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. Planes
    For a movie about planes, a lot happens on the ground — those refueling stops can take forever. But the animators take advantage of the power of flight, packing the action sequences with daredevil runs. But it's a race, and a kind of sameness occasionally sets in.
  2. Our Children
    This is a taut psychological study, based on a true story, of the complexities of personal power relationships that begins with the kind of shattering revelation that would be the conclusion of most films.
  3. Pig Death Machine
    Anyone who longs for the old, weird films of John Waters or the psychotronic freak-outs of New York's Cinema of Transgression school should be able to get their fix from Pig Death Machine.
  4. Blood
    Blood feels perfunctory, needing something besides fussy plotting to jolt it to life.
  5. Terraferma
    A stirring commentary on our better angels.
  6. Jug Face
    Kinkle's debut refreshingly sacrifices gore showpieces (though it is bloody at times) for a steadily increasing dread tied to a young woman's desperation.
  7. Implanted
    In the regrettably amateurish hands of writer-director Thomas Verrette, Ethan's journey toward the truth feels more like watching someone wandering through one of those pharmaceutical commercials with a laundry list of side effects.
  8. I Give It a Year
    Instead of subversion, Mazer's first outing as a feature director offers only a tweak of genre conventions. He does achieve an above-average share of laugh-out-loud moments — welcome compensation in a romp that grows more forced with every turn.
  9. The Good Son: The Life of Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini
    [A] colorful, absorbing documentary.
  10. Off Label
    With its focus on intimate detail, Off Label is not a conventional "issue film" reaching for conclusions. Palmieri and Mosher have taken on a huge and urgent topic, and their work's impact rests on their refusal to tell viewers how to feel.
  11. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
    Skippable 3-D aside, it's a serviceable, limber follow-up to 2010's "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief."
  12. More Than Honey
    Producer-director Markus Imhoof tackles a hugely vital subject, but the film's loose structure and lack of a specific through-line don't make for the clearest intake of its, well, swarm of information.
  13. We're the Millers
    We're the Millers is full of moments that feel as forced as the marriage of convenience — and contrivance — in the movie.
  14. Breaking the Girls
    Breaking the Girls isn't exactly a throwaway, but more an extended act of teasing foreplay, a movie that is fine for what it is but also never really shifts into something more.
  15. Europa Report
    While Europa Report does quite well dramatically without breaking any new ground, its great strength is how striking it is visually and the stratagems it employs to make itself memorable.
  16. Rising from Ashes
    As a filmmaker, [Johnston] doesn't always trust his audience as much as he should, opting for overly insistent music and voice-over and withholding information in key areas. But he knew a good story when he saw one, and we can all be grateful for that.
  17. Computer Chess
    Director Andrew Bujalski makes a serious play for his own place in the pantheon of hysterically pretentious pretend.
  18. Drug War
    To has a great mastery of timing; he knows just how long to let a look linger before cutting away, how little he can reveal without losing us. The director keeps you guessing until the very end whether Choi or Zhang, or someone else entirely, will be the last man standing.
  19. The Spectacular Now
    Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, as high school seniors Sutter and Aimee, bring such an authentic face of confidence and questioning, indifference and need, pain and denial, friendship and first love, that it will take you back to that time if you're no longer there, and light a path if you are.
  20. 2 Guns
    Though individual set pieces are well done, the film inevitably leaves an empty taste behind it once it's done.
  21. The Gardener
    The elder Makhmalbaf, who wrote and directed, puts many spins on this ethereal mood piece — it is by turns poetic, impressionistic, metaphorical and even a bit trippy — without satisfying such genre basics as structure, depth and resolution.
  22. Drift
    When Drift sticks to the likable, gently humorous contours of occasionally fractious brotherly love, broken up by thrillingly shot surfing footage, it has plenty of charm, period flavor and breezy visual breadth... Where the movie routinely disappoints, though, is in pursuit of a perfect storm of conflict story lines.
  23. Cockneys vs Zombies
    There's little that feels fresh, freaky or funny about one more batch of eccentric reactions to hungry corpses, one more attempt to creatively splatter, one more metaphor for zombie invasion.
  24. The Artist and the Model
    The lovely and poignant drama The Artist and the Model stirringly presents art, life and death as one irrevocably tangled trio.
  25. The Smurfs 2
    Just as with the 2011 film "The Smurfs," the new The Smurfs 2 is a passable mediocrity.
  26. The To Do List
    The To Do List is neither supergood nor superbad, but passable doesn't exactly raise the bar.
  27. The Act of Killing
    It's a mind-bending film, devastating and disorienting, that disturbs us in ways we're not used to being disturbed, raising questions about the nature of documentary, the persistence of evil, and the intertwined ways movies function in our culture and in our minds.
  28. The Wolverine
    The Wolverine is an erratic affair, more lumbering than compelling, an ambitious film with its share of effective moments that stubbornly refuses to catch fire.
  29. Blue Jasmine
    The movie is among the filmmaker's most emotionally affecting.
  30. Casting By
    A vivid reminder of the hand-in-glove importance of right actor/right role — and the indispensability of those casting mavens who helped make movie history. Good stuff.
  31. Tiny Times 1.0
    Is it good? No. Is it fun? A little. Is there a makeover montage? Of course.
  32. Wasteland
    The frustrating thing about the British heist flick Wasteland is how it creates two admirably entertaining storytelling strands — one a friendship saga, the other a robbery caper — yet can't merge the two successfully.
  33. The Time Being
    Not to be glib, but sitting through the art-centric chamber piece The Time Being is truly like watching paint dry.
  34. Stranded
    Stranded stops at being merely seriously dull and trite, rather than tipping into train-wreck silliness.
  35. Big Words
    Drumming is able to swing from lighter comedic moments to dramatic insights while making it seem effortless.
  36. R.I.P.D.
    The entire film has an oddly underdone quality to it, as if aiming not for greatness but to simply be passable.
  37. Girl Most Likely
    A tonal jumble, veering between forced farce and tired, rom-com beats, with little feeling real or true.
  38. RED 2
    Red 2 is much more of a mixed bag than it should have been.
  39. Only God Forgives
    The Danish filmmaker's latest theater of the macabre is brutal, bloody, saturated with revenge, sex and death, yet stunningly devoid of meaning, purpose, emotion or decent lighting. Seriously. Artful shadows can certainly set a mood; too many and it merely looks like someone is trying too hard.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Our Nixon
    It's a haunting, thoroughly evocative ride.
  41. The Rooftop
    The Rooftop is a bullet train to bananasville, its tonal eccentricities sure to wear out even the most dedicated connoisseur of silly cinema.
  42. Broken
    Solidly done if somewhat unremarkable, there is nothing particularly wrong with "Broken," nothing that needs fixing exactly, and yet it never fully comes together.
  43. Ways to Live Forever
    The result is as sugary as a fatal toothache, though it's hard to hate a film that merely wants to give the world a hug.
  44. Dealin' with Idiots
    The heavily improvised flick ambles as slowly as a toddler rounding first base. Hopefully, Garlin's next movie bothers to include a plot and jokes, i.e. the essential building blocks of a comedy.
  45. Nicky's Family
    There's a great story at the heart of Matej Minac's documentary Nicky's Family, if only it were allowed to be told unvarnished.
  46. Storm Surfers 3D
    Justin McMillan and Christopher Nelius' rah-rah documentary is most alive when it unearths old '80s footage of the friends partying it up with blond groupies — talk about thrilling curves.
  47. Terms and Conditions May Apply
    In inverse proportion to typically long-winded, inscrutable terms of service, the film is concise, direct and thoroughly engaging.
  48. Blackfish
    Blackfish, named after the Native American term for orcas, remains decidedly one-sided. But when that "side" is such a vital, convincing proponent for the greater protection and understanding of such evolved and majestic creatures, it can't help but win.
  49. Turbo
    A series of strong emotional crosscurrents tied to the notion of winning and losing are in the hands of a very eclectic and capable cast.
  50. The Hunt
    It is a devastating film to watch.
  51. Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus
    Whether the San Pedro does its magic is of course the big question. Regardless, Silva works his, delivering not exactly the Holy Grail of road movies, but a very mellow summer high.
  52. In the Fog
    Intimate in the telling, sweeping in the implications, Loznitsa has created an unusually incisive film.
  53. Grown Ups 2
    Grown Ups 2 looks like it was a lot of fun to make. And the last laugh is on us.
  54. Fruitvale Station
    Made with assurance and deep emotion, Fruitvale Station is more than a remarkable directing debut for 26-year-old Ryan Coogler. It's an outstanding film by any standard.
  55. Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp
    The movie is itself rough around the edges, notably in some chintzy attempts at animating pulp graphics. But it's briskly pieced together from interviews and archival footage.
  56. Killing Season
    The pretentious, preposterous, dueling-dialect flameout called Killing Season has to stand as one of the biggest missed opportunities in iconic matchups.
  57. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
    Often an engrossing example of the sweeping, stirring biography.
  58. The Hot Flashes
    What could have been an empowering and amusing riff on the typically male underdog genre is mostly charmless.
  59. Still Mine
    The estimable James Cromwell splendidly anchors this tender, true-life tale.
  60. Pawn Shop Chronicles
    Kramer, 10 years removed from his lone critical success, "The Cooler," and writer Adam Minarovich aren't exactly aping Tarantino, if only because they don't have the talent or inclination to aim that high.
  61. Pacific Rim
    Guillermo del Toro is more than a filmmaker, he's a fantasy visionary with an outsized imagination and a fanatical specificity, a creator of out-of-this world universes carefully conceived down to the smallest detail. His particular gifts and passions are on display in the long-awaited Pacific Rim and the results are spectacular.
  62. Sweetgrass
    Sweetgrass is an unexpectedly intoxicating documentary, unexpected because it blends high artistic standards with the grueling reality of one of the toughest, most exhausting of work environments.
  63. You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet
    A crafty, brainy and uniquely stirring concoction.
  64. The Way, Way Back
    Authenticity gives the movie its witty, heartwarming, hopeful, sentimental, searing and relatable edge. It is merciless in probing the tender spots of times like these, and tough-guy sweet in patching up the wounds.
  65. The Crash Reel
    The Crash Reel asks pointed questions about hazard, reward and consequence, forcing us to look anew at the rush attached to so many high-stakes sports.
  66. Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me
    A skillfully rendered narrative that should satisfy fans and pique the interest of the uninitiated.
  67. The Look of Love
    Skims a host of provocative surfaces without truly dissecting the self-absorbed playboy.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Laurence Anyways
    At nearly three hours, it's by turns an extraordinary and exhausting work.
  69. Just Like a Woman
    All that's missing from Just Like a Woman, Rachid Bouchareb's salute to "Thelma & Louise," is the quality.
  70. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain
    The hour of mike time isn't as strong as such previous dispatches as "Seriously…Funny."
  71. Despicable Me 2
    Even with slightly heavier issues, like its predecessor, Despicable Me 2 is light on its feet, visually inventive and very fast with the repartee. It requires actors who can pull off the many peppery lines at warp speed and in that the film is lucky with its voice cast.
  72. The Lone Ranger
    The Lone Ranger exists without a convincing sense of jeopardy or, more critically, any place for audiences to emotionally connect.
  73. Un Flic (re-release)
    Though not among Melville's classics, Un Flic is a pleasure to experience.
  74. The Attack
    The Attack rewards your patience. Though it's never less than involving, it grows in stature as it unfolds and ends as a more subtle and disturbing film about love, loss and tragedy than we might initially expect.
  75. Byzantium
    Byzantium's appeal is not so much its bite, which could use some refining, but the emotional journey its undead take. In Jordan's hands, the vampires are so very human.
  76. I'm So Excited
    I'm So Excited! will not stand as one of Almodóvar's defining works. But for some completely frivolous, naughty nonsense, it may be just the ticket.
  77. The Heat
    At times The Heat gets messy, and the comedy is not always pitch perfect. But they're cops. They're enemies. They're friends. They're opposites. It's funny.
  78. Gasland Part II
    With continued arguments and legislation over fracking, this follow-up seems inevitable and necessary.
  79. The Secret Disco Revolution
    The movie feels like a flakey, off-the-cuff blog post that somehow transmogrified itself into a feature-length documentary.
  80. Copperhead
    Painfully lugubrious, any sting Copperhead might contain for its contrarian's view of history is undone by its wayward sense of storytelling.
  81. 100 Bloody Acres
    With a fun post-credits gag to round it off, 100 Bloody Acres is great summer counterprogramming for anyone who wants to unwind with a bit of bloody fun and goofball gore.
  82. Detention of the Dead
    Six-year-olds at recess could come up with a wittier script and more charming performances, since they probably wouldn't be hampered by lame pop culture references, laziness disguised as parody, and gore disguised as slapstick.
  83. Maniac
    The self-serious POV visual style has none of Brian DePalma's cheeky, unnerving and self-implicating virtuosity — it just reinforces how sick and dumb this whole feel-bad exercise in misogyny and dimestore pathology is.
  84. How to Make Money Selling Drugs
    As the filmmaker unfurls the harsh, essential facts, both past and present, about America's complex relationship with drugs — along with tobacco and alcohol's longtime place in the equation — the movie gains serious power and momentum.
  85. A Band Called Death
    Joy and redemption aren't exactly punk mantras, but A Band Called Death might just give your heart a thrashing.
  86. Bidder 70
    [A] vital and involving documentary.
  87. Downloaded
    Downloaded is still a vigorous retelling of Fanning's and Parker's wildfire achievement and its ethical pitfalls, even if there's little in the way of journalistic balance.
  88. Redemption
    Statham's broody charisma and veteran cinematographer Chris Menges' ("The Killing Fields") eclectic views of contemporary London help hold interest, even as we ponder what Knight is really trying to say.
  89. Some Girl(s)
    Like us, the deft and merciless director Daisy von Scherler Mayer ("Party Girl") sides with the girls, and to stack the deck she's hired five tremendous actresses.
  90. The Stroller Strategy
    It's a goofy, episodic trifle designed to induce swoons among the saccharine who coo every time they see a cute guy, or a baby, or a cute guy holding a baby while watching YouTube videos about how to change a diaper.
  91. White House Down
    White House Down is a hoot and a half, a shameless popcorn entertainment that is preposterous and diverting in just about equal measure.
  92. Somm
    The film's formula of following these four from three weeks before the start of things right through the competition is a tried and true one that can't help but have success.
  93. Call Me Kuchu
    The civil rights arguments and the activism are handled in remarkably objective fashion, though it is no mystery where the directors' sentiments lie.
  94. Monsters University
    The animation is snappy in the way it handles an extremely eclectic-looking bunch of monsters. The 3-D effects are nifty but, as with so much about "MU," not necessary.
  95. World War Z
    It's fun to see this kind of familiar material done with intelligence and skill.
  96. Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
    As intriguing as the facts are, much of the documentary's charm is the way in which it embeds the work.
  97. A Hijacking
    A Hijacking is as lean, focused and to the point as its title.
  98. Assaulted: Civil Rights Under Fire
    Assaulted: Civil Rights Under Fire is a reasoned counter to Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" and, as such, a constructive addition to the current national firearms debate.
  99. L.A. Superheroes
    Spotty acting, flashes of crass dialogue, some questionable camera work and awkward storytelling — including a surfeit of phone conversations — further sink this well-meaning effort.
  100. Rushlights
    If ever a movie signaled that the Quentin Tarantino copycat age of empty-headed wink-wink genre rehashing is still with us, Rushlights is that movie.
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