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 8.8 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. Daughter from Danang
    The film's almost unbearable portrait of sadness and grief transcends its specific story to speak to the ways in which need, history and presumption tangle, and sometimes destroy, blood ties.
  2. The Five Obstructions
    From its very first frames it exerts a powerful fascination.
  3. Eureka
    Eerily compelling.
  4. As Good as It Gets
    As funny as it's got all year. Manipulative and calculating? Sure. Submit! Enjoy!
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
    It may seem overblown when one of the gamers calls Donkey Kong a metaphor for life, but The King of Kong is just that -- a reminder of how we all have to prove ourselves to others, and the extent to which the odds are often stacked against outsiders and newcomers.
  6. Chocolat
    While there are scenes of wrenching emotional openness and spontaneous charm -- largely due to the irresistible allure and impeccable craft of its ensemble cast -- the degree of calculation apparent in its plot and images undermines its efforts to move and seduce.
  7. Winged Migration
    Astonishing both for the beauty of the birds and for its sheer technical brilliance.
  8. My Country, My Country
    Perhaps the most telling image in this remarkable movie is that of a relative intently swatting flies in Riyadh's house, while fighting rages outside.
  9. The Science of Sleep
    For the soul of Gondry's work, it seems to me, is neither its soaring flights of visual fancy nor its sometimes crude slapstick, but rather its pained understanding of a generation hopelessly tongue-tied when it comes to matters of the heart.
  10. Scream 3
    It's a pleasure to report that Scream 3 is an absolute riot, jammed with spicy cameos.
  11. What Time Is It Over There?
    Takes raw grief as its point of departure only to play out as a comedy of deadpan heartbreak.
  12. Elizabeth
    Bollywood meets The Godfather.
  13. Onmyoji: The Yin Yang Master
    Film is a ghostly and gorgeous tale of a court magician, the legendary Abe no Seimei.
  14. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
    Rough-hewn, improvisatory and contentedly lo-fi, the resulting documentary should prove warmly encouraging to embattled progressives of all stripes, and incidentally offers the best political date-movie of the week.
  15. Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember
    Nearly three and a half hours in length, but owing to its freedom of movement, the film feels weightless.
  16. 2046
    The result is a film chilly and externalized in all the ways that Mood was bottled up and woozily dreamlike.
  17. Teacher's Pet
    This mouthy express train of a movie has giddy charm to burn, due in major part to the frantic charisma of Nathan Lane.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Devil and Daniel Johnston
    Some of his mystical encounters are just too spooky and amazing to reveal here, and Feuerzeig (director of previous documentaries on Jon Hendricks and Half Japanese) weaves them into the story with excellent timing and a psychedelic eye, aided by editor Tyler Hubby and cinematographer Fortunato Procopio.
  19. Levity
    Those who can forgive the director's pretensions will discover some fine filmmaking.
  20. Paranormal Activity
    Grounded by strong performances by newcomers Featherston and Sloat, who pretty much have the movie to themselves, Paranormal Activity, which demands to be seen in a crowded theater, is refreshingly blood-free.
  21. Ong Bak
    However shrewdly he's been packaged, Tony Jaa is the real thing.
  22. Happy Feet
    Antarctica is a beautiful blue paradise, and the final set piece, in which penguins and humans tap their way to a unity of green-minded spirit, is a small masterpiece of conciliatory wackiness.
  23. Next
    Directed by Lee Tamahori with his customary flash and glitter, Next lives from one brilliantly executed chase sequence to the next, which is more than enough reason to stay the course.
  24. Cars
    Exciting though the car-racing scenes are, with their millions of fan-cars swaying fluidly around the stadium, it's the drives through the canyons and passes, and the quiet old ruin of a town (which recalls the abandoned mall in Miyazaki’s "Spirited Away"), that truly quicken the pulse.
  25. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
    The gimmick is simple but devastatingly effective: Never once breaking character or acknowledging that he’s in on the joke, the Jew-fearing, grammatically challenged reporter ingratiates himself with his unsuspecting, average-American victims before uproariously turning the tables on them.
  26. The Sixth Sense
    Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan lets the tension rise slowly, leads you everywhere you don't expect, doesn't rip you off and totally freaks you out -- all without stale effects or gore.
  27. There's Something About Mary
    Their taste is as bad as their timing is exquisite.
  28. Fellini: I'm a Born Liar
    Pettigrew assumes that Fellini was a genius, and while this film won't convince any skeptics, the maestro's fans can sink into it like a hot bath.
  29. 28 Days Later...
    The movie is mercifully uncontaminated by the smarty-pants self-reflexiveness that has sucked the lifeblood from nearly all post-"Scream" horror pictures. Clever enough not to be too clever, Boyle and Garland play their story straight -- they just want to give you the creeps -- and, by so doing, bring the undead back to cinematic life.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
    Although Zatoichi may disappoint some Kitano purists, who might think it a vanity piece or submission to popular taste -- he's even begun moving his camera -- its pyrotechnics are still audacious and breathtaking.
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