L.A. Weekly's Scores

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For 3,750 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 51% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 8.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 56
Highest review score: 100 A Bread Factory Part Two: Walk With Me a While
Lowest review score: 0 Deuces Wild
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,540 out of 3750
  2. Mixed: 1,542 out of 3750
  3. Negative: 668 out of 3750
3750 movie reviews
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  1. Chalk
    Though Akel and Mass share writing credit, Chalk was actually shot in a loose, improvisational manner in the mode of Christopher Guest's films, and its best set pieces are like devastatingly effective pinpricks puncturing the Hollywood hot-air balloon of inspirational teacher/coach melodramas.
  2. The Count of Monte Cristo
    Reynolds, working in close harmony with cinematographer Andrew Dunn (Gosford Park), brings an infectious brio and an occasional sweeping grace to the classic trappings of Dumas.
  3. My Architect
    What makes it enthralling is the younger Kahn's openness to a range of emotional responses (his own and others') to his father's life above and below board, and his readiness to turn his own predicament into both entertainment and a provisional kind of puckish wisdom.
  4. The Constant Gardener
    A smart, beautiful piece of storytelling, attentive to Le Carré's broad intent, while boldly taking a knife to his more egregious longueurs.
  5. Unleashed
    The most enjoyable film Besson has had his name on in eons.
  6. Pola X
    The film is at once breathtaking and ridiculous, and it's the tension between these two extremes, as well as Carax's own intoxicating style, that makes it essential viewing.
  7. A Mighty Wind
    Freshened immensely by pitch-perfect song parodies, a batch of hilarious faux album covers, nimble improv from the ever-marvelous cast, and a palpable love for the subject matter.
  8. The Weather Man
    The Weather Man begs to be taken seriously and can't easily be dismissed; it kicks around in your mind for a good long while after you've seen it. Cage, who does his finest work since "Leaving Las Vegas," has stripped himself bare of the patented tics and mannerisms he honed in one Jerry Bruckheimer movie too many.
  9. Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
    If you can't think of a crisis in your life that's tied to a Leonard Cohen song, then Canadian director Lian Lunson's velvety, exuberantly hagiographic film of a 2005 Sydney tribute concert to the Prince of Pain may not be the movie for you.
  10. Carnage
    Carnage is a film about the violence of living, of finding and keeping a place in the world, and though it's a work of preternaturally sophisticated philosophy from a director who's barely out of her 20s, this beautiful, bizarre movie could function quite well without its capable screenplay.
  11. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
    Cloudy is smart, insightful on a host of relationship dynamics, and filled with fast-paced action.
  12. War of the Worlds
    The imagery is startling not just for its symbolic resonances, but for the breathless intensity with which it sears the screen.
  13. Last Holiday
    Queen Latifah gives a spectacular performance in this hugely enjoyable wish-fulfillment fantasy.
  14. Jump Tomorrow
    One of the sweetest comedies in a long time, which doesn't mean it's sugary or fey.
  15. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
    Not just the funniest but the smartest comedy around by a mile.
  16. Lan Yu
    The complex narrative counterpoint is anchored by a rock-solid performance by one of the world's great actors, the Beijing theater veteran Hu Jun.
  17. Beautiful People
    Dizdar maintains a knife-edged balance in tone throughout the film
  18. Saving Grace
    It's a fresh installment in what appears to be a self-perpetuating sitcom of British life.
  19. Schultze Gets the Blues
    Michael Schorr's delightfully deadpan comedy debut blew away the German box office, and once you let yourself sink into its gentle rhythms, as slow and deliberate as those of its protagonist and inflected with tiny but significant shifts of pace and tone, you'll see why.
  20. Kingdom of Heaven
    In its depiction of a fleeting, but nevertheless factual, peace in the Middle East, Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven may seem a more quixotic Hollywood fantasy than all six Star Wars movies lumped together.
  21. Our Song
    So gently told, so deceptively simple a story, that its considerable emotional power sneaks up on you.
  22. The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack
    A kind of folktale, rooted in poignant personal experience.
  23. The Pianist
    Polanski, wisely, doesn't interpret or explain. He seems to have decided that in the face of such meticulously planned horror, the best one can do is get the details right.
  24. Eve's Bayou
    Writer-director Kasi Lemmons works fast, and the world she conjures is powerfully realized.
  25. Quills
    Remarkable energy and wit, and is probably the most purely enjoyable entry in Kaufman's suboeuvre of literary excursions.
  26. The Other Side of the Street
    A smart, quietly moving film.
  27. Sling Blade
    A remarkably moving and disturbing film about the possibility of belonging and the genealogy of violence.
  28. Death Defying Acts
    This won't be remembered as one of the prodigiously talented Armstrong's great films (My Brilliant Career, High Tide, Little Women), but it's still 90 percent better than everything else out there.
  29. The Weather Underground
    Through masterful editing, nimble music selection and smart use of documentary materials, the filmmakers shake the dust off cultural clichés to provide a provocative survey of the past. It’s a subversively sleek enterprise.
  30. The Goebbles Experiment
    Brilliantly edited for drama and irony, The Goebbels Experiment juxtaposes little-seen German propaganda films with excerpts from Goebbels' diary.
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