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. Mission Blue
    Though Mission Blue gets its title from Earle's nonprofit organization, the film rarely comes across as propaganda.
  2. The Trip to Italy
    Brydon and Coogan's discourse over breakfast, lunch and dinner is captured with a casualness that makes the eavesdropping delicious.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Weaving the Past: Journey of Discovery
    A painstakingly crafted, lovingly wrought piece.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. Found
    Movies with no redeeming qualities are rare, but the execrable Found comes pretty close.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. Finding Fela!
    [Gibney's] chronicle informs rather than inspires, but it's a solid introduction to a fascinating figure.
  13. 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.
  14. NightLights
    NightLights achieves something admirably genuine about the queasy mixture of anguish and joy attached to caretaking for the most needy of loved ones.
  15. Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart
    [A] well-crafted but frankly nonessential documentary.
  16. Septic Man
    It's a grotesque, deadly dull piece of cinematic upchuck, a horror film minus tension or chills.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. 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).
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. Into the Storm
    Its story line and performances are no more than serviceable, but those terrible twisters are state of the art.
  24. Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods
    "Battle of Gods" delivers not only the familiar look but also the slapstick comedy, character interaction and over-the-top martial arts fights that "Dragon Ball" fans want and expect.
  25. War Story
    Keener's performance riveting.
  26. The Kill Team
    A harrowing picture of the casualties of war — and the unchecked madness that may drive those entrusted to defend us.
  27. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    Not out-and-out terrible enough to be completely dismissed, while also not particularly memorable either, perhaps the truest summation of the film is to say simply that the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a movie that exists.
  28. 37: A Final Promise
    37: A Final Promise comes off as a paranormal and schizophrenic take on a Lifetime movie with themes of terminal illness and assisted suicide.
  29. As It Is in Heaven
    This journey into "Martha Marcy May Marlene" territory is never as tense and gripping as it should be, the incidents and most of the performances too tamped-down to spark a much-needed sense of animating friction.
  30. The Maid's Room
    There's just enough compelling reversals and anything-could-happen suspense to make this increasingly claustrophobic work effective.
  31. Us and the Game Industry
    The film takes such an emotionally based, non-wonky approach to its featured business, it should absorb gamers and non-gamers alike.
  32. The Dog
    The film is a real "whew"-factor yarn, a hearty soup of thick accents, bold personalities and complicated motives, with an unmistakable taste of charismatic, ornery American hedonism.
  33. About Alex
    The movie stalls in a limbo of half-realized characters and superficial weightiness.
  34. Guardians of the Galaxy
    Blessed with a loose, anarchic B-picture soul that encourages you to enjoy yourself even when you're not quite sure what's going on, the scruffy "Guardians" is irreverent in a way that can bring the first "Star Wars" to mind.
  35. Alive Inside
    As much a plea to change the system as it is an examination of how music helps individuals, Alive Inside is not the most sophisticated documentary, but its power is indisputable, and it does end on a hopeful note.
  36. Calvary
    The film is then not so much a meditation but a reverie, a swirl of emotions and ideas, managing to be both calmly reflective and skittishly anxious at the same time. Calvary is a serious comedy, a funny drama, a ruminative film about life and a lively film about death.
  37. Get On Up
    Despite the linked advantages of generous helpings of the man's high octane music and a star performance by Chadwick Boseman that's little short of heroic, Get on Up is more frustrating than fulfilling, a disjointed film that suffers from having a more ambitious plan than it's got the ability to execute.
  38. Raw Cut
    Aside from the film's double-entendre title and typical slasher-movie poster, director Quist and screenwriter Ponickly have given us nothing to fear.
  39. A Five Star Life
    Director Maria Sole Tognazzi gently explores what it means to be unmarried, middle-aged and female. She illuminates a seldom-seen line of work, bathes her flawed characters in affection, and makes points both obvious and astute, soft-pedaling her insights with celebratory travelogue touches.
  40. Louder Than Words
    Unfortunately director Anthony Fabian prefers to dole out emotion in short bursts of superficial montage rather than fully dramatic scene work in which characters deepen through extended interaction. That leaves Louder Than Words feeling diffuse, choppy and cold rather than illuminative about how broken families heal after terrible loss.
  41. Beneath
    The well-crafted Beneath proves a taut, atmospheric if not especially deep thriller.
  42. Cabin Fever: Patient Zero
    [A] slack, dumb prequel.
  43. 4 Minute Mile
    It's a terrific little film worthy of discovery.
  44. Around the Block
    Though Page-Lochard manages to make his passive participation in violence compelling, Around the Block remains more lecture than drama about racism and its tragic consequences.
  45. Behaving Badly
    Behaving Badly is a dreadful sex comedy that gets worse and worse as its dopey story snowballs into relative incoherence.
  46. The Fluffy Movie
    Despite the Mexican American comic's engaging presence, amusing observations and deft imitations, "Fluffy" is a standard-issue comedy concert film far better suited to a 90-minute cable TV slot than the big screen.
  47. The Killer Inside Me
    Little more than torture porn tricked out in art-house finery. That is the bigger crime here.
  48. Hercules
    The mythically powerful demigod is back on the big screen in the simply titled Hercules and the results are canny, fast-paced, and, for what the film attempts to accomplish, enjoyable.
  49. Happy Christmas
    All in all, Happy Christmas is a good deal like cartoon Charlie Brown's classic tree — scraggly, plenty of heart and much to enjoy, especially if you prefer your presents homemade.
  50. A Most Wanted Man
    [A] crackerjack thriller, at once brooding, claustrophobic and unbearably tense.
  51. Magic in the Moonlight
    The séances are great fun, and the cast is charmingly eclectic. But as to whether "Moonlight" is magical — it is, but ever, ever so slightly.
  52. Very Good Girls
    Despite a finely wrought lead performance by Dakota Fanning, the drama feels more like the stuff of a mild — and dated — YA novel than an involving exploration of female experience.
  53. Premature
    A rapidly wearying comedy that mistakes crudeness with humor.
  54. And So It Goes
    The somnambulant slickness of the direction when a truly grown-up tale of late-in-life love is nipping at the edges suggests Reiner is more stubbornly set in his stay-cute approach than his leads, who at least find the occasional pocket of human messiness in this tension-free exercise.
  55. Le Chef
    An amusing soufflé of a comedy that pokes fun at foodies while honoring the art of those who cook for them.
  56. Come Back to Me
    Writer-director Paul Leyden does a decent job holding our interest as well as providing a few intriguing twists and reveals. But make no mistake, this is exceedingly far-fetched stuff.
  57. Ironclad: Battle for Blood
    The title's promise of violence is dutifully met in gory, sonically squishy close-quarter melees shot in Confuse-o-vision, as if the camera had been strapped to a whirring blender before the footage was edited with the puree button.
  58. The Empty Hours
    Like everything else about this lovely film, life, love and emotional growth are marked out in lush, languid, luminous terms.
  59. I Origins
    On the face of it, tackling the warring sides of science and the spirit seemed a good fit for the writer-director, who continues to be drawn to existential themes. There are occasional flashes of the exceptional, but the film's dodgy story can't sustain them.
  60. Mood Indigo
    With its indefinable, almost indescribable combination of whimsy, sentiment and strangeness, "Mood Indigo" (co-written by Gondry and Luc Bossi) will not be to all tastes at all times. But frame for frame, the amount of invention going on here can't be believed unless it's seen.
  61. Planes: Fire & Rescue
    If you ignore the slicker aspects of the dialogue (and with a little effort you mostly can), it's satisfying to find a film that is as innocent and as much visual fun as this one is.
  62. The Purge: Anarchy
    The Purge: Anarchy is a good deal bloodier, but also — gulp — a good deal better than its predecessor. Make no mistake, a good "Purge" does not equal a good movie, but the post-apocalyptic thriller is slightly more interesting because it takes itself, and its menace, more seriously.
  63. A Summer's Tale
    It may seem like nothing much is happening on-screen, but by the time A Summer's Tale is all over, it feels like everything important has been said and done. Welcome to the magic of Rohmer, one final time.
  64. Sex Tape
    Since it's a comedy, much could be forgiven if the film was consistent in generating laughs, but the comedy is as erratic as the couple's sex life.
  65. Wish I Was Here
    For a film that purports to be about the process of maturity and growth, it is woefully un-evolved, lacking in understanding and insight.
  66. Video Games: The Movie
    It's a lovefest in which critics' voices and debate are simply absent, and the only talking space is wonder, nostalgia and excitement for the future.
  67. K Missing Kings
    Making sense was never a top priority for "K," and its sequel is just as much of a hot mess.
  68. Closed Curtain
    Closed Curtain is richly allegorical, but the film succeeds even more as an exiled artist's reassurance that the law can't stamp out art.
  69. Among Ravens
    There's simply nobody to care about in Among Ravens, even as a case study in unhappiness and delusion.
  70. Affluenza
    The movie opens with the suggestion that it will address the generational divide, but it has nothing of substance to say.
  71. Aftermath
    Even if this largely contained movie remains more low key than frantic, it features enough well-executed bursts of tension and strong emotional beats to hold interest.
  72. Audrey
    The comedy unfolds mostly in real time, but its grasp of real human behavior is shaky.
  73. The Battered Bastards of Baseball
    The joy on display here is contagious.
  74. Siddharth
    Mehta explores matters more complex and unsettling than movie-tidy, against-the-odds heroism. In Tailang's fine performance, the enormity of Mahendra's mission registers in all its devastating weight.
  75. Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger
    Joe Berlinger's densely detailed new documentary about the legendary Boston mobster is disturbing on so many levels it's hard not to wonder why Bulger was the only one on trial.
  76. Underwater Dreams
    [A] moving and insightful piece.
  77. Road to Paloma
    Momoa creates an involving if relaxed pace, one whose moody rhythms are infused with a kind of soulful spirituality.
  78. Rage
    There's a late-breaking twist that might seem impressive if it didn't make all the previous mayhem feel so intensely pointless.
  79. Land Ho!
    Land Ho! is full of surprises, rich in the way it noses around the rocky terrain of aging in an indifferent world through the engaging performances of its two stars.
  80. Boyhood
    An extraordinarily intimate portrait of a life unfolding and an exceptional, unconventional film.
  81. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
    "Dawn's" vision of masses of intelligent apes swarming the screen as masters of all they survey is even more impressive than it was the last time around and reason enough to see the film all by itself.
  82. Venus in Fur
    It is a caustic, comic, cerebral romp for a long time before it hits you with its best shot — some Polanski-worthy darkness.
  83. The Pleasures of Being Out of Step
    Director David Lewis' movie functions as mostly a highlights reel rather than an exhaustive look at Hentoff's life.
  84. Life Itself
    Life Itself may sound like it's a film that would only be of interest to those who knew Ebert personally or to fellow film critics, but the opposite is true.
  85. Gabrielle
    Though the movie wears its agenda on its sleeve, the music and the cast, many of them members of the real Les Muses, as Marion-Rivard was for a time, are simply so charming that it makes Gabrielle hard to resist.
  86. Cinemanovels
    Writer-director Terry Miles' revisionist homage is a thoughtful thesis on the melodrama but a letdown in its attempt to serve as an affecting example of that genre.
  87. The Girl on the Train
    Writer-director Larry Brand is all too eager to show off his cleverness. Bad dialogue and Cinemax aesthetics make all the clichés seem even more clichéd.
  88. America: Imagine a World Without Her
    It's far more invested in elaborate historical reenactments, hypothetical dramatizations and special effects than interviews, research and data.
  89. Begin Again
    Even if Dan and Gretta charm each other more than they charm us, the music they make is harder to resist than they are.
  90. Tammy
    There are some laughs and, at least on screen, more than a few tears. But it doesn't come together with the kind of satisfying punch a comedy should deliver.
  91. Deliver Us From Evil
    Buckle up for the ride that is Deliver Us From Evil, a highly intense and effective mash-up of police procedural and horror show.
  92. Earth to Echo
    It's no "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." (What is?) But on its own modest terms, the alien adventure Earth to Echo is a lively and likable knockoff that should divert, if not exactly enthrall, tweens and young teens.
  93. Code Black
    McGarry has created something that feels personal, vital and revelatory, allowing the rest of us behind the curtain.
  94. Violette
    Director Martin Provost's epic portrait of novelist Violette Leduc is so compelling, even thrilling, in its frank depictions of female sexual voracity, professional egotism and twisted variants on the Electra complex that it's easy to overlook his film's shaggy, uneven plotting.
  95. Manakamana
    Observational with a vengeance, more an art piece than a conventional motion picture, Manakamana is simple in conception, but the reactions it evokes in viewers will be complex and multifaceted.
  96. Nothing Bad Can Happen
    The method to Von Trier's madness is that he provokes thought alongside outrage in his parables. Here, Gebbe musters only outrage, as her antagonists are without nuance, mercy or any redeeming quality.
  97. Under the Electric Sky
    The movie presents the best possible version of the event without the massive lines, drugs, drunkenness and hellish traffic.
  98. Radio Free Albemuth
    First-time writer-director John Alan Simon simply doesn't have a strong enough grip on the movie's narrative, pacing or performances to surmount the pitfalls of this ambitious, budget-conscious effort.
  99. The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
    Whether Aaron Swartz is a personal hero or someone you've never heard of until now, his story cannot help but touch you.
  100. Snowpiercer
    [Bong Joon-ho] combines a great cast, a gripping idea and a gorgeously grimy retro aesthetic to keep this eerie examination of the train wreck of humanity racing along.
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