Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,550 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 2.2 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: 8,714 out of 16550
  2. Mixed: 5,819 out of 16550
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16550
16550 movie reviews
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  1. Hotel Room
    Begins on a mildly entertaining note, with each successive vignette the film grows increasingly tedious.
  2. AKA
    Among the most sophisticated, fully realized and satisfying films of the year.
  3. The Statement
    Films can't just sound good on paper; they have to be effective on the screen, and in that form, The Statement is disappointing.
  4. Prisoner of Paradise
    A strange story wrapped in a stranger one, an engrossing documentary about one of the least known and most unexpected aspects of the Nazi war against the Jews.
  5. Love Don't Cost a Thing
    Often rowdy and uproarious, the film also has surprising depth and subtext.
  6. Stuck on You
    While much of the unlikely charm of the Farrellys' newest comedy, Stuck on You, comes from its conceptual purity, much of the film's humor comes from its blissful impurity.
  7. Something's Gotta Give
    Stumbles in miscalculating how far it needs to go to make this particular romance convincing when, as another romantic comedy character put it, it had us from hello.
  8. Girl with a Pearl Earring
    Even if Girl With a Pearl Earring is not nearly as remarkable dramatically as it is visually, it is, finally, a film of great beauty, and that is something worth appreciating.
  9. Big Fish
    There's delight to be had from watching Burton conjure up one fantastical Edward-inspired scenario after another.
  10. Man of the Year
    The film does have a certain flair and pace and is lively enough to be mildly diverting.
  11. Monsieur Ibrahim
    Surely there is room in the movies for a small film with an unabashed, even old-fashioned but timeless humanist spirit -- and a triumphant portrayal by a veteran star that is likely to be regarded as one of the year's best.
  12. What Alice Found
    Scrupulously fair-minded yet deliciously ambiguous, What Alice Found, a triumph of sound psychological and artistic judgment, is an unexpected treat for sophisticated audiences.
  13. Honey
    If you're in the mood for a hip-hop film with more happy faces than "The Partridge Family," Honey will divert you.
  14. The Last Samurai
    Taken on the level of spectacle rather than of sense, The Last Samurai affords the sort of fizzy enjoyment that can come with epic movie endeavors, including a meticulously detailed world unlike our own, an excellent supporting cast and some pulse-pounding fights.
  15. En la ciudad sin límites
    Somber yet not without flashes of humor, The City of No Limits unfolds with a steady, cumulative power to a climax of surprises within surprises.
  16. My Flesh and Blood
    The singular achievement of Jonathan Karsh's graceful and rigorous documentary is that he enables his audiences to see his heroine's family through her very clear but always loving eyes.
  17. Timeline
    Donner's most calamitous mistake, however, was forgetting to light the screenplay on fire and catapult it from the nearest trebuchet.
  18. The Cooler
    Director Wayne Kramer and co-writer Frank Hannah pull off a sleight-of-hand trick here, playing a gritty surface reality against dark Vegas mythology and getting away with it through a combination of shrewd, witty characterization and sure-footed storytelling skills.
  19. The Haunted Mansion
    A fright show artfully designed for the whole family, a comedy that all but the most impressionable children will likely get a kick out of.
  20. The Triplets of Belleville
    Fast, funny, unexpected and uninhibited, The Triplets of Belleville may be animated, but it is also the product of an artistic vision every bit as rigorous as any lofty Cannes prize-winner. Hearing about a film this special isn't enough. It demands to be seen, and it generously rewards those who, like Madame Souza, let nothing stand in their way.
  21. In America
    A recklessly emotional film that is so committed to feelings it occasionally overflows its banks. Which may be a little messy, but it's a lot more welcome than the drought-stricken alternatives.
  22. Bad Santa
    It unapologetically exults in its characters' glorious imperfection. It's good to know that oddballs, outcasts and people who don't look like Barbie and Ken still have a place in American movies and that not everyone in Hollywood pays lip service to the nice and polite.
  23. Blindness
    It's a glum, stale soap opera, tediously paced but mercifully running only 75 minutes, its sole virtue.
  24. The Big Empty
    Has a seductive easiness (which may not be for everyone, but it works), a laid-back yet ever-so-slightly portentous score and a wonderful sense of place.
  25. 21 Grams
    What gives the film a formalist kick is that the story unfolds piecemeal as a series of nonlinear moments. What gives it soul are the three lead actors who pull the pieces together with devastating power.
  26. Gothika
    How anyone in the cast manages to keep a straight face is one of the film's innumerable mysteries.
  27. The Barbarian Invasions
    Bristling but finally surprisingly moving film.
  28. The Cat in the Hat
    Critics are paid to suffer bad art, no matter how icky it is from the start. So all we could do was to Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! And we did not like it. Not one little bit.
  29. The Missing
    The combined intensity of these two performances (Jones and Blanchett) obliterates objections and raises the stakes in what might otherwise have been a standard western.
  30. The Singing Forest
    Awkwardly staged and edited and fitted out with an overly intrusive score drawn primarily from classical music, the film consistently subverts the earnest efforts of its cast.
  31. One from the Heart (re-release)
    Francis Ford Coppola has reworked somewhat and meticulously restored his ambitious 1982 romantic musical fantasy One From the Heart, out of circulation for more than 20 years, but for all his efforts it stubbornly remains a bold experiment in style and technique that doesn't work.
  32. The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John
    Though it has loftier aims, it is in reality strictly a film made by believers for believers. It's like the Discovery Channel version of the Greatest Story Ever Told, an earnest, not particularly distinguished piece of work that has none of the touch of the poet that made Pasolini's "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" such a triumph.
  33. Tupac: Resurrection
    Especially good at showing how unnervingly, even heartbreakingly contradictory this man could be.
  34. Looney Tunes: Back in Action
    Looney Tunes doesn't have much on its addled mind other than pure entertainment, and on this level it succeeds quite nicely.
  35. I Vitelloni [re-release]
    It was this ineffably poignant semiautobiographical reverie that unleashed fully Fellini's shimmering, flowing poetic style, echoed perfectly in a plaintive score by Fellini's potently evocative collaborator, Nino Rota.
  36. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
    Few actors can be as convincing as leaders of men, and to see Crowe as Capt. Jack Aubrey in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is to see a consummate performer doing what he does best.
  37. Anything But Love
    Robert Cary's Anything but Love is that rarity, an hommage to the sweeping Technicolor Hollywood love story of the '40s and '50s that works.
  38. My Architect
    Nathaniel Kahn is very much a presence in this film, at times too much so. The title is properly read with the emphasis on the "my," and the work itself is a plea, understandable but disconcerting at times in its nakedness, to be linked irrevocably to his father.
  39. In My Skin
    Spectacularly grotesque and literally nauseating, even for this usually intrepid moviegoer, In My Skin is among the more disturbing films in this blood-drenched cinematic season.
  40. Gloomy Sunday
    A beautiful period piece, set against one of the world's glorious cities, adding poignancy. Twists and turns heighten a gradually accruing effect, building to a risky moment of truth, a coup de théâtre that is as daring as it is satisfying.
  41. Elf
    Directed by Jon Favreau from a script by David Berenbaum, Elf returns to the hip but warm-hearted spirit of "Swingers," which Favreau both wrote and starred in. It brings sophisticated glee and a sense of innocent fun to what could have been a moribund traditional family film.
  42. Love Actually
    Though it would be dishonest to call this an unqualified success, it would be churlish not to tip the hat to Love Actually's genuine charm.
  43. The Matrix Revolutions
    How did something that started out so cool get so dorky?
  44. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
    Their (Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain ) remarkable true-life footage makes this 74-minute film as potent as behemoths twice its size.
  45. Suspended Animation
    A bold and unqualified triumph, nifty trick and treat for Halloween that is, arguably, Hancock's best film ever, surpassing even his potent heart-tugger, the 1973 baseball drama "Bang the Drum Slowly."
  46. Die, Mommie, Die!
    With his hilarious spoof Die Mommie Die! Charles Busch takes the melodramatic woman's picture of the '40s and '50s to delirious extremes.
  47. Shattered Glass
    What is a most pleasant surprise is how emotionally involving a story writer-director Billy Ray has fashioned, how he's turned Shattered Glass into a film for anyone who cares about strong drama.
  48. The Human Stain
    Etched in acid, stoked by wrath, it is one of those big-ideas novels that fits perfectly in human hands, where it can be savored over time or wrestled with page by page. But big ideas don't always size down for movie screens.
  49. Eyes Without a Face [re-release]
    Disturbing, disorienting, quietly terrifying, it's one of the least known of the world's great horror movies and, in its own dark way, a startlingly beautiful and artful piece of cinema as well.
  50. Girlhood
    The impulse to end on an "up" note, to turn complex and contradictory lives into palatable narratives, is one of the least-examined pitfalls in nonfiction filmmaking. But in her attempt to give their lives a shape that the girls themselves seem to resist, this talented filmmaker has done both herself and them a disservice.
  51. The Singing Detective
    Too flat and academic to come alive. The film's lack of dimension tends to render much of it banal, and Downey's lengthy harangues, as beautifully wrought as they are, are overly literary, which serves to make this intricate film seem all the more contrived.
  52. Radio
    A gentle film yet develops increasing dramatic tension beneath its easygoing, fair-minded surface.
  53. Brother Bear
    Does have a satisfying ending and it's nice to see a G-rated film without bathroom humor, but there is too much formula and not enough reason to pay attention here.
  54. Elephant
    Working with cinematographer Harris Savides and serving as the film's editor, he (Van Sant) has fashioned a visual style and a narrative shape that has the quality of a waking dream, then a nightmare. Rarely do form and content add up with such harmonious grace and power.
  55. Scary Movie 3
    It is consistently entertaining and frequently hilarious, the violence of the slapstick so cartoonish that it does not spoil the fun.
  56. Beyond Borders
    The hard truth is that the line between being deadly earnest and unintentionally silly is thinner than these people think, and Beyond Borders turns out to be an unreal film about a real situation, unavoidably cartoonish, as was the earlier "Tears of the Sun," in its attempt to join crucial issues to ridiculous melodrama.
  57. Last Party 2000
    Highly entertaining and thought-provoking, but also frustrating -- which, ultimately, might be the point.
  58. In the Cut
    Jane Campion's astonishingly beautiful new film may be the most maddening and imperfect great movie of the year.
  59. Sylvia
    Aside from Paltrow's performance, Sylvia is neither a film so spectacular it shouldn't be missed nor something so tepid you have to stay away.
  60. Veronica Guerin
    What's especially disheartening is the large gap between what's on the screen and the significant, meaningful work its creators sincerely believe they've made.
  61. Runaway Jury
    The spirit of the law will be upheld (this being Hollywood), but only after everyone has had plenty of nasty fun (this being Hollywood).
  62. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
    There's nothing wrong with remakes, but as this movie amply proves, there's often nothing right about them, either
  63. Returner
    Like all good B-movies, Returner comes loaded with enough eccentric touches to give the recycling a whiff of freshness and, as is often the case with many above-par follies, it's the cast that takes the whole thing to another level.
  64. Pieces of April
    It turns out to be an especially warm comedy with a hidden heart. It's a film whose humor has feeling behind it because writer-director Peter Hedges doesn't let his comedy overpower an understanding of how emotionally weighted family situations are always going to be.
  65. 9 Dead Gay Guys
    Feeble and unfunny.
  66. Porn Theater
    Not for everyone, but the open-minded should find it enlightening as well as entertaining.
  67. Dopamine
    Overcomes some forced artiness to be a sweet, smart romance without being saccharine.
  68. The Flower of Evil
    This is another gratifying gem from a master.
  69. Good Boy!
    As long as you keep thinking of "Babe," you can't help thinking that there's no excuse for movies like Good Boy! to merely push the usual buttons, deploy the usual poop jokes and carry out the usual sight gags.
  70. Intolerable Cruelty
    So clever, so funny, so suavely entertaining that it comes as a shock to realize that it's not nearly as satisfying as all those qualities would lead you to believe.
  71. House of the Dead
    There's scarcely a whiff of originality in the zombie horror picture House of the Dead, but Uwe Boll has directed it with enough energy and style that it adds up to passably mindless if grisly fun.
  72. Girls Will Be Girls
    Writer-director Richard Day has come up with a delicious cliché of a plot to allow talented female impersonators Jack Plotnick, Clinton Leupp and Jeffery Roberson to strut their stuff. The result is a nonstop hoot.
  73. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
    The movie love can make it hard to hear the human pulse beneath the noise (it's there, if faint), much less see if there's anything new going on.
  74. Small Voices
    A leisurely, understated film reminiscent of any number of Japanese counterparts featuring quietly heroic rural teachers. It is easy to label the film as slow, old-fashioned and sentimental, which it certainly is, but it has the tenacity of its heroine, the pretty and intelligent Melinda (Alessandra de Rossi).
  75. Bus 174
    What results is a thoughtful, analytical yet still emotional film, meticulously investigated and absolutely compelling.
  76. Mystic River
    A major American motion picture, an overpowering piece of work that involves some of the most basic human emotions: love, hate, fear, revenge, despair. Directed by Clint Eastwood with absolute confidence and remarkable control.
  77. The Event
    Has such quiet power that it is actually not depressing, and the cast follows suit with Dukakis, Carver and Posey, rising to the occasion.
  78. Rennie's Landing
    The four actors are very good, and it's a shame they aren't working from a more focused and original concept. Written by Fusco and Michael Garrity, there's nothing awful about Stealing Time except that it mixes familiar ingredients with pretty bland results.
  79. Out of Time
    There's something about the movie that sets it apart from the usual thriller. Franklin may not be a master of genre like Hammett and Chandler, but he knows that it means SOMETHING when a character throws a punch or fires a gun.
  80. The Station Agent
    Its charming story of the delicate intersection of three highly individual lives is the kind of completely personal yet universal film that the festival and the entire independent movement came into being to celebrate. And it does it all in 88 deft and funny minutes.
  81. Wonderland
    This is the latest addition to a new type of drug movie -- one that exploits addiction for a lot of self-adoring showboating.
  82. School of Rock
    Takes a clever premise and Black's unflagging manic energy and comes up with a pleasing mainstream comedy that uses new people and attitudes to entertain in old-fashioned ways.
  83. Camera Obscura
    An L.A. neo-noir raised to an insufferable degree of artiness.
  84. Bollywood/Hollywood
    Lacks the sharpness and sophistication necessary for it to appeal beyond Indian audiences.
  85. My Life Without Me
    A splendid cast, coupled with Isabel Coixet's deeply committed writing and direction, goes a long way to make this movie affecting to watch even it if doesn't hold up well to reflection once the lights go up.
  86. Prey for Rock & Roll
    Some of what happens feels real, a lot doesn't, but even when the screenplay groans with clichés, the four lead actresses play their parts with truckloads of heart.
  87. Duplex
    Its drawback is that it's a one-joke affair, leading to a repetitiousness that makes the film seem overlong even at 87 minutes.
  88. The Rundown
    For much of the film, Berg is content to act like a Michael Bay wannabe, orchestrating large action set pieces that get increasingly tiresome and WWE-like as individuals get mindlessly slammed into the dust.
  89. Under the Tuscan Sun
    It's a pleasure to watch Lane's delicately lived-in face tremble with feeling -- it's the truest thing in the movie -- but the character's desperation feels wrong, the worst kind of sellout.
  90. Bubba Ho-tep
    Limp spoof.
  91. Luther
    After a summer of numbing mindlessness, there is something frankly refreshing about a movie that deals even superficially with as significant a figure as the rebellious 16th century theologian Martin Luther, one of the founders of Protestantism and the man who put the reform in the Reformation.
  92. Yossi & Jagger
    Performances are crisp, as is everything else about this vital, economical film, proof that less really can be more.
  93. Demonlover
    It's an exasperating, irresistible, must-see mess of a movie about life in the modern world and so very good that even when its story finally crashes and burns the filmmaking remains unscathed.
  94. Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion
    The most comprehensive and devastating documentary yet on that tragic country.
  95. Cold Creek Manor
    A lightweight popcorn movie, hardly the scariest of the year but with enough jolts to be satisfying. Writer Richard Jefferies' solid script emphasizes character and psychology over plot and provides Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone with engaging, multidimensional starring roles.
  96. Mambo italiano
    Intent on offering viewers a good time yet manages to sneak in considerable substance in a disarming, even old-fashioned manner.
  97. In This World
    What we are seeing may be a representation of the truth, but it is not real, and this collision of artifice and reality is jarring and disconcerting. This is a hurdle but not an insurmountable one. Even if it is counterfeit in a number of ways, the story In This World tells finally wins us over because it is too disturbing and well told not to.
  98. Anything Else
    Feels newly hatched. Some of the laugh lines creak as loudly as grandma's rocker and the cultural references send up billows of dust.
  99. Blue Hill Avenue
    This is a demanding, intelligent film of considerable complexity and of sufficient seriousness to justify its 128-minute running time.
  100. How It All Went Down
    The only element that keeps the film from falling apart entirely is powerful physical presence of Pollio, an experienced, impassioned young actor.
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