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. Burning Palms
    Landon's sardonic view of human nature and deft filmmaking skills - plus a raft of sharp portrayals - keep the viewer from pondering the preposterousness of certain situations and instead encourages going along with the fun.
  2. Every Day
    What makes this intriguing, yet woefully uneven film so relatable is that there is nothing about Ned's experience that seems extreme.
  3. Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
    For the most part, this is the kind of immersive fanboy experience that doesn't suffer wandering attention spans.
  4. Let the Bullets Fly
    Even with three charismatic leads, the talky, convoluted nature of the cat-and-mouse between Zhang and Huang and their respective gangs is impossible to follow or care about, and the mix of identity comedy, cartoonish violence, philosophizing and grief over killed loved ones is hardly smooth.
  5. Sacrifice
    Sacrifice is mostly a melodrama concerned with deception, betrayal and just what makes a family. It is handsomely done and well-acted, but it lacks real energy or purpose.
  6. Just Go with It
    If you're a Sandler film buff, the comedy is classic Sandler and will probably satisfy. Still, the best thing about the movie remains Aniston - she is reason enough to just go with it.
  7. Thor
    Thor has its strengths, but it is finally something of a mishmash with designs on being more interesting than it manages to be.
  8. Battle: Los Angeles
    The city's skyline is blown to bits. Burning, broken, blackened bits. So if that's what you're in the mood for, that is what the film delivers, endlessly, but in that cheesy-campy way that can make a bad movie good fun.
  9. Hanna
    Blessed with considerable virtues, including a clever concept, crackling filmmaking and a charismatic star, it ultimately squanders all of them, undone by an unfortunate lack of subtlety and restraint.
  10. Hop
    Its CGI renderings are no better or worse than last month's or next month's animation family outing. Its vocal talent - led by Russell Brand and Hugh Laurie - is suitably star-powered. The only thing missing is any real wonder, imagination or comic verve.
  11. Friends with Kids
    The mildly engaging, often exasperating feature poses a few good questions and offers some well-observed moments. Yet even as it zeros in on radical shifts in the mechanics and mores of parenthood, it sits quite comfortably in a well-worn romantic-comedy groove.
  12. The Hangover Part II
    Lost is the fresh, perverse, painfully politically incorrect R-rated pleasure that came when "The Hangover" ate up the summer of 2009.
  13. The Tree of Life
    While Malick's great ability holds us for a time, it is finally not enough to compensate for a lack of dramatic involvement - those eschatological quandaries tend to overwhelm the story. The Tree of Life, its enormous advantages notwithstanding, ends up a film that demands to be admired but cannot be easily embraced.
  14. Certifiably Jonathan
    An underwhelming jumble.
  15. The Eagle
    Plays it straight down the middle, neither pushing its contemporary vantage point nor embracing the chance for B-movie glory.
  16. I Am
    What lifts the film above its dubious boilerplate assemblage of talking heads and archival images is Shadyac himself. With his gentle, self-mocking humor, he comes across as an exceptionally mellow, earnest and likable guy.
  17. The Lincoln Lawyer
    The intricate plotting that distinguished the book overwhelms the movie.
  18. The Beaver
    An emotional runaway of a film that carries neither the insight nor the uplift to make the weight of its dark journey worth it.
  19. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    This film's cold, almost robotic conception of Salander as a twitchy, anorexic waif feels more like a stunt than a complete character, and so the best part of the reason we care enough to endure all that mayhem has gone away.
  20. Red Riding Hood
    Gorgeously shot, smartly conceived, cleverly cast, badly executed - the lush medieval beauty here is at best only skin deep.
  21. Limitless
    Smart isn't all it's cracked up to be and soon the movie is unraveling faster than all of Eddie's grand schemes.
  22. Bad Teacher
    A frustrating mix of smart flash and smirking impudence.
  23. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
    The franchise remains as much an endurance test as a movie, but at least a better Bay has delivered a leaner, meaner, cleaner 3-D rage against the machines.
  24. The Grace Card
    The Grace Card becomes increasingly involving and assured, yet when the inevitable moment of truth arrives for the coming-apart Mac, the film lapses into melodrama, contrivance and improbability.
  25. Final Destination 5
    FD 5 did not raise even a single goose bump - which for a movie that bills itself as horror is not a good thing. The camp factor, however, is high and makes the 95 minutes pretty much fly by.
  26. The Ides of March
    Even though all the supporting elements of a superior film are here, the actual plot that everything is at the service of is disappointing. The texture of reality and the sheen of fine craft disguise this for a while, but not forever.
  27. Happy Feet Two
    Dazzling panoramas, no matter how impressive, are no substitute for the involving story Happy Feet Two has had to do without.
  28. The Cabin in the Woods
    The laughs come easily, the screams not so much. It's as if the filmmakers got so wrapped up in the satire they forgot to include the intense sensation of rising dread that creates all the thrills and chills that are part of the attraction.
  29. Immortals
    I realize that making Immortals immortal was way too much to ask, but frankly, just a shade more plausible, not to mention pleasurable, would have been nice.
  30. In Time
    What's missing are the kind of moments that actually matter, the ones that are so gripping that you want desperately for time to stop - to savor them, to feel the fear, the passion, the regret. Ah, well … maybe next time.
  31. London Boulevard
    That the plot is the problem comes as something of a surprise given Monahan's pedigree. The well-regarded screenwriter ("Body of Lies," "Kingdom of Heaven") won an Oscar for the deliciously conflicted cops and crime twister of 2006's "The Departed."
  32. Trespass
    In the end, Trespass steps all over its own genre strengths.
  33. Butter
    The would-be satire is nothing more than a bunch of sketch characters and jokes welded to a sentimental subplot.
  34. Jeff Who Lives at Home
    The writing-directing brothers are usually interested in the small stuff of everyday, but perhaps they've gone a little too small here.
  35. This Means War
    If you can get past the gross invasion of privacy issues that would exist if this were real life and not just a frothy confection, what you have is some bittersweet fun peppered by bursts of sharp patter, the best between the boys.
  36. Trust
    Unfortunately, this well-acted cautionary tale is hampered by a lack of visual finesse and a script in need of a narrative rethink and a dialogue polish.
  37. Monogamy
    Ultimately suffers from a late-inning collapse into thematic obviousness and multiple endings.
  38. Last Night
    With true insights in short supply, the on-the-nose material fails to seduce.
  39. Battleship
    This may sound thrilling, but it's not. Battleship plays ordinary and pedestrian because it's always been a job for hire, never anyone's passion.
  40. 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.
  41. I Will Follow
    The structure, sliding between memories evoked by objects in the house and the common difficulties of moving day, should play with more elegance than it does. Instead, it feels awkward and frequently - as does the film on the whole - too on the nose, too obvious.
  42. Meet Monica Velour
    In some ways this film's biggest failing is that it can't decide who's story it is telling.
  43. Mia and the Migoo
    Alternately ambitious and simplistic, lively and bland, the French-produced adventure Mia and the Migoo never fully pinpoints its intended audience or many ecological messages.
  44. Monsters University
    The animation is snappy in the way it handles an extremely eclectic-looking bunch of monsters. The 3-D effects are nifty but, as with so much about "MU," not necessary.
  45. Wrecked
    The film is at its best when it's just Brody stuck in the car.
  46. The Croods
    Good stuff comes when bad stuff happens; that's when some of the movie animation prowess kicks into high gear. But too many of the "solutions" the guys concoct are so impossibly complex or just downright ridiculous — puppetry comes to mind — that like the continents, it's a little too easy to drift away.
  47. An Invisible Sign
    Alba gives such a focused, interior portrayal that she just might have managed to carry the movie had it been better.
  48. Hesher
    Director Spencer Susser, who wrote the film with David Michod, has a kinetic filmmaking style and an impish, crash-and-burn sense of humor that keeps sentiment at bay long enough to let us appreciate the loose, uncomplicated performances from a cast that includes suddenly ubiquitous Oscar winner Natalie Portman.
  49. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
    With Snow Flower, the filmmaker is forever torn between two childhoods, two adulthoods, two distinct political and social eras, and two complex relationships, unable to make both equally relevant.
  50. The Perfect Host
    What aims for Hitchcockian slyness ends up an inconsequential jumble in the comedy thriller The Perfect Host.
  51. The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll
    Some grace notes and riffs ring true, but mainly it plays like a familiar tune on a broken record.
  52. Bloodworth
    As members of that clan, Kris Kristofferson, Val Kilmer and Dwight Yoakam are compelling in beautifully lived-in, vanity-free performances, but the drama's escalating dread fizzles in a farcical pileup of disaster.
  53. The Whistleblower
    Though more brutish than elegant, The Whistleblower does have a certain charged, unvarnished power in its examination of how people can harm those they are enlisted to protect.
  54. A Good Old Fashioned Orgy
    At best, the jokey bits are occasionally funny.
  55. Magic Trip
    Gibney and Ellwood struggle to create context for or make much sense of the vibrant hodge-podge of material that they excavated from the archives of Kesey, who died in 2001.
  56. Janie Jones
    Janie Jones is ultimately its own uneven tune, a mixture of discordant notes and way-too-familiar chords.
  57. The Five-Year Engagement
    In many ways, "Engagement" reflects both the best and worst of Stoller and Segel's creative collaborations.
  58. Man on a Ledge
    In Man on a Ledge, Leth does well in taking us to dizzying heights. If only he had found a way to ground that thrill in some real pathos as well.
  59. Free Birds
    With its flat punch lines, formulaic action and undercooked mélange of messages — touching on everything from factory farming to genocide — the film waddles awkwardly.
  60. Dark Shadows
    This film has much more to do with what goes on inside director Tim Burton's head than with any TV show, no matter how beloved. In fact, Dark Shadows is as good an example as any of what might be called the Way of Tim, a style of making films that, like the drinking of blood, is very much an acquired taste and, unless you're a vampire, not worth the effort.
  61. Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
    For the show's rabid viewership, these testimonials are probably integral to a celebratory experience like the "Glee" live show. To everyone else, it's all gonna be Gleek to you.
  62. In the Land of Blood and Honey
    Unfortunately, "Blood and Honey" has script problems: Its core story is less compelling than its overall atmosphere.
  63. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
    The result is a film that is solid and acceptable instead of soaring and exceptional, one unnecessarily hampered in its quest to reach the magical heights of the trilogy.
  64. Playing for Keeps
    At some point you hope the actor (Butler) will find a movie that will give him the right material to make hearts truly beat faster. Until then, it appears we'll have to settle for films with more flaws than his characters.
  65. Angel of Evil
    Though there's no shortage of mustache-quivering energy and wide-collared strutting, Angel of Evil can't separate itself enough from the pack as a character piece to be memorable as anything other than a blood-spattered timeline.
  66. Man of Steel
    While its ambition and scope pull one way, its pinched and unconvincing sense of drama pull the other.
  67. Act of Valor
    This intriguing hybrid is dramatically involving only when the shooting - with real bullets, naturally - gets underway.
  68. The Chameleon
    Salomé and co-writer Natalie Carter offer some explanatory psychology, but the complexities remain underdeveloped. Still, you won't be bored.
  69. The Undefeated
    A troop-rallying campaign infomercial as imagined by Michael Bay: hero-worshipping, crescendo-edited at a dizzying pace, thunderously repetitive and its own worst enemy as a two-hour, talking-points briefing.
  70. Where Soldiers Come From
    Despite the film's unvarnished emotionality and even-handed messaging, Courtney never seems to have found an appropriate focus, resulting in a work that's less urgent and involving than its intense subject matter might have dictated.
  71. Dredd
    Dredd's cinematography is one of its strongest assets speaks to the film's larger problems - the parts and pieces just don't have the total impact they should, like a punch sailing helplessly through the air rather than forcefully smacking its target.
  72. Epic
    When the movie should touch the heart, it just misses. When moments should produce gales of laughter, it struggles for a smile. When panic and fear should set the heart racing, it doesn't.
  73. Walking with Dinosaurs
    A hyper-realistic-looking, character-driven story of survival with talking dinosaurs that can't decide whether to inform or entertain. The film and its featured creatures do a little of both but modestly.
  74. Margaret
    Lonergan has created a forceful yet extremely fitful film that teases with moments of brilliance only to frustrate in the end. Margaret is an unrealized dream, one you wish he'd gotten as right as his 2000 debut, "You Can Count on Me."
  75. The Monk
    Moll's restraint gives way to a tastefully overwrought checklist of Gothic imagery. In the cloistered shadows and the harsh Castilian sun, the visuals are handsome, even as the movie threatens to tip into parody.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
    Ends the series' winning streak, or at least slows it down to a panting, dog-day crawl.
  77. Chasing Madoff
    The unintended take-away is that you can grasp why the Securities and Exchange Commission - terribly negligent though it was in investigating Madoff - might dismiss the claims of someone so theatrically odd.
  78. Creature
    With dependably creepy character actor Sid Haig to goose things along as leader of the locals, Creature is delightfully dopey.
  79. Limelight
    If all you know about Peter Gatien going in to Limelight is that he is a nightclub owner with legal issues, that's about all you'll know coming out.
  80. Beware the Gonzo
    The directing debut for screenwriter Bryan Goluboff, Beware the Gonzo isn't bad, it's just that for a film aiming to celebrate media rebellion it feels timid and unadventurous.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Chalet Girl
    Cinderella stories don't come much more predictable than the happy-ending machine that is Chalet Girl. But the picturesque scenery, light touch of the cast - which includes Bill Nighy as Kim's dryly observant boss - and breezy zip of director Phil Traill's pacing appealingly pair with Jones' irrepressible charm.
  82. Berlin 36
    Whatever the facts of the case, Berlin 36 doesn't clear the bar for dramatic impact.
  83. One Fall
    Despite its grander ambitions, the film ultimately feels minor and superficial.
  84. Anna Karenina
    In the end Anna Karenina lets you down - visually stunning, emotionally overwrought, beautifully acted, but not quite right.
  85. Step Up Revolution
    One perhaps does not expect a fully formed and cogent political platform from a "Step Up" film, but when a movie puts "Revolution" in the title and engages community action and social justice directly there should be more at the end than simply selling out to the first bidder.
  86. 1911
    Throughout 1911 the sense of dutiful intentions blocks any building momentum. When an English-speaking character appears to declare that history is being made, it only underlines the obvious.
  87. Finding Joe
    Finding Joe is so centered on the self-realization of the individual that it provokes one to contemplate the millions of oppressed, imperiled people that haven't the luxury of pursuing such an inner quest.
  88. Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology
    The film ultimately works best as a daughter's heartfelt tribute to an enormously devoted and emotionally generous parent. Unfortunately, that's just not enough to, well, connect us to the bigger picture.
  89. Boy
    Writer-director and co-star Taika Waititi ("Eagle vs Shark") never builds much momentum for his largely uneventful if sometimes inventive story.
  90. Chasing Mavericks
    The footage itself, particularly of the surf, is spectacular, with veteran cinematographer Bill Pope handling the camerawork. But the drama is soggy, overreaching for the heartfelt and overdoing the inspirational.
  91. Oranges and Sunshine
    Sometimes the facts can get in the way of the drama, and that's the central problem here. That sense of needing to be true to the record is reflected in an overwhelmed screenplay.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Snowmen
    It's a shame the film's first two acts are such a grind since there's actually a decently wrought resolution to it all. But by then, between the youngsters' more-is-less acting (Ray Liotta fares only slightly better as Billy's madcap dad), feeble stabs at humor and overreaching profundity, it's too little, too late.
  93. Young Goethe in Love
    Instead of underplaying the story's escalating tempestuousness it pushes it over the top; time and again the film begins to catch fire only to be doused in silliness.
  94. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
    Part manic comedy, part would-be heart-warmer of the "follow your bliss" variety, its odd combination of tones and situations leads to as many awkward, uncertain moments as funny ones.
  95. Killing Bono
    Killing Bono whips up a frenzied mix of musical jealousy, wishful stardom and farcical lucklessness into a movie too slippery to hold onto.
  96. RED 2
    Red 2 is much more of a mixed bag than it should have been.
  97. Dog Sweat
    Whatever personal risks first-time director Hossein Keshavarz took to make the film, there's little sense of danger in the finished product, which offers snapshots of middle-class Iran but falls flat on the dramatic front.
  98. Being Flynn
    Paul Weitz has dialed things down considerably for Being Flynn, writing and directing with an earnest sensitivity that at times suits, at times undermines, the complexities of the story at hand.
  99. Crazy Wisdom: The Life & Times of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
    Director Johanna Demetrakas has decided to simply present the man in all his demanding complexities and let him and his encounters with associates speak for themselves. Her only rubric is the one visible in her title: "Crazy Wisdom."
  100. Lula, the Son of Brazil
    Fábio Barreto's film is an act of hero worship, not a multifaceted exploration of a charismatic leader.
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