L.A. Weekly's Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Battle in Heaven
    Battle in Heaven cannot be so easily dismissed - indeed, it is that rare failed film that leaves you as eager to see what its maker will do next as you were when you walked in the door.
  2. Red Doors
    A peppy if uneven charmer with a fetchingly wistful edge.
  3. The Visit
    Performances that are natural yet weighted with history and frequently heart-wrenching.
  4. Illuminata
    Very much a fully realized cinematic experience. John Turturro, even if you have to act less, be sure to direct more, and often.
  5. Under solen
    Try as they might, the two central performers can never overcome the film's underdeveloped core, and are left flailing about amid Nutley's listless, glacial pacing.
  6. In Her Shoes
    Diaz and Collette are believable as sisters, but their performances rarely surprise -- in a more interesting movie world, they'd have switched roles.
  7. The Governess
    As dull to listen to as it is gorgeous to look at.
  8. Protocols of Zion
    Levin crawls into America's woodwork to ferret out anti-Semites of all stripes, then rushes at them with Socratic reasoning -- a futile and often hilarious project, since they prove immune to thought reform, however rational.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    White Wedding
    Everything that could go wrong does, but director Turner never musters the requisite manic energy that might get her proceedings off the ground.
  10. The Debut
    Having built his cast from friends and family, the director is left with some stilted acting, but that's easily outweighed by the film's infectious enthusiasm.
  11. Interview with the Assassin
    Burger at first toys with his unlikely premise, panning through the streets of this stuccoed suburbia as if meditating on the banality of evil, and indeed, our first few encounters with the assassin.
  12. Happy Accidents
    Looks drab and doesn't take very good advantage of its New York locations, but the neurotic intensity and emotional honesty of its two leads more than make up for it.
  13. Gangster No. 1
    Like almost everything in this clever, brutal and strangely soulful movie, the time and place are accomplished by suggestion.
  14. Spartan
    Terrifically terrible, Spartan could well be Mamet's first true comedy. Only the movie thinks it's a nail biter.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Cellular
    The whole thing skims along on suspension of disbelief.
  16. Brassed Off
    Trimmed to an hour, and tucked between a documentary on snails and an episode of Coronation Street, writer-director Mark Herman's Brassed Off could prove lively watching indeed. As it is, however, his pedestrian if sweetly well-meaning inspirational about a coal-mining town done in by Thatcherism is too long, too laborious and 15 years too late.
  17. Analyze This
    Watching Ramis struggle with his two stars is like watching someone try to juggle lead weights.
  18. Red Dragon
    What Ratner brings to the proceedings is an awareness that what worked for "Silence" -- namely screenwriter Ted Tally, production designer Kristi Zea and, of course, Anthony Hopkins as Lecter -- will work overtime here, to enhance the project at hand and provide a seamless connection back to Jonathan Demme's multiple-Oscar winner.
  19. Time and Tide
    Extraordinarily witty (nothing new for this director) while coming off as a taunt to anyone who'd dare to follow in his wake.
  20. Manic
    Melamed's debut film, Manic, set in a juvenile mental institution, has all the uncertainties of a first run-through.
  21. Calendar Girls
    The real-life calendar girls were actual human beings, and here they're merely comic patsies, lacking the distinctive personalities that made the men of "The Full Monty" so endearing, their final act of revelation so peculiarly dignified.
  22. Happy Here and Now
    Since premiering on the festival circuit in 2002, this small masterpiece has been one of the best films around not to secure a proper theatrical release, and while one week on a single L.A. screen at the height of the crowded holiday season may not exactly qualify as proper, it's nevertheless a joyous happening.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Go for Zucker
    Writer-director Levy occasionally relies on cheap gags, but his light tone and breezy visual style are a nice contrast to Go for Zucker's metaphorical subtext about familial - and German - reunification.
  24. Bandits
    Too long, too slow, too self-consciously chatty and too much at the mercy of a slim premise that doesn't wear well under endless repetition.
  25. Treasure Planet
    Give writer-director team John Musker and Ron Clements (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules) credit for trying to update the formula and grow with the kids weaned on their earlier hits, though it's doubtful the "tweens" they’re aiming at here still embrace Disney, and little kids don't care about back story.
  26. Captive
    Intelligent, moving film.
  27. Fantasia 2000
    What's missing from Fantasia 2000 is the shamelessly pandering Disney cutesy that made the original such a full-blooded nostalgic memory.
  28. Drift
    Like "Run Lola Run," Drift circles back on itself to present a trio of possible outcomes, but it's R.T. Lee's sterling performance that rivets.
  29. The Perfect Storm
    The whole thing is kitsch of the most pricey sort, and it's a good guess that it will be a smash.
  30. Only the Strong Survive
    The rather sad performances boast more clams than a Pismo beach party.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »