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. Madame Bovary
    [Barthes'] measured, distanced style brings a certain stiffness to the proceedings and makes us miss even more than usual the Emma Bovary interior monologue that makes the book so memorable.
  2. The Stranger
    Seeking existential, noirish heft, Amoedo coyly avoids articulating what Martin is. (He calls himself "sick.") But it only comes across like an amateur play at gravitas, one unsupported by dully weighted scenes and clunky dialogue, delivered mostly by English-speaking actors straining to hide Latin accents.
  3. Every Last Child
    The film couldn't be more timely and germane for the American audience. If it weren't a documentary, it would seem like a post-apocalyptic allegory of our own vaccination debate.
  4. The 11th Hour
    Writer-director Anders Morgenthaler's conclusion comes far too hastily and haphazardly, with a disregard for plot details or plausible storytelling.
  5. The Cain Complex
    It's not every day you get to see a satanic-revenge home-invasion martial-arts thriller, but should another come along that's as laughably cornball as The Cain Complex, you'd best hide until it blows over.
  6. Jurassic World
    Despite the best efforts of director Colin Trevorrow, Jurassic World's story of Indominus rex on the loose, while certainly acceptable, doesn't have the same impact as the initial film.
  7. The Fourth Noble Truth
    This introduction to the Buddha's Eightfold Path is often clever and occasionally exasperating.
  8. Beyond the Mask
    The faith-based impetus behind this redemptive, family-friendly, American Revolution-era yarn is placed front and center amid all the digitally assisted derring-do and skulduggery.
  9. The Farewell Party
    The Farewell Party succeeds as well as it does because the core dilemma always feels real and the filmmakers take great care to see that the inevitable emotions put into play are never overdone.
  10. Club Life
    The film is undermined by choppy editing and a penchant for hoary aphorisms and forced gravitas.
  11. Police Story: Lockdown
    The engaging plot gets a bit absurd toward the end.
  12. Something Better to Come
    Beyond her tenacious and intimate reporting, director and cinematographer Polak has made a work of powerful images — heart-rending, elegiac, charged with hope.
  13. Uncertain Terms
    As it stands, "Terms" proves too uncertain.
  14. Results
    The rom-com isn't such a lost cause, after all. It was just waiting for someone like indie filmmaker Andrew Bujalski to resuscitate it.
  15. United Passions
    United Passions, with its clashing, production partner-mandated Europudding of accents, fails to find a unifying voice.
  16. Wild Horses
    The best moments showcase Duvall and Franco, formidable stars representing different cultural eras, testing the waters of a father-son relationship bruised by outmoded views of love and sin.
  17. Freedom
    We get too little character development to be invested in the story and barely a glimpse at the horrific plight of enslaved people.
  18. We Are Still Here
    Once We Are Still Here unsticks itself from hommage mode, it finds something cathartically funny inside the fearsome.
  19. The Nightmare
    Ascher is too content to let repetition of experience take over his film.
  20. Dawn Patrol
    As over-the-top operatic and inexplicable as Dawn Patrol can be, producer and star Eastwood remains captivating and charismatic, ultimately serving as a grounding element within the swirl of emotional drama and almost saving the film from going overboard.
  21. Testament of Youth
    Unapologetically emotional and impeccably made in the classic manner, it tells the kind of potent, many-sided story whose unforeseen complexities can come only courtesy of a life that lived them all.
  22. Insidious: Chapter 3
    It stands well on its own as a jumpy spookfest.
  23. Love & Mercy
    Pohlad did not lack for ideas about how he wanted to portray Brian Wilson's life, but he is without the wherewithal to effectively put them into practice.
  24. Spy
    Spy may not be a great movie, but it is great fun. And at times it will have you wondering if there's that much of a difference.
  25. Entourage
    That the bonds of friendship between Vince and his pals are predicated so strongly on excluding others feels regressive and drags the movie away from harmless high jinks into something needlessly more spiteful and ugly.
  26. Sunset Edge
    Peddle has more in mind than creating a stylized mood. His first narrative feature makes some astute observations about adolescence and identity, including that of the culturally shifting American South, in a way that is at once immediate and timeless.
  27. Survivor
    Amid the choppy action and whirl of sketchy characters lie muddled messages about revenge, greed, war, hubris and the endless ripple effects of 9/11.
  28. Unfreedom
    In writer-director Raj Amit Kumar's heavy-handed political theater, characters are little more than avatars of opposing cultural currents.
  29. Marie's Story
    At its most provocative, it suggests a tension between spirit and flesh in the nun's maternal feelings. Rather than examine that friction, Améris pushes the narrative in predictable directions.
  30. Seeds of Time
    Although it may not be the most vivid or exciting subject for cinematic exploration, the documentary Seeds of Time offers a vital, clear-headed look at the effects of climate change on global food security.
  31. Gemma Bovery
    As a bored baker with an overactive imagination, the wonderful French actor Fabrice Luchini is the only reason to see Gemma Bovery, a mildly amusing riff on Flaubert. H
  32. Barely Lethal
    The premise, that high school is more perilous than a life of espionage, is witty and full of potential. But Newman makes that case by staging his car chases and fight scenes with as much sense of drama as eighth-period trig.
  33. The True Cost
    One would almost be inclined to give Morgan a pass for interviewing some of his executive producers as expert sources. A bigger disappointment is the missed opportunity to address the significant retailer markups that could have gone toward improving sweatshop conditions instead of profit margins.
  34. Heaven Knows What
    Despite the undeniable novelty of having Holmes on hand to keep it real, the absence of traditional character development ultimately takes its toll on viewer empathy.
  35. Aloha
    Even with its off-balance, overstuffed storytelling, the film maintains a charm and energy that never flags, with brisk pacing and generally engaging performances from its deep-bench cast.
  36. San Andreas
    Even by the non-Olympian standards of the disaster genre, San Andreas is chock-full of cliché characters, staggering coincidences and wild improbabilities.
  37. Poltergeist
    The new Poltergeist is a pleasant enough diversion, better as a low-simmer suspense story than a full-blown effects extravaganza.
  38. Intrepido: A Lonely Hero
    Director Amelio turns Antonio's brief stint at a "real" job into a piercing and visually striking glimpse of hypocrisy and corruption — a glimpse too of the film that might have been.
  39. Aloft
    Dreariness seems to be the filmmaker's shorthand for authenticity here. Without any realism to ground it, the movie's spiritual story line feels aloft — swirling around but never dramatically landing.
  40. Quiet Riot: Well Now You're Here, There's No Way Back
    There are occasionally interesting peeks into the hard work of keeping a flame alive that burned briefly 30 years ago. But mostly this is a video tour book for fans, no more, no less.
  41. Chocolate City
    The make-it-rain clichés are abundant and Jean-Claude La Marre's direction is pedestrian, but at least a few of the choreographed numbers here prove more magical than what Soderbergh mustered.
  42. The Film Critic
    Although the meta-style conceit is fun, it doesn't fully kick in until the film's midpoint. Until then it's a sluggish, fairly dour ride.
  43. Sunshine Superman
    While this buoyant account of his brief but eventful life might feel like a rock climber's "Man on a Wire," the Oscar-winning 2008 documentary about tightrope walker Philippe Petit, director Marah Strauch gives the film an exhilarating uplift of its own.
  44. When Marnie Was There
    It deals with friendship, loneliness, abandonment and forgiveness, and though its curious narrative arc means you're never sure exactly where it's going, the film works up a considerable emotional charge by the end.
  45. The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence)
    As horror, it's frightless and boring. As comedy, it's desperate and laughless. As exploitation, it's exceedingly dull. Even excrement was once something of substance. The Human Centipede III: Final Sequence is just rancid air. It too shall pass.
  46. Tomorrowland
    Tentpoles are rarely guilty of overreaching, but Tomorrowland has a tendency to feel out of control, a film that is finally more ambitious than accomplished.
  47. Miles to Go
    What really hampers Miles to Go is its aimless wandering. Many things could be forgiven with some growth or movement in the journey, but ultimately, this one just ends up running in circles.
  48. Know How
    The musical numbers are inconsistent, ranging from radio-ready to after-school-special quality. Some story lines pale compared with the others. But overall, this is an immense achievement.
  49. In the Name of My Daughter
    None of it is quite satisfying, especially when old-age makeup takes center stage. But striking moments develop along the way, jolts of weird joy and melancholy as menace gathers under the Mediterranean sun.
  50. Where Hope Grows
    A melodramatic third act strains to reconcile the film's disparate parts, and the feel-good ending is not quite earned. Still, the film offers a few lessons for those inclined to hear them.
  51. Days of Grace
    Gout undermines his own spiky, ambitious narrative with all the visual interference, as dazzling as it often is.
  52. Reality
    The bizarro plot threads, and dippy characters fail to connect in any rewarding way, resulting in a largely unfunny film that proves as repetitive and tedious as the 1971 Philip Glass snippet that provides its entire score.
  53. Echoes of War
    While all the naturalistic overtones might suggest faith-based Terrence Malick, those committed performances keep the film involving, however recognizably those echoes might resonate.
  54. Animals
    It's gritty and grim, but Animals is also a gripping portrait of young junkies in love.
  55. Antarctic Edge: 70° South
    The documentary is not so much a call to action as a moving portrait of individuals who devote their lives to understanding the environmental shifts that all too soon might manifest themselves on our own altered shorelines.
  56. Slow West
    Between the gorgeous locations (New Zealand subs for Colorado), a credible emotional core, some effectively droll dialogue and a well-staged finale, Slow West is worth a look.
  57. Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll
    The film proves much more valuable as a historical allegory than as a musical survey.
  58. Every Secret Thing
    Crushingly listless and at times as off-putting as a needle scratching vinyl, this corkscrew tale of questionable (and questioned) parenting, youthful misjudgments, grudges and disappointments doesn't even have the disciplined domestic-evil allure of a Lifetime movie.
  59. Dark Star: HR Giger's World
    Dark Star might have been more fascinating had Sallin delved deeper into his place as an artist.
  60. The Connection
    Despite the pedestrian screenplay (by Jimenez and Audrey Diwan), Dujardin and Lellouche are magnetic performers who slip easily into their antagonistic roles.
  61. Time Lapse
    Director Bradley King and his co-writer, B.P. Cooper, manage to overcome their shoddy premise as the plot progresses assuredly and persuasively.
  62. Shake the Dust
    Sjöberg is so enamored with the dancing and overall positivity that moves and platitudes fairly dominate, when the movie could have used more narrative cohesion and engagement with his subjects.
  63. (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies
    [An] enjoyable, relatable documentary.
  64. Groundswell Rising
    Groundswell Rising is an undeniably passionate but frustratingly one-sided examination of the controversial method of gas extraction.
  65. I'll See You in My Dreams
    Director Brett Haley, who co-wrote the film with Marc Basch, has managed to create a film about those final years that gets to the heart of things like loss and love without patronizing or parody. No small thing to create a movie whose cast is mostly in their 70s yet whose story is so relatable whatever your age.
  66. The Seven Five
    It would be hard to imagine a more entertaining corrupt-cop documentary than The Seven Five, a slick and fascinating portrait of disgraced New York policeman Michael Dowd.
  67. I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story
    From the beginning, the filmmakers promise an affectionate look at the man, and in that they deliver.
  68. Good Kill
    That cost can be seen in the tight strain on Hawke's face. An actor with the gift of gab (most notably in his collaborations with Richard Linklater), Hawke here delivers a nuanced turn as a man on the threshold of emotional ruin.
  69. Pitch Perfect 2
    The comedy choir wars are more intense, more absurd and more lowbrow fun than ever in Pitch Perfect 2. It is almost impossible not to be amused by the cutthroat world of competitive a cappella.
  70. Mad Max: Fury Road
    Mad Max: Fury Road will leave you speechless, which couldn't be more appropriate. Words are not really the point when it comes to dealing with this barn-burner of a post-apocalyptic extravaganza in which sizzling, unsettling images are the order of the day.
  71. Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman
    This energetic film satisfyingly brings viewers up to speed on Newman's remarkably enduring career detour.
  72. Soul Boys of the Western World
    When it plays to its strengths, the film, like the band, mines pure '80s gold.
  73. Spike Island
    Though the story is drawn in broad strokes and overloaded with melodrama, director Mat Whitecross' exuberant feature understands the communal joy and personal necessity of rock 'n' roll.
  74. Preggoland
    This treatise on what to expect when you're not expecting offers up biting cultural satire with a hearty dose of humanity and humor to boot.
  75. The Ocean of Helena Lee
    Unless you're on this spiritually noodling movie's wavelength — an easier proposition when the great McKee is singing (she wrote the music with Akin) — this is narratively thin, tone-poem stuff
  76. Skin Trade
    If bare-knuckle fights are what you seek, director Ekachai Uekrongtham certainly delivers. But the film scarcely scratches the surface of the horrors of human trafficking.
  77. Bravetown
    First-time director Daniel Duran, working from a screenplay by Oscar Torres that abounds in the maudlin and risible, isn't able to lift the ham-handed material to a place where it might ring true.
  78. The D Train
    Where the story falters, though, the performers admirably hold one's attention.
  79. 5 Flights Up
    What a pleasure to see a simple, finely tuned dramedy about real adults with real emotions in a real-life situation.
  80. Saint Laurent
    There's good cause to shake the biopic form out of its exhaustively linear, birth-to-death rut, and Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent — starring Gaspard Ulliel as the storied French designer — valiantly tries.
  81. Playing It Cool
    Playing It Cool is a strained romantic comedy that seems to exist only to show how many talented, successful actors — first and foremost "Captain America" star Chris Evans — can be featured in one unworthy movie.
  82. Miles Away
    Miles Away comes off like some low-budget take on "Trapped in the Closet" or a Tyler Perry movie, except it treats kitsch with all sincerity and seriousness.
  83. About Elly (2009)
    Emotional intensity is Farhadi's métier, and to see About Elly is to revel in his skill.
  84. Hot Pursuit
    This is an equal-opportunity fiasco.
  85. Maggie
    The plot is lean, the dialogue is spare and there are some intriguing stabs at intellectual and emotional terrain. But the pacing is deadly, so slow there might be time for a catnap or two without missing anything important.
  86. Noble
    Uneven but nonetheless emotionally gratifying.
  87. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
    There is a great deal of silliness about Allan's journey from start to finish and no real message other than to never stop taking life as it comes. But there is also a great deal of fun in watching a 100-year-old man climb out a window and disappear.
  88. Chic!
    Like a haute couture garment, Chic! is a finely crafted piece of work, a comedic romantic drama set within a frothy and sublimely funny caricature of the Parisian fashion world.
    • Los Angeles Times
      • Posted Apr 30, 2015
  89. Gardeners of Eden
    A compelling documentary that's short on running time but long on emotion.
  90. Any Day
    By the time the film reaches a faith-based, third-act crescendo, Bean, Walsh and company, despite their best efforts, look like they know they've been beaten, while the score's mournful strings wring out whatever pathos remains untapped.
  91. Eastern Boys
    Bold and unsettling, Eastern Boys is a long, strange trip of a film that touches on myriad social, economic and sexual themes.
  92. Maya the Bee Movie
    Talky, relentlessly affirming and as predictable as a paint-by-number.
  93. Cas & Dylan
    It's a testament to the stars that they manage to sell the third act sentimentality after wading through so much screenplay triteness and unimaginative direction.
  94. Far from the Madding Crowd
    Between the sheer on-screen beauty and the finely wrought performances of Mulligan and Schoenaerts, Far from the Madding Crowd has its appeal. Yet like unrequited love, one can't help but lament what might have been.
  95. Far From Men
    In the penetrating character study that is Far From Men, existentialism has never felt so intimate.
  96. Hyena
    Writer-director Gerard Johnson resists all impulses to please the crowd. The graphic sex and violence never feel gratuitous, and there's something interesting in the way he deliberately denies his characters and the viewers any reprieve.
  97. Iris
    Maysles' portrait of Iris Apfel, a 93-year-old self-described "geriatric starlet," is surprisingly memorable, graced with an unforced but unmistakable charm.
  98. Welcome to Me
    Though some of the jabs "Me" takes at reality TV are clever, the film, like Alice, tends to fracture at key moments. What makes it worth watching is Wiig.
  99. Ride
    You can't blame Hunt for perhaps taking on too much — at least she wrote herself a complicated role in this sorry age for front-and-center movie women — but it doesn't always make for a smooth Ride.
  100. Avengers: Age of Ultron
    The uncomfortable reality remains that although this movie is effective moment to moment, very little of it lingers in the mind afterward. The ideal vehicle for our age of immediate sensation and instant gratification, it disappears without a trace almost as soon as it's consumed.
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