Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,522 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 16522
  2. Mixed: 5,808 out of 16522
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16522
16522 movie reviews
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  1. Auggie Rose
    Consistently imaginative and persuasive in its plotting and writing. Tabak makes substantial demands on his wonderful cast but rewards them with roles of exceptional depth and dimension.
  2. Downtown 81
    Its bygone-ness still abuzz with creativity and movement, Downtown 81 is a celluloid scrapbook that we can all be thankful for in helping capture the rumble before takeoff.
  3. Pola X
    Plays out the notion of the forces of light being inexorably drawn to those of darkness, of the older generation betraying the younger and maybe even an indictment of European indifference to the Balkans' agony.
  4. Tortilla Soup
    As tasty and nourishing as one of Martin's finest meals.
  5. Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
    Because Into the Arms of Strangers is as much a story about childhood as it is about the Holocaust, it's an especially moving and effective piece of work.
  6. Before Night Falls
    Anchored by a charismatic and accessible performance by Javier Bardem as star-crossed Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, this florid examination of an artist's coming of age, of cultures in collusion and conflict, is difficult to resist.
  7. Little Voice
    British actress Jane Horrocks plays Little Voice, and it is a transfixing, tour de force performance.
  8. Swingers
    Confident of its emotional effects, Swingers knows how to breathe life into its people, and hooking audiences is its reward.
  9. Pauline and Paulette
    This beguiling Belgian fable, very much its own droll and delicate little film, has some touching things to say about what is important in life and why.
  10. Paragraph 175
    Illuminating, poignant and heartening.
  11. The Emperor's New Clothes
    Sergio Ballo's costumes have the look of authentic clothing, realistically reflecting the characters' wide range in social status. Rachel Portman's score, at once romantic, majestic and vital, completes this beguiling film.
  12. Lan Yu
    Assured, vital and well wrought, the film is, arguably, the most accomplished work to date from Hong Kong's versatile Stanley Kwan.
  13. 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.
  14. Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams
    Though it's longer and more elaborate than it needs to be, it shares its predecessor's smart but relaxed sense of humor, a sophisticated imagination and the ability to be sharp and playful without being malicious.
  15. The Kid Stays in the Picture
    A witty, colorful and poignant account of the life and times of producer Robert Evans.
  16. Empire
    In regard to Franc. Reyes' engrossing and utterly uncompromising Empire let it be said right at the top that the protean John Leguizamo, last seen as Toulouse-Lautrec in "Moulin Rouge," gives one of the best performances of the year in a lead role in an American movie.
  17. Red Satin
    Belly dancing isn't always the most thrilling of dances, but it's a blast to see these women shaking and rolling because they're so thoroughly in charge of the male clientele and their own sexuality.
  18. The Cockettes
    This comprehensive and charming film not only recalls those days exactly, it also manages the wonderful trick of taking us back there along with it.
  19. Julien Donkey-Boy
    A film of piercing beauty and pain.
  20. Hit and Runway
    A little gem, a sparkling comedy with serious undertones about friendship, self-discovery and artistic integrity.
  21. 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.
  22. Dark Days
    It's remarkable for where it takes us, how it takes us there.
  23. When Brendan Met Trudy
    A plucky comic valentine for those who love the movies more than their own mothers.
  24. Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember
    The kind of full-length career portrait that every great actor deserves but rarely receives.
  25. A Room for Romeo Brass
    An assured, graceful instance of effective screen storytelling, and Meadows draws splendid performances from his cast, especially from the young Shim and Marshall.
  26. Nora
    The filmmakers' special triumph lies in the inspired way that in the nick of time it draws its story to a close, with Nora and Joyce struggling toward a new level of understanding.
  27. Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade
    Offers a violent but compelling vision of what an animated feature can be.
  28. From the Edge of the City
    Brutal yet lyrical film.
  29. Grateful Dawg
    It's to be expected that the music is going to be wonderful, and it is. But there is more to this film, a surprising amount more.
  30. 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
  31. Segunda piel
    Vera has created a provocative, absorbing drama that reveals the curse of a self-hatred instilled by rigid social mores.
  32. Keeping the Faith
    All the more rewarding because of the challenge the material presented.
  33. Orfeu
    Totally captivating, as seductive as a samba.
  34. Food of Love
    An elegant work, Food of Love is as consistently engaging as it is revealing.
  35. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
    An exciting and involving rock music doc, a smart and satisfying look inside that tumultuous world.
  36. Romeo Must Die
    Has a great look and an edgy feel, along with some broad swaths of humor.
    • Los Angeles Times
  37. Benjamin Smoke
    There's such a rawness, purity and even mystical force to everything Benjamin says or sings, that anything else would seem extraneous and detracting from the impact of a man who has lived his life with absolutely no holds barred.
  38. Reykjavík
    Lola is played by veteran Spanish actress Victoria Abril, one of Pedro Almodovar's favorites, and though the character sounds familiar, Abril brings so much zest and enthusiasm to its creation that it feels original and makes the passion she inspires believable.
  39. Little Otik
    Little Otik is too outre not to turn off some, but for those who can go the increasingly macabre distance, its sheer power to confound can be enthralling.
  40. Everybody Says I'm Fine!
    Takes a darkly daring tack that pays off handsomely, providing wholly unexpected dimension that reveals the full measure of Bose's imagination and skill. Smartly designed and richly photographed, this film is an idiosyncratic charmer -- and a lot more.
  41. 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.
  42. A Family Affair
    A serious romantic comedy of such strength and substance and so entertaining that it doesn't matter that its minuscule budget shows around the edges.
  43. Showtime
    From frame one Showtime displays an ingenuity, cleverness and briskness that never flags.
  44. Pipe Dream
    Smart, sweet and playful romantic comedy.
  45. The Trials of Henry Kissinger
    Bluntly effective.
  46. Personal Velocity: Three Portraits
    Miller's strength in her stories and in the film is in her ability to push past ideology and get right down to the nitty-gritty of desire.
  47. Tattoo
    The film is an engrossing and original police procedural of bleak, steel-gray images and high style. But be warned: as part of its complex, ever-unfolding plot, it is punctuated with some grisly images.
  48. Zheng hun qi shi
    Director Chen Kuo-fu adds a refreshingly wry humor to this view and then deftly throws in some wrenching moments and an ultimately astounding final twist.
  49. The Muse
    The sharpest inside Hollywood comedy in quite a while.
  50. Monkeybone
    Grand fantasy, in which Brendan Fraser and stylish design and energetic special effects play off one another for maximum fun.
  51. Long Night's Journey Into Day
    Not merely affecting and illuminating; it concludes on a note of hope.
  52. Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale
    Meanders, dawdles, doubles back on itself but finally gets us somewhere fascinating and worthwhile.
  53. Non-Stop
    Cleverly structured, with a slam-bam score and style to burn.
  54. The Yards
    So strong and secure in its remorseless movement that you buy into what's happening, its people so firmly gripped in the vise of fate and their own character flaws.
  55. Everybody's Famous!
    Hearty mainstream comedy with a sharp satirical edge balanced with just enough sentimentality to send audiences home happy.
  56. The Turandot Project
    More concerned, and with good reason, with the opera's extravagant visual look. The gorgeous pageantry of sets and costumes is frankly dazzling.
  57. A Time for Drunken Horses
    A film of simplicity and power, beautifully shot and effortlessly acted by nonprofessionals.
  58. 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.
  59. The Visit
    This is a film that stays with you long after the lights have gone up.
  60. Happenstance
    It brims with the charm, wisdom and light touch that have endeared French films to international audiences for more than a century. It doesn't hurt that its star is "Amelie's" Audrey Tautou.
  61. Big Bad Love
    Brave and admirable for the trust that it puts in a viewer's intuition and willingness in going along with it right through to its rewarding finish.
    • Los Angeles Times
  62. The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy
    Berlanti brings a smart, witty, mainstream style to his well-crafted picture, which surely enhances its crossover appeal.
  63. The Tavern
    Foote pulls off a daring and unexpected finish for The Tavern that takes it to a rigorous, uncompromising level.
  64. The Era of Vampires
    A swift and amusing martial-action, adventure-horror picture with a bold, larger-than-life comic-book sensibility and richly atmospheric production design.
  65. La bûche
    With its lovely images of wintertime Paris and its lyrical Michel Legrand music, La Bu^che does take the cake.
  66. Play It to the Bone
    A wonderfully entertaining, raunchy, hilarious and savage foray into the lives of a couple of beat-up middle-weight boxers who get a second chance.
  67. The Musketeer
    For his robust and handsome The Musketeer, Hyams enlisted veteran Hong Kong stunt coordinator Xin-Xin Xiong to stage a clutch of spectacular action sequences that are amusing in the imaginative intricacy of their bravura.
  68. 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.
  69. Down and Out with the Dolls
    The music is sensational, the energy level high, and Down and Out With the Dolls is a wise and funny treat.
  70. Rosetta
    Grabs you by the throat and won't let go.
  71. The Lady and the Duke
    Just as interesting, if not more so, is how Rohmer integrates his very contemporary concerns into a period drama, how he creates characters who manage to be true to our times as well as their own.
  72. Washington Heights
    This well-paced film's realistic style and authentic locales are a perfect fit for the characters and their story.
  73. A Housekeeper
    A summer treat for sophisticated moviegoers -- graceful and serious, yet not overly so. This easy-to-take movie gets everything just right and is a pleasure to watch.
  74. Est - Ouest
    Takes the most somber of predicaments, and makes it involving, romantic and ultimately intensely suspenseful.
  75. Stuart Little 2
    Like many modern children's films, Stuart Little 2 can't decide between teaching good values ("You're only as big as you feel") and tossing out fake-hip jokes. Though it doesn't happen as often as it should, this is a better film when it allows itself simply to be sweet.
  76. The Gleaners & I
    Captivating new documentary, The Gleaners and I, is charged with the pleasure of discovery.
  77. Holy Smoke
    At once hilarious and serious, cruel and tender, and bristling with vitality, Holy Smoke is the right movie for the millennium, envisioning new possibilities in the way people view and relate to one another.
  78. Brotherhood of the Wolf
    One of the five most popular films of the year in France, "Wolf" is a cross-cultural hoot that no one should take too seriously.
  79. L.I.E.
    L.I.E. has embraced tragedy, folly, perversity and outrageous dark humor. Like "Happiness" and "American Beauty," it takes an unflinching look at the darker aspects of life in American suburbia.
  80. Chaos
    Mixes satire and suspense in unexpected ways in a film that is as darkly amusing as it is bitterly critical of bourgeois society's indifference to suffering.
  81. Assassination Tango
    A wonderfully eccentric piece of filmmaking -- to demand it cohere to formula would be to miss the point.
  82. The Fantasticks
    Manages to honor the theatricality of the source yet becomes a fully cinematic experience. A gem.
    • Los Angeles Times
  83. Dr T and the Women
    Rapp is clearly in sync with Altman's peerless sense of rhythm and knows how to write incisively and economically for Altman's cherished large ensemble casts.
  84. Revolution #9
    Revolution #9, which is absorbing and terse, has some subtle, welcome comic relief from Spalding Gray.
  85. The Mod Squad
    A great-looking picture that zips along with grace, light on its feet but possessed of just enough gravity to allow us to take its people rather than its old TV series premise seriously.
  86. Wendigo
    Though Wendigo has weak spots, including an ending that is not as satisfying as it might be, the film remains memorable despite its flaws. This is a properly spooky film about the power of spirits to influence us whether we believe in them or not.
  87. Margarita Happy Hour
    Chaiken manages to make the film conversational without seeming talky, the curse of many New York filmmakers, and she has as sure an instinct for the succinct image and brisk pacing as she does for dialogue.
  88. Millennium Actress
    Millennium Actress fascinatingly goes where films have not often gone before.
  89. The Endurance
    Butler used several elements to make this story come alive, starting with that vintage Frank Hurley footage, whose rescue from icy waters is in itself something of a miracle.
  90. Ishtar
    A smart, generous, genuinely funny affair. Sometimes, like the camel who almost ambles away with the picture, it's longish in the tooth, but it is based on an extremely astute vision of life. [15 May 1987]
    • Los Angeles Times
  91. Felicia's Journey
    One of the year's riskiest yet most effective films.
  92. Tape
    Thoroughly engrossing.
  93. A Decade Under the Influence
    It is often remarked that the years between "Easy Rider" (1969) and "Star Wars" (1977) marked a second golden age in American filmmaking, and this documentary, as comprehensive as it is incisive, is a reminder of just how many terrific pictures came out during those years.
  94. The Tailor of Panama
    Benefits from delicious acting from co-stars Geoffrey Rush and Pierce Brosnan, a mordant script co-written by le Carre (along with Boorman and Andrew Davies), and the distinctive touch of its director.
  95. The Third Miracle
    Has the gritty, intimate feel of an Eastern European film--and packs the power of a genuine revelation.
  96. Thomas in Love
    Starts gently, with amusing drollness, then gets more serious, even provocative, without sacrificing its light touch. This is very much a film with something on its mind.
  97. The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course
    So refreshing and funny and, in its way, sophisticated.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Tosca
    Altogether, this is successful as a film, while at the same time being a most touching reconsideration of the familiar masterpiece.
  99. Rabbit-Proof Fence
    An old-fashioned weepie tucked inside a fiercely indicting political thriller.
  100. Derrida
    An absolutely first-rate documentary.
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