Chicago Sun-Times - Rotten Tomatoes

Chicago Sun-Times

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
2/4
Second Act (2018)

Richard Roeper

So much of the humor and so many of the situations in "Second Act" feel like warmed-over Second Helpings of a dinner from long ago. A dinner that wasn't all that memorable in the first place.
Posted Dec 21, 2018
2
3.5/4
Welcome to Marwen (2018)

Richard Roeper

One of the many graceful touches in Welcome to Marwen is the total lack of pity or condescension in either world.
Posted Dec 20, 2018
3
3/4
Aquaman (2018)

Richard Roeper

The saving grace of director James Wan's great-looking and reasonably entertaining but also meandering and sometimes truly ridiculous Aquaman is that everyone from screenwriters through the talented cast seems to get the sheer, waterlogged lunacy...
Posted Dec 19, 2018
4
1/4
Vox Lux (2018)

Richard Roeper

Through it all, Natalie Portman is a gamer, but in the case of this neon nightmare of a film, it was Game Over long before she hit the concert stage.
Posted Dec 14, 2018
5
2/4
Mary Queen of Scots (2018)

Richard Roeper

[A] lack of consistency makes far too many pivotal plot points seem arbitrary, as if the filmmakers realized, "we have to get things moving!"
Posted Dec 14, 2018
6
3/4
The Mule (2018)

Richard Roeper

An entertaining enough offbeat crime comedy/drama featuring an amazing cast - led by the grizzled, shuffling, mumbling, wisecracking old dog playing the lead.
Posted Dec 13, 2018
7
3.5/4
Ben is Back (2018)

Richard Roeper

Through it all, though, there's the magnificence of Julia Roberts, and the fine performances from Hedges, Vance and the rest of the cast. They do great justice to this finely constructed slice of fractured family life.
Posted Dec 13, 2018
8
3/4
Dumplin' (2018)

Richard Roeper

There's so much more to enjoy, from the nuanced work by Jennifer Aniston that ensures Rosie's never a caricature of a pageant mom; to the warm and natural best-buddy chemistry between Danielle MacDonald and Odeya Rush...
Posted Dec 7, 2018
9
3.5/4
Asher (2018)

Richard Roeper

Dreyfuss sinks his teeth into his handful of scenes, while Bisset hits different but equally effective tones in her moments. The underrated Janssen, striking as ever, does her usual stellar work.
Posted Dec 6, 2018
10
4/4
Roma (2018)

Richard Roeper

Cuarón's artistry yields a film with the pinpoint authenticity of a docudrama, but also the intoxicating and lyrical poetry of memories as filtered through a perfect dream.
Posted Dec 5, 2018
11
3.5/4
The Favourite (2018)

Richard Roeper

It's a period piece with a wink. It's also funny as hell and a true big-screen treat.
Posted Nov 29, 2018
12
1/4
Robin Hood (2018)

Richard Roeper

It's legitimately funny. Not sure that was the intention.
Posted Nov 21, 2018
13
3/4
Creed II (2018)

Richard Roeper

Even though we've seen this movie before (and more than once), there's a strong beating heart to this franchise.
Posted Nov 21, 2018
14
3/4
Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)

Richard Roeper

For such a sweet-natured, candy-colored, family-friendly animated adventure, Ralph Breaks the Internet serves up quite the mega-helping of meta material.
Posted Nov 19, 2018
15
3.5/4
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Richard Roeper

After a darkly hilarious musical number, the Buster story loses steam in its goofy closing moments - but that's OK, it's time to move on to the next chapter!
Posted Nov 16, 2018
16
3.5/4
Green Book (2018)

Richard Roeper

Thanks in large part to the winning chemistry between Ali and Mortensen, and a pretty darn inspirational true-life story as its foundation, this was one of the best times I've had at the movies this year.
Posted Nov 16, 2018
17
3.5/4
The Front Runner (2018)

Richard Roeper

"The Front Runner" doesn't hit us over the head with parallels to today's political and media world. It doesn't have to.
Posted Nov 16, 2018
18
2/4
Instant Family (2018)

Richard Roeper

Instant Family has heart and good intentions. It's a shame the journey is such a bumpy ride as it takes us all over the map.
Posted Nov 15, 2018
19
4/4
Widows (2018)

Richard Roeper

As always, Steve McQueen is an original and bold storyteller, delivering the goods with dazzling creativity.
Posted Nov 13, 2018
20
3/4
Horn From the Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story (2018)

Jeff Johnson

Anderson does the Butterfield legacy a service with "Horn From the Heart."
Posted Nov 13, 2018
21
2/4
History of the World---Part I (1981)

Roger Ebert

Mel Brooks's movie History of the World, Part 1 is a rambling, undisciplined, sometimes embarrassing failure from one of the most gifted comic filmmakers around.
Posted Nov 12, 2018
22
2/4
Those Lips, Those Eyes (1980)

Roger Ebert

Since the movie's center is wrong, not much of anything works.
Posted Nov 12, 2018
23
1.5/4
Bad Timing (1980)

Roger Ebert

This film has been praised for its honesty, but it would have taken far more honesty (not to mention courage) to deal with the personality disorders of these characters instead of simply burying them in blood, sex, and noise.
Posted Nov 12, 2018
24
1.5/4
In God We Tru$t (In God We Trust) (Gimme That Prime Time Religion) (1980)

Roger Ebert

The movie itself is a broadside attack on televised evangelists, particularly the kind who promise quick results from God if you send in your cash donations fast. This is an old target, and Feldman contributes nothing original to the attack.
Posted Nov 12, 2018
25
2/4
Clair de Femme (1979)

Roger Ebert

Clair de Femme is one of those movies that provides a strange two-level- viewing experience: It moves along for two hours looking exactly like a great idea for a movie, but it never quite becomes the movie.
Posted Nov 12, 2018
26
2/4
Coast to Coast (1980)

Roger Ebert

The narrative strategy of Coast to Coast is to repeat the same scenes over and over again, in the hope that if they've worked once, who knows? Maybe they'll work again.
Posted Nov 12, 2018
27
2/4
The Grinch (2018)

Richard Roeper

From time to time you'll laugh and maybe shed a tear, but this isn't the kind of Grinch you'll want to see each year.
Posted Nov 9, 2018
28
3/4
A Private War (2018)

Richard Roeper

The most surprising - positively surprising - performance in the film comes from Jamie Dornan.
Posted Nov 9, 2018
29
2.5/4
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Richard Roeper

The movie is too busy bouncing all over the place, stuffing subplot after subplot into the mix.
Posted Nov 9, 2018
30
3.5/4
Boy Erased (2018)

Richard Roeper

To its great credit, "Boy Erased" never reduces Jared's parents to monolithic, backwards-thinking caricatures.
Posted Nov 9, 2018
31
1.5/4
Dead Man (1995)

Roger Ebert

Dead Man is a strange, slow, unrewarding movie that provides us with more time to think about its meaning than with meaning.
Posted Nov 8, 2018
32
4/4
Mon Oncle d'Amérique (1980)

Roger Ebert

The characters are sympathetic, the narrative is well-constructed, and we care. But consider one sequence. In itself it is perfectly absorbing. Then see how Resnais deconstructs it.
Posted Nov 7, 2018
33
4/4
Vengeance Is Mine (1979)

Roger Ebert

The film gathers fearful force.
Posted Nov 7, 2018
34
2/4
Don Juan DeMarco (1994)

Roger Ebert

Brando doesn't so much walk through this movie as coast, in a gassy, self-indulgent performance no one else could have gotten away with.
Posted Nov 7, 2018
35
1/4
Night Games (1980)

Roger Ebert

Well, the movie's premise is obviously shoddy. But is the movie's visual strategy any better? Are we really thrilled by those nighttime chases through the deserted mansion? Not really.
Posted Nov 6, 2018
36
3/4
Northern Lights (1982)

Roger Ebert

The filmmakers, John Hanson and Rob Nilsson, use the documentary springboard of Martinson's memories to move into a film that also looks like a documentary.
Posted Nov 6, 2018
37
1/4
Why Would I Lie? (1980)

Roger Ebert

Why Would I Lie? made me very angry while I was watching it, because it is both a glorification of the arrogant stupidity of its central character, and an insult to the intelligence of its audience. Not a bad double play.
Posted Nov 6, 2018
38
1/4
Immortal Bachelor (1975)

Roger Ebert

It assembles characters of such incredible stupidity that we instantly lose interest in them, and then marches them through a plot so mechanical that we can anticipate everything that happens.
Posted Nov 6, 2018
39
1.5/4
Yes, Giorgio (1982)

Roger Ebert

This is a bad movie, but it would have been a great deal worse were it not for Pavarotti's almost childlike charm.
Posted Nov 5, 2018
40
4/4
Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982)

Roger Ebert

This isn't the most fun to listen to and some viewers don't find it to much fun to watch, but the 1982 film is without question the best of all serious fiction films devoted to rock.
Posted Nov 5, 2018
41
1.5/4
Jinxed (1982)

Roger Ebert

This is a messed-up movie that throws away what few opportunities it has to entertain us, and gets totally lost in a plot that starts as comedy and moves through farce on its way to paralysis.
Posted Nov 5, 2018
42
1.5/4
Eu Te Amo (I Love You) (1982)

Roger Ebert

The movie eventually arrives at a heavily symbolic ending, with the actors addressing the audience directly and bursting into song and dance. Metaphor-hunters are welcome to pick among the ruins for symbols and meanings.
Posted Nov 5, 2018
43
3.5/4
Taxi zum Klo (Taxi to the Toilet) (1981)

Roger Ebert

Taxi zum Klo is an unsparingly honest film, documentary matched with (I assume) docudrama, in which Ripploh reveals himself fearlessly.
Posted Nov 5, 2018
44
3/4
Paper Lion (1968)

Roger Ebert

The scenes on the football field are absorbing and hilarious by turns; I imagine pro football fans will enjoy the movie enormously.
Posted Nov 5, 2018
45
2.5/4
Man and Boy (1971)

Roger Ebert

The movie lacks structure and discipline, and we're left hanging too often while plot points are shoveled in.
Posted Nov 5, 2018
46
2.5/4
Joe Hill (1971)

Roger Ebert

Widerberg doesn't take the Wobbly brand of anarcho-syndicalism, the "one big union" philosophy, at all seriously. It's not that he should; it's that the movie is lightweight because he doesn't.
Posted Nov 5, 2018
47
2.5/4
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)

Richard Roeper

[It] creates magical, fantastic scenes that should utterly amaze audiences. Yet, the all-important emotional bonds between the characters feel thin and scripted. Where's the excitement? The sense of discovery? The amusing comic interplay?
Posted Nov 2, 2018
48
2.5/4
Wildlife (2018)

Richard Roeper

Here is a film with much to recommend - and yet the screenplay is just a little too uneven, and from time to time there's an unsettling creepiness and change in tone that seems inconsistent and manufactured, and I was left underwhelmed.
Posted Nov 2, 2018
49
2/4
Suspiria (2018)

Richard Roeper

Ambitious, grandiose, occasionally compelling but far more often irritating and laughable.
Posted Nov 2, 2018
50
3/4
Desperate Characters (1971)

Roger Ebert

The movie's characters are decent people, but morally exhausted. They have no way or desire to keep going; yet they hang on raggedly to a city existence that's taken any sense of balance or sanity.
Posted Nov 1, 2018