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 8.9 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. The Other Side of the Street
    A smart, quietly moving film.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D
    Unapologetically dopey and undeniably ingratiating, the supersized Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D makes a surprisingly convincing argument for big, dumb likability.
  3. Animal Factory
    What enrich the film are its layers of detail -- moronic racial protocols, turf wars, pecking orders, men as livestock -- the authenticity of the dialogue and the rich range of characters.
  4. The Seagull's Laughter
    Scenically beautiful, rhythmically uneven comedy.
  5. Being Julia
    But for all Bening’s high emoting and her trademark giggle, here overused to the point of annoyance, for most of its length Being Julia offers little insight into a woman whose life is ruled by theatrics.
  6. The End of the Affair
    Watching this well-behaved adaptation of one of Greene's most personal novels, you can't help but wish that the novelist had been around to write his own script.
  7. Jindabyne
    Jindabyne wears its class politics lightly, weaving them into a ghost story about the intimate connection between how we treat our living and our dead that will hover around your shoulders long after you leave the theater.
  8. Velvet Goldmine
    Writer-director Todd Haynes (Safe, Poison) still makes movies like a first-time filmmaker afraid he won't get another chance; he crams every idea, every image ever dreamed, onscreen.
  9. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
    Spielberg's infidelity to Aldiss (and perhaps to Kubrick, who knows?) would be pardonable if it didn't ruin his movie. In the end, he has failed to make a persuasive, smart movie about robots and people.
  10. Maryam
    Where the young writer-director impresses is in the unforced sketching of era details (gas lines, the tacky energy of roller-skating rinks), in the sharp psychological insight into his lead characters, and in the performances he pulls from his actors.
  11. A Tale of Two Sisters
    While all the pieces don't quite add up in the end, as memory, fantasy and delusion collide, the film succeeds again and again at pulling you to the edge of your seat and keeping you there.
  12. Arlington Road
    Despite its flaws, Arlington Road romps home as an absorbing, unpredictable thriller.
  13. Letters to Father Jaakob
    By the time Leila's brow furrows in concern for the father, the film has absolutely earned its tug at your heart.
  14. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
    Things could be worse. At the end of the day, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is nothing if not consistent -- taking care of business solidly, professionally and without a lick of the genuine wonderment or inspiration that you can find in surplus in Jon Favreau's Spielberg-influenced "Iron Man."
  15. Pecker
    It's no doubt rude, and perhaps irrelevant, to point out that John Waters still doesn't know how to make a movie.
  16. A Room for Romeo Brass
    Indeed, one of the nicest things about this jewel of a film is that there isn't much of a story at all -- just a handful of delicately drawn characters moving through life that is at once familiar and yet slightly elevated by a director who loves the good in people more than the bad.
  17. One Last Kiss
    The air of self-imposed misery can dampen the film's humor, but Muccino never stays still long enough for the emotions to become leaden, and the strong cast carries the film to its striking, bittersweet conclusion.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Last Night
    Strangely uplifting, a kind of ode to how on Earth we think we're passing the time.
  19. Dirty Dancing
    Above all, you've got Jennifer Grey, as a rich girl summering in the Catskills and falling for her working-class dance instructor, played by Patrick Swayze. The chemistry between them is red-hot, and they're wonderful dancers.
  20. Oscar and Lucinda
    As to be expected, it's all very beautiful; too bad it's also often annoying, save for a heartbreaking final half-hour.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Disappearance of Alice Creed
    Blakeson's feature-length calling card has storyboarded austerity and sadomasochistic promise but in the end lets the game play out in a familiar flurry of double-crossings, two-timings and false deaths, content to only fetishize itself.
  22. The Matador
    Maybe Brosnan is so shockingly good in this film because Kinnear gives him the sounding board and safety net that the actor never had in his sadly solitary spy-flick duties.
  23. 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.
  24. The Town Is Quiet
    Leaves you reeling from the force of the humanity it captures and -- in its own gut-wrenching way -- honors.
  25. Dick
    The limp title says it all.
  26. Panic Room
    Always adept at hitting emotional cues cleanly, Foster in this role also lets herself get lost in the moment, which is something she hasn't often allowed herself to do since "The Silence of the Lambs."
  27. Ae Fond Kiss...
    Gradually, and with a kind of inquisitive generosity, the filmmaker's scope expands to take in Casim's parents and two sisters, whose public shame and private despair at having the only son move in with a “goree” - a white girl - is made palpably, wrenchingly real.
  28. Bad News Bears
    There may be no other actor (Thornton)working today (or as frequently) who is this good each and every time out.
  29. Timecode
    We're afforded the illusion of an omniscience so complete as to mark a pioneering breakthrough in movie storytelling, one not to be missed.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Through the Fire
    Though some will see this fast-paced film as proof that hoop dreams really can come true, the real strength of Through the Fire lies in its careful, often indirect questioning of the moral universe of professional sports and big-money endorsements.
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