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. Last Days in Vietnam
    These stranger-than-fiction tales, piled one on top of the other in the most gripping way, not only mesmerize us, they also point up another of Last Days in Vietnam's provocative points, that the chaos surrounding the evacuation was, in effect, the entire war in microcosm.
  2. I Am Eleven
    Given the number and range of kids in view, there's a limit to how much specificity can be jammed into one movie.
  3. Autumn Blood
    Whereas Haneke's films grapple with the blunt force of violence, novice filmmaker Markus Blunder just lets the violence snowball all the way down a slippery slope.
  4. The Scribbler
    Director John Suits seems more concerned with plying eyeballs with creepy atmospherics, showy visual effects and sexy interludes than with propulsive pacing or roiling tension.
  5. Kelly & Cal
    Written by Amy Lowe Starbin and directed by Jen McGowan, both first-timers, the feature is alive with interactions that feel spontaneous.
  6. Life's a Breeze
    Life's a Breeze is a small film with a considerable amount of charm. Comic and idiosyncratic, it takes a warmhearted view toward its protagonists while still seeing them for exactly who they are.
  7. Fort Bliss
    Despite what seem like the trappings of a Lifetime movie, writer-director Claudia Myers presents us with an unflinching and complex character study of an imperfect woman.
  8. Pump
    As far as documentaries go, the film is exhaustively researched, interviewed and documented.
  9. Space Station 76
    Director Jack Plotnick and his co-screenwriters Sam Pancake, Jennifer Elise Cox, Kali Rocha and Michael Stoyanov fail to nail a satisfying theme, narrative or purpose.
  10. This Is Where I Leave You
    When the grown-up going gets tough, the one thing you know is that the Altmans won't abandon one another. Which makes "This Is Where I Leave You" not earthshaking by any stretch, but somehow reassuring.
  11. Tracks
    The desert trek in Tracks is as brutal as it is beautiful; the performance by Mia Wasikowska as raw as the reality. And the camels? If they don't steal your heart it must be stone-hinged.
  12. A Walk Among the Tombstones
    A Walk Among the Tombstones is the creepiest film I've seen in quite some time, and that's not meant as a compliment.
  13. The Maze Runner
    Ball tends to slice and dice action sequences in a way that drains them of energy, and his attempts to churn up emotion fall disconcertingly flat. But he does stage a couple of effective adrenaline-pumping chases through the maze's industrial wasteland.
  14. The Guest
    It's Stevens, as the all-American cover-model mercenary both friendly and fatal, who gives The Guest its literally killer personality.
  15. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them
    "Them" is spun from callow romantic notions, the sort that make for heady moments. What's conspicuously missing is any grasp of the lovers themselves.
  16. No Good Deed
    It’s a little dumb (OK, maybe more than a little), but No Good Deed is an otherwise brisk, efficient thriller that won’t punish audiences who drop in.
  17. Swearnet: The Movie
    "Swearnet" builds up enough brazen energy and crass goodwill to propel a watchable first hour before it starts to flounder.
  18. Pay 2 Play: Democracy’s High Stakes
    The documentary Pay 2 Play lays out a compelling case against corporate personhood and money as free speech.
  19. Rocks in My Pockets
    Rocks in My Pockets is not an easy film to watch... But it serves as a striking reminder of the individuals who suffer similar pains in silence, and of the special power of animation to make the unseen visible.
  20. Honeymoon
    The gory final act can't help but be an explanatory letdown after so much enigmatic fizz, but that's little bother when the rest of "Honeymoon" delivers a steady dose of newlywed nightmare.
  21. The Pirates
    It's a derivative trove of swashbuckling action, romance, comedy, special effects and revisionist history — the kind of film that would be pitched to studio execs as "Pirates of the Caribbean" meets "Free Willy."
  22. 108 Stitches
    A fatally clueless, painfully overlong sports spoof.
  23. Take Me to the River
    Take Me to the River is at its most interesting when zeroing in on the back-and-forth between musicians of different eras who rely on unique jam-session skills.
  24. Dolphin Tale 2
    Although children may enjoy the animal action (there's also a fun pelican and a yellow sea turtle) and parents might appreciate the movie's genuinely sweet moments, this is exceedingly mild entertainment.
  25. The Rule
    More objectivity would have made this case study a lot more persuasive.
  26. A Picture of You
    Nimbly avoiding the excesses of melodrama and the recessiveness of mumblecore, Chan and his likably low-key cast navigate hairpin turns from drama to comedy to outright farce with an impressive sense of proportion.
  27. Memphis
    The film feels like a sketch rather than a portrait, beautifully rendered but incomplete in the details.
  28. The Green Prince
    This is not great filmmaking, but their story is so involving that it doesn't matter as much as it might.
  29. Canopy
    Chittenden and Tzu-yi are expressive actors, but, like the film itself, are hamstrung by the project's self-imposed confines.
  30. The Skeleton Twins
    One of the better movies to come along this year.
  31. Wetlands
    Director and co-writer David Wnendt is after serious comedy here, a character study of psychic pain, wounds hereditary and self-inflicted, and body-conscious absurdity that treats the human condition with wry intelligence, not empty prurience.
  32. Last Weekend
    All the possibilities of a richly drawn family squabble fade faster than the final days of summer.
  33. My Old Lady
    Awkwardly balanced between comedy and significance, with plotting that gets increasingly schematic and unconvincing, My Old Lady is bound and determined to get more serious than it is capable of sustaining.
  34. God Help the Girl
    No one comes out and says that music is the language of the soul, but no one has to. We see it happening right before our eyes.
  35. Levitated Mass
    Well-directed with exceptional access by veteran documentarian Doug Pray, whose previous films include "Hype!," "Scratch" and "Art & Copy," Levitated Mass in essence intercuts three stories, each of which is more unexpected than one might imagine.
  36. Second Opinion: Laetrile at Sloan-Kettering
    This one's for the conspiracy-minded only.
  37. No No: A Dockumentary
    [An] engaging portrait of a complicated but vivid sports figure.
  38. Frontera
    In trying to create a balanced portrait of the conflicts and the ordinary people affected by them, director Michael Berry, who co-wrote the screenplay with Luis Moulinet III, chips away at the authenticity and intensity that an issue-driven film like this sorely needs.
  39. The Identical
    The Identical is ultimately too schematically sentimental, even with Liotta playing against type, to have much of an impact.
  40. Thunder and the House of Magic
    Directors Ben Stassen and Jérémie Degruson have assembled so many clichés and bits borrowed from other films that "Thunder" feels like a rerun on its first viewing.
  41. The Longest Week
    Like so many filmmaking wunderkinds who could have used a course in common sense, Glanz is technically assured but emotionally hollow.
  42. Innocence
    A movie of such snowballing stupidity that it's a wonder the actors could keep straight faces while shooting it (outtakes, please!).
  43. Jason Nash Is Married
    he film, a largely point-and-shoot affair, is an enjoyable, lightly satirical glimpse at the uneasy intersection of marriage, showbiz and life in Los Angeles.
  44. But Always
    Hokey dialogue, a syrupy score, a corny use of slow motion and a slew of contrived or undercooked plot developments further sink a movie whose appeal may elude even die-hard romantics.
  45. Kabbalah Me
    Bram, who also narrates (and writes, with co-director Judah Lazarus and Adam Zucker), may be earnest in his desire for enlightenment. But his approach feels overly self-serving; too much "Me," not enough "Kabbalah."
  46. Life of Crime
    Life of Crime has the authentic Leonard snap, crackle and pop.
  47. Expedition to the End of the World
    Composed of breathtaking images and cheeky bits of humor, Dencik's travelogue reveals a journey with curious traces of the past, eye-popping encounters with a wild present and — in discovering an oil company's ship in the group's midst — a weighted reminder of our future as stewards of the Earth.
  48. The Last of Robin Hood
    Instead of a cautionary tale, they've looked at Flynn's life through rose-colored glasses.
  49. As Above, So Below
    An entertainment-free sinkhole of Dramamine-worthy nonsense.
  50. Cantinflas
    Cantinflas the movie tries to capture the magic of this much-loved legend, and it does so in fits and starts.
  51. A Letter to Momo
    Physical beauty and fearless adventure, silly comedy and sensitive emotions, filmmaker Hiroyuki Okiura brings a facility for all of them to the table.
  52. Jamie Marks Is Dead
    Jamie Marks Is Dead admirably refuses to hew to conventional horror tropes and is acted with integrity by its young performers, but the film nonetheless has a nagging pulse problem.
  53. The Calling
    The Calling is an absorbing, solidly crafted procedural thriller with a terrific lead turn by Susan Sarandon.
  54. The Congress
    In conjuring a fantastical slippery slope in which technology, pharmaceuticals and the entertainment industry co-star in a takeover of our lives, The Congress boasts a propulsive image-making pull.
  55. Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie
    More visually spectacular and emotionally resonant than the previous films.
  56. The Damned
    The script by Richard D'Ovidio is so packed with knuckleheaded moves and ultra-obvious dialogue ("Dad, there's something wrong with this place!") that the whole enterprise proves more risible than frightening.
  57. The Notebook
    This cautionary tale certainly has a chilling and timely message of how wars make monsters out of innocent people. But using reductive caricatures — complete with phlegmatic performances — to send that message is perhaps not the best way, because it turns something with modern-day implications into distant allegory.
  58. The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears
    Above all, its gratuitous graphic gore and exploitative nudity are unmistakably giallo. What "The Strange Color" lacks is the heart that separates a good film from a great one.
  59. May in the Summer
    There's goodwill to go around in Dabis' modestly engaging yarn, from its appealing performances to the times it zeroes in on the ways culture, tradition and individuality cause headaches and heartaches as much as comfort.
  60. Kundo: Age of the Rampant
    Kundo: Age of the Rampant is an often entertaining if overlong look at the last days of Korea's Joseon Dynasty.
  61. The November Man
    It's called The November Man, but it's really just another forgettable August release.
  62. Jersey Shore Massacre
    There's no ignoring the aggressive stupidity and crassness behind the whole enterprise.
  63. The Olivia Experiment
    This is an enjoyably acted trifle that, despite some slowing in its second half, holds interest as it amusingly considers how an act so simple for some can be so tricky for others.
  64. The Possession of Michael King
    Although this film doesn't miss the whole point of found footage as the recent "Into the Storm" did, Jung does little to help suspend our disbelief.
  65. The Prince
    So unless you're a fan of yawn-worthy shootouts and showdowns, The Prince is a "Taken" retread hardly indicative of any special set of skills.
  66. Rabindranath Tagore: The Poet of Eternity
    It's essentially a glorified PowerPoint presentation that juxtaposes archival footage — an echo chamber of interviews, readings and performances taken entirely out of context — with amateurish stock footage and a short running time.
  67. Abuse of Weakness
    With clinical dispassion and narrative elegance, Breillat has constructed what she calls "a thriller about denial."
  68. Are You Here
    Are You Here proves a gently immersive, ingratiating, often witty character comedy with a pair of comfortably effective lead performances.
  69. When the Game Stands Tall
    A true tale of high school football achievement becomes a strained, by-the-numbers grab bag of uplift in the Christian sports drama When the Game Stands Tall.
  70. To Be Takei
    In all, writer-director Jennifer M. Kroot effectively jams in quite a lot about the super-busy Takei.
  71. The One I Love
    Though the indie falls short of its grandest ambitions, it is inventive in constructing its conceits. As to Moss and Duplass? It's hard not to love them — for better or worse.
  72. Love Is Strange
    In the hands of two of the craft's best, the most ordinary of moments become illuminating, penetrating.
  73. 14 Blades
    The movie's raison d'etre, its many highflying, wildly violent, often digitally enhanced kung fu fighting sequences, are edited with so much sleight of hand they may evoke more eye rolls than gasps. But the hard-working sound design, effectively stark visual palette and propulsive score do manage to impress.
  74. Jealousy
    Conventional dramatic hooks have no place in Garrel's filmography, so it's not surprising that his new movie is more atmospheric than involving, or that the two beautiful bed heads at its center hardly invite emotional connection.
  75. Frank
    Odd, offbeat, somehow endearing, the bleakly comic Frank has its own kind of charm as well as some pointed, poignant things to say about the mysterious nature of creativity, where it comes from and where it might all go.
  76. If I Stay
    If I Stay takes time to find its footing amid miscalculations and awkward moments.
  77. Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
    There is an interesting kernel of a story about beauty, betrayal and brutality inside each of the film's scenarios and a cast that could handle anything thrown at it. But the kernel never pops, and all we're really left with is a whole lot of neo-noir corn.
  78. Mission Blue
    Though Mission Blue gets its title from Earle's nonprofit organization, the film rarely comes across as propaganda.
  79. The Trip to Italy
    Brydon and Coogan's discourse over breakfast, lunch and dinner is captured with a casualness that makes the eavesdropping delicious.
  80. The Expendables 3
    Expendables 3 is a kind of ho-hum experience, wherein a lot of bullets are expended and a lot of structures exploded to minimal dramatic effect.
  81. After
    After catalogs so many clichés in the dysfunctional family at its center that the film could be taught in a screenwriting class as a lesson in what not to do.
  82. I Am Happiness on Earth
    By turns sexy and exasperating, hypnotic and confusing, this Mexican import is an art film for the patient, adventurous and, let's be honest, forgiving.
  83. Weaving the Past: Journey of Discovery
    A painstakingly crafted, lovingly wrought piece.
  84. Coldwater
    Too many roles remain underdeveloped — if developed at all. A lack of cohesion or camaraderie among the inmates compounds the film's impersonal vibe.
  85. Fort McCoy
    The period details are so lovingly burnished in this uneven, if heartfelt, feature that for a while they threaten to overpower the story, which delves gently into a rarely explored aspect of the war.
  86. Found
    Movies with no redeeming qualities are rare, but the execrable Found comes pretty close.
  87. Level Five
    It humanely, intelligently questions the very nature of our desire to make sense of the past with the tools of the present, when the human mind remains the most aggressively obliterating battlefield of all.
  88. Jake Squared
    Koteas and the rest of the cast (including Jane Seymour, Virginia Madsen and Jennifer Jason Leigh) struggle gamely with the material, but they're defeated by the nonstop chatter, Goldberg's flat-footed direction and the needlessly choppy cutting.
  89. Finding Fela!
    [Gibney's] chronicle informs rather than inspires, but it's a solid introduction to a fascinating figure.
  90. Cheatin'
    A welcome reminder that the art of animation is too protean to be limited to a single visual style, medium or point of view.
  91. NightLights
    NightLights achieves something admirably genuine about the queasy mixture of anguish and joy attached to caretaking for the most needy of loved ones.
  92. Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart
    [A] well-crafted but frankly nonessential documentary.
  93. Septic Man
    It's a grotesque, deadly dull piece of cinematic upchuck, a horror film minus tension or chills.
  94. Fifi Howls from Happiness
    By its bittersweet end, Fifi Howls From Happiness has stayed almost entirely in one apartment and yet somehow unveiled both a life in full and a blank canvas.
  95. Life After Beth
    Stars Aubrey Plaza and Dane DeHaan are game, as is the lineup of mostly wasted supporting actors. But what might have been a snappy short is interminable at feature length, the mayhem-in-suburbia conceit generating few laughs as it stomps along.
  96. Deepsea Challenge 3D
    By allowing Cameron's first-person account to take command of the narrative, though, the film seems to gloss over meaningful logistics of the expedition.
  97. Let's Be Cops
    The movie relies too much on the same comic tension in each scene: Johnson is the gung-ho one, Wayans says no (a lot).
  98. Step Up: All In
    The film has a muscled buoyancy and thrilling, joyful spectacles that make the fifth installment of the popular franchise an energetic crowd-pleaser.
  99. What If
    Although What If nobly attempts to honor and embellish the tropes of the genre rather than reinvent them, the filmmakers get tripped up on their own good intentions and uncertain comedic instincts.
  100. Into the Storm
    Its story line and performances are no more than serviceable, but those terrible twisters are state of the art.
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