Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,524 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 56% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 38% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Sand Storm
Lowest review score: 0 Saw VI
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8,698 out of 16524
  2. Mixed: 5,809 out of 16524
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16524
16524 movie reviews
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  1. The Violent Heart
    There’s a lot to like in The Violent Heart, with Adepo at the top of the list. But Sanga errs by giving his movie the deterministic structure of a potboiler and the muted tone of a slice-of-life indie drama.
  2. Blonde
    Any truthful portrait of Norma Jeane Baker, the woman who became Marilyn Monroe, would of course have to reckon with the tightly coiled double helix of her art and her tragedy. But Blonde is all tragedy, and its single-mindedness isn’t just dull and punishing but also wearyingly unimaginative.
  3. Mickey Blue Eyes
    With preposterously convoluted plot twists, not even Grant is enough to make us smile all the way through the end.
    • Los Angeles Times
  4. Where the Money Is
    The only way the film could have had a prayer of working--and thereby tapping its stars' considerable strengths--is by taking a much harder edge and going for dark, even bleak humor.
  5. The Four Feathers
    All these intriguing good intentions, however, have largely gone for naught because of a variety of missteps, starting with an increasing implausible plot as well as the fact that Ledger's Harry looks about as likely to pass for an Arab as the Mahdi is to pass for Queen Victoria.
  6. The Crimson Rivers
    Not even the strong, reflective, world-weary presence of Reno or Cassel's energy can make a dent in a movie in which suspense and tension dissipate quickly, with action sequences not spectacular enough to compensate. All that's left is gratuitous gore.
  7. B. Monkey
    As skilled, resourceful actors, (Argento and Harris) make...a more believable couple than you would have thought possible.
  8. The Ballad of Bering Strait
    What makes the story worthwhile is the candor and personality of the band members.
  9. Alfie
    In the original, extended, unrepentant bad behavior results in bad consequences for the protagonist. In the remake, it gets the character some life lessons and a personal growth spurt.
  10. Behind Enemy Lines
    As a director, Moore is like an energetic puppy who's all over you all at once. You admire his energy, and it's awfully hard to get angry at such high spirits, but you can't help but wish he'd calm down just a bit.
  11. The Tribes of Palos Verdes
    The directors get some melancholic atmosphere out of their visuals but don’t have the scene sense to build their actors’ committed performances into compelling through-lines of seaside personality disintegration.
  12. DragonHeart
    Any movie whose computer-generated effects are more believable than its actors is asking for trouble. A frustrating combination of the magical and the mundane, Dragonheart has less difficulty creating a creditable dragon than a recognizable human being. [31 May 1996, p.F1]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Magic
    Hopkins is quite good as the timid ventriloquist-magician, but the film suffers with the addition of an awkward subplot involving an unhappily married woman (Ann-Margret). [25 Apr 2006, p.E2]
    • Los Angeles Times
  14. Things Heard & Seen
    While the cast is great, the milieu is vivid, the images are polished and the atmosphere is effectively moody, Things Heard & Seen fails to connect on a visceral level.
  15. Love and a .45
    Talkington not only has style but also a terrific way with actors, giving them the confidence to go over the top while having fun doing so.
  16. Space Station 76
    Director Jack Plotnick and his co-screenwriters Sam Pancake, Jennifer Elise Cox, Kali Rocha and Michael Stoyanov fail to nail a satisfying theme, narrative or purpose.
  17. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
    The morbid tone of the original has given way to horror comedy set off by quite spectacular and imaginative fantasy sequences. Dream Warriors is no less grisly, but at least you can laugh at it.
  18. Black Christmas
    Black Christmas is a fun film that gets its kicks out of literally smashing the patriarchy.
  19. Cassandra's Dream
    An uninspired if perfectly watchable drama.
  20. Chloe
    Envisioned as a psychosexual thriller about a woman scorned, director Atom Egoyan's latest puzzle is just puzzling, little more than a messy affair with mood lighting, sexy lingerie, heavy breathing and swelling, um, music.
  21. Wilson
    Wilson asks, can a male middle-aged crank get a sentimental education? If you even care whether that’s possible, Craig Johnson’s film adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ 2010 graphic novel offers a reasonably amusing case study in how that might transpire.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Killing of John Lennon
    "Killing" never moves past a superficial understanding of its subject, whose transcribed ramblings may not be the best key to unlocking his fractured mind. The movie gets inside Chapman's head but never under his skin.
  23. The Blackout Experiments
    The emphasis on Blackout’s therapeutic qualities gets overly repetitive and banal — a little like listening to strangers analyze their dreams. But like Blackout itself, The Blackout Experiments is often chilling and hard to shake.
  24. Half Magic
    As the writer-director's sly gaze shifts into an insistently upbeat appeal for female empowerment, the movie loses its comic steam.
  25. Don't Let Go
    The time-traveling investigation is indeed optimistic, but in reality and execution, it’s just magical thinking wrapped up in a fussy, overly convoluted plot.
  26. Escape Plan
    Escape Plan is mostly a gray, thudding metal machine of throwback exploitation, but the goateed, goofy Ah-nold is so happy to be in the thick of an old-school bruiser again that he makes it feel like the dumb-fun flashback party it is.
  27. Sleepers
    The film's tone works overtime at mythologizing tawdry incidents into some ultimate epic about the lost innocence of youth. Gilded trash is more like it.
  28. Nabbeun namja
    What begins, rather promisingly, as a visceral yawp against class difference in contemporary South Korea slowly devolves into a prolonged exercise in pointless sadomasochism.
  29. Guess Who
    Director Kevin Rodney Sullivan milks the film's one joke for all it's worth - which isn't much - before settling into the rote rhythms of a buddy picture.
  30. Sex Drive
    Occasionally sharp but never quite as smartly formed as it could be, this Sex Drive is only partly worth the trip.
  31. Daddy's Little Girls
    More surprising is Perry's inability to write back-and-forth dialogue with any real wit or verve. He is at his best when writing speeches, and some of the film's best moments come when Union is given snappy monologues on the state of contemporary relationships and African American maleness.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Meeting Resistance
    Meeting Resistance in theory should have been a revealing documentary. In truth, however, the measures taken to protect the informants' identities dilute the potency of their statements and diminish the film's efficacy as a historical document.
  33. Orwell Rolls in His Grave
    Enlightening, at times disturbing, and always provocative, but Pappas manages to end with a glimmer of hope.
  34. S1m0ne
    Such a tedious Hollywood farce, so unpleasantly glib and relentlessly shallow, that Pacino's excessive performance is not even the worst thing about it.
  35. Special Treatment
    Special Treatment is a serious film, but Labrune allows a touch of dark comedy in her depictions of Alice's clients and Xavier's patients.
  36. Night's End
    Night’s End takes a bit too long to build up momentum.
  37. Starbuck
    As amiable art-house fluff, it's a passable way to kill time.
  38. The Lost Husband
    While nearly everything about The Lost Husband is pat and predictable, the movie’s easy to watch. Credit the charisma and polished professionalism of Bibb and Duhamel.
  39. The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter
    The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter is more of a wistful character sketch than a fully realized wilderness comedy.
  40. Death of a President
    A technically inventive, thoughtful, but otherwise not particularly earth-shattering movie.
  41. Far and Away
    It's strong as can be in terms of production values and panoramic photography (as befits its $70-million budget) and weak as watery tea when it comes to little things like dialogue and character development. [22 May 1992]
    • Los Angeles Times
  42. Enemies Closer
    Enemies Closer suffers from wincingly bad dialogue delivered as if by jocks in a high-school play and action choreographed as if for a gymnasium stage.
  43. Always at The Carlyle
    Each moment in Always at the Carlyle feels like a pitch. Though it's effective in presenting the hotel's appeal, the salesman's greasy fingerprints linger, a stain which would never be welcome at the pristine spot.
  44. Edtv
    Like the television medium it genially satirizes, EDtv is a grab bag that's both amusing and frustrating.
  45. Clifford's Really Big Movie
    Though not exactly a gripping experience for adults, parents have reason to be grateful for a movie that has been so carefully tailored to preschool to first-grade sensibilities.
  46. The Good German
    It does get mired in its obsession with its own style.
  47. Casper
    Director Brad Silberling and screenwriters Sherri Stoner and Deanna Oliver can't figure out how to play a lot of this material. They pour on the sentiment and then they pour on the dopiness. The ghosts in this movie aren't the only ones who lack resolution. So do the filmmakers.
  48. All I Wish
    Stone had the right instincts about the part — she inhabits Senna beautifully, and her performance anchors the light-as-air All I Wish. It's the perfect role for her to sink her teeth into, sexy and fun, but she brings a sense of real intelligence and soulfulness to the character. That's true star power.
  49. Henry's Crime
    Beyond his (Reeves) performance, the film's ungainly mix of heist, romance and backstage comedy never jells. It's never painful, though, especially when James Caan and Vera Farmiga are onscreen. But there's only so much life anyone could breathe into this inert caper.
  50. Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge
    As biopics go, Marie Curie is a beautifully rendered sketch, rather than a fully detailed painting.
  51. Demolition
    Demolition is a well-meaning misfire, terribly earnest but unconvincing for all of that.
  52. Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
    Unexpectedly flatfooted when it should be light on its toes, Legend of The Fist fails to pack much of a punch.
  53. 2012
    As far as the new disaster film 2012 is concerned, the world will end with both a bang and a whimper, the bang of undeniably impressive special effects and the whimper of inept writing and characterization. You pays your money, you takes your chances.
  54. Great Balls of Fire!
    Great Balls of Fire would be an entertaining evening even if it preserved nothing more than Lewis' songs -- rerecorded by Lewis with all the soul and groin-stirring fury that he has preserved during three decades. It also has an often-dazzling comic impersonation of Lewis by Dennis Quaid, a goofy ballet of awesomely confident struts and brags. [30 June 1989, p.1]
    • Los Angeles Times
  55. A Man's Story
    As a flashy, country-hopping ridealong with a style icon, it will appeal to fashionistas, but you won't learn much about the high-end world of clothing design beyond its ability to stretch someone's schedule to the breaking point, and land that someone a gig outfitting Jamie Foxx and Will Smith.
  56. Sing 2
    It’s a vibrant, amusing comedy whose story, from returning writer-director Garth Jennings, may be a bit overstuffed for its intended audience. Though that’s not likely to hurt this peppy, often visually dazzling followup.
  57. Mystery, Alaska
    It is Australian Crowe, a previous non-skater, who gives the film's standout performance.
  58. Paid in Full
    a freefall into urban hell that doesn't give us The impetus to jump or the awful gratification of the ride.
  59. The Reckoning
    The Reckoning isn't great by any means and there are moments during the final stretch when it isn't even good. But for its first hour or so, the story moves at a steady clip, generating enough mystery to keep you guessing and enough atmosphere to keep you interested.
  60. Jackpot
    Jackpot has much that is sweet and funny, but it is not overly original--and it is overly long and not as coherent as it might be.
  61. The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue
    The movie ultimately treats us like adrenaline junkies, assuming we lack curiosity.
  62. Loitering with Intent
    At a mere 75 minutes, this often amusing, uniformly well-acted movie had the leeway to more fully explore both the script's showbiz gambit and its romantic roundelay.
  63. Please Stand By
    Please Stand By has its surface charms...but if you look under the hood, the film just doesn't work.
  64. The Sacrament
    The first half is a cautiously dread-inducing tour de force as the suspicious interlopers parse the shiny, happy members for signs of a darker version of paradise... The second half, however, when all hell breaks loose a little too quickly, is the disappointment.
  65. Don't Look Up
    Nothing about the foolishness and outrageousness of what the movie shows us — no matter how virtuosically sliced and diced by McKay’s characteristically jittery editor, Hank Corwin — can really compete with the horrors of our real-world American idiocracy.
  66. Al Franken: God Spoke
    Captures comedian and pundit Al Franken evolving from satirist to activist.
  67. Love Is in the Air
    Though the actors' chemistry sets off no fireworks and the story is never truly involving, the movie does manage to avoid being outright painful.
  68. Just Like Us
    Despite its brief running time, the film feels padded by sightseeing footage and a warm but diversionary visit between Ahmed and his Cairo-area relatives. Still, Just Like Us proves an amusing, uniquely unifying effort.
  69. Raymond & Ray
    Garcia holds back too much, perhaps trying to avoid any phony epiphanies. As a result, his two main characters are too preoccupied with re-litigating old grudges to do or say anything notable.
  70. One Direction: This Is Us
    One Direction: This Is Us is not the raw confessional that title might imply but rather both a primer and new product presentation.
  71. Out of Blue
    The plodding Out of Blue isn’t out of ideas — just out of gas.
  72. Gang Related
    "Implausible" is a mild word for the shenanigans Gang Related expects us to swallow. Writer-director Jim Kouf has loaded a lifetime's worth of ploys and contrivances, feints and jabs, into this unpleasant, interminable, more-than-usually pointless film. [8 Oct 1997, p.F4]
    • Los Angeles Times
  73. Set Fire to the Stars
    Gorgeous, evocative and well performed.
  74. Queens
    The movie has no higher ambition than to please a crowd; the fact that it easily does is proof of the world's heartening capacity for change.
  75. What Men Want
    Henson is a gifted actress and physical comedian. She manages to hold together What Men Want with the sheer force of her powerful charisma, but the film around her is harried, messy and woefully underwritten.
  76. TRON: Legacy
    New players, a new story line, a new director and nearly three decades of improved technology including all the whiz-bang-wow the latest 3-D has to offer. Unfortunately, there's not nearly enough new life.
  77. Auggie Rose
    Consistently imaginative and persuasive in its plotting and writing. Tabak makes substantial demands on his wonderful cast but rewards them with roles of exceptional depth and dimension.
  78. Sidewalks of New York
    The assumption among many when the movie was postponed was that Paramount Classics felt New Yorkers weren't emotionally equipped for something bright or frothy or vivacious. They needn't have been concerned.
  79. The 6th Day
    From its standard-issue action to its halfhearted dialogue and acting, that's one situation even two Schwarzeneggers aren't enough to solve.
  80. Tycoon: A New Russian
    In the end Tycoon above all evokes a melancholy awareness of the seemingly eternal exploitation and impoverishment of the Russian people.
  81. Nicotina
    Nicotina's every loser, criminal, dreamer, crank and cynic is flawed, but their flaws are primal and as human as thumbs. In the end, it's this grim but tender view of humanity that gives the movie its appealing combination of mordant humor and cheerful pessimism.
  82. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
    The film's plot gets so convoluted no nongamer older than 14 will be able to follow it all.
  83. Empty Nest
    In the end, it all can't help feeling a little slight, more a pleasant wade into a writer's neurotic playground than a satisfyingly deep dip.
  84. Turning Green
    An amusing Irish coming-of-age comedy.
  85. The High Cost of Living
    Set in a noirish, gleaming Montreal, this handsome, captivating, well-paced and stylish film is fully realized in every aspect.
  86. Love in Space
    Though it doesn't exactly have pretensions toward the rhythms of real life, the film does nail the breezy movie feeling of a buffed-and-polished romantic comedy.
  87. The Fifth Estate
    Whenever The Fifth Estate leaves the involving one-on-one drama between Assange and Domscheit-Berg, you wish it wouldn't.
  88. Den of Thieves
    Gudegast's twisty, turny tale of heists and homies is an action-packed romp with a good sense of humor and self-awareness. It's rendered with a startling attention to detail, but one has to wonder if with that detail, he can't quite see the forest for the trees.
  89. My Fellow Americans
    My Fellow Americans is a gang-written comedy that doesn't have a political bone in its body, or much evidence of a funny one, either.
  90. Coneheads
    You can't beat this film for demented heart-tugs though. When Prymaat looks at a big pile of cone-like eggplants in the supermarket and lets out a momentary shriek of horror, you know you're watching nutbrain perfection.
  91. Richie Rich
    Richie Rich presents an irresistible Macaulay Culkin in a wonderful part and bursts with the gadgetry that many adults thrill to as much as children do. At the same time, it never loses touch with its humanity, directed by Donald Petrie with humor and panache.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    April Fool's Day
    Unfortunately, the film blunders into such an outlandishly dumb conclusion that you don't get a charge of surprise -- just a bad case of whiplash. [28 Mar 1986, p.16]
    • Los Angeles Times
  93. Rubikon
    The dialogue-heavy scenario robs the film of some tension, but the conversations are often quite exciting.
  94. Krampus
    Dougherty's effects team is top-notch, and the movie takes unexpected chances with the style and the storytelling — including a beautiful stop-motion interlude.
  95. Desert Dancer
    Ghaffarian's story plays out within such a generic framework, and with such self-importance, that it's all too easy to remain untouched by the onscreen events.
  96. The Best Offer
    The film has several smart twists and surprises up its well-tailored sleeve.
  97. The Sentinel
    An unassuming thriller, a nifty piece of genre filmmaking without frills or self-importance. It's a throwback, if you will, to the days of B pictures, when formula movies were made with a maximum of skill and a minimum of pretense.
  98. The Money Pit
    The Money Pit grows increasingly mechanical, both in its content and in the resolution of its plot, as the effects start overwhelming this essentially modest little romantic comedy.
  99. Your Place or Mine
    What saves the picture is McKenna’s knack for finding something real and relatable within quirky comic characters like a hyper-organized overprotective mother and a swaggering cool guy who makes a living telling other people how to succeed.
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