Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,524 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: 8,698 out of 16524
  2. Mixed: 5,809 out of 16524
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16524
16524 movie reviews
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  1. 42
    Robinson's combination of fortitude, restraint and passion for the game was stunning. You can't help getting caught up in this story, even as you are wishing the telling was sharper than it is.
  2. Liberal Arts
    The bookish group at the heart of this talky film is having such a grand time trading tart exchanges their mood proves infectious. The sparring helps offset some of the contrivances that make Liberal Arts less buttoned up than it should be - so an A for effort and a C for execution.
  3. Flight
    A solid, often engrossing film that doesn't engage us overall the way Denzel Washington's work does.
  4. Hit and Run
    A strange, but strangely entertaining combo of drag racing machismo, slapstick silliness, raunchy riffs, politically incorrect rants and sweet nothings.
  5. Pitch Perfect
    What helps offset the predictable in this very predictable movie is a series of show-stopping numbers, so props to the folks who oversaw music and choreography. But the true saving grace is a few of the central players.
  6. A Cat in Paris
    It's not your typical animated fare, but since the filmmakers can't quite decide whether its tale should be serious or silly, "Cat" trips and stumbles unsteadily between a bit of both.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    U.N. Me
    The result is far from evenhanded, but capable of raising important questions.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dark Horse
    Dark Horse is a comedy of bad manners that's imbued with uncertainty about the world and one man's place in it. Modest and mildly entertaining, it's a miniature portrait of a potentially jumbo-sized failure.
  9. War of the Buttons
    Though it's handled with little subtlety, the way the atmosphere of suspicion in Vichy France filters down to the kids is a smart slant on the material.
  10. The Girl from the Naked Eye
    Early on, it's tempting to dismiss the noir pastiche The Girl From the Naked Eye as a warmed-over pulp wannabe, what with the overwrought camera work and clichéd dialogue. But in its moments of sometimes comically violent antagonism, the movie shows some flashes of genre pizazz.
  11. It's a Disaster
    The movie elicits knowing smiles more than laughs, even as it reveals a boundless observational awareness about the beefs and slights that, for the small-minded, must feel like everyday Armageddons.
  12. Dead Man Down
    With so many twists, the movie feels like it's trying too hard. Some moments are cleverly constructed; and others seem as if the filmmakers have left themselves no plausible escape.
  13. Neil Young Journeys
    Young's almost mystical musicianship is what saves it.
  14. Starry Starry Night
    The cumulative effect is more that of a handsomely crafted museum piece than a moving, emotional journey.
  15. Home Run Showdown
    A pleasant if somewhat by-the-numbers family film that lacks any real crack-of-the-bat energy.
  16. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
    Though everyone tries her or his hardest to make it otherwise, this is by definition a place-holder film that exists not so much for itself but to smooth the transition from its hugely successful predecessors to a presumably glorious finale one year hence.
  17. Stoker
    The new thriller from South Korean director Park Chan-Wook is a bizarrely perverse, beautifully rendered mystery that you may or may not care to solve.
  18. Jayne Mansfield's Car
    With actors this good, however, there's rarely a pinched expression, heartfelt speech or laugh line that isn't at least partly sold, even if the stunted-male psychologizing at the expense of the under-written women grows tiresome.
  19. Nuit #1
    Like the relationship she has chosen to dissect, the film is promising, disappointing, touching or frustrating, depending on the moment.
  20. Big Boys Gone Bananas!*
    The relentlessness of corporate might is disturbing but no surprise; "Big Boys" is, however, an eye-opening look at the way the U.S. media fell lockstep behind Dole's claims.
  21. This Must Be the Place
    If the movie doesn't entirely get past its hard-to-buy premise, director Paolo Sorrentino does have the courage of his convictions, not just embracing every contradiction but spinning many of the story's contrivances into moments of strange, aching beauty.
  22. Avengers: Age of Ultron
    The uncomfortable reality remains that although this movie is effective moment to moment, very little of it lingers in the mind afterward. The ideal vehicle for our age of immediate sensation and instant gratification, it disappears without a trace almost as soon as it's consumed.
  23. Little White Lies
    With an ensemble led by Marion Cotillard and François Cluzet, the French hit has personality to burn, and squanders most of it.
  24. 10 Years
    The largely engaging class-reunion dramedy 10 Years allows audiences to pretend they went to high school with the likes of Channing Tatum, Justin Long, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Mackie and Kate Mara.
  25. The First Time
    There is much to like here, a sense of nuance and nonjudgmental emotional openness, yet Kasdan's teenage miniaturism never quite blooms. The First Time is respectfully delicate, a little too polite.
  26. Vamps
    Make no mistake, Vamps is mostly a misfire, but Heckerling still shows enough flashes of wit and wisdom that she remains hard to entirely dismiss. Don't bury that coffin just yet.
  27. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning
    The movie creates something of the sensation of huffing industrial solvents - in a good way! - a waking-sleep zombification that can't exactly be described as pleasurable but definitely has an odd, distinct power.
  28. A Late Quartet
    Zilberman's minimalistic approach fits the idea of the film better than it fits the actual film. It leaves this melancholy mood piece with some beautiful moments, but unlike Beethoven's work, A Late Quartet ultimately feels unfinished.
  29. The Day
    Just good enough to engage audiences, but it falls well short of remarkable, leaving viewers wishing for a dawn that never breaks.
  30. The Bullet Vanishes
    Any caseworking suspense is drowned out by an over-abundance of visual pizazz: disjointed shootouts, arbitrary camera angles and cinematography that draws the eye to lighting patterns, not people.
  31. 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.
  32. Stand Up Guys
    While the action is brisk, the film never feels in a hurry. Walken and Pacino amble through their paces. Arkin ups the adrenaline any time he's around, and he is not around quite enough.
  33. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
    The finale is not an all-out disappointment. It should satisfy the franchise's fans, and it does wrap up any loose ends you might be wondering about.
  34. Trolls
    As infernally sugary as this movie may sound on paper, and however mercenary its commercial intentions, it’s hard to resist its silly, utopian vision of a world where happiness reigns, love wins and the mere sound of Timberlake’s voice carries the promise of salvation.
  35. Divergent
    It's an acceptable, play-it-safe version of the first volume in the hugely popular Veronica Roth-written trilogy.
  36. My Uncle Rafael
    It's no great surprise how things end up for this tossed-under-one-roof bunch. How they get there, however, provides a largely fertile playground for the picture's talented comic ensemble.
  37. Switch
    Perhaps Switch's greatest strength is in giving us enough information to try to come up with better questions of our own.
  38. Hitchcock
    Hitchcock puts major league star power at the service of its peek-behind-closed-doors premise. But whatever that relationship was like in real life, this is one cinematic portrait of a marriage we could have lived without.
  39. Harvest of Empire
    Though its snapshot approach is uneven, Harvest is itself a valuable resource: a good starting point for a fuller perspective on this nation of immigrants.
  40. Electoral Dysfunction
    Both well-timed and oddly late-on-arrival, the good-natured documentary Electoral Dysfunction attempts to lay bare the irregularities behind the American voting system but, for some, it may feel too lightweight and coy for genuine effect.
  41. Raaz 3: The Third Dimension
    Whether meeting a malevolent spirit wearing expensive sunglasses, seductively controlling her (Bazu) prey, or bringing her scheme to an operatically violent close, she gives"Raaz 3" its defiantly retro flamboyance.
  42. West of Thunder
    Many of the performers have a distinctly unpolished way about them, almost as if they actually were turn-of-the-last-century townsfolk, which leads to some deeply eccentric line readings, but it also gives the entire film an unvarnished quality that remains curiously engaging.
  43. Masquerade
    As predictable as these stories invariably are, Lee's wonderful turn reignites the potent fantasy of peasant wisdom - if given the power - melting politically cynical hearts and legislating through decency rather than fear.
  44. Fat Kid Rules the World
    Endearingly uneven.
  45. Smiley
    A surprisingly effective low-budget horror film that takes as its true villain the casual cynicism and nihilistic misanthropy that so often go along with online culture.
  46. The Family
    A messy brew that is a bit too slack to get all the way to actually being good.
  47. Orchestra of Exiles
    The pervasive historical reenactments and voiceovers, however, while clearly well-intended, often turn this otherwise vital film into an uneasy hybrid of authenticity and artifice.
  48. Funeral Kings
    The easygoing charm of Funeral Kings and its impulse toward honesty over overstatement robs the film of true dramatic tension, and a number of story lines - involving drugs, rivalry, love interests - are left somewhat unresolved.
  49. California Solo
    In some sense, California Solo is like meeting an engaging stranger: At first there's a certain air of enigmatic mystery that makes you want to spend time with them, but eventually things turn awkward and you just want to get away.
  50. Save the Date
    Charismatic performers Lizzy Caplan and Alison Brie lend the lightweight rom-com Save the Date more than its fair share of watchability. But the film is never truly interesting.
  51. Who Bombed Judi Bari?
    Though its early sections feel repetitive and self-congratulatory, the documentary's tension builds in the way director Mary Liz Thomson uses archival material, much of it from TV news.
  52. Silent Night
    The movie's intended audience will likely be satisfied by its parade of gory mayhem, cheap thrills and groan-worthy dark humor. Everyone else: You're on your own.
  53. Only the Young
    Only the Young rarely coalesces into anything more meaningful than a casual collection of moments. Maybe that's the point.
  54. The Girl
    There are moving moments as Cornish channels the slow self-enlightenment necessary for Ashley's character arc. And the actress is particularly good in the scenes with the promising young Hernandez.
  55. Welcome to the Punch
    Writer-director Eran Creevy shows himself to be well versed in the mythic sweep of Christopher Nolan's and Michael Mann's crime sagas, if not their intelligence with storytelling.
  56. Tabu
    At first Tabu is intriguing. But the enigma gets wearing as the director's attention is divided between the homage to the silent film era and the film's underlying exploration of the regret of old age.
  57. Allegiance
    Allegiance is an intermittently compelling but ultimately disappointing drama that loses track of its own point of view in favor of more generic storytelling.
  58. John Dies at the End
    Flaked with offbeat witticisms, cheese ball effects and fanboy splatter gore, the surreal John Dies at the End has the vibe of a shaggy dog story, which works both for and against it.
  59. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
    With so many sight gags and nearly every living comic in the world making an appearance at some point, the entire operation, like Ron's ego, feels a bit bloated.
  60. The Last Exorcism Part II
    The Last Exorcism Part II is an effectively unnerving, slow-burn supernatural horror tale. The film is smartly different enough from the original to survive on its own, though it lacks some of the first film's sense of surprise.
  61. Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola
    For the most part "Matru" is neatly energetic, a mix of screwball whimsy and softball seriousness.
  62. Tomorrowland
    Tentpoles are rarely guilty of overreaching, but Tomorrowland has a tendency to feel out of control, a film that is finally more ambitious than accomplished.
  63. The Fifth Estate
    Whenever The Fifth Estate leaves the involving one-on-one drama between Assange and Domscheit-Berg, you wish it wouldn't.
  64. Grudge Match
    Grudge Match never settles on the movie it wants to be, wavering uncertainly between a jokey old-guys comedy and something more dramatic and heartfelt.
  65. Lee Daniels' The Butler
    Daniels' pulp instincts do lead to vivid sequences...but this is one significant film where less would have been a whole lot more.
  66. The Underneath
    The Underneath doesn't add up. Made with polish and assurance, capably acted and intricately constructed, its overall impact is less than these parts would indicate. It is good but, against all logic, it is not good enough.
  67. Leviathan
    Though it's a decidedly arty piece, Leviathan, named after the biblical sea creature, also lacks much in the way of traditional beauty or splendor. However, the immersive shots of those swooping and circling sea gulls are quite something.
  68. Phantom
    Phantom is a relatively tight, gripping story told with efficiency that makes room for its fine roster of actors to explore old-fashioned ideas on honor and loyalty.
  69. 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.
  70. Shanghai Calling
    Hsia has an appealingly slick visual style for the fast-paced if predictable turns in Sam's story, shooting the gleaming, bustling Shanghai as if it had finally earned its big-Hollywood-romantic-comedy stripes as a setting for the usual fish-out-of-water jokes, broad humor, meet-cutes, silly coincidences and happy endings.
  71. Kai po che!
    Kai Po Che packs a lot into its two hours, with not a lot of subtlety -- and in some cases, bracing grimness. But its performances are enjoyably boisterous, and director Abhishek Kapoor refuses to linger on clichés for too long...before hurling his trio into their next complication or moment of triumph.
  72. The Boxtrolls
    You can see the years of effort, the polish and precision that went into creating The Boxtrolls... But somehow it still doesn't add up to enough.
  73. Love and Honor
    Save a weak police pursuit, events are earnestly depicted and involvingly played, even if the period re-creation at times feels overly burnished. Still, Love and Honor suffices as old-fashioned, pie-in-the-sky entertainment.
  74. Greedy Lying Bastards
    Despite his cogent finger-pointing, nifty graphs and succinct highlighting of recent climate change history, longtime followers of the hyper-partisan topic may not find much terribly new or revealing here.
  75. Stuck
    A seeming lack of conclusive answers or solutions to a complex global problem makes Stuck feel more like a work in progress than a completely baked depiction.
  76. Kiss of the Damned
    The confident, female-driven sensuality of Kiss of the Damned anchors this handsome nonsense.
  77. Molly's Theory of Relativity
    At times, Lipsky's storytelling is too cutely self-aware, trying too hard, making Molly's Theory of Relativity something of an intriguing, if not entirely successful, exoticism.
  78. Electrick Children
    Though unevenly told and at times too fanciful for its own good, Electrick Children marks an intriguing feature debut for its risk-taking writer-director, Rebecca Thomas.
  79. My Amityville Horror
    The blurring of fact and fiction has been a part of the Amityville saga since it became public, but for Lutz there's no gray area in his memories, whose power is undiminished.
  80. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
    Boasting a higher body count than its IQ, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is violent, idiotic fun.
  81. Better Mus' Come
    It's a tad overstuffed, but never lacks for interest. And Saulter, who serves as his own director of photography, has a poet's eye for detail, capturing the beauty of his native country, even in its most extreme poverty.
  82. Mindless Behavior: All Around the World
    Less a documentary than an acutely positioned marketing tool, Mindless Behavior: All Around the World delivers a chaotically high-energy burst of performance and behind-the-scenes footage for fans of the slickly produced hip-hop boy band.
  83. My Brother the Devil
    My Brother the Devil is a promising debut that marks El Hosaini as a filmmaker to watch, but one still very much in the developmental stages.
  84. Silver Case
    Anyone seeking an empty-headed, derivative joy ride through crime-comedy conventions could do far worse than Silver Case, a brisk, good-looking and never dull B movie.
  85. Salinger
    Salerno, as if he's unsure of what he's got, goes to great lengths to heighten the drama with crisp editing, a strong score, frequent sound effects and snappy visuals.
  86. Tattoo Nation
    A vivid portrait that should satisfy aficionados and intrigue the curious. Ink-averse viewers, however, may remain unsold.
  87. Andre Gregory: Before and After Dinner
    [It's] too bad Cindy Kleine, the documentary's producer-director-narrator — and Gregory's wife — didn't better organize this rangy survey of the eclectic actor, theater director, artist and raconteur.
  88. Star Trek: Generations
    Going boldly where no one has gone before is not what it used to be. Contentedly settled into a prosperous middle age, the "Star Trek" series now seems more comfortable retracing its own footsteps, carefully offering its horde of fans interludes that aspire to do no more than fit snugly into the patterns of the past.
  89. Babe's and Ricky's Inn
    Music in Babe's and Ricky's is righteous and raucous and easy to come by, but the story of Mama Laura is more elusive. And that is the frustration.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fists of Legend
    Director Kang Woo-Suk spins an epic swirl of masculine psychodrama over his many punishing fight sequences...But he also makes a handful of sage points about desperate times, the cycle of bullying and our modern culture of ratings-sanctioned aggression.
  91. Shadow Dancer
    The character mechanics... leave the viewer always feeling a step ahead of the story and its too-late-to-excite twists. As a portrait of violence-riven motherhood, however, Riseborough gives Shadow Dancer most of its grave power.
  92. Tiger Eyes
    The movie, though uneven, benefits from a strong sense of place and an exceptionally well-cast lead.
  93. Vehicle 19
    A serviceable if silly B-movie.
  94. 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.
  95. 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.
  96. Kika
    Kika, which has Almodovar's characteristic high gloss, may not be a vintage film but it's nevertheless indelibly idiosyncratic. Nobody but Pedro Almodovar could have made it.
  97. The Best Man Holiday
    A joyous, raucous, righteous film but also a frustrating and disappointing one.
  98. Assassin's Creed
    Assassin's Creed will be polarizing, but it's fascinating as an entry in Kurzel's oeuvre. It is singularly his film — both in style and the obsession with hubris, power and violence.
  99. Diana
    Flawed yet intimate, Diana respects its subject's hopes, strengths, weaknesses and legacy and, in the extraordinary Watts, boasts a formidably empathetic advocate.
  100. A Field in England
    The happenstance plotting and over-reliance on violence as a plot motor dissipate the film's energy by the end.
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