Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,520 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 16520
  2. Mixed: 5,806 out of 16520
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16520
16520 movie reviews
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  1. Talk to Her
    Like taking a drug everyone says is dynamite and impatiently wondering why the heck it's not kicking in. The kick in fact turns out to be real, and as powerful as advertised, but it doesn't necessarily hit you in any way you anticipated.
  2. Friday After Next
    Fast and raunchy, Friday After Next surely stands apart from other holiday-themed movies for its gleeful low-down humor and a raft of uninhibited characters involved in one outrageous predicament after another.
  3. The Way Home
    Has inherent sentimental appeal, but Lee balances it with considerable humor and an unblinking eye toward the realities of a primitive way of life.
  4. Standing in the Shadows of Motown
    A blast into the past, but as with many nostalgic trips it's also shrouded in mist. The awkward, almost embarrassed way in which director Paul Justman, as well as writers Walter Dallas and Ntozake Shange, deal with race is unfortunate, as is the tendency toward overstatement.
  5. Interview with the Assassin
    Burger knows how to shoot and this is one feature where the dingy digital imagery arguably makes sense, but it's too bad he didn't work harder at finding something more original with which to test his talent than the JFK assassination and the gimmick of the phony nonfiction film.
  6. Half Past Dead
    Absent one original moment and bathed in de rigueur steel blue punctuated by sporadic bursts of flaming orange, the movie is notable only for its creative approach to Seagal's bulky gracelessness: Not since "Apocalypse Now" has a film gone to such lengths to hide what its star looks like.
  7. The Crime of Padre Amaro
    The remarkable things about the new film, adapted by Vicente Leñero and directed by Carlos Carrera, are how smoothly it has been transposed to today's Mexico and how far good acting and skillful directing have gone toward tempering those melodramatic roots.
  8. Revolution #9
    Revolution #9, which is absorbing and terse, has some subtle, welcome comic relief from Spalding Gray.
  9. Ararat
    Egoyan's oblique, layered attack ultimately pays off, evoking a strong emotional connection between past and present, the historical and the personal, in a flowing, cinematic manner in collaboration with his frequent cameraman, Paul Sarossy. The film makes use of an intoxicating array of Armenian music.
  10. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    The film's scary moments are too monstrous and its happy times have too much idiotic beaming, making the film feel like the illegitimate offspring of "Alien" and "The Absent-Minded Professor."
  11. Bánk bán
    It would take an opera expert to judge the merits of Bánk Bán and its renowned singers. But to the layman Erkel's music soars, and the singers' voices sound glorious.
  12. Hush!
    Most important, Hush! is like Chinese director Stanley Kwan's recent "Lan Yu" in that a gay romance becomes but a starting point for an all-encompassing view of human behavior.
  13. The Rising Place
    Deeply felt but flat and unimaginative.
  14. Etoiles: Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet
    You might expect its beauty but not its intelligence, its ability to reflect the texture of some extraordinary lives.
  15. Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite
    Far from great, and this off-putting French romantic comedy is sure to test severely the indulgence of fans of "Amélie."
  16. Far From Heaven
    The film's three leads are extraordinary, but what Moore does with her role is so beyond the parameters of what we call great acting that it nearly defies categorization.
  17. 'R Xmas
    Few directors can put loneliness on screen as persuasively or capture the eerie quiet of people waiting for something, anything to happen. It's in moments such as these, when all sense of time disappears and all that remains are bodies in motion and Ken Kelsch's limpid cinematography, that you remember just how good Ferrara can be.
  18. 8 Mile
    The film is never more real than when Jimmy unloads his anger on someone close to him, a frequent occurrence. Eminem is an actor with a rare gift for rage, and movie careers, even big ones, have been built on less.
  19. Leela
    The film is not without humor or conflict, but it is a complex coming-of-age story that places a premium on independence and attacks sexual hypocrisy.
  20. The Flip Side
    A small picture of many satisfactions.
  21. Femme Fatale
    Here, the message is the moviemaking and the unparalleled joy you get from a film that can carry you off so completely, making you forget about everything save for the beautiful lies in front of you.
  22. Treasure Planet
    The genre's recent past has set the bar quite high, and Treasure Planet doesn't quite make it over.
  23. The Weight of Water
    As a director, Bigelow knows how to get out of the house, but she can be impatient when it comes to humdrum reality. That may account for her interest in Shreve's novel, with its epic tragedies, and it may help to explain the misguided casting of Penn and Hurley, each of whom comes equipped with an oversized personality.
  24. Tully
    Although this is director Birmingham's first feature -- she has a very sure sense of what she wants out of her cast and the ability to put it on screen. Tully may go against the grain of hipness, but that proves to be very much of a blessing.
  25. Love in the Time of Money
    Sluggishly paced and shot in the sort of grubby digital video that renders even the dewiest skin tone liverwurst gray, the film comes across as little more than a series of acting workshop exercises wrapped in a tissue of cliché.
  26. The Santa Clause 2
    Tony Burrough's vast Toy Workshop and Elf Village at the North Pole is the film's strongest asset. The workshop is a dazzling and accurate display of the Art Nouveau style in sinuous full flower.
  27. I Spy
    Mostly I Spy, with more dead spots than a Jerry Lewis telethon, is content to mark time. That gives us, and perhaps the cast as well, the opportunity to reflect on how satisfying this film could have been if anyone had thought it worth their while to provide real material for the talent to work with.
  28. Santa vs. the Snowman
    Dazzling in its possibilities, but the holiday message of the 37-minute Santa vs. the Snowman leaves a lot to be desired.
  29. Food of Love
    An elegant work, Food of Love is as consistently engaging as it is revealing.
  30. The Bank
    The sleek, well-oiled, well-acted The Bank, while as meaty as a steak, is short on sizzle.
  31. Quai des Orfèvres [re-release]
    Brooding, beautifully made and almost impossible for Americans to see -- Quai des Orfèvres, makes a triumphant reappearance on theatrical screens after an absence of about 50 years.
  32. Looking Through Lillian
    Director Jake Torem swiftly moves beyond familiar first-feature artiness to create an illuminating portrait of a young woman (Jade Henham) brought to a crossroads in her life.
  33. All the Queen's Men
    Let's hope -- shall we? -- that the "true story" that allegedly "inspired" All the Queen's Men was a lot funnier and more deftly enacted than what's been cobbled together here.
  34. Frida
    (Hayek's) performance is far from a disgrace, but it lacks gravitas and soul, a sense of passionate purpose, a hint of obsession. The best Hayek can do with her lovely face is cloud it with worry, but the face of Frida Kahlo demands anguish.
  35. The Truth About Charlie
    Neither the script nor the direction nor the acting has been able to make these characters into ones we want to invest ourselves in. The Truth About Charlie is one very busy film, but it's really not going anywhere.
  36. Waking Up in Reno
    The one thing that can be said of Waking Up in Reno is that it's rigorously consistent. Every note rings false.
  37. Paid in Full
    a freefall into urban hell that doesn't give us The impetus to jump or the awful gratification of the ride.
  38. All or Nothing
    Leigh piles up woe wider and higher than ever before. That he has done so with his usual skill, perception and alertness to relieving gestures of human tenderness and care does not keep All or Nothing from being a pretty glum, overly familiar business.
  39. Roger Dodger
    It is Scott's work as the savagely articulate Roger, a tireless would-be seducer, bottomlessly self-confident and oblivious to rejection, that is the film's glistening and provocative centerpiece.
  40. Ghost Ship
    See evil. See evil run. Run, evil, run all the way to cable television purgatory.
  41. Jackass: The Movie
    At their best, they're closer to the Three Stooges; at their most banal, they're as original as the Red Hot Chili Peppers performing nude with socks on their penises -- It's a hoot.
  42. Derrida
    An absolutely first-rate documentary.
  43. Fidel
    Hitler had his Leni Riefenstahl, and now Castro has his Bravo...Bravo is no Riefenstahl when it comes to persuasive mythologizing.
  44. Le bossu
    Splendid entertainment, young in spirit but accomplished in all aspects with the fullness of spirit and sense of ease that comes only with experience.
  45. Under the Moonlight
    Overly preachy and maudlin but is saved by its obvious sincerity and forthright sense of purpose, and further enhanced by its rich color cinematography.
  46. The Business of Fancydancing
    A fervent assertion that an individual has the right to pursue his own path lies at the vibrant heart of The Business of Fancydancing.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Naqoyqatsi
    Much of this is involving, although the pace is so relentless that it leaves little time to breathe or grasp precisely what Reggio is attempting to say.
  48. Real Women Have Curves
    Honest and wise enough to strike the right bittersweet note.
  49. Abandon
    A trite psychological thriller -- all buildup and no payoff, a mystery that essentially offers only two alternative solutions, which diminishes the element of surprise and strings the viewer along way past caring which possibility proves to be true.
  50. The Grey Zone
    It isn't just that there's something unsettling about a film that aestheticizes a crematorium; it's that there's something trivializing about the very effort.
  51. Goyangileul butaghae
    There is a wonderful natural quality to Jeong's storytelling that is enhanced by cinematographer Young-hwan Choi's graceful camerawork and by a dynamic, contemporary score from M&F.
  52. Auto Focus
    In Auto Focus, the strangely wonderful and weirdly touching new film from Paul Schrader, the comedy and the tragedy keep getting mixed up.
  53. The Ring
    Certainly acceptable. But no one seeing it is going to feel as spooked as executive producer Roy Lee. To make an audience feel that intensely, you need a different kind of director and a different kind of film.
  54. Formula 51
    An execrable mess that leaves no genre cliché unturned or human body or soul untrammeled.
  55. Comedian
    What makes Comedian more than just another documentary about the comedy club comeback of a sitcom prince is that it contrasts his struggle with that of just another stand-up climber, Orny Adams.
  56. Brown Sugar
    Proves as appealing as its title.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Pokémon 4: The Movie
    There isn't much to Pokémon 4Ever.
  58. Knockaround Guys
    Certainly, Malkovich's portrayal of mob lieutenant Teddy Deserve (!) and his lacquered swagger represent the only thing here that you haven't seen a hundred times before.
  59. Below
    Has a slamming first hour. As Ian Wilson's camera darts over Charles Lee's spookily atmospheric sets, enigmas sprout like mushrooms.
  60. The Transporter
    The plot doesn't rate as high as the quality of the bodies in fast, furious motion. What counts in The Transporter isn't the wafer-thin story about smugglers -- it's the way Martin kicks open a door, fends off a couple of axes and uses a perfectly ordinary sport shirt as a weapon.
  61. Ash Wednesday
    Suspenseful and ultimately unpredictable, with a sterling ensemble cast.
  62. Punch-Drunk Love
    Charming and outlandish by turns, this misfit love story of disconnected people trying to find one another in an antagonistic world is a comedy of discomfort and rage that turns unexpectedly sweet and pure.
  63. Safe Conduct
    Superb -- Crammed with incident, and bristles with passion and energy. Tavernier treats his actors, every last one of them impressive, as an ensemble.
  64. Tuck Everlasting
    A sweeping romantic fable about love and mortality, targets an audience of girls in their early teens, but has been made with such skill and sensitivity that its appeal spans generations.
  65. White Oleander
    This is a film without a center, a film whose young protagonist should have more texture, more of a compelling voice than she does. Through no real fault of the acting, young Astrid does not compel our attention the way she must if White Oleander is to succeed completely on the screen.
  66. Bowling for Columbine
    Moore's concern about issues is genuine, and his showboating technique is often entertaining. But he is not the most organized person in the world, and there is a scattershot randomness about this film that is both its essence and a source of frustration.
  67. Swept Away
    Madonna may be better in this film than she's been in some of her recent endeavors, especially when she stops screeching her lines, but she's done herself no favors with her choice of material.
  68. How to Draw a Bunny
    A seamless model of form and content. (My only quibble is the poor quality of the digital video, which doesn't do justice to Johnson's work.)
  69. Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
    This animated retelling of the familiar Old Testament story is playful, high-spirited and unmistakably amusing. It's nice to see that a sense of humor and a sense of values don't inevitably have to cancel each other out.
  70. Heaven
    Doesn't have the courage of its conceit, only an abundance of bad ideas and worse taste.
  71. Pipe Dream
    Smart, sweet and playful romantic comedy.
  72. Welcome to Collinwood
    There isn't much else to the film beyond slapstick antics and professional gloss, but the results are diverting enough, in great measure because it's essentially a scene-by-scene remake Mario Monicelli's 1958 satire, "Big Deal on Madonna Street."
  73. Bloody Sunday
    Once positions hardened, tragedy was all but inevitable, and Bloody Sunday" does the spirit of that awful day full and unforgettable justice.
  74. Red Dragon
    There's no freshness here, no sense of newness or discovery. In its place, there's an earnest desire not to drop the ball, a determination to risk as little as possible in keeping this golden egg from cracking wide open.
  75. Just a Kiss
    Though the cast ends up looking good, the film's unwillingness or inability to have things add up hurts everyone's efforts.
  76. The Tuxedo
    Chan is still able to project the boyishness and insecurity of the new kid on the block. But even those aren't enough to make Tuxedo a black-tie affair.
  77. Skins
    A wrenching, uncompromisingly bleak film, but its stars, who include talented newcomer Noah Watts as Mogie's son and Lois Red Elk as the brothers' staunch aunt, fill the screen with warmth, humor and spiritual yearning in the face of hardship and tragedy.
  78. The Lonely Affair of the Heart
    A handsome, intelligent film of rigorous austerity; unfortunately, for all its seriousness of purpose and fine performances, it's also a boring film about boring people.
  79. Crazy as Hell
    Starts encouragingly and finishes strongly with a twist, but the middle is weighed down by too much discourse when it should be visually evoking its ideas and developing its mood of unease.
  80. Shanghai Ghetto
    A serious and thoughtful documentary.
  81. Biggie and Tupac
    One of the better documentaries I'd seen in years -- it plays like a suspense thriller because that's exactly what it is.
  82. The Man from Elysian Fields
    A shimmering fable of innocence and experience set in contemporary Los Angeles and Pasadena (its title is a nod to Virgil's "Aeneid"). Phillip Jayson Lasker's tartly knowing script, with the kind of witty dialogue that's all but vanished from American movies, recalls Hickenlooper's "The Low Life."
  83. Captain Pantoja and the Special Services
    While Pantaleón does have its scorching erotic moments and skewers establishment hypocrisy toward prostitution, it lacks the originality and complexity of "Y Tu Mamá."
  84. Wasabi
    Wasabi dawdles and drags when it should pop; it doesn't even have the virtue of enough mindless violence to break up the tedium of all its generational bonding.
  85. Sweet Home Alabama
    The South takes another beating in Sweet Home Alabama, but that's nothing compared with the one conferred on the sweetheart personality of its pint-sized Gen. Sherman.
  86. Moonlight Mile
    What's on screen is too honest and from the heart to totally dismiss but too slick and contrived to completely embrace. This is a film that cares about genuine emotion but also wants to tame it, to tidy it up and keep it confined to quarters.
  87. The Trials of Henry Kissinger
    Bluntly effective.
  88. Invincible
    The period is evoked with care and imagination, and the film glows with Peter Zeitlinger's cinematography. It has some bravura images and surreal moments typical of Herzog, and composers Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt have contributed a lovely score.
  89. Joshua
    It's a persuasive spiritual journey, sentimental at times but never hopelessly cloying.
  90. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
    There's no defense for movies like these, but neither do they warrant apology; they're irresistibly watchable, like car wrecks.
  91. 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.
  92. The Banger Sisters
    A practiced piece of Hollywood hokum, way too calculated and contrived, especially for a film that nominally celebrates the chaos and creativity of the 1960s.
  93. Trapped
    Not the kind of unwatchable mess you might assume a film withheld from reviewers' scrutiny would be. It is, however, something equally unfortunate: a mess you'd rather not be watching.
  94. The Ignorant Fairies
    This graceful and wise film moves to its denouement with subtlety and, at its end, strikes a note that seems just right for all that has gone before.
  95. 8 Women
    Although it starts off vaguely amusing, 8 Women grows progressively sour, curdled by the filmmakers' bad faith and lack of compassion. It isn't just the tone that's off; it's the point.
  96. Secretary
    For all the dolorous trim, Secretary is a genial romance that maintains a surprisingly buoyant tone throughout, notwithstanding some of the writers' sporadic dips into pop Freudianism.
  97. Spirited Away
    Prepare to be astonished by Spirited Away.
  98. The Experiment
    As an exploitation picture, Das Experiment is mindlessly potent; subtitles are no guarantee of sophistication and subtlety.
  99. Quitting
    Daring and complex. At 112 minutes, it might be 15 minutes too long, but this is not enough to detract from its impact as a probing and universal contemporary drama.
  100. The Dogwalker
    This is, after all, a film in which no one leads life according to script -- but, then, that's also the reason it works.
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