Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,522 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: 8,697 out of 16522
  2. Mixed: 5,808 out of 16522
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16522
16522 movie reviews
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  1. The Business of Being Born
    This unflinchingly shot picture is not for the squeamish. Epstein and Lake's own commitment to you-are-there realism is remarkable as well, each bringing new meaning to the phrase "naked truth."
    • 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.
  3. Honeydripper
    Music may be Honeydripper's most indelible element and Sayles and longtime collaborator, composer Mason Daring, seamlessly incorporate several original songs alongside the soundtrack's period tunes.
  4. The Orphanage
    An unexpectedly poignant ghost story.
  5. There Will Be Blood
    It's important to remember that Sinclair was as much a committed socialist as a novelist, someone who probably wrote for political purpose more than for dramatic effect. So while Day-Lewis' gorgeous acting largely disguises it, the people in "Blood" tend to be schematic and the film as a whole has a weakness for the didactic.
  6. AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem
    Aliens vs. Predator -- Requiem simply exists, nodding to the continuity of the larger series and opening the door for, yes, another entry in the franchise. In Hollywood as in outer space, spawn begets spawn.
  7. Persepolis
    A familiar story set in an unfamiliar context, it's a paean to the universality of human experience, a testament to the endurance of individuality during great political and fanatical upheaval, and a reminder that even the most complex situations, identities and stories are heartbreakingly simple.
  8. The Bucket List
    Freeman and Nicholson make the most of Justin Zackham's script, but there just isn't enough substance behind their characters to prop up the carpe diem platitudes. The result is a semi-comedic, geriatric "Brokeback Mountain" minus the sex and with a Himalayan summit.
  9. The Great Debaters
    Because it is so old-school Hollywood, with a weakness for standard moments and pat situations, The Great Debaters initially comes off as easily dismissible. Largely saving it from that fate is the presence and ability of Denzel Washington, who costars with Forest Whitaker and directs from Robert Eisele's script.
  10. The Water Horse
    An enchanting tale of friendship and evolvingrelationships, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" engagingly grafts coming-of-age movie chestnuts onto Scottish folklore.
  11. P.S. I Love You
    You could go see P.S. I Love You, or you could hit yourself on the head with a meat mallet -- it depends on the amount of time and money you want to devote to what amounts to roughly the same experience.
  12. Charlie Wilson's War
    Overall, Charlie Wilson's War is glib rather than witty, one of those films that comes off as being more pleased with itself than it has a right to be. It also suffers from being not all of a piece, with mismatched elements struggling to cohere.
  13. National Treasure: Book of Secrets
    Everything has been significantly amped up -- bigger, louder, further removed from reality -- but it also feels that much more forced. Cage and Kruger seem like they're not having much fun this time around, and Bartha still gets the best throwaway lines.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Steep
    Certain to appeal to the extreme sport enthusiast, but it also deserves a mass audience for its incredible imagery and window into a lifestyle most can't fathom. It's nearly impossible to walk away without a new motivation to find something that can make you feel the way these skiers do.
  15. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
    It's not entirely surprising that Burton's Sweeney Todd feels heavier on style than on substance -- so much that the style almost subverts the story. Still, it's a gorgeous artifact and pretty enjoyable in all.
  16. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
    Smart and genial satire.
  17. Alvin and the Chipmunks
    There is sweetness here. The scene in which Dave and the boys decorate the tree is charming, and the Chipmunks' excited presentation of gifts to their human dad is actually sort of touching. And dang it, the little animated rodents are cute.
  18. I Am Legend
    Slick, adrenaline-fueled fun.
  19. The Kite Runner
    The Kite Runner is a house divided against itself. The Marc Forster-directed version of the Khaled Hosseini novel does one part of the story so well that its success underlines what's lacking in what remains.
  20. Look
    With its emphasis on its interweaving stories, the movie offers no commentary on the phenomenon of increasingly pried-apart privacy, positive or negative. Not that Look needs to be political, or even particularly deep, but that nonexamination, coupled with lack of real insight into the characters, leaves one sensing an opportunity missed.
  21. Youth Without Youth
    Ultimately, Youth Without Youth is more intriguing than it is satisfying. It hooks you, then lets you flounder.
  22. Half Moon
    An eloquent and audacious lament.
  23. Atonement
    This is one of the few adaptations that gives a splendid novel the film it deserves.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    The Amateurs
    There are no laughs to be found in writer-director Michael Traeger's would-be comedy The Amateurs, but there is one big mystery: how actors of this caliber could have been convinced to take part.
  25. Dirty Laundry
    Overwritten and under-directed by Maurice Jamal, the movie contains several honest moments but remains too awash in clichés and stereotypes to take seriously.
  26. The Golden Compass
    Ultimately satisfying and successful version of the opening volume of the celebrated "His Dark Materials" trilogy.
  27. Looking for Cheyenne
    The film, adeptly directed by Valerie Minetto (from a script she wrote with Cecile Vargaftig), suffers from some awkward subtitling and a few ineffective fantasy bits but is otherwise provocative and well-acted. This one's worth looking for.
  28. Grace Is Gone
    An emotionally rich and satisfying drama featuring a terrifically understated performance from John Cusack.
  29. Revolver
    The result is a film that's main crime is inducing stupefying boredom with little payoff in the end.
  30. The Walker
    The whole thing feels fusty and forced.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Man in the Chair
    Though they can't transcend writer-director Michael Schroeder's pointed contrivances, the actors tap into something achingly true in this valentine to Hollywood's below-the-line crafts people and society's castoffs.
  32. Juno
    Deceptively superficial at the outset, the movie deepens into something poignant and unexpected.
  33. Billy the Kid
    a movie about adolescence unlike any other; An intimate portrait of a singular personality in the making and a stark look at our culture of suspicion and conformity.
  34. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
    Simultaneously uplifting and melancholy, suffused with an unexpected sense of possibility as much as the inevitable sense of loss.
  35. Awake
    Trashily in-your-face thriller, which leans heavily for its effects on intense sympathy pain, improbable reversals and the mystifying star appeal of Jessica Alba.
  36. Oswald's Ghost
    Stone covers territory all too familiar to most Americans old enough to remember the JFK assassination.
  37. Protagonist
    Yu's film may be challenging to synopsize, but it's thoroughly engrossing and wildly surprising.
  38. Badland
    It unflinchingly illuminates the toll exacted by the Iraq War in a raw, deeply personal and completely compelling manner.
  39. The Savages
    A brutal encounter with mortality told with uncommon humanity, wit and humor.
  40. Starting Out in the Evening
    Intelligent, involving and conspicuously adult, Starting Out in the Evening is almost shocking in its distinctiveness, its ability to create high drama from an unlikely source.
  41. Midnight Eagle
    A stupor-inducing, would-be thriller from Japan whose sporadic action and inept storytelling is as generic as its title.
  42. August Rush
    Feels like the cinematic equivalent of being stuffed with fruitcake and doused with a gallon of egg nog, so if that's the sort of thing you go in for around the holidays . . .
  43. Enchanted
    Enchanted is as good as its name.
  44. I'm Not There.
    A challenging film, one that I suspect can only benefit from multiple viewings. The success of its approaches varies, but its intent is unfailingly interesting.
  45. Nina's Heavenly Delights
    There are a few surprising flavors in Nina's Heavenly Delights, but it's more of a samosa than a meal. The ceiling is set pretty low when characters start exhorting each other to "follow your heart." Which they do, early and often.
  46. Beowulf
    Beowulf appears so cartoony, in fact, that the academy just put it on the short list of films to be considered for the Oscar in feature animation.
  47. Love in the Time of Cholera
    That, after all these years of playing hard-to-get, the novel has made it to the screen in the form of a plodding, tone-deaf, overripe, overheated Oscar-baiting telenovela smacks of just the kind of deliciously ironic prank an 80-year-old Colombian Nobel laureate could really get behind.
  48. Margot at the Wedding
    One of the dark pleasures of "Margot" is watching Kidman and Leigh inhabit these two roles with a fierce passion.
  49. Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
    While endearingly heartfelt and G-rated to boot, its storytelling suffers from a lack of locomotive force and characters that feel disappointingly two-dimensional.
  50. Redacted
    By any rational standard, this film is kind of a mess. Even if you agree with its politics, you will probably weep at the ineptitude of it all.
  51. Smiley Face
    Gregg Araki's delirious Smiley Face is an unabashed valentine to Anna Faris, an opportunity for the actress to show that she can carry a movie composed of often hilarious nonstop misadventures.
  52. What Would Jesus Buy?
    Loud, proud and cheeky, the film runs roughshod over corporate behemoths Disney, Starbucks and Wal-Mart as it preaches a sermon of simplicity and consumer awareness.
  53. Southland Tales
    You get the sense that Kelly is too angry to really find any of it funny. It's easy to empathize with his position, not so easy to remain engrossed in a film that's occasionally inspired but ultimately manic and scattered.
  54. No Country for Old Men
    An intense, nihilistic thriller as well as a model of implacable storytelling, this is a film you can't stop watching even though you very much wish you could. That's because No Country escorts you through a world so pitilessly bleak, "you put your soul at hazard," as one character says, to be part of it.
  55. Fred Claus
    The sweetest thing about Fred Claus is that the message about filial love feels genuine. I wouldn't have expected that watching Giamatti tell Vaughn, "You're the best big brother anyone could ask for," would make me choke up, but it did.
  56. Lions for Lambs
    Redford and Carnahan would like us to ponder our role in their fate. And maybe we would, if the lecture weren't so dull and self-satisfied.
  57. War Dance
    An enormously emotional and spirit-raising documentary.
  58. Steal a Pencil for Me
    Tells this most unusual love story with grace and compassion.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Fat Girls
    Without insight, memorable dialogue or interesting characters, Fat Girls quickly wears thin.
  60. American Gangster
    Finely made and richly satisfying film.
  61. Bee Movie
    There's no real jeopardy. The stakes are low. It's a bee movie about nothing.
  62. Darfur Now
    Attempts to both explain the situation to audiences and offer some reason to hope for the future. It's an almost impossible task, and though the film does better than anyone might expect, its success is not complete.
  63. Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten
    The film is a rigorously thorough biography and an impassioned accolade. Temple spends as much time on Strummer's life before and after the Clash as he does charting the band's powerful musical and political influence.
  64. Martian Child
    Martian Child would like to be "About a Boy (Who Thinks He's a Martian)", but, disappointingly, it doesn't even come close.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sharkwater
    Ecological passion meets unquenchable self-aggrandizement in the beautifully filmed deep-blue-alert documentary Sharkwater.
  66. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
    This is no nostalgia trip taken by an 83-year-old director. It's a fierce, hot slap of a movie, a shameless melodrama with bite.
  67. Bella
    Certainly a sweet, life-affirming picture, but it's just not authentic or captivating enough to justify its wildly concocted scenario.
  68. Dan in Real Life
    Dan offers the most pleasing kind of unforced charm as it uses a terrific plot device to examine the conflicts between family and romance as well as the joy and pain of being in love.
  69. Jimmy Carter Man from Plains
    This narrowly cast documentary focuses so exclusively on a publicity tour the former president took in the closing months of 2006 that a more accurate title might be "Jimmy Carter How I Sold My Book."
  70. Music Within
    The result is that they never truly find the innate drama in Pimentel's story, instead simply recounting four or five decades' worth of events that shaped the man.
  71. Rails & Ties
    As lovely as some of the footage looks and as committed as are the three lead performances, they serve only to make Rails & Ties play like an exceptionally well-acted and well-made Lifetime movie.
  72. Slipstream
    Taking a cue from David Lynch, Hopkins fractures the narrative from the first frame, but unlike Lynch he doesn't go far enough in establishing a context from which to deviate. If the story fragments we're watching spring from the same mind, in other words, it's not obvious.
  73. Mr. Untouchable
    A slick package all around. Adroitly edited, filled with fine music like Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman" and more people flashing needles than at a garment worker's convention, this film is less a dispassionate examination than a celebratory infomercial on its central character.
  74. 30 Days of Night
    The movie thus moves from truly creepy to truly inane, which is, unfortunately, all too common in films of this ilk.
  75. The Comebacks
    You'll be goaded throughout The Comebacks to think of "Bend It Like Beckham," "Remember the Titans," "Rudy," "Hoosiers," "Field of Dreams" and their ilk. What you also think about is how much this stuff worked better in "Airplane!" or "Blazing Saddles."
  76. Gone Baby Gone
    By and large a notable piece of work, a strong directing debut by actor Ben Affleck that highlights attention-getting performances...But, as adapted from the novel by Dennis Lehane, this brooding, somber film is also ragged around the edges and not without problematic aspects.
  77. Rendition
    Rendition offers few surprises, and it tips its hand too soon and too predictably to do much more than goose your weary outrage.
  78. Reservation Road
    Neither involving as a study in grief nor compelling as a thriller about conscience, the cat-and-mouse tragedy Reservation Road is a misery windup so schematic and obvious it reduces its crisis-stricken characters to little more than emotional bumper cars.
  79. Things We Lost in the Fire
    Things are sporadically troublesome about the film. The story goes in and out of being self-consciously earnest and ponderous, a situation that numerous tight close-ups of people's eyes does nothing to help.
  80. Wristcutters: A Love Story
    It's borderline parody of a kind of fey filmmaking popular at crunchy-granola festivals, but the counterfeit aesthetic is ultimately outshone by the life-affirming message.
    • 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.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Canvas
    A sincere, slow-paced drama about a Florida family dealing with schizophrenia, Canvas is never terribly convincing, despite being inspired by writer-director Joseph Greco's life growing up with a mentally ill mother.
  83. Elizabeth: The Golden Age
    Gives new meaning to "costume drama" in that it is a drama primarily about costumes. But the drama is about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the temple.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Final Season
    In a movie where the timing of a squeeze bunt is presented as the thing of beauty that it is, and the eradication of small-town culture in a changing world is a genuine concern, the simplifying countrified morality of The Final Season is the real crying shame.
  85. Lars and the Real Girl
    The creators of this film were fiercely determined not to go so much as a millimeter over the line into sentiment, tawdriness or mockery. It's the rare film that is the best possible version of itself, but "Lars" fits that bill.
  86. Sleuth
    Language this lethal has all but disappeared from the movies, and it's an unmitigated pleasure to observe Caine and Law attack it with such ferocity. Sleuth is nasty fun.
  87. Terror's Advocate
    It is the gift of Terror's Advocate, Barbet Schroeder's riveting new documentary, to simply present Vergès as is, to say "here is the man" and let things speak for themselves. Do they ever.
  88. We Own the Night
    It's a bare-knuckled crime drama set in 1988 that stylistically could have been made that year and emphasizes Gray's strengths as a director while drawing attention to his limitations as a writer.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    King Corn
    King Corn is entertaining enough, but it's also a moral, crucially skeptical road trip down the food chain.
  90. Control
    Control keeps you riveted in ways that "24 Hour Party People" doesn't, primarily because of the investment of craft and conviction by all concerned.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Golda's Balcony
    Harper and Golda's Balcony generate tremendous influence and timeless meaning.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Finishing the Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee
    Only intermittently funny at best, but mostly full of dead air, the film is a let-down on both fronts.
  93. The Good Night
    The Good Night has flashes of bookish wit but never quite recovers from the metronomic monotony of its first half, which ticktocks between scenes of Paltrow braying and Cruz voguing.
  94. The Heartbreak Kid
    A grim, shrill, deluded and incredibly depressing movie, so bewilderingly mean-spirited that the trademark Farrelly Brothers gross-out scenes feel like the sweetest.
  95. Michael Clayton
    A smart and suspenseful legal thriller that comes completely alive on-screen.
  96. My Kid Could Paint That
    The longer it goes, the more frustrating it becomes, as Bar Lev declines to come down on one side or the other.
  97. The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising
    Dreary, spectacle-driven adaptation.
  98. Strange Culture
    As sad as it is to realize that youth activism in this country is dead, it's sadder still to find yourself agreeing that they have a point. Just look at what happened to Kurtz.
  99. Kurt Cobain About a Son
    There's nothing particularly revelatory about the interviews recorded over a two-month span, but there's an intimate quality that gives the impression you're listening to a private conversation, which, in a sense, you are.
  100. The Darjeeling Limited
    The India of the movie is more an idea than a reality...Exotic, spiritual and, according to Peter Whitman (Adrien Brody), "spicy"-smelling, it's a magical mystery place where wayward foreigners can go to get their souls back on track.
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