Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,552 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: 8,716 out of 16552
  2. Mixed: 5,819 out of 16552
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16552
16552 movie reviews
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  1. Train of Life
    Too much of the film is not inspired enough in its humor to overcome the queasy feeling that comes from watching a comedy-adventure involving Jews during the Holocaust.
  2. American Movie
    Although overly long at 107 minutes, American Movie is an incisive, largely absorbing work and a far more mature effort than Smith's "American Job."
  3. The Bone Collector
    A tribute to old-fashioned craftsmanship and skill both on and off the screen, it's as crisp and efficient as its law enforcement protagonists, able to make the best of its traditional genre elements.
  4. The Insider
    A dead-on tale of corporate power, courage, cowardice and how we live.
  5. Last Night
    A mordantly funny and shrewdly understated millennial fantasy.
  6. The Suburbans
    Goes into a tailspin after its impressive setup. Its dramatic tactics become so tangled and diffuse that, by the end, you get the feeling that everything gets tied up too hastily.
  7. Terror Firmer
    More entrails, more bare bosoms, more R-rated sex, more flatulence, more mayhem, more brutality and more violence. But it adds up to less and less.
  8. Beefcake
    An illuminating and engrossing look at the life and times of pioneer Los Angeles physique photographer Bob Mizer
  9. Music of the Heart
    A lot of heart and a lot of music. It just doesn't sing.
  10. The Legend of 1900
    Tantalizingly structured to intrigue us right from the start.
  11. Speaking in Strings
    An extraordinarily intimate, deeply affecting and revelatory documentary on how pain and passion can come together in a creative artist.
  12. Princess Mononoke
    Amore satisfying use of the medium would be difficult to imagine.
  13. Being John Malkovich
    A clever and outrageous piece of whimsical fantasy that is unique, unpredictable and more than a little strange.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    House on Haunted Hill
    Soon enough, it becomes clear how much this movie disrespects both the audience and the genre.
  15. Dreaming of Joseph Lees
    A beautifully articulated and acutely perceptive work with impeccable, carefully shaded performances.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Best Man
    Lee's attempt at making a romantic comedy that black audiences can enjoy without having to reimagine themselves as Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts.
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 36 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Three to Tango
    Typical of this movie's cluelessness is the way it cavalierly traffics in stereotypes.
  18. Bats
    So uninvolving it scarcely matters what it looks like.
  19. Body Shots
    Constant shifts between past and present and between individual stories creates varying perspectives that add dimension and insight to material that might play tritely if presented in straightforward narrative form.
  20. La Ciudad (The City)
    A most-affecting experience, an impressive accomplishment in all its aspects.
  21. Crazy in Alabama
    The juxtaposition of grim reality and pure fantasy doesn't work...the entire film seem artificial and contrived.
  22. Show Me Love
    A completely charming reality-based romantic fantasy, both sweet-natured and sympathetic, Show Me Love is a leader of the pack.
  23. Bringing Out the Dead
    Dances on the edge of flat-lining just like the DOAs that are Frank's stock-in-trade.
  24. That's the Way I Like It
    A tale that's sweet-natured, funny and surprisingly touching.
  25. Julien Donkey-Boy
    A film of piercing beauty and pain.
  26. The Story of Us
    Wants to be an honest look at the problems that can beset a modern marriage, and be funny at the same time, but it doesn't have the skills or the temperament to pull all that off.
  27. L'ennui
    Such a rigorous exploration of sexual obsession that it proves to be a most demanding film.
  28. The Source
    An ambitious and largely successful documentary testimony-tribute to the founders of the so-called Beat movement.
    • 14 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    The Omega Code
    A hokey doomsday/millennialist thriller.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Joe the King
    Antisentimental to a fault.
  31. The Straight Story
    Too mannered and weird around the edges to be convincing.
  32. Defying Gravity
    A straightforward drama done with a maturity and conviction impressive for a first film.
  33. Fight Club
    What's most troubling about this witless mishmash of whiny, infantile philosophizing and bone-crunching violence is the increasing realization that it actually thinks it's saying something of significance.
  34. New Rose Hotel
    No place for literalists, but Ferrera fans should be pleased with this tale.
  35. Whiteboyz
    Documents accurately the capacity of pop culture to make mongrels of its consumers. But it doesn't quite know (or want to know) what to make of it.
  36. Random Hearts
    The film's underlying concept is so irredeemably screwy and far-fetched that no amount of fine work can hope to make it convincing.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human
    The film's greatest strength is the deadpan narration of Hyde Pierce.
  38. The Grandfather
    A wise and beautiful film.
  39. Beyond the Clouds
    A shimmeringly beautiful and wise reverie on love and desire.
  40. The Limey
    A solid genre film that offers the satisfactions of the familiar while deriving its resonance through its specific and telling references to the '60s.
  41. Superstar
    If Superstar were meatloaf--and that would be an improvement--the recipe would be 4 pounds bread crumbs to 3 ounces sirloin. Make that chuck.
  42. Boys Don't Cry
    An exceptional--and exceptionally disturbing--film from a first-time director and writer (with Andy Bienen) named Kimberly Pierce. Unflinching, uncompromising, made with complete conviction and rare skill.
  43. Molly
    It is moving and has been well-crafted with much care.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    Plunkett & Macleane
    Everything is stunningly photographed by John Mathieson, but to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a cockroach is a cockroach is a cockroach.
  45. Mystery, Alaska
    It is Australian Crowe, a previous non-skater, who gives the film's standout performance.
  46. The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
    It looks as if no one bothered to deliver more than the minimum requirement of magic or artistry.
  47. Happy, Texas
    A hoot, a hilarious comedy that's smart and caring, yet sexy and ingenious enough that it just might stir up some of that elusive "Full Monty"-style box-office appeal.
  48. Bandits
    An emotion-charged tale that's also an edgy commentary on women's destinies and how they're still so largely affected by men.
  49. Three Kings
    Off-and-on cynical and sentimental, Russell's darkly comic tale shows how much can be done with familiar material when you're burning to do things differently and have the gifts to pull that off.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Drive Me Crazy
    Like the song, the movie is bouncy and catchy but disposable pop material.
  51. Double Jeopardy
    For all its familiar conventions and hoary improbabilities, Double Jeopardy is a relatively efficient model of its kind.
  52. On the Ropes
    In recording life as it unfolds in the course of a year, On the Ropes not only defies prediction as to its outcome but is in some ways downright confounding...as involving and suspenseful as the best fictional films.
  53. One Man's Hero
    Has the stuff of a cavalry classic...but it lacks the vision and personality to attain such a level of artistry.
  54. Mumford
    Those who enjoy the old-fashioned Hollywood pleasure of seeing divergent threads neatly pulled together will be more than satisfied.
  55. Jakob the Liar
    The latest in what feels like an endless string of movies ... in which the actor's parts have ruinously overdosed on sentimentality and schmaltz at the expense of humor and even sanity.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Dog Park
    Peel away the layers of contrivances, however, and the leftover plot barely fills a doggy bag.
  57. Simon Sez
    A lackluster international action adventure.
  58. Guinevere
    We have a right to yawn, but we don't, and Sarah Polley is the reason.
  59. The Jaundiced Eye
    As compelling as it is illuminating.
    • Los Angeles Times
  60. Taxman
    Has the hit-machine aura of something whipped together by L.A. studio execs over avocado sandwiches and banana smoothies.
  61. Splendor
    The pleasing Splendor is surely more likely to appeal to a wider audience than any of Araki's previous films.
  62. Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember
    The kind of full-length career portrait that every great actor deserves but rarely receives.
  63. Sugar Town
    Diverting and sometimes humorous but sticks to the superficial ...not distinctive enough to make much of an impression.
  64. Breakfast of Champions
    This starry ensemble dazzles, but the film never comes fully alive until its climactic 20 minutes, which are deeply moving.
  65. Lucie Aubrac
    Lucie Aubrac has it all: a tender romance, acute suspense, terrific acting, and a camera style and and score that are beautiful yet understated...a major work, possessing breadth, depth and passion.
  66. Get Bruce
    An accurate sense of how today's Hollywood works.
  67. Blue Streak
    (Lawrence) has every right to be proud of carrying this rickety film on his stooped shoulders.
  68. For Love of the Game
    Those who have even a small soft spot for baseball's soothing rhythms will be hard-pressed to resist it.
  69. Romance
    As pretentious as it is hard-core specific, this fiercely anti-erotic film makes even the chilly "Eyes Wide Shut" play like "The Big Easy."
  70. American Beauty
    A blood-chilling dark comedy with unexpected moments of both fury and warmth, a strange, brooding and very accomplished film that sets us back on our heels from its opening frames.
  71. The Minus Man
    Eerie, quietly compelling... a fresh and mesmerizing experience...such an unsettling experience you find yourself still taking it all in well after the lights have gone up.
  72. Earth
    Telling things through the eyes of a spoiled, precocious, troublemaking 8-year-old narrator is both an overdone device and not a particularly engaging one.
  73. B. Monkey
    As skilled, resourceful actors, (Argento and Harris) make...a more believable couple than you would have thought possible.
  74. Love Stinks
    Low comedy doesn't get any lower than Love Stinks.
  75. Stigmata
    Essentially a late-'90s MTV version of "The Exorcist," a half-serious, half-silly piece of business that keeps us involved despite (or maybe because of) being more than a little overdone.
  76. Best Laid Plans
    A fine mood piece with lots of atmosphere and boasts terrific performances from its stars.
  77. Black Cat, White Cat
    Kusturica works marvels with his endlessly amusing cast, and his film has an appealingly free and easy tone.
  78. All the Little Animals
    There's something plodding and uncomfortably strident about Little Animals that keeps the audience from sharing, much less understanding, Bobby's enchantment.
  79. Outside Providence
    Corrente's gift for evoking the lives of blue-collar men that made his debut film, "Federal Hill," so appealing blends perfectly with the antic sensibility of the Farrellys.
  80. Chill Factor
    Melts swiftly...don't expect a shred of credibility.
  81. The Muse
    The sharpest inside Hollywood comedy in quite a while.
  82. The Astronaut's Wife
    A moderately diverting thriller that builds suspense and entertains effectively... strongest selling point is Charlize Theron.
    • Los Angeles Times
  83. The Very Thought of You
    Glowing, amusing movie that's a good bet to lift your spirits.
  84. A Dog of Flanders
    This is a movie for younger children -- they won't notice that the children deliver their lines with all the conviction of an airline flight boarding announcement.
  85. The 13th Warrior
    Thinking too much about the contents will ruin what little pleasure there is in the experience.
  86. Dudley Do-Right
    Tiresome, inept farce that's not even a fraction as clever or entertaining as it likes to imagine it is -- a complete waste of time.
  87. In Too Deep
    Script resounds throughout with astringent dialogue and stark authenticity.
  88. Mickey Blue Eyes
    With preposterously convoluted plot twists, not even Grant is enough to make us smile all the way through the end.
    • Los Angeles Times
  89. Teaching Mrs. Tingle
    In his knockout directorial debut writer Kevin Williamson taps into such universal memories with his shrewd and energetic dark comedy.
  90. Universal Soldier: The Return
    Sleek...This is one "return" that's surely welcome.
    • Los Angeles Times
  91. Perfect Blue
    Adapted by Sadayuki Murai from Yoshikazu Takeuchi's novel, "Perfect Blue" creates an increasingly terrifying world and pulls you into it with the effectiveness of a Hitchcock suspense classic. [07 Oct 1999, p.F16]
    • Los Angeles Times
  92. Brokedown Palace
    Just another lurid, contrived, xenophobic tale about Americans trapped in hideous foreign prisons.
  93. Bowfinger
    Has it's share of downtime.
    • Los Angeles Times
  94. Detroit Rock City
    This aggressively stupid film is merely business as usual, a compendium of all the current obsessions and fixations that make so many of these films such unhappy experiences.
  95. Better Than Chocolate
    Even though you could wish that Better Than Chocolate was a little more substantially developed, it nonetheless brims over with good humor and high spirits and has some moments of stunning yet tasteful eroticism. [13 Aug 1999, p.F10]
    • Los Angeles Times
  96. Autumn Tale
    Droll and delicious.
  97. Mystery Men
    It's clever, amusing, clever, visually inventive, clever, well-cast .
  98. The Thomas Crown Affair
    A moderately diverting entertainment as sleek and aerodynamically sound as the glider its characters tool around in, it takes no extraordinary chances and delivers no major surprises.
  99. The Acid House
    A virulent but thoroughly entertaining trilogy of tales about the besieged lower classes of Edinburgh, ripe with vulgarity, self-loathing, violence and economic disorder.
  100. Illuminata
    Everything falls into place and seems exactly right: the brisk tempo, the crisp, witty performances, the slightly sooty touch.
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