Los Angeles Times' Scores

Select another publication »
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
view
per page
  1. Passion Play
    Inexplicably filmed in a handful of styles - including, bizarrely, obviously processed shots - by cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Passion Play would be midnight-movie fodder if it weren't so drearily wrapped up in its wounded-male aesthetic and a clumsy approach to art-movie moodiness that was abandoned in the '80s.
  2. Mia and the Migoo
    Alternately ambitious and simplistic, lively and bland, the French-produced adventure Mia and the Migoo never fully pinpoints its intended audience or many ecological messages.
  3. Forks Over Knives
    Richly inspiring and informative documentary.
  4. Daydream Nation
    A fitfully engaging effort that is most successful as a performance piece for actors Kat Dennings and Reece Thompson.
  5. Beautiful Darling
    A transgender icon with a life as tragically short as some of the idols she worshipped, she's the deserving subject of an archivally rich remembrance, and such is James Rasin's poignant documentary Beautiful Darling.
  6. The Robber
    They use dialogue sparingly, powerfully; a talky detective sounds like a visitor from another planet. The world he has encroached upon is defined by the ability to run and the adrenaline-rush threat of capture. Freedom's just another word in this gripping existential portrait.
  7. Last Night
    With true insights in short supply, the on-the-nose material fails to seduce.
  8. Jumping the Broom
    This endearing picture is proof that it is still possible for a major studio release to be fun, smart and heart-tugging and devoid of numbskull violence and equally numbing special effects.
  9. There Be Dragons
    It is a third man, a revolutionary, who nearly steals the show. Which might have been all right if writer-director Roland Joffé hadn't been so conflicted about whose story he wants to tell. But indecision can be deadly, and it proves to be here.
  10. The Beaver
    An emotional runaway of a film that carries neither the insight nor the uplift to make the weight of its dark journey worth it.
  11. Something Borrowed
    Despite the pretty overload and the smoldering blue-eyed handsome of Egglesfield, the heart-pounding, palm-sweating, heavy-breathing chemical reactions that should be causing major blackouts in Manhattan, where this story unfolds, are nowhere to be found.
  12. Thor
    Thor has its strengths, but it is finally something of a mishmash with designs on being more interesting than it manages to be.
  13. Dylan Dog: Dead of Night
    Brings vampires, werewolves, zombies, detective noir and spoofy comedy together for a murky genre gumbo with barely any flavor.
  14. That's What I Am
    A forgettable title and a barely there theatrical release don't do justice to the captivating and nostalgic coming-of-age dramedy That's What I Am.
  15. Stake Land
    Resourceful writer-director Jim Mickle covers both in his realism-tinged indie Stake Land and shows that a savvy mixture of characterization, atmosphere and gore-eographed suspense can make even the most familiar fright tropes feel vaguely organic again.
  16. 13 Assassins
    Few filmmakers juxtapose cruelty and beauty as audaciously as Japan's Takashi Miike. A master director with great style and panache, Miike's latest, 13 Assassins, is a classic samurai movie, right up there among the finest in the genre.
  17. Sympathy for Delicious
    Despite the powerful sense of place, Sympathy for Delicious unwinds a narrative thread that grows increasingly tattered and flimsy.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Making the Boys
    Making the Boys reveals just how bound up Crowley's play is with the history of the gay community, most heartbreakingly in the number of original company members who died from AIDS.
  19. The Double Hour
    For what makes this tale something more than a puzzle to be solved is a level of emotional impact that genre exercises don't often provide, emotion traceable to sensitive acting that is similarly rare.
  20. Exporting Raymond
    In sitcom savant Phil Rosenthal's world, truth is at least as strange as fiction and usually it's funnier, which works to his advantage in the very entertaining cultural exchange that is Exporting Raymond.
  21. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
    It's a privilege and a pleasure to be present in a sacred space where the human and the mystical effortlessly intertwine, and we are in Werner Herzog's debt for that great gift.
  22. Hoodwinked Too! Hood VS. Evil
    Hansel and Gretel are this movie's breakout stars, but it's not enough to make Hoodwinked Too feel like anything but a storybook hurled straight at your head.
  23. Fast Five
    The sheer audacity of Fast Five is kind of breathtaking in a metal-twisting, death-defying, mission-implausible, B-movie-on-steroids kind of way. Not complaining, just saying.
  24. Zokkomon
    Director Satyajit Bhatkai has brought plenty of energy to an imaginative and thoughtful script by many hands.
  25. Madea's Big Happy Family
    That there is little difference in tone between the end credits gag reel and the previous 100 minutes represents a triumph of consistency that Burt Reynolds, even in his heyday, never achieved.
  26. African Cats
    Despite its family-friendly trappings, "Cats" is largely serious stuff; deliberately paced, thematically dark and often wistfully told, with enough moments of survival-oriented tension and dread to question its G rating.
  27. POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
    Spurlock creates a good time along with some surprisingly salient observations as he tries to keep his balance on this very slippery slope.
  28. Incendies
    The past is where all the intrigue of the movie lies, and that is where the film is at its most compelling, with the present sometimes wilting in the desert heat.
  29. The Bang Bang Club
    Writer-director Steven Silver (with an able assist from cinematographer Miroslaw Baszak) captures this brutal time - which led to the country's first free, multiracial elections in 1994 and the end of apartheid - in vivid, often bold, but never overpowering strokes.
  30. Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
    Unexpectedly flatfooted when it should be light on its toes, Legend of The Fist fails to pack much of a punch.
  31. Meeting Spencer
    A lame, tedious comedy.
  32. Meek's Cutoff
    A lyrical poem for some, like watching paint dry for others. I'd argue for embracing the poetic, a rare commodity in American films these days.
  33. Nostalgia for the Light
    A film of rare visual poetry that's simultaneously personal, political and philosophical, it's a genuine art film that's also unpretentious and easygoing.
  34. Water for Elephants
    If the circus is a hierarchical pyramid, August is at the very top. It's a part tailor-made for the accomplished Waltz, an Oscar winner for "Inglourious Basterds," and he eats it alive.
  35. The Princess of Montpensier
    Epic and intimate, historical and contemporary, moving and thought-provoking, the impressive The Princess of Montpensier has something for all and sundry but especially for those who like to believe that films can be as boldly intelligent as they are entertaining.
  36. Fly Away
    The lovely, heartbreaking Fly Away benefits from superb performances and a gripping story managed with simplicity and grace by writer-producer-director Janet Grillo.
  37. Footprints
    This often risible head-scratcher never cracks the surface of its muddled ambitions, largely wasting its iconic settings on a series of motley interactions, Tinseltown trivia and self-conscious philosophizing.
  38. American: The Bill Hicks Story
    Posthumous albums and now this film are securing his legacy and enduring influence.
  39. Wretches & Jabberers
    The road trip provides some spectacular images, but it's the two protagonists that hold the most interest. Their reactions are unpredictable; their insights, illuminating and often quite funny.
  40. The Four Times (Le Quattro Volte)
    In only his second feature, Frammartino has found a fresh and ravishingly poetic and beautiful way to explore the relationship between the spirit, man and nature.
  41. Henry's Crime
    Beyond his (Reeves) performance, the film's ungainly mix of heist, romance and backstage comedy never jells. It's never painful, though, especially when James Caan and Vera Farmiga are onscreen. But there's only so much life anyone could breathe into this inert caper.
  42. The Conspirator
    The resolution and strength of Wright's unimpeachable performance makes the whole story seem flesh-and-blood real in a way that it would not otherwise be.
  43. Rio
    What we have here is truly a rare bird, and I'm not talking about the world's last two blue macaws...No, the nearly extinct species of which I speak is the G-rated family movie - nice for a change to sit through a film with literally no cringe or fear factor.
  44. Scream 4
    The kills themselves are both bountiful and bloody, the movie references are brilliant and bloody, the funny is very frequent and very frequently bloody, but to say any more would ruin the boo.
  45. Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny
    Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny nonetheless serves as an informative look back at one of the 20th century's most celebrated figures. (Nov 4, 2010)
    • Los Angeles Times
      • Posted Apr 13, 2011
  46. Hanna
    Blessed with considerable virtues, including a clever concept, crackling filmmaking and a charismatic star, it ultimately squanders all of them, undone by an unfortunate lack of subtlety and restraint.
  47. Circo
    A marvel of a documentary, a clear-eyed and affectionate film that tells a remarkable story with both visual and personal sensitivity. More impressive still, it's largely the work of one man.
  48. Wrecked
    The film is at its best when it's just Brody stuck in the car.
  49. Meet Monica Velour
    In some ways this film's biggest failing is that it can't decide who's story it is telling.
  50. Putty Hill
    The film captures the particular listlessness of youth in summer, the passed pipes and lazy swims in the gorge or the backyard pool. The adolescent posturing is equal parts toughness and vulnerability.
  51. Soul Surfer
    That Soul Surfer rates as a giant leap for this team speaks well about the conviction the movie's actors bring to the material as well as the respect afforded the Hamiltons and their faith.
  52. Born to Be Wild
    Although it runs just a fleet 40 minutes, the film proves a rich and memorable journey.
  53. Arthur
    Meanwhile, Mirren, that grande dame of cinema, just seems tired. And who could blame her? She's in the midst of this disaster, literally and figuratively dying right in front of us. Made me want to cry, just not for Arthur.
  54. Your Highness
    To fully appreciate the extreme lowness of Your Highness, it's best to accept that this sometimes witless and sometimes winning comedy has absolutely no socially redeeming value.
  55. Ceremony
    If the scenario is unconvincing, debuting writer-director Max Winkler has a feel for the dynamics of this kind of ritualized yet informal social gathering, and his affection for his characters is clear.
  56. The Elephant in the Living Room
    This impeccably made film is chock-full of enlightening and sometimes bizarre moments.
  57. Super
    Where Gunn's last feature "Slither" was an enjoyably icky, funny riff on schlocky horror tropes, the split-personality Super merely repels with half-baked ideas, Wilson's and Page's scorched-earth overacting and atonal bursts of jokey gore.
  58. Rubber
    If you meet the fiendishly deadpan Rubber halfway, its assured mix of cinephile artiness and grindhouse spoof will offer some oddball surprises.
  59. Orgasm Inc.
    Canner's deft exposé also makes clear that some of the highest-profile "experts" are shills for Big Pharma, and that genital mutilation is thriving in the West, in the form of cosmetic surgery.
  60. Certifiably Jonathan
    An underwhelming jumble.
  61. Cat Run
    Falls squarely into the a-family-needs-to-eat category, because there is a careless lack of attention about the whole thing, something that could be perceived as smugness if the film didn't feel so haphazard and lazy.
  62. Queen to Play
    It's the best kind of unforced filmmaking, able to make its points with delicacy and tact. And the best thing about it is that it is Bottaro's feature directing debut. We have a lot to look forward to.
  63. In a Better World
    One of the places where In a Better World is especially successful is comparing and contrasting the moral worlds of children and adults, showing how difficult but essential it is for each group to learn from the other.
  64. Trust
    Unfortunately, this well-acted cautionary tale is hampered by a lack of visual finesse and a script in need of a narrative rethink and a dialogue polish.
  65. Hop
    Its CGI renderings are no better or worse than last month's or next month's animation family outing. Its vocal talent - led by Russell Brand and Hugh Laurie - is suitably star-powered. The only thing missing is any real wonder, imagination or comic verve.
  66. Source Code
    With a twisty, mind-bending plot that frequently changes direction and occasionally overreaches, Source Code wouldn't work at all without a cast with the determination and ability to really sell its story.
  67. White Irish Drinkers
    The clichés are what make White Irish Drinkers a drearily predictable bout, so much so that the decent last-round plot twist that momentarily dazes is immediately undercut by the sappy, life-changing-fuh-EV-uh jab telegraphed from the beginning.
  68. Peep World
    By turns flat and strained, Peep World is a collection of personality disorders in search of a story.
  69. Potiche
    Helping to keep this ship from keeling over is the great professionalism and light touch of Deneuve and Depardieu. Costars numerous times, they go together as comfortably as an old pair of gloves. Potiche very much counts on this, and it has not miscalculated.
  70. Bill Cunningham New York
    Front and center in all of this, though he clearly would rather not be, is Cunningham himself, a man of enormous good cheer who gets riled only when he fears his creative prerogatives are being infringed on.
  71. Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules
    Director David Bowers keeps things peppy and brightly lighted, but the movie's swiftest pleasures come from moment-seizing cast members.
  72. Miral
    The lack of a compelling lead figure, combined with Schnabel's tentative approach to the material, casts the film's later stretches in the balmy glow of soap opera.
  73. Sucker Punch
    A wonderfully wild provocation - an imperfect, overlong, intemperate and utterly absorbing romp through the id that I wouldn't have missed for the world.
  74. Desert Flower
    A lovely performance by Ethiopian supermodel-actress Liya Kebede as supermodel-activist Waris Dirie works wonders to elevate this uneven, occasionally awkward but often absorbing film.
  75. The Lincoln Lawyer
    The intricate plotting that distinguished the book overwhelms the movie.
  76. Winter in Wartime
    Straightforward and solid but only mildly involving.
  77. The Music Never Stopped
    In key spots, thanks to Simmons' brilliantly wounded gruffness and Pucci's nimble toggling act between vacancy and awakened spirit, The Music Never Stopped achieves an admirable poignancy about our emotional, healing relationship to the songs we love.
  78. The Desert of Forbidden Art
    Tells a tale that is stranger than fiction several times over. Viewers of this remarkable documentary will be astonished at not only what this art looks like and why it's forbidden, but also where it is and how it got there.
  79. Monogamy
    Ultimately suffers from a late-inning collapse into thematic obviousness and multiple endings.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Cracks
    Atmosphere is about all Cracks has going for it. Although it's nominally set between the wars, the movie feels rootless and adrift, less a fable than a story only half told.
  81. The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman
    Wuershan's heavy hand, never letting up for a moment to allow any air or life to enter the film, cuts off the film's energy even as it rattles relentlessly on.
  82. Paul
    After the sharp bite and harsh light of most American-style guy-based funny films today, Paul comes as such sweet relief.
  83. Win Win
    Pure pleasure to experience. Written and directed by Tom McCarthy with an impeccable feel for off-center human comedy at its funniest and most heartfelt, its low-key qualities are so relaxed and unforced every moment feels like a gift.
  84. Limitless
    Smart isn't all it's cracked up to be and soon the movie is unraveling faster than all of Eddie's grand schemes.
  85. Certified Copy
    A sort of middle-aged "Before Sunrise" unfolds, meandering and talky. But from the get-go these characters' colloquy is a mutual provocation, not a romantic seduction.
  86. I Am
    What lifts the film above its dubious boilerplate assemblage of talking heads and archival images is Shadyac himself. With his gentle, self-mocking humor, he comes across as an exceptionally mellow, earnest and likable guy.
  87. I Will Follow
    The structure, sliding between memories evoked by objects in the house and the common difficulties of moving day, should play with more elegance than it does. Instead, it feels awkward and frequently - as does the film on the whole - too on the nose, too obvious.
  88. Elektra Luxx
    Elektra Luxx has a playful, breezy sexiness that gives the world of the film, porn biz and all, a refreshing innocence.
  89. Jane Eyre
    With Fassbender's charisma igniting his costar as well as himself, these sparring interchanges, both captivating and entertaining, are where this Jane Eyre finally catches fire.
  90. The Strange Case of Angelica
    This fresh, highly original film, inspired by Oliveira's substantially different, never-filmed 1952 script, has been made with the greatest of ease and simplicity and with drollery and wit, yet its underlying impact is profoundly spiritual.
  91. Redland
    There's undeniable beauty too in much of the imagery in this ambitious first film, but if its gutsy, handmade aesthetic makes it unfashionable among American indies, the undernourished narrative puts it on common ground with many of its digital cousins.
  92. The Human Resources Manager
    More than anything, this is an intelligent audience picture, a solid and engrossing piece of old-school filmmaking, both humane and character driven, in which the various protagonists learn something - not too much and not too easily - about the nature of their lives.
  93. Mars Needs Moms
    Instead of breathing life into cartoonist Berkeley Breathed's cheeky kids morality tale, the movie - with all its 3-D motion capture animation flash - flatlines.
  94. Red Riding Hood
    Gorgeously shot, smartly conceived, cleverly cast, badly executed - the lush medieval beauty here is at best only skin deep.
  95. Battle: Los Angeles
    The city's skyline is blown to bits. Burning, broken, blackened bits. So if that's what you're in the mood for, that is what the film delivers, endlessly, but in that cheesy-campy way that can make a bad movie good fun.
  96. Heartbeats
    There are risky plot choices all along the way, but the risks are what keeps the pot boiling as the complexities of the relationship triangle heat up and cool down.
  97. Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune
    Beautiful and melodic as well as pointedly political.
  98. I Saw the Devil
    There is all the violent mayhem, for certain, but the thing that sets I Saw the Devil apart is its undercurrent of real emotion and how unrelentingly sad it can be.
  99. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
    What is clear is that this is a director with a great sense of the magical and the mystical residing in the everyday.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Happythankyoumoreplease
    Treating their problems like they're the most important crises in the world is what people in their 20s do, but that doesn't mean we have to go along for the ride.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »