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. Grass
    This turns out to be an informative, involving, even sobering advocacy film.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Better Living Through Circuitry
    Circuitry plugs into the underground world of raves. The scene, complete with drugs and its own culture, is blissfully examined in a documentary that speaks the language of its youthful generation.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Passion of Mind
    Like a hall of mirrors, casting back at us distorted images from other movies. It even calls to mind "The Sixth Sense." It isn't engaging in the least.
  4. 8 ½ Women
    A nod to Fellini--and that "half" turns out to be a typically dark Greenaway twist. Yet this film, one of Greenaway's most amusing and accessible, actually arrives at moments of tenderness, even love, fleeting though they may be.
  5. Shanghai Noon
    Jackie Chan's best American picture to date, breathes fresh life into the virtually dormant comedy-western.
  6. Kikujirô no natsu
    A heart-tugger made totally irresistible because of the combination of Kitano's wry, sly sense of humor and his rigorous detachment.
  7. Mission: Impossible II
    The power of film to irrationally transform and exalt is almost a religion to Woo, and another reason why he was the natural go-to guy for this lucrative movie franchise.
  8. Luminous Motion
    What counts here is the acute psychological validity with which Gordon evokes a coming of age that's seen with a darkly outrageous sense of humor--and no small amount of compassionate detachment.
  9. Small Time Crooks
    Handsome as all Allen films are, and it proceeds with the brisk, sophisticated air of throwaway confidence and lack of pretense that we expect from the contemporary master of grown-up comedy.
    • Los Angeles Times
  10. Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man
    Unnecessary and silly.
    • Los Angeles Times
  11. Dinosaur
    A technical amazement that points computer-generated animation toward the brightest of futures, it's also cartoonish in the worst way, the prisoner of pedestrian plot points and childish, too-cute dialogue.
    • Los Angeles Times
  12. Held Up
    A pleasant diversion, and its makers have been smart enough to keep it unpretentious.
  13. Coming Soon
    It's amazing how boring endless talk about more and better orgasms can become.
  14. Kadosh
    Gitai has created a film that is as beautiful as it is all but unbearable to watch.
  15. Center Stage
    Only really kicks in when it is dancing, which is about half the time.
  16. Hamlet
    Almereyda imagines Hamlet taking place in present-day Manhattan with such vigor, insight and originality that the power and immediacy of his film makes Shakespeare accessible in an exciting and provocative manner beyond all expectations.
    • 9 Metascore
    • 0 Critic Score
    Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000
    Compounded by a dated visual style, patched-together special effects and ludicrous dialogue, Battlefield Earth is a wholly miserable experience.
  18. Gladiator
    Like an aging athlete who knows how to husband strength and camouflage weaknesses, it makes the most of what it does well and hopes you won't notice its limitations.
  19. Luminarias
    Consistently entertaining and offers some sharp observations of the Latino experience.
  20. La Nouvelle Ève
    A beautiful film that flows with a luminous ease and assurance.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Basket
    It may be a hard sell to the Gameboy generation, but The Basket has charms that may be more evident to adults.
  22. I Dreamed of Africa
    This is a Laura Ashley on Safari meditation on bored rich people searching for fulfillment and a new life among the photogenic wildlife of Kenya. Just wake me when it's over.
  23. Up at the Villa
    The melodrama of the Maugham original is too simplistic to involve, and the places the film's plot goes are so obvious that even the presence of quality actors can't create sufficient interest.
  24. Adorenarin doraibu
    A rip-roaring romantic comedy that's as funny as it is light on its feet.
  25. Human Traffic
    There's an underlying emptiness to Human Traffic and it's difficult to say for sure whether Kerrigan fully acknowledges it.
  26. Michael Jordan to the Max
    Made with such verve and clarity that you don't have to be a basketball fan to enjoy it.
    • Los Angeles Times
  27. The Idiots
    The group's intent is not to insult those physically or mentally challenged in any manner of degree but, rather, to disturb middle-class types as much as they possibly can.
  28. Frequency
    After keeping its balance over much treacherous terrain, greedily overreaches and stumbles badly at the close.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
    It feels more like a cartoon, and when you're dealing with modern Stone Age families, that can only be a plus.
  30. Bossa Nova
    Tilts toward the slight and merely pleasant when it could have had much more emotional impact.
  31. Where the Heart Is
    In comparison to Where the Heart Is, the Wal-Mart commercials seem like cinema verite.
  32. Timecode
    A clever way of providing crucial layering and heightening a hip, satirical take on bad old Hollywood ways.
  33. Committed
    With its capacity to surprise, the film comes to life when you don't expect it to, in tiny but wonderfully off-center moments.
  34. The Big Kahuna
    A drama of extraordinary power and insight with dazzling performances from not only Spacey but also Danny DeVito (who may well be at his best ever) and from newcomer Peter Facinelli.
  35. From the Edge of the City
    Brutal yet lyrical film.
  36. The Last September
    A luminous, piercing film from the Elizabeth Bowen novel, richly evokes a world of privilege on the verge of disintegration.
  37. Gossip
    A total waste of time.
    • Los Angeles Times
  38. U-571
    Gets high marks for tension and excitement.
    • Los Angeles Times
  39. Croupier
    Intense, hypnotic, assured, Croupier mesmerizes from its opening image of a roulette ball on the move.
    • Los Angeles Times
  40. The Virgin Suicides
    Successfully venturesome, but you need to know that it's also a real downer.
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Love & Basketball
    In her first feature, writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood tells a familiar tale with first-rate acting and an underlying sense of authenticity.
    • Los Angeles Times
  42. 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.
  43. The Girl Next Door
    Insightful and thoughtful.
    • Los Angeles Times
  44. Keeping the Faith
    All the more rewarding because of the challenge the material presented.
  45. East Is East
    Above all a man's confrontation with self in middle-age and his need to accept the fact that his children, beyond their mixed ancestry, are after all native-born English citizens.
  46. Third World Cop
    Main lure is what feels like a very authentic visual sense of the nontourist side of Kingston, where the ambience of zinc-walled shacks wallpapered with old newspapers is captured by cinematographer Richard Lannaman.
  47. American Psycho
    Stillborn, pointless piece of work.
  48. 28 Days
    Too glib too often to make much of an impression any way you look at it.
  49. Return to Me
    Duchovny and Driver have distinctive good looks and they both combine attractiveness with talent and intelligence. Best of all, they possess that essential quality all screen lovers must have: terrific chemistry.
  50. Southpaw
    Warm and appealing, but there clearly was a far more informative and comprehensive film to be made of the life and world of Francis Barrett.
  51. Me Myself I
    Griffiths' Pam holds your attention without any gratuitous mannerisms or broad asides. It's a sleek, rangy performance that all but redeems the hackneyed familiarity of the premise.
  52. Rules of Engagement
    Passable, moderately diverting dramatic entertainment.
  53. Est - Ouest
    Takes the most somber of predicaments, and makes it involving, romantic and ultimately intensely suspenseful.
  54. The Filth and the Fury
    A film as arresting and at times as frustrating as the Pistols themselves.
  55. Joe Gould's Secret
    A series of subtly interlocking character studies.
  56. Ready to Rumble
    A movie made for wrestling fans that makes fun of wrestling fans? That cuts a little too close to the vicarious masochism at the heart of pro wrestling's core constituency. Also, it's not funny.
  57. Black and White
    The voyeuristic indulgences of a middle-aged filmmaker playing out his most deep-seated and unresolved sexual fantasies and anxieties.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Price of Glory
    The specificity of Glory's setting and the ethnicity of its characters enrich the story without moving it one iota away from a mainstream frame of reference.
  59. The Road to El Dorado
    Reasonably diverting, but don't count on it lingering in your memory.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Skulls
    It contains, perhaps, one pinkie-toe bone of surprise in its skeleton of cliche.
  61. High Fidelity
    A sharp and satisfying romantic comedy.
  62. Beau Travail
    A ruggedly beautiful landscape of desert and sea provides a dramatic setting for a psychological drama told with the utmost rigor--and unabashed eroticism.
  63. The Color of Paradise
    As worthy and moving as The Color of Paradise is, it is not entirely free of the manipulative, the arbitrary and the downright punitive.
  64. Here on Earth
    Just the ticket for girls in their early teens.
  65. Buddy Boy
    Production notes for Mark Hanlon's Buddy Boy describe it as "a dark and twisted exploration of faith, alienation and madness"--and is it ever!
  66. Whatever It Takes
    It's guys like Floyd who make a movie like Whatever It Takes feel like high school. And the rest of the losers make it feel like a movie.
  67. Such a Long Journey
    A thoughtful but uneven film.
  68. Waking the Dead
    It is a film of uncommon intelligence and rigor that illuminates a complex era, and the romance at its center is also one of exceptional passion and honesty.
  69. Winter Sleepers
    Offers a riveting depiction of the classic collision of fate and character, with geography in this instance playing a crucial role.
  70. Romeo Must Die
    Has a great look and an edgy feel, along with some broad swaths of humor.
    • Los Angeles Times
  71. Erin Brockovich
    Irresistible, hugely satisfying feminist fairy tale.
  72. Final Destination
    A terrific theatrical feature debut for television veterans Glen Morgan and James Wong.
  73. Beyond the Mat
    Connects the antics of professional wrestlers with their lives out of the ring with such compassion, humor and perception that the result is utterly captivating.
  74. Soft Fruit
    Asks us to spend 101 minutes with people most of us wouldtake pains to avoid in real life.
  75. Deterrence
    Lurie undermines his high-wire act with the melodramatic carryings-on of the diner patrons.
  76. Mission to Mars
    It's a wonderful piece of filmmaking, but once any mouth is opened the magic is immediately tarnished.
  77. The Ninth Gate
    Lacking noticeable energy or drive, its almost visceral distaste for dramatic momentum is puzzling, especially in a film about the black arts.
  78. Condo Painting
    Has an edgy feel and a knockout soundtrack.
  79. The Next Best Thing
    A misguided romantic serio-comedy aimed at women and gay men that ends up caricaturing both.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
    It's a nearly pitch-perfect melding of genres, influences and modes of expression--it's the first Mafia movie for the hip-hop age.
  81. Drowning Mona
    With a hilarious script and capable cast, the film puts a clever spin on the everyone-is-a-suspect plot.
  82. What Planet Are You From?
    Sporadically funny, often strange and almost never poignant.
    • 11 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    3 Strikes
    The bad news is that it's also vile, not to mention sophomoric and unfunny.
    • Los Angeles Times
  84. Judy Berlin
    A comedy of the most delicately balanced perfection.
  85. Brown's Requiem
    An uncommonly satisfying private-eye mystery that is at once classic in form and deeply personal in feeling.
  86. Mifune's Last Song
    A pow-in-the-kisser kind of movie.
  87. Theeviravaathi: The Terrorist
    A wonder several times over.
  88. Reindeer Games
    Its twisty film noir world of down-on-their-luck men and unfathomable women is vintage B-picture material, but, in the grand B tradition, the games it plays are more ambitious than successful.
  89. The Closer You Get
    A droll, hearty Irish comedy with a serious undertow all the more effective for its unexpected candor and depth.
  90. Wonder Boys
    A handsomely mounted, graceful production that is well-played across the board.
  91. The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
    Aviva Kempner's warm and intelligent mash note to a man who clearly deserved it.
    • Los Angeles Times
  92. Beautiful People
    Lives up to its ambitiousness in all its aspects.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Boiler Room
    Tries to make larger points, but it trips over itself just trying to make the small ones.
  94. Hanging Up
    All the ingredients of a success--a stellar cast, a promising premise, a strong production team--but nothing comes together in satisfying fashion.
  95. The Whole Nine Yards
    A peppy affair that works in fits and starts but is unable to put its successful moments together in any consistently satisfying way.
  96. Not One Less
    Has a warmth and sweetness that is especially hard to resist.
  97. Pitch Black
    A routine sci-fi/horror action-adventure, takes us where we've been countless times before.
  98. Cotton Mary
    Not only is it Merchant's best directorial effort to date but also is among the finest films the Merchant Ivory company has ever made.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Snow Day
    Isn't for teens, it's for the kids who aspire to be teens.
  100. The Tigger Movie
    Parents and older siblings...may grow impatient with the uneven execution that weakens the genuine charm the film sporadically exhibits.
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