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. Blood Ties
    There's a heft to the proceedings that keeps us invested even when the story's various strands start to unravel.
  2. A Birder's Guide to Everything
    The brusque teen humor, underpinning turmoil and sentiment all seem to be pulled and massaged from the same organic whole, and that's refreshing in a genre so often built on gimmicks and stereotypes.
  3. Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club
    Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club is a sitcom masquerading as a feature film... Too bad he didn't just spare us the awfulness of this flat and phony slices-of-life dramedy and go right to series, where half-hour bites might have helped mitigate the pain.
  4. Le Week-End
    Le Week-End is a sour and misanthropic film masquerading as an honest and sensitive romance. A painful and unremittingly bleak look at a difficult marriage, it wants us to sit through a range of domestic horrors without offering much of anything as a reward.
  5. Veronica Mars
    It is clear in every frame that the filmmakers and actors really appreciate that loyalty. It doesn't make for a particularly ambitious film, but it is a satisfying one as it moves easy, breezy over familiar terrain.
  6. Need For Speed
    Waugh has a good feel for the cars and action extremes, while director of photography Shane Hurlbut acquits himself nicely. But the screenplay written by George Gatins is full of potholes.
  7. Bad Words
    Sarcastic, sanctimonious, salacious, sly, slight and surprisingly sweet, the black comedy of Bad Words, starring and directed by Jason Bateman, is high-minded, foul-mouthed good nonsense.
  8. The Right Kind of Wrong
    When the movie isn't forcing its cuteness or R-rated humor, there's a frisson of genuine screwball to The Right Kind of Wrong.
  9. Tiger & Bunny: The Rising
    The mash-up of the superhero and buddy-cop genres turns out fresh and vital, offering glimpses of a future where reality television and drones proliferate and where conglomerates with bottom lines underwrite crime fighters.
  10. Junk
    Although Kaveh and Raul never transcend their archetypes as heartbroken single guy and too-comfortable married man, and Hamedani and Isao aren't naturals in front of the camera, their rapport ultimately makes Junk a worthwhile lark.
  11. Tennessee Queer
    This unevenly acted yuckfest, which is as unsubtle as its title, has all the pizazz of a bad sitcom episode.
  12. U Want Me 2 Kill Him?
    Andrew Douglas, who directed the 2005 "The Amityville Horror" remake, mishandles the standard noir as straightforward drama and gives it an unfortunate after-school-special vibe.
  13. Grand Piano
    Not all the right notes are hit in Grand Piano, but for an elegantly schizoid B movie, it's more B-sharp than B-flat.
  14. Shirin in Love
    An abject filmmaking lesson in the many ways to irk moviegoers: cardboard characters, dippy plotting, sentimental overkill and tortuous logic.
  15. Sparks
    The scrappy superhero-noir indie Sparks busks its 1940s saga of dark redemption with considerable visual energy, if not always coherence or competence.
  16. Dark House
    Salva manages a few inspired scenes... But the lasting image Dark House offers is of the screenwriters hurling everything they can think of at the wall.
  17. Better Living Through Chemistry
    The film often defies expectations but also winds up sidestepping the kind of trapdoors and quicksand that might have made the ride more exhilarating.
  18. The Art of the Steal
    The actors give it punch, but in the grand scheme of caper comedies, The Art of the Steal is more breathlessly imitative than authentic.
  19. War of the Worlds: Goliath
    War of the Worlds: Goliath is just a few cereal commercials shy of a pointlessly cartoon marathon — violent, messily drawn and lifelessly dragging.
  20. Special ID
    The lens work by "Crouching Tiger" cinematographer Peter Pau looks super slick; and the film's conformity to trends in regional commercial cinema yields respectable results. But Special ID truly comes alive when it busts out the good ol' fashioned Hong Kong daredevil stunt work.
  21. Particle Fever
    There's a palpable excitement around the search for knowledge, and this film captures that beautifully.
  22. Mr. Peabody & Sherman
    The animation style mirrors the original, which is simple in an appealing way. It is particularly effective in the action sequences, which make the most of animation's ability to create a playful reality. But the multi-layered historical references designed to be adroitly wry are a trickier gambit.
  23. Southern Baptist Sissies
    Irrational camera work and editing render Southern Baptist Sissies more fitting for the theater merchandise stand than for theatrical distribution.
  24. 300: Rise of an Empire
    The spectacularly brutal fighting is the film's main calling card, and in that "Rise of an Empire" doesn't disappoint. Still, in the battle for best guilty pleasure, I'd give it to the Spartans of "300," by a head.
  25. The Activist
    It's an intriguing setting — and set-up. But a lack of subtlety in the writing and much of the acting (particularly Circus-Szalewski and Ron Roggé as a pair of good cop/bad cop jailers) mitigate the power of the caged men's plights as well as the movie's intended tension.
  26. Awful Nice
    Even when bits go thud, there's a brittle, unsentimental wit about kin's inexplicable tug that's hard to ignore, and the leads — game for some surprisingly sublime bits of physical comedy — eventually wear one's anti-charm defenses down.
  27. Bethlehem
    The movie has the taut efficiency of a well-constructed crime thriller, while its real-world underpinnings play out with a less convincing sense of urgency.
  28. In Fear
    Lovering keeps In Fear visually absorbing through unsettling close-ups and a well-paced series of scares.
  29. Journey to the West
    The spectacular combination of slapstick, love story and superhero antics doesn't entirely avoid awkwardness, but mostly it defies gravity, like many of the stunts.
  30. Haunt
    Too often, Carter sacrifices characterization for one more flickery effect or carefully composed shot of moody elegance, then overdoes unlighted interiors to an almost absurd degree.
  31. Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me
    Whatever this woman is saying or doing, you want to be there to hear it and see it, and there's no better formula for an entertaining documentary than that.
  32. Kids for Cash
    A vital, urgent and infuriating look at the devastating failures of the juvenile court system and the insidious reach of prison privatization.
  33. The Face of Love
    Arie Posin regrettably sticks to the tastefully designed, artless tear-jerker. The lost opportunity is that he's got the masterful Bening and Harris to play with, great enough actors to turn any interaction — however tritely written — into an intimate, emotionally honest dance of the scarred and delicate.
  34. Lucky Bastard
    Lucky Bastard is a bold little thriller — and deft cautionary tale.
  35. The Grand Budapest Hotel
    The writer-director's familiar style blends with a group of unexpected factors to create a magnificently cockeyed entertainment.
  36. Repentance
    The ludicrous and bloody New Orleans melodrama Repentance offers the despairing sight of talented actors in full flounder.
  37. The Pirate Fairy
    Director Peggy Holmes' glittery romp offers plenty of pretty spectacles, but true flights of fancy... are far too rare.
  38. Chlorine
    The uninvitingly titled Chlorine is a flat, undercooked suburban comedy. Or is it a drama? Or maybe a kind of satire? Regardless, it's short on style, substance or any clear raison d'être.
  39. Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys
    Aatsinki is a work of cinéma vérité of the highest order: vivid, immersive and unflinching.
  40. Odd Thomas
    In adapting Dean Koontz's series, Sommers nails the hero but bungles the world-building.
  41. Stalingrad
    Though plenty of road-tested war truths about sacrifice, honor, grit and intimacy get trotted out, "Stalingrad" is deep down a spectacle campaign forged in operatic violence and a siege of the senses, and on those terms it has its moments.
  42. Generation War
    With performers this engaging, we never want to stop watching, even as events go from grim to grimmer over four long and bitter years.
  43. Ernest & Célestine
    A magically understated mash-up, Ernest & Celestine has a comforting storybook effect and proves a refreshing departure in an age of high-tech, hyperkinetic animation set to soaring pop ballads, as entertaining as they can be.
  44. The Lunchbox
    One thing that makes Lunchbox so strong is that a touch of melancholy hangs over its sweetness. Finally this is a film about the wheel of life, about what helps us cope with its turns and find our way in its unforgiving labyrinth.
  45. The Bag Man
    It is the most nonsensical crime caper to make it on screen in a while.
  46. Non-Stop
    Non-Stop is a crisp, efficient thriller that benefits greatly from the intangibles Neeson can be counted on to supply.
  47. Son of God
    If "The Bible" was CliffsNotes for the Scriptures, Son of God is the cheat sheet. The two-hour film condenses about four hours of what already was hasty television, and it all winds up a little dramatically static.
  48. Omar
    What happens when Omar is outside the prison walls, and how his world and his relationships are reshaped by the realities of broken trust and betrayal, make for gripping and heartbreaking watching.
  49. 3 Days to Kill
    The film is helped by Costner's self-deprecating, aw-shucks charm. The actor is game whether he's being asked to fight off truculent teens or treacherous terrorists.
  50. Child's Pose
    A ferocious psychological drama with the pace of a thriller, Child's Pose combines, as have the best of the Romanian new-wave films, a compelling personal story about mothers and sons with an examination of socio-political dynamics in a way that is both intense and piercingly real.
  51. In Secret
    A film rich in atmosphere but emotionally as blunt as its title.
  52. Pompeii
    Part sword-and-sandal spectacle, part disaster epic, Pompeii accomplishes its ambitious agenda to largely engrossing effect.
  53. Holy Ghost People
    Though it boasts great performances and urgent, intimate camera work, "Holy Ghost People" diminishes as it progresses, enervated by its prioritization of scares over cohesion and a voice-over that tells everything it should show.
  54. The Pretty One
    Had the movie itself been more focused as a story of messy loss — and not played tonal Twister with its high concept — it might have better served its freshly oddball lead.
  55. Black Out
    In terms of character and plot, not one element of the intended wild ride escapes self-consciousness or becomes the least bit involving.
  56. Barefoot
    It's dispiriting enough that we're still getting movies about the cute side of mental illness, but to turn someone rendered childlike by abusive trauma into desirable girlfriend material — and sporting cast-off stripper attire to boot — is more than a little creepy.
  57. Angels in Stardust
    When it comes to finesse or originality the first-time filmmaker falls desperately short, relying on hoary clichés; dreadful, chicken-fried dialogue; and an often cracked moral compass.
  58. Almost Human
    While the cast and crew's competence well exceed what anyone would expect from this breed of B movies, they cannot compensate for the flawed internal logic in the screenplay.
  59. A Stranger in Paradise
    Corrado Jay Boccia's directorial debut strikes as almost passable, with a relatively known cast and elaborate stunts. But his inexperience rears its ugly head as the film never musters real suspense and urgency.
  60. Girl on a Bicycle
    Jeremy Leven's attempt at old-school romantic comedy, set in a postcard-pretty tourist's vision of Paris, is more of a foolish plod than a weightless rollick.
  61. Hank: 5 Years from the Brink
    For all of the substantive issues underpinning the documentary, it still feels a slight film for Berlinger, and very unlike the documentary veteran's best work, found in his dogged following of the West Memphis Three case.
  62. Visitors
    In practice this mélange of imagery is aimed more at the inside of Reggio's head than anywhere else. Unless you are able to get on his quasi-experimental wavelength, a dicey proposition at best, Visitors will miss your solar plexus entirely and instead put you right to sleep. With one exception.
  63. About Last Night
    The cast does what it can with — and clearly self-improves upon — the essentially thin, at times choppy material.
  64. Adult World
    Brimming with sharp asides and clever throwaways...plus astute observations on literary pretension and misguided youth, Adult World is a winner.
  65. Beijing Love Story
    Some stories drag while others have zing in this anthology; binding them is a compelling sense of cultural identity — the tension between tradition and free-market modernity.
  66. Date and Switch
    The film's more heartfelt moments are what ultimately work best.
  67. Endless Love
    Every time things between blue-collar David (Pettyfer) and pretty, privileged Jade (Wilde) get sticky — either kissy/gooey or teary/hurt-y — and the film could go deep, "Endless" morphs into music video territory.
  68. Winter's Tale
    Because it is fearlessly sincere and not totally successful, Winter's Tale is easy to mock. But it is also hard not to admire its willingness to go all out in its quest for the grandest of romantic gestures.
  69. Down and Dangerous
    It's so predictable in its beats and pedestrian in its execution that a viewer can slip in and out of consciousness, confident she won't miss much and will know exactly where in the story she is when she awakes.
  70. The Returned
    Though an admirable shake-up of the typically overbearing, munch-intensive undead yarn, The Returned is still a far cry from the smarts-and-shocks zombie allegories George Romero mastered.
  71. Easy Money: Hard to Kill
    The emotional moments never land.
  72. RoboCop
    Although the movie isn't a complete disaster, it's not your father's RoboCop either.
  73. A Fantastic Fear of Everything
    The dreary, loud, amateurish horror-comedy A Fantastic Fear of Everything...isn’t terribly interested in logic. Or continuity. Or filmmaking acumen. Or, most glaringly, laughs.
  74. The Last of the Unjust
    The Last of the Unjust, like Lanzmann himself at his advanced age, is ungainly but powerful.
  75. In Bloom
    You can feel how personal a film In Bloom is and how promising a first feature this is for one of the country's new wave artists.
  76. Welcome to the Jungle
    It is difficult to tell whether the filmmakers intended Welcome to the Jungle as a satire or a farce. It is neither funny enough, nor clever enough, to measure up in either case.
  77. The Monuments Men
    It can't decide what kind of a film it wants to be and so ends up failing across a fairly wide spectrum.
  78. A Field in England
    The happenstance plotting and over-reliance on violence as a plot motor dissipate the film's energy by the end.
  79. Cavemen
    Cavemen writer-director Herschel Faber has sketched such a thin and unfunny look at L.A. singles, it should mark the death knell for movies about child-men on the make.
  80. Nurse 3D
    Co-writer and director David Aarniokoski's clunky, crude blotch of prurience and bloodletting is too self-satisfied with its wink-wink naughtiness to be either fun-dumb or scary-sexy.
  81. The Outsider
    Fairbrass has a certain rugged sincerity and appealing sense of barely coiled rage, but it's mostly wasted in a screenplay (by director Brian A. Miller) of gaping plot holes, wan excitement and dumb action cliches.
  82. The LEGO Movie
    The Lego Movie is strikingly, exhilaratingly, exhaustingly fresh.
  83. The Attorney
    The Attorney is on the side of justice, but it's a ham-fisted dramatization of real-life events that mistakes anger for persuasion.
  84. 7 Boxes
    Given the routineness of the chase itself, what jumps out here is the pervasive desperation shared by just about every character.
  85. After the Dark
    While the story's conceit brims with metaphor and symbolism, it rarely comes off as didactic or heavy-handed. Instead, it's smart and provocative. The movie's late-breaking twist also feels about right.
  86. Let's Ruin It with Babies
    There's so much that's authentic and likable about the loopy road trip comedy Let's Ruin It With Babies that it's a shame when it loses its mojo along the way.
  87. The Great Flood
    Guitarist-composer Bill Frisell's wall-to-wall, bluesy-jazzy soundtrack beautifully reflects and unifies the visuals while also helping to personalize this distinct endeavor. It's a terrific achievement.
  88. Charlie Victor Romeo
    A unique, unsettling experience.
  89. The Wait
    Writer-director M. Blash's sophomore film is ethereal and trippy, told less in scenes than in oblique snatches, not unlike the experience of emotional paralysis. This approach grows wearying.
  90. Somewhere Slow
    Frequently affecting and mordantly funny, Somewhere Slow acquits Gilsig as a gifted actress and a producer with great taste.
  91. May I Kill U?
    A thuddingly unfunny vigilante satire.
  92. Brightest Star
    Beware any movie that talks about what it is before being what it is.
  93. 12 O'Clock Boys
    The young filmmaker rarely digs beneath the harsh environment's many fraught surfaces. He simply lets his cameras be his guide.
  94. Love Is in the Air
    Though the actors' chemistry sets off no fireworks and the story is never truly involving, the movie does manage to avoid being outright painful.
  95. California Scheming
    The film is rescued from its own lumbering self-seriousness by Weber's sensitive portrayal of teen dynamics, but it's never as scary or as creepy as it needs to be.
  96. Stranger by the Lake
    The filmmaker constructs a growing sense of dread with the calculated precision of a classic horror movie.
  97. At Middleton
    Garcia and Farmiga have such an easy, natural chemistry that their on-screen sparkle helps mitigate the film's weaknesses. At others times, it serves to underscore what might have been. It's a feckless conundrum.
  98. That Awkward Moment
    What makes this film particularly bedeviling is that you get the sense there is a nice guy behind this mess, one not so callous about matters of the heart. If anything, the raunch seems forced. The closer the film gets to real emotions, the more authentic it feels.
  99. Mitt
    Although Whiteley's unrestricted there-ness effortlessly yields an avuncular striver... it means little when the viewpoint is so hermetic.
  100. I, Frankenstein
    There's certainly no moviegoing reanimation in director Stuart Beattie's adaptation of Kevin Grevioux's graphic novel.
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