Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,550 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: 8,714 out of 16550
  2. Mixed: 5,819 out of 16550
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16550
16550 movie reviews
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  1. Anatomy 2
    Suspenseful entertainment -- but it's also a suitably chilling cautionary tale.
  2. Almost Peaceful
    Succeeds as a delicately moving memory piece about a subject not often put on film: the process of moving on into ordinary life after surviving the Holocaust.
  3. My First Mister
    In its first two-thirds, My First Mister, which marks Christine Lahti's feature directorial debut, looks to be a winner. But it takes a disastrously wrong turn toward the end that all but destroys the good work that's come before.
  4. The Komediant
    It is impossible to watch this warm, wonderful film without becoming aware of the enormous impact the Yiddish theater has had on every aspect of American show business.
  5. Tycoon: A New Russian
    In the end Tycoon above all evokes a melancholy awareness of the seemingly eternal exploitation and impoverishment of the Russian people.
  6. The Virgin Suicides
    Successfully venturesome, but you need to know that it's also a real downer.
    • Los Angeles Times
  7. Millennium Mambo
    There's wonderful promise in Hou's attempt to make a movie about the kind of woman who's usually part of the scenery.
  8. Nicotina
    Nicotina's every loser, criminal, dreamer, crank and cynic is flawed, but their flaws are primal and as human as thumbs. In the end, it's this grim but tender view of humanity that gives the movie its appealing combination of mordant humor and cheerful pessimism.
  9. Owning Mahowny
    Kwietniowski might have tried for some edginess that would express a measure of the excitement Mahowny is experiencing. Despite the driven intensity of the banker, the film threatens to slip into the lifelessness of the drab world it depicts.
  10. Shadow Magic
    Evokes the dawn of cinema in China with much charm, humor and subtlety.
  11. Rosenstrasse
    Most important is the film's consistent unexpectedness. Rosenstrasse captures well not only the varying states of mind and levels of awareness in Germany during World War II but also the era's lingering effect upon its survivors.
  12. Solaris
    Ends up more challenging and intriguing than personally involving, and while these are far from small things, it is only human to hope for more.
  13. Night at the Golden Eagle
    A modest pleasure that accomplishes its goals with ease and confidence.
  14. Runaway Jury
    The spirit of the law will be upheld (this being Hollywood), but only after everyone has had plenty of nasty fun (this being Hollywood).
  15. Maryam
    Carefully crafted, notably in its deft dramatic structuring, and has become timely in a way its maker could never have anticipated.
  16. The Myth of Fingerprints
    It's a decorous film, conventionally well-made, but don't be fooled. Its emotional impact is considerable.
  17. Me Without You
    An engaging, straightforward narrative about two childhood playmates and the stages of their friendship from 1973 to 2001.
  18. Rat Race
    Atkinson, somehow managing to be simultaneously delicate and broad, can do things with his face that shouldn't be legal. His delighted and delightful Mr. Pollini is a little taste of comic genius.
  19. The Wind Will Carry Us
    The impact of its finish has been dissipated by too much meandering along the way.
    • Los Angeles Times
  20. 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.
  21. It Runs in the Family
    Schepisi not only inspired the cast to give well-shaded, reflective portrayals but also made the film a work of honest, heartfelt sentiment.
  22. One Last Kiss
    Its portrait of the many ways we can complicate our romantic lives may have a few serious moments, but it's intended to go down easy, and that's what it does.
  23. Bootmen
    Bootmen, which proves to be a real heart-tugger, is in fact accomplished in all its aspects.
  24. Booye kafoor, atre yas
    As somber as much of this deceptively simple yet consistently acute, subtle and observant film is, an effect heightened by a carefully controlled use of color, it is not without hope.
  25. 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.
  26. Sex and Lucia
    Medem is one of the few directors who understands sensuality and knows how to make it happen on screen. Sex and Lucia specializes in pleasant eroticism, using nudity, Koko de la Rica's dreamy cinematography and Alberto Iglesias' Goya-winning score to create episodes of voluptuous lovemaking.
  27. Prisoner of Paradise
    A strange story wrapped in a stranger one, an engrossing documentary about one of the least known and most unexpected aspects of the Nazi war against the Jews.
  28. In Search of Peace
    Stirring, often tragic yet hopeful, In Search of Peace benefits from its eloquent narrator Michael Douglas, and from the voices of Edward Asner, Anne Bancroft, Richard Dreyfuss, Miriam Margolyes and Michael York.
  29. Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi
    May ultimately be slight, but its appeal lies in its ability to find hope and strength in the soulful eyes of a gentle teenager.
  30. Antwone Fisher
    Rarest and most impressive of all, Antwone Fisher is a serious drama set in the African American community, one that showcases powerful, confrontational scenes between black actors.
  31. Love Liza
    "Dark and demanding" doesn't begin to describe this devastating film -- It is not too much to say that without its splendid use of music Love Liza might not be bearable.
  32. Blue Hill Avenue
    This is a demanding, intelligent film of considerable complexity and of sufficient seriousness to justify its 128-minute running time.
  33. Reconstruction
    Everything blends in a haze of longing, so that watching it feels like being in love.
  34. Last Night
    A mordantly funny and shrewdly understated millennial fantasy.
  35. Moulin Rouge!
    You can go with it or resist it, be exhilarated or worn out. But forgetting the experience is not one of your options.
  36. Incantato
    A poignant love story, laced with tenderness and gentle humor and told with the warmth of Italian movies in their seductively good-natured mode.
  37. The Yes Men
    Smart and amusing.
  38. Sunshine State
    Sayles' films are always of interest, and even though the partly cloudy Sunshine State is not the writer-director at his best, even his letdowns often have more to offer than other people's successes.
  39. Catch Me If You Can
    For all his genre-hopping and shape-shifting Spielberg seems to have become too big to tell small stories, which is one reason why the film sputters on one too many false endings.
  40. Latter Days
    At once romantic, earthy and socially critical, Latter Days is a dynamic film filled with humor and pathos.
  41. Mr 3000
    Good-looking and smooth, with a great soundtrack.
  42. Hope Floats
    A sharper edge could have taken a pretty good, if uneven, picture to greater heights, considering its potent ingredients and actors.
  43. Con Air
    Numbing but not boring, it's finally more dispiriting than exhilarating, like a wild night of debauchery that leaves only a fearsome hangover for a souvenir.
  44. Catwoman
    Not everybody will be able to swallow its heady romanticism, yet its French director, Pitof, has brought sophistication to a comic book sensibility, which helps some purple patches of dialogue along with other absurdities.
  45. Love Don't Cost a Thing
    Often rowdy and uproarious, the film also has surprising depth and subtext.
  46. Mean Machine
    Mean Machine may not have the resonance to linger in the memory affectionately as "The Longest Yard" does, but it plays well, with a fast pace and plenty of punch.
  47. Fools Rush In
    Reback's script has real substance and perception, with Alex and Isabel emerging as individuals of depth and dimension, and their story is told with humor, passion and wit.
  48. Intolerable Cruelty
    So clever, so funny, so suavely entertaining that it comes as a shock to realize that it's not nearly as satisfying as all those qualities would lead you to believe.
  49. Vodka Lemon
    An appealingly wry little film that is as appetizing as its title.
  50. Go Further
    Amusing and informative.
  51. Hidalgo
    Hokey though it is, with a horse-hugger ending thrown in to boot, Hidalgo has a sweet-natured appeal that welcomes sentiment without overdoing it.
  52. My Best Friend's Wedding
    Feels repetitive at times, but its star power and willingness to undercut convention come through at the end.
  53. Vanity Fair
    It almost makes you wonder whether Vanity Fair is not the perfect text for a lesson in Buddhist detachment. Certainly, Vanity Fair is a never-ending Western story that benefits from Nair's philosophically Eastern point of view.
  54. Ride with the Devil
    A serious film with a lot on its mind, is probably the most intelligent treatment of this period we've had.
  55. Sense and Sensibility
    Part of the problem is that Taiwan-born Lee, though he does a more-than-credible job of directing, isn't sharp on the nuances of British behavior.
  56. Get Over It
    A blithe-spirited comedy in which teenagers discover their romantic vicissitudes mirrored in their high school production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." It's being directed by their nasty drama teacher (Martin Short, hilarious), who has written 12 original songs for the production.
  57. Incident at Loch Ness
    An amusing mock documentary that spends considerable energy artfully trying to make you believe it's real as real can be. The movie is transparently a fake, but its counterfeit nature is the heart of its charm.
  58. Bad Lieutenant
    It's a film enthralled by its own lower depths… Although Bad Lieutenant is structured as a redemptive thriller, it functions primarily as a freak show with religioso overtones. [30 Dec 1992, Calendar, p.F-7]
    • Los Angeles Times
  59. P.S.
    Once you get beyond the absurdity of the premise, it works.
  60. In the Cut
    Jane Campion's astonishingly beautiful new film may be the most maddening and imperfect great movie of the year.
  61. Stuck on You
    While much of the unlikely charm of the Farrellys' newest comedy, Stuck on You, comes from its conceptual purity, much of the film's humor comes from its blissful impurity.
  62. Sunshine
    It is a superb period re-creation and boasts a formidable international cast.... It is nevertheless absorbing and illuminating in regard to the eras its spans but is also pretty wearying by the time it starts winding down.
  63. All the Real Girls
    It's a sad love story that's insightful at its core and indulgent around the edges, a film whose instincts are impeccable when focusing on that romance but less than compelling when it wanders elsewhere.
  64. Pay It Forward
    The combination of restrained writing and direction and top-of-the-line acting is enough to make even confirmed agnostics want to believe in this unashamed fairy tale.
  65. A Slipping-Down Life
    The casting of Taylor gives the film a powerful center, a bright light that keeps it on course.
  66. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
    By turns exasperating, appalling and surprisingly empathetic -- sometimes all in the same moment -- the three members of Metallica quickly emerge as the main attractions in Some Kind of Monster, but not for the reasons you might expect.
  67. Lost Boys of Sudan
    Too short by half, Lost Boys of Sudan affords frustratingly little by way of real analysis and history. But it does introduce us to two extraordinary young men whose faith in this country is almost as unbearably sad as their stories.
  68. Big Girls Don't Cry
    A refreshing reminder that learning how to navigate danger is a big part of being a teenager, and that no kind of upbringing - or nifty home furnishings - can or should shield a young adult from life outside her doors.
  69. Dogma
    A raucous, profane but surprisingly endearing piece of work.
  70. Final Destination 2
    The horror sequel is less philosophical than the original, but it's just as intelligent.
  71. Seducing Doctor Lewis
    The kind of shrewd, genial comedy it provides doesn't intend to break new ground, but its traditional satisfactions are so effectively done and so long in coming our way that to see it is to realize just how hungry we've been for this kind of old-fashioned treat.
  72. Notting Hill
    A smartly cast and consistently amusing romantic comedy.
  73. Beverly Hills Ninja
    The slapstick and the sight gags come thick and fast, as they have throughout a hundred years of screen comedy, yet director Dennis Dugan and writers Mark Feldberg and Mitch Klebanoff keep everything light and bouncy.
  74. We Were Soldiers
    Manages to evoke a complex series of reactions. It both frustrates with its unrelenting sentimentality and impresses with the overwhelming physicality of its combat sequences. These in turn are so powerful they take on a life of their own, sending a message that is probably quite opposite to the one the filmmakers intended.
  75. Undertow
    The result is a movie that doesn't add up to the sum of its parts, yet some of those parts connect deeply anyway.
  76. Before Sunrise
    There's nothing much to the movie, except for the amiability of the actors and the layers of feeling Linklater provides, but that's just almost enough.
  77. Father and Son
    Nothing much happens by way of plot in the course of Father and Son, but it offers a fresh and often startling vision of one of the most fundamental relationships between human beings.
  78. A Silent Love
    Its charms sneak up on you because of the nuanced performances of Burton, Bauche and particularly Salazar.
  79. Training Day
    Though Training Day doesn't resolve itself as well as it deserves and ends strictly cops-and-robbers style, it's given us some great acting and something to ponder. Not every cop show can lay claim to that.
  80. My Own Private Idaho
    No matter what you've been used to, Idaho is something completely different, a film that manages to confound all expectations, even the ones it sets up itself. [18 Oct 1991]
    • Los Angeles Times
  81. The Affair of the Necklace
    Shyer and Sweet bring consistent clarity and ever-increasing depth to the playing out of Jeanne's bold scheming and single-minded resolve; a tone of brisk wit gives way effortlessly to poignancy and ultimately tragedy.
  82. Tea with Mussolini
    Zeffirelli has created an amusing yet touching high adventure and an unusual coming-of-age tale.
  83. Thirteen Ghosts
    Although not for the faint of heart, it's a potent -- and very tricky -- treat.
  84. Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
    The film is especially strong in its second half, which is dominated by contemporary footage of Zinn.
  85. The Iron Ladies
    It is high-energy entertainment that is also silly and sentimental and so over-the-top as to become wearying at times. But that it is also funny and good-natured ends up counting more.
  86. The Last Shot
    It's deftly done with an off-the-wall sense of humor joined to a real insider's sense of how the business operates.
  87. National Security
    A funny, raucous action comedy, effectively teams Martin Lawrence and Steve Zahn in a film that's both laugh out loud funny and surprisingly subtle.
  88. The Straight Story
    Too mannered and weird around the edges to be convincing.
  89. Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
    As ingenious and lively as the original film.
  90. Brother to Brother
    The film is studded with nifty supporting portrayals, with Burns and Ford (in his film debut) especially notable. But it's the rich presence and easy authority of Robinson that brings both a gravitas and a blithe spirit to Brother to Brother.
  91. Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War
    There are hopeful notes here. If you are looking for examples for America's finest hour, it's not our rush to start an optional war but rather that an anti-administration film like this can still be made and still be seen.
  92. The Sweetest Thing
    The trick is getting from a conclusion made five minutes into a movie to an ending 90 minutes away. It can be a scary prospect. In The Sweetest Thing it is mostly a hoot.
  93. Faster
    Neale's cameras and broadcast footage of various races place the audience in a position to experience the participants' need to go faster.
  94. Fear and Trembling
    A dark comedy that reveals the stultifying rigidity of Japanese office life - which the film persuasively suggests endures to this day.
  95. Something's Gotta Give
    Stumbles in miscalculating how far it needs to go to make this particular romance convincing when, as another romantic comedy character put it, it had us from hello.
  96. Good Will Hunting
    While the charismatic performances of Damon and Affleck make Good Will Hunting a difficult entertainment to resist, doing just that is not as hard as the film would like to think.
  97. Snatch.
    Even if it's not quite as lighter than air as its predecessor, Snatch remains a lethal diversion.
  98. Gozu
    The film unfolds as if it were a dream in which taboo subconscious urges surface symbolically as in a Dali painting, yet everything takes place in everyday settings.
  99. Gypsy 83
    They are tremendously appealing, and under Stephens' direction, Anson Scoville as an Amish runaway and Paulo Costanzo as a closeted gay college fraternity man are also memorable.
  100. White Chicks
    Even if it lingers a bit too long, White Chicks represents a solid accomplishment for the crowd-pleasing Wayans brothers.
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