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. Palo Alto
    With Palo Alto Coppola transforms weakness into strength, vulnerability into armor.
  2. NOW: In the Wings on a World Stage
    It's that rare film that captures and conveys the romance of the theatrical experience.
  3. God's Pocket
    The script, written by director John Slattery and Alex Metcalf, drifts too quickly into blue-collar cliches, leaving its interesting collection of characters only half-drawn at best.
  4. The Double
    It is the interplay between Wasikowska and Eisenberg that gives "The Double" both its tension and its charm... Their struggle captivates, the resolution shocks, and you can't help but wonder what windmills Ayoade will tilt next.
  5. Broken
    The film's solid acting, relatable premise and strong emotional core carry the day.
  6. Cyber-Seniors
    Even for the most techno-wary at the Toronto assisted living centers where the movie was primarily filmed, the lure of virtual visitation seems to go a good way toward bridging what's been a large and digitally contoured generation gap.
  7. Redwood Highway
    The script (by director Gary Lundgren with James Twyman) is modestly feel-good to a fault and the scenery expectedly beautiful, but it's the unforced acting providing the most nourishment.
  8. Devil's Knot
    Egoyan, who has never shied away from the lurid aspects of lost innocence, takes a measured approach that successfully avoids sensationalism. But the film's restraint verges on blankness.
  9. Fed Up
    Soechtig puts mainstream clout to work to deliver a hard-hitting message. Her mix of archival material, punchy graphics and concise talking-head commentary traces a troubling modern history.
  10. Chef
    If this all sounds fairly rote, it's far from it. That's because the filmmaker largely eschews done-to-death family dynamics, forced obstacles and predictable responses for authentic interaction, organic humor and a hopeful vitality.
  11. Documented
    The film blurs lines between documentary, reality television and "Candid Camera," with Vargas instigating the proceedings.
  12. Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
    If it only had a brain, a heart and the nerve.
  13. Water & Power
    Water & Power remains a quintessential L.A. story that is worth seeing for what it has to say, if not necessarily for how it says it.
  14. Walk of Shame
    Even without the queasy racial stereotypes, Walk of Shame feels perfunctorily assembled, its obstacles straining even screwball logic.
  15. Journey of a Female Comic
    The invitingly loud Melendez posits herself as both a victimized failure and a triumphantly persevering pioneer, and though one can certainly be both, the film doesn't say anything new or meaningful about the industry she's been dying to join for the last two decades.
  16. Where We Started
    For all the emotional onion-peeling here, little is revealed that's surprising, unique or particularly deep.
  17. Farmland
    The slickly produced documentary Farmland often comes off like lobbyist propaganda, profusely extolling the virtues of the independent American farmer.
  18. Friended to Death
    Only during the movie's sweet epilogue do we get a sense of what Friended could have been had the filmmakers taken a smarter, gentler, more human approach.
  19. Bad Johnson
    Little more than an 88-minute "it has a mind of its own" gag, Bad Johnson should have kept its premise in its pants.
  20. Bicycling With Molière
    "Molière" is a polished, character-driven entertainment enlivened by flashes of droll humor.
  21. Mr. Jones
    Mr. Jones has the bones of something freaky but succumbs to a penchant for alienating chaos over sustained, abiding creep.
  22. Unclaimed
    Ngoc and Faunce certainly make fascinating subjects, and the film persuasively argues to give them the benefit of the doubt. But one can't help but think that in the hands of a shrewder filmmaker like Errol Morris, this stranger-than-fiction account would have been absolutely riveting.
  23. Belle
    Belle is greatly buoyed by Mbatha-Raw's performance. She infuses Dido with a confident and intelligent grace that keeps you engaged long after the tangled story has let both the actress and audience down.
  24. Decoding Annie Parker
    The division between the personal and scientific stories is not a clean one. It gives the film an uneven rhythm as it at times lurches between the two women's very separate lives.
  25. Ida
    Spare, haunting, uncompromising, Ida is a film of exceptional artistry whose emotions are as potent and persuasive as its images are indelibly beautiful.
  26. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
    The Occasionally Amazing Spider-Man 2 might be a better way to think of the not-always-spectacular but sometimes satisfying Spider-Man sequel.
  27. The M Word
    Jaglom is too spiritually and cinematically lazy to do anything but evoke glib, artless solidarity, and let us know he's heard of Twitter and Facebook.
  28. Bright Days Ahead
    The well-observed script touches on a number of everyday issues about the aging process — whether you're pushing 40 or passing 60 — that add a tender and enlightening layer to this engaging, leisurely paced film.
  29. Alphaville
    Alphaville is more than quintessential Godard. Despite its age it's that rare science fiction film that doesn't seem to have dated at all.
  30. Next Goal Wins
    With its grasp of suspense and character, it hits the mark as a portrait of openhearted determination that's devoid of desperation.
  31. Walking with the Enemy
    This film from writer Kenny Golde and director Mark Schmidt slaps a clichéd war-movie dressing over everything so that what should have felt heart-poundingly incredible comes off as heavy-handed, ludicrous and unintentionally queasy.
  32. The Machine
    Even with a cut-and-dried approach to characterization and the issue of man-made consciousness, The Machine percolates with an elegantly palpable sense of wonder and danger.
  33. The German Doctor
    The setting abounds in beauty, and the storytelling abounds in obvious cues that mute the intended suspense, if not the horror.
  34. Blue Ruin
    Blue Ruin is an uneven film, and there are slip-ups along the way, but the tension that settles in slowly like a low-grade fever keeps you with it.
  35. Locke
    Locke stands out both for the way filmmaker Knight conceived and executed it and for the kind of hypnotic acting Hardy can be counted on to bring to the table.
  36. The Other Woman
    Slyness, slapstick and sex can often be mixed to amusing effect whatever the specifics — the original "Hangover," for example, did a credible job of it — but The Other Woman is ultimately undone by its indecision.
  37. Cesar's Last Fast
    Richard Ray Perez's documentary concerns the myth more than the man.
  38. The Final Member
    Smartly, the filmmakers minimize their topic's punchline potential. But even though the running time is short, the movie feels stretched out.
  39. Last Passenger
    This handsomely made suspense yarn proves an engrossing, pulse-quickening journey.
  40. The Quiet Ones
    It's a junky, unscary genre piece with a misleading title, because director and co-writer John Pogue jacks up the decibels so often to manufacture frights that you fear a punctured eardrum more than anything else.
  41. Brick Mansions
    Brick Mansions, Paul Walker's penultimate film (prior to "Fast & Furious 7"), is a dumb and ugly action picture that works strictly as a reminder of the late actor's head-turning good looks and modest charisma.
  42. Bible Quiz
    Part of the unpredictable pleasure of Bible Quiz is its unanswered questions.
  43. A Haunted House 2
    Some instances of impiousness work better than others.
  44. Short Peace
    Although it ends on a weak note, Short Peace remains an imaginative, visually striking collection that will delight animation fans seeking something new and different.
  45. Watermark
    If Watermark does nothing else, it will make you question society's contradictory view of water use.
  46. Fading Gigolo
    While Fading Gigolo periodically threatens to come apart at the seams, it is Turturro's most disciplined and delightful work yet.
  47. Tasting Menu
    Director Roger Gual presents little in the way of tantalizing culinary visuals, and that leaves the paper-thin characters as the main course.
  48. Small Time
    Don't let the title of this indie gem fool you, Small Time has humor and heart big time.
  49. Poseidon Rex
    The filmmakers forget the fundamentals of B-movie 101: Skin-baring spring breakers make for the most qualified carnage.
  50. The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden
    Directors Goldfine and Geller tell their story with such engaged confidence that we are swept along to its wild end.
  51. Hateship Loveship
    Unlike the teeming world living between the lines in Munro's story, there is not nearly enough in Hateship Loveship to keep you invested.
  52. Transcendence
    An ambitious and provocative piece of work that is intriguingly balanced between being a warning and a celebration.
  53. Kid Cannabis
    How Norman and his gang learn the ropes, work the game and earn their fleeting, if nerve-wracking moment in the sun proves an enjoyable, well-crafted ride in the hands of writer-director John Stockwell.
  54. Vanishing Pearls: The Oystermen of Pointe a la Hache
    Though dizzyingly informative and diffuse at times, it's a well-shot portrait that's at its best when it eschews the facts for the folks.
  55. 13 Sins
    A "Saw" knockoff without the torture porn.
  56. Fray
    It's a stirring and involving character study that may not cover much new ground but still packs a quiet punch.
  57. Dancing in Jaffa
    A documentary that doesn't force-feed its message of hope but genuinely earns it.
  58. Hank and Asha
    Like the film itself, Kakkar and Pastides are lively, adorable and thoroughly winning.
  59. Make Your Move
    Its core dance styles are a wonderfully frenetic fusion of tap and hip-hop and a truly novel blend of Japanese taiko drumming and K-pop girl-group choreography. Whenever actor Derek Hough and BoA stop leaping and twirling, though, Make Your Move is an underwritten mess.
  60. Proxy
    Whatever Proxy lacks in narrative cohesion and psychological realism, it makes up for in its compelling fever-dream quality and its probing questions about the darker side of parenting.
  61. That Demon Within
    Not unlike most of its Hollywood counterparts, though, this Hong Kong import can't resist the urge to dumb down a fascinating premise for the sake of mass consumption.
  62. Bears
    Bears has warmth and fuzziness in spades, especially when the lot of them snoozes on logs. Amid its heaping serving of cuddliness, though, the film doesn't sugarcoat the harsh reality and unforgiving elements with which the bears have to contend.
  63. Authors Anonymous
    The exhausted mockumentary genre provides yet another reason for its demise in Authors Anonymous, a tenaciously unfunny comedy.
  64. Antboy
    It's the film's well-wrought themes of friendship, self-esteem and responsibility that give this little adventure its ultimate power.
  65. Heaven Is for Real
    What the movie could use is a little more faith — in the power of its message and the art of filmmaking. Instead, Heaven is sincere to a fault, and the closer it gets to heaven, the more it wavers.
  66. Go with Le Flo
    [An] amateurish, terribly acted piffle, which devolves from dull conversations behind store counters into witless farce on a movie set.
  67. Jesus People
    Writers Dan Steadman and Rajeev Sigamoney wisely keep a lid on excessive silliness as they jab at such topics as religious fervor, opportunism and artistic talent — or the lack thereof.
  68. Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq
    Afternoon of a Faun offers privileged glimpses of Le Clercq's life.
  69. Ilo Ilo
    Ilo Ilo is writer-director Anthony Chen's first film, but breathtaking intimacy in storytelling is already second nature to him.
  70. Perfect Sisters
    The film owes whatever persuasiveness it has to the teen leads' sharp performances — their sisterly chemistry and their filial friction with an alcohol-addled mother, well played by Mira Sorvino.
  71. Peter Brook: The Tightrope
    So instructional is the film, directed by Brook's son, Simon, that it feels like one of those P90X or Insanity home fitness programs: Try this at home. You too can perform on stage.
  72. No God, No Master
    So much blandly sweeping, speechifying history and so little personalized dramatic focus turn No God, No Master into a series of issue-driven snapshots instead of something genuinely illuminating.
  73. The Railway Man
    The Railway Man is an impressively crafted, skillfully acted, highly absorbing journey into a dark corner of world history.
  74. Joe
    Though Joe occasionally slips and falters, the filmmakers and actors get all the hard-luck details right.
  75. Rio 2
    Wonderfully animated and well-voiced, Rio 2 is nevertheless too much. Too much plot, too many issues, too many characters. But not too much music.
  76. Draft Day
    This is an earnest and way-contrived endeavor that manages, due largely to Costner's efforts, to be genially diverting in a gee-whiz kind of way.
  77. Oculus
    Less concerned with fake shocks and show-me violence than the grimly calibrated rotting of personalities, Oculus is one of the more intelligently nasty horror films in recent memory.
  78. Only Lovers Left Alive
    The unhurried film is a beauty. Shooting digitally — a first for Jarmusch and a paradox for a movie that so ardently celebrates the artisanal — cinematographer Yorick Le Saux uses nocturnal lighting to eloquent effect. The titular lovers are beauties too, soulful and captivating. Swinton and Hiddleston make their love story one for the ages.
  79. Bad Country
    [A] thoroughly routine, straight-to-video-reminiscent action thriller set in Louisiana.
  80. Detonator
    A repetitive, sluggishly paced nocturnal rumination on why we bother reuniting with old friends we purposefully left behind.
  81. Cuban Fury
    Don't let the cheesy title deter you. Cuban Fury is a thoroughly engaging crowd-pleaser — sweet, quite amusing and even a tad inspiring.
  82. Jinn
    Magical swords, evil doppelgangers, a sexy black muscle car, an unremarkable final showdown and lots of first-draft dialogue factor into this thankfully brief (about 80 minutes plus end credits) frightfest.
  83. Nymphomaniac: Volume II
    Volume II builds on emotional foundations from Volume I, even recasting the first film's ironic humor with a darker pall.
  84. Breathe In
    The exquisitely calibrated Breathe In explores such a fraught mutual passion with honesty, intimacy and complete emotional involvement.
  85. Alan Partridge
    In taking Partridge to the movies, the writers go broader and deeper than they typically do with the story.
  86. Under the Skin
    Watching this film feels like a genesis moment — of sci-fi fable, of filmmaking, of performance — with all the ambiguity and excitement that implies.
  87. Hot Guys with Guns
    If the material isn't always smooth or funny or well-thought-out, the tone and spirit are agreeably light, with a visual sophistication for a meager budget that's admirable.
  88. A Farewell to Fools
    Call it a dark farce, human comedy or wartime satire. But however you slice it, the ill-conceived morality tale A Farewell to Fools is a bust.
  89. Frankie & Alice
    Berry's florid physicality has a certain silent-melodrama pull. The film around her, however, is lamentably by-the-numbers.
  90. 10 Rules for Sleeping Around
    10 Rules for Sleeping Around is a dreadful sex farce with barely an authentic emotion, credible character or plausible plot point in its midst.
  91. Alien Abduction
    Suffers from the tired POV gimmickry, the weak characterizations, the numbing sameness of stuck-in-the-woods-with-dolts narratives.
  92. Goodbye World
    An unconvincing, poorly conceived hybrid of end-of-the-world thriller and relationship drama.
  93. Mistaken for Strangers
    A documentary that's insightful, sweet and often hilarious.
  94. Refuge
    Whatever emotional depths filmmaker Jessica Goldberg hopes to suggest, there's nothing stirring beneath the movie's static surface.
  95. Island of Lemurs: Madagascar
    Even at a meager 40 minutes, the film feels padded... But so long as the jubilance brought about by lemurs can compel more protection for the near-extinct species, the film will have served its purpose.
  96. In the Blood
    Like a typical Hollywood action-thriller, though, the screenplay jeopardizes the film. The twists concocted by writers James Robert Johnston and Bennett Yellin are mostly predictable; and the ones you don't see coming are outlandish.
  97. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
    It's a product of the highest quality, but at the end of the day that's what it is: a machine-made, assembly-line product whose strengths tend to feel like items checked off a master list rather than being the result of any kind of individual creative touch.
  98. The Unknown Known
    It's hard to believe a story this serious can be told in such an involving way, but that is one of this expert documentarian's greatest gifts.
  99. Dom Hemingway
    Between Law's performance and Shepard's script, which brims with explicit and expressive dialogue, the movie is remarkable for its ability to exhaust, irritate and also entertain.
  100. The Raid 2
    As inventive as the action sequences are, there are too many of them and they tend to go on far too long — the movie is just shy of two-and-a-half hours. Still, Evans' filmmaking has undergone some impressive fine-tuning for The Raid 2. It is something to see — if you have the stomach for it.
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