  9. Blue Steel
    The sole curiosity in Blue Steel is the sight of Jamie Lee Curtis in cop`s uniform. There is nothing more to it than that-no tension, no character.
  10. Lord of the Flies
    The tale, while oversimplified, is told with visual style, particularly in the use of the boys' dream sequences, having to do with rescue and the comfort of adult authority. [16 Mar 1990, p.F]
    • Chicago Tribune
  11. House Party
    House Party aims for the mainstream and hits it- perhaps too often.
  12. Joe Versus the Volcano
    The film works best once Hanks gets to the island along with love interest Meg Ryan. But it takes too long to get there. A fresh but needlessly drawn-out story. [9 March 1990, p.C2]
    • Chicago Tribune
  13. Bad Influence
    The main performances are fine; it's the script that's cheap. [09 Mar 1990, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  14. The Handmaid's Tale
    The film is madly, compulsively overcontrolled, from its funereal pacing to its pristine red, white and blue color scheme; those moments when it loses its dignity are irresistibly comic, and in this grim context, infinitely precious.[16 Mar 1990, p.B]
    • Chicago Tribune
  15. The Hunt for Red October
    An idealized, dreamy fantasy of life in the business world-harmless as airplane reading, a bit dull on the big screen. [2 Mar 1990, Friday, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  16. Cinema Paradiso
    A few moments of sly inspiration are not enough to carry an entire feature; along with the tears, it leaves behind an aftertaste of phoniness. [16 March 1990, Friday, p.H]
    • Chicago Tribune
  17. Nightbreed
    Barker unleashes the full force of his special effects crew and the movie implodes in a cataclysm of jelly-fleshed creepy-crawlies. It simply loses its grip. [17 Feb 1990, p.3C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  18. Glory
    Glory has a genuine moral basis, and it makes all the difference in the world. [12 Jan 1990, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  19. Revenge
    It's corny, cussed and carnal.
  20. Madhouse
    In Madhouse, writer-director Tom Ropelewski doesn't so much serve up an idea as force-feed it down our gullets. It takes a game bird to sit through the entire movie. [16 Feb 1990, p.K]
    • Chicago Tribune
    • 45 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Stella
    Stella is a mother-daughter, best friend, Mom-must-sacrifice-all movie that will surely force a good many members of the audience to weep, sob, bawl, blubber, whimper, lament and/or shed a few tears. Yes, folks, this one's a bit lugubrious. [9 Feb 1990, p.J]
    • Chicago Tribune
  22. Tremors
    While liberally dosing the action with humor, Underwood is able to preserve an undertone of genuine menace and substantial suspense. His shooting style is clean and classical, distinguished by camera movements that emphasize the line of the action without becoming conspicuous in themselves.
  23. Internal Affairs
    Figgis (Stormy Monday), here making his American debut, doesn't possess the tight control necessary to really charge up the material. The result is a stylish but oddly slack film, which still features a couple of fine performances (from Andy Garcia and Laurie Metcalf) and a few effectively perverse moments.
  24. Ski Patrol
    A most unfunny comedy about hijinks on the slopes, featuring a short ski patrol leader, a flatulent dog, assorted cutups and a stereotypical black patrol member who sings and dances a lot more than he skis. [19 Jan 1990, p.A]
    • Chicago Tribune
  25. The Plot Against Harry
    Roemer's comic style draws brilliantly on the '60s vein of twitchy psychological realism first explored by Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and his humor is backed by a fine eye for sociological detail. [16 Feb 1990, p.C]
    • Chicago Tribune
  26. Sidewalk Stories
    Too sympathetic to really dislike, but too benign to leave an impression. [05 Jan 1990, p.G7]
    • Chicago Tribune
  27. Akira
    Akira remains the work of a cartoonist, rather than a born animator: Too much of the movie is played out in the static frames of a comic strip, and when movement is used it isn't to define character (as in Disney) or establish a rhythm (as in the Warner cartoons) but simply for its physical impact. Pounding away, it becomes monotonous. [30 Mar 1990, p.D]
    • Chicago Tribune
  28. Always
    It's the film in which an entertainer at last becomes an artist, dealing with manifestly personal, painful emotions and casting them in a form that gives them philosophical perspective and universal affect. It's Spielberg's finest achievement, a film that will look better and better with the passage of time. [22 Dec. 1989]
    • Chicago Tribune
  29. Tango & Cash
    The jokes seem lame and the rivalry fraudulent, as the two boys play with their big guns.
  30. Born on the Fourth of July
    for all its flaws, Born on the Fourth of July provides the final proof that Tom Cruise is the real thing-a movie star with all the natural, unforced ability to connect with an audience that the title implies. [20 Dec 1989, p.1]
    • Chicago Tribune
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