Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,523 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: 8,698 out of 16523
  2. Mixed: 5,808 out of 16523
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16523
16523 movie reviews
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  1. Tropic Thunder
    There is genuine humor and palpable satiric intent underneath the waves of unnerving bad taste and political incorrectness.
  2. Australia
    If you are willing to take the plunge and view things through Luhrmann's prism, "Australia" does deliver the classic dramatic and romantic satisfactions its ambitious advertising campaign promises.
  3. Holding Trevor
    Director Rosser Goodman makes the crucial decisions facing Trevor suspenseful and involving -- and tinged with humor as well as pathos.
  4. Death Defying Acts
    Far more diverting and well crafted than its promotion-free release campaign might suggest. Then again, for a film largely based on the notion that "nothing is what it seems," such lowered expectations may actually work in its favor.
  5. Giorni e nuvole
    An intelligent adult drama that's especially relevant in these harsh economic times.
  6. A Very British Gangster
    If Tony Soprano had a cheekier, less haunted, openly gay British counterpart, it would be Dominic Noonan, the Manchester crime boss profiled in the stylish and compelling A Very British Gangster.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Berlin
    Reed stands at the center, taut and impassive, punching out words that are more often spoken than sung.
  8. Baghead
    The filmmakers maintain a delicate balance that generates tension on multiple levels, including sexual. They giddily mix genres, but Baghead, part meta-cinematic comedy, part relationship drama and part horror movie, remains rooted in reality.
  9. No Regret
    As a love story, it could scarcely be more tempestuous and as an exposé of class differences and sexual hypocrisy it could hardly be more scathing -- or, more important, entertaining.
  10. Beautiful Losers
    Fortunately, Rose's on-camera turns as a kind of "I-was-there" guide through the various incarnations of the Alleged Gallery and its starrier alumni, help give this freewheeling portrait a welcome heart.
  11. W.
    W. is not a dispassionate biography; it is an interpretation of personality intersecting with history, and as a piece of drama it is persuasive and perfectly creditable.
  12. Flow: For Love of Water
    A smartly done, involving look at a number of interrelated water issues.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Family That Preys
    Dude, what made you refuse to screen your film for critics before it opened Friday? I'm betting you would have received an earful of praise for your writing and directing.
  14. Ghost Town
    Audiences who feel battered by Hollywood's usual hard-sell approach to farce may be disarmed by Koepp's soft touch and inclined to credit blandness as understatement.
  15. Body of Lies
    Always crisp and watchable. But as the film's episodic story gradually reveals itself, it ends up too unconvincing and conventional to consistently hold our attention.
  16. Breakfast with Scot
    Has a sitcom format, but complex emotions and perceptions keep breaking through the surface in an engaging, thoughtful manner.
  17. Fear(s) of the Dark
    None of the segments are really interested in jump/scare/slasher horror, but rather the slow, creeping terror of feeling something is wrong and something worse is coming, making the film a most frightful Halloween aperitif.
  18. High School Musical 3: Senior Year
    For those scoring at home, the third entry in the "High School Musical" series is better than the second but doesn't quite sustain the unvarnished, giddy highs of the first.
  19. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
    The film's two levels -- metaphoric and nitty-gritty -- don't mesh until the devastation of the closing sequence, which both indulges in and transcends melodrama.
  20. The Betrayal - Nerakhoon
    Exploring a Lao family's experience during and since the Vietnam War, the film chronicles the treacheries of geopolitics and the upheaval of exile.
  21. Milk
    There's nothing terribly wrong with Milk, it's just that its celebration of a culture and a neighborhood, its valentine to the early days of gay rights activism, is mostly more conventional than compelling.
  22. Bolt
    At the end of the day, Bolt is a sweet Disney family film.
  23. The Day the Earth Stood Still
    This contemporary remake of the science-fiction classic knew what it was doing when it cast Keanu Reeves, the movies' greatest stone face since Buster Keaton.
  24. Doubt
    Shanley seems to have lost a certain amount of faith in what he'd written. As a director he's ended up pushing the drama harder than he needs to. He hasn't done anything fatal, but he has tampered with and hampered it.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    What Doesn't Kill You
    Ruffalo's feral vulnerability gives the familiar form a jolt.
  26. The Reader
    It is only, frankly, the strength of Winslet's performance that rises above conventional surroundings and makes The Reader the experience it should be.
  27. The Tale of Despereaux
    A rare creature, not only for the handmade look and subtlety of its computer-generated imagery but also for its irony-free embrace of once-upon-a-time storytelling.
  28. Last Chance Harvey
    Small and surprisingly hopeful film, with beautifully attenuated performances by Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson.
  29. Valkyrie
    A perfectly acceptable motion picture. The only thing that keeps it from even greater accomplishments may be inherent in the story itself.
  30. Hotel for Dogs
    What it is packed with is lots of sneaking around, very cool gadgets, excellent stunts and some clever kids.
  31. Notorious
    Through it all are the rhymes and the music, hugely enjoyable in their own right, and the long, large shadow of Biggie.
  32. Medicine for Melancholy
    The narrative, at times, veers into overstatement, but for the most part we're allowed to eavesdrop on their self-examination guilt-free.
  33. Eleven Minutes
    Lively and suspenseful.
  34. Tokyo!
    A fun jaunt around the city and a quick tour of the preoccupations of three leading directors? Now there's a bargain.
  35. Race to Witch Mountain
    A fast and furious (yes "fast and furious" in that way) wild ride of a movie in which the good guys are good (some of them really, really good), the bad guys are good (very scary good) and the car chases (around a thousand of them by my count, though it was hard to keep track with all the screeching tires and twisted metal) are pretty spectacular.
  36. Monsters vs Aliens
    In fact "nice" is the adjective that seems to surface most in trying to pin down the film's most salient quality, which means that while the film is enjoyable enough, it is unlikely to become a classic for us, or a "Shrek" sort of franchise for DreamWorks.
  37. 12 Rounds
    Escapist fun that provides an effective showcase for the blue-collar charisma and bulky good looks of its hyper-athletic lead, four-time World Champion wrestler John Cena (think Matt Damon, only twice the size).
  38. The Escapist
    It makes for an unexpectedly welcome form of dramatic escape: the character study breaking free from a hoary old movie genre.
  39. Fast & Furious
    Fast & Furious is, in a very bizarre way, a thing of gasp-inducing artistry to watch, even if you're not a member of the NASCAR, gear-head, street-racing crowd.
  40. Paris 36
    Paris 36 has a beguilingly authentic sound and offers a blend of impassioned sentiment and harsh, even brutal grit
  41. The Song of Sparrows
    I can't help but be struck by the stark cultural differences in the portrayal of family life, particularly the relationships between women and men. The characters Majidi draws of children and their fathers are rich: sometimes combative, always loving and textured. But the mothers never truly emerge from the background.
  42. Lemon Tree
    Lemon Tree is in its best moments a sober-hearted take on the righteous blowback from whittled-away souls, and a movie that invariably rights itself with each return to the beautifully steely gaze of Abbass.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Treeless Mountain
    Kim is deft and sensitive with her tiny co-stars, but Treeless Mountain lacks the freshness and surprise of "In Between Days."
  44. Fighting
    It's not "Raging Bull" or "Fight Club," but Fighting is populated by believable losers and lovingly adorned with just the right faces and peeling wallpaper to absorb you in Montiel's world.
  45. Battle for Terra
    Director/co-writer Aristomenis Tsirbas, expanding his own short film, unveils a classically devised invasion yarn à la H.G. Wells, but with the twist that humans are the aggressors.
  46. Outrage
    While the anger of Outrage is to be expected, the surprise of the film is how much sadness you take away as well, the sadness of people who feel compelled to pretend to be what they are not.
  47. Big Man Japan
    The film has slow sections that test the viewer's patience. But it also touches on themes of family, heroism and nationalism, and the finale, which has plenty of surprises and rewarding references for fans of the genre, is worth the wait.
  48. Jerichow
    Petzold, who has a crisp style and sharp sense of the visual, is too talented and imaginative to allow his film to become predictable. Rather, Jerichow offers implicit, sardonic social comment as well as a compelling playing out of the eternal triangle.
  49. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
    So professionally done you rarely have the luxury of taking your eyes off the screen.
  50. Pressure Cooker
    Stephenson's a true original, worthy of her own reality TV show. As Pressure Cooker proves: Anything is possible.
  51. Dead Snow
    Any horror movie with the moxie to play Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" during a zombie attack can't be all bad.
  52. The End of the Line
    An apocalyptic documentary that is as beautiful as it is damning.
  53. Chéri
    Michelle Pfeiffer is back, and her reappearance in Cheri, her best role in quite some time, underlines not only how much she's been missed but also how much the world of film has lost by her absence.
  54. Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
    Entertaining, nostalgic and well-organized documentary.
  55. Aliens in the Attic
    Perfectly calibrated for the pre-adolescent set, highlighting broad physical comedy and themes of kid empowerment and featuring one of the stars from "High School Musical."
  56. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
    The Goods motors along choking out enough lowbrow laughs to make for an agreeably nutty late summer ride.
  57. Beeswax
    Beeswax has a rhythmic quality, and it eschews conventional plotting for sharp observation of human strengths and foibles.
  58. Paper Heart
    At best, they entertain in a "people say the darndest things" kind of way. But they do support the notion that people still fall in love and find a way to make it work for a lifetime, which is about as happy an ending as you could wish for.
  59. Earth Days
    There is a sense of sadness around Earth Days, a sense that opportunities were not capitalized on, that not enough was done.
  60. Fifty Dead Men Walking
    Terrific performances and an array of kinetic action scenes help distinguish Fifty Dead Men Walking from the seemingly endless stream of films about Northern Ireland's infamous era of sectarian violence known as the Troubles.
  61. Five Minutes of Heaven
    Ultimately, Five Minutes of Heaven is stronger as a whole than its individual parts. It's a well-performed piece that perhaps required a more calibrated hand than Hirschbiegel's proves here.
  62. The September Issue
    A slight, if often riveting, behind-the-scenes documentary.
  63. No Impact Man: The Documentary
    The film ultimately is more practical than profound, a slightly smartened-up "Dummy's Guide to Green Living," which, as you learn, most of us probably know a good deal less about than we imagine.
  64. Paris
    If the idea of interconnectedness feels secondhand, what's fresh and affecting is the way Binoche's and Duris' characters navigate life and death.
  65. Disgrace
    Absorbing but often bloodless and, frankly, depressing.
  66. (Untitled)
    As in the best movie satires, there's a solid core of truth informing director Jonathan Parker's (Untitled), which takes on the New York art and music worlds in one smart and funny swoop.
  67. Laila's Birthday
    Masharawi saves his fist-shaking until the very end, but he needn't have bothered. His camera captures the senselessness of life in this city under siege in a way that words cannot.
  68. You, the Living
    You, the Living suggests that we would do well to discover the joy we find in each other that so often goes along with the pain.
  69. Capitalism: A Love Story
    Moore's scattershot is a lot more interesting than some filmmakers' focus, and many of those individual parts are classic.
  70. The Horse Boy
    Tthe film, which also contains brief interviews with several autism experts, proves an extraordinary journey of the heart and spirit, and a stirring testament to parenthood.
  71. As Seen Through These Eyes
    Any remembrance of Holocaust victims is, of course, a worthy endeavor and a historical priority.
  72. The Yes Men Fix the World
    An odd combination of righteous, raucous and rueful.
  73. Visual Acoustics
    Nominally about the life and career of landmark Southern California architectural photographer Julius Shulman, but it's more about the buildings he photographed than it is about him. Which is probably the way he'd like it.
  74. The Stepfather
    Tthe film is all of a piece, a handsome, thoughtfully crafted production that generates a mounting terror securely anchored by assured performances, consistent psychological persuasiveness and believable dialogue. What's most chilling about The Stepfather is that it was inspired by an actual incident in New Jersey in 1971.
  75. The Sun
    The setting, largely confined to the laboratory building and underground bunker of the otherwise bombed-out Imperial Palace, makes for somewhat claustrophobic viewing but effectively enhances the hermetically sealed feeling of Hirohito's royal life.
  76. Giant
    As unpretentious as it is perceptive, Gigante is a gem.
  77. Serious Moonlight
    It's been a long time since Ryan has had a romantic comedy that gave her room to move and though the scale is smaller here, the humor blacker and Ryan well beyond the first blush phase, you'll be glad that Serious Moonlight came along.
  78. To Save a Life
    Manages to be appealing, poignant and inspiring in ways that are gentle and quite real. This smartly calibrated film also pulls off something rare by presenting religious commitment as something that's not only potentially healing and elevating, but also kind of cool.
  79. She's Out of My League
    What he (Jay Baruchel) brings to She's Out of My League, in addition to the geek and the gawk, is a dash of the debonair, which might seem impossible and yet he does.
  80. The Eclipse
    With a well-knit array of picturesque long shots, shadow-strewn medium takes and the occasional silhouetted close-up, The Eclipse finds plenty of heartfelt gravity in its tale of love lost and found on a gothic coast.
  81. Ultimate X: The Movie
    The film's strengths may actually work against it with younger fans who might be disappointed by the few stomach-churning, white-knuckler moments.
  82. The Eyes of Tammy Faye
    (To be) thoroughly enjoyed as a privileged look at one of the loopiest of late 20th century lives.
  83. The Dish
    It unfolds in a hearty, good-natured Australian comedy that affectionately depicts how the citizens of a small town become connected to the Apollo moon flight.
  84. End of the Century
    An engaging and emotional documentary.
  85. Cowboys & Angels
    For all its moments of pathos, Cowboys & Angels is lighthearted. It is an assured piece of work and wholly engaging.
  86. Mule Skinner Blues
    An affectionate documentary about a free-spirited group.
  87. The Girl
    In her feature debut, Zeig, -- displays confidence and style aplenty.
  88. Marooned in Iraq
    Even though the film's tone grows ever more elegiac, it stubbornly remains a celebration of the Kurdish capacity to endure.
  89. All the Pretty Horses
    In an odd way Pretty Horses has been too faithful to the spirit of this somber, fatalistic, melancholy romance, too much a stubborn ode to stoicism, to light any emotional fires.
  90. The Château
    Delightfully bittersweet culture-clash comedy. If what's funny is frequently hilarious, then what's nasty truly stings, and the film is honest enough not to tie up everything with a ribbon.
  91. Cradle Will Rock
    Its nervy decision to cut as wide a swath as possible through one of the most exciting and meaningful periods of our history have created something that's impossible not to both applaud and enjoy.
  92. Dancing at the Blue Iguana
    A well-crafted film, and it must be said that its actresses, in being prepared to come close to baring all for art, reveal stunning figures and perform scorching routines.
  93. Life and Debt
    The damning commentary and revelations about the perils of globalization, not just for Jamaica but developing countries the world over, do come across loud and clear.
  94. The Slaughter Rule
    Has the virtue of sincerity but not that of restraint. Unlike Terrence Malick, whose shadow looms over the film's visual style, the Smiths over-explain, not grasping that all those barren fields and blood-red clouds are doing plenty of work for them.
  95. O
    Essential to the success it manages is Hartnett's low-key, charismatic performance -- cool, withholding, compelling. The triumph of his insinuating Hugo/Iago is how plausible he is, how he manages to convincingly inject poison in so many minds without seeming to be trying.
  96. DysFunktional Family
    Some may be offended by Eddie Griffin's blunt language, yet they would find it hard to deny that he tells it like it is.
  97. In Too Deep
    Script resounds throughout with astringent dialogue and stark authenticity.
  98. Sunset Strip
    Moves smoothly amid a near-perfect period evocation, captured in an array of shifting moods.
  99. Simon Magus
    Poetic and ambiguous, it manages to be magical in both the beautiful and terrifying senses of the word.
  100. Boesman and Lena
    Gradually, the power of the material and the stars takes hold, flashbacks begin to flesh out the characters' lives, and Boesman & Lena comes alive--achingly and passionately.
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