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. Black Swan
    Not just any kind of trash, it's high-art trash, a kind of "When Tutu Goes Psycho" that so prizes hysteria over sanity that it's worth your life to tell when its characters are hallucinating and when they're not.
  2. Disco and Atomic War
    Although like the Cold War itself, the film does drag on at times, "Disco" really is a delight.
  3. Undertow
    In a confident yet relaxed feature debut, Fuentes-León has created a wholly unified work of art.
  4. Me, Too
    Pastor and Naharro have written a great part for Dueñas and direct her with great care. In fact, her delicately nuanced portrayal is crucial to why this lovely film works so well.
  5. William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
    "A Man Within" won't be the last word on Burroughs, who died in 1997, but it's a welcome addition to the biographical canon - less as clear-eyed investigation than for the intimate and moving portrait it paints.
  6. The Nutcracker
    Your Thanksgiving turkey has arrived on schedule and it's called The Nutcracker in 3D.
  7. Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story
    A warm and enthusiastic documentary.
  8. Made in Dagenham
    Hawkins' performance as "Dagenham's" unassuming heroine, an amalgam of several key figures who stepped up back in the day, is first-rate and already generating some Oscar talk.
  9. The Next Three Days
    About 33 minutes in, I couldn't help but think, if they do another close-up of your watch as it tick, tick, ticks toward another three, I will scream. But honestly, any screaming should be directed at Paul Haggis, who both wrote and directed this mess.
  10. The Kids Grow Up
    Block wears his neuroses so guilelessly on his sleeve and organizes his material with such skill, that what might have been insufferable navel-gazing attains poignancy.
  11. A Marine Story
    A Marine Story overcomes some flaws in continuity and superficial characterizations to drive home its underlying message about the injustice of "don't ask, don't tell" and the way the controversial policy deprives the military of born leaders. A worthy endeavor.
  12. The Taqwacores
    As a misfit-centric slap at religious conformity, the story's premise couldn't be more primed for trenchant social comedy, but screenwriter Knight and director Eyad Zahra opt for maintaining a thin veneer of tiresome obnoxiousness over exploring the contours of an emotionally complicated subculture.
  13. Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
    Made with the on-camera cooperation of Spitzer (though not his wife), it is a sad, disturbing and in some ways tragic tale that in its lurid combination of sex and politics, banal hypocrisy and bare-knuckles power, seems very much an American story of our times.
  14. Outside the Law
    The filmmaker is at his best unspooling the politics of independence, which he does with such confident fervor that you always understand the fight.
  15. Morning Glory
    Rachel McAdams gives the kind of performance we go to the movies for. The rest of the film isn't always up to her level, but it does provide genial entertainment until it runs out of steam.
  16. 127 Hours
    In the end, 127 Hours is one man's incredible, unforgettable journey; it took the extraordinary alchemy of Boyle and Franco to also make it ours.
  17. For Colored Girls
    Whatever stumbles there may be, they are offset by moments when For Colored Girls soars.
  18. Fair Game
    It seems to be doing everything right but still doesn't manage to leave you with a completely satisfied feeling.
  19. Four Lions
    Doesn't offer moviegoers one obvious message, but rather a complex and considered glimpse into a rarely seen world, one of utter absurdity and horror.
  20. Jolene
    More epic than it needs to be and less profound than it should be, Jolene remains a watchable excursion into human frailty and foibles.
  21. Red Hill
    Commendably entertaining.
  22. Change of Plans (Le code a changé)
    By the time this lightly entertaining look at life's emotional crises ends, even the characters you didn't think were sympathetic will have won you over.
  23. Wild Target
    Nighy is usually a treat to watch navigating life's bad turns, so it's especially frustrating that the filmmaker so often leaves him at loose ends.
  24. The Two Escobars
    One of the best sports documentaries in recent memory.
  25. Eichmann
    Eichmann, in all its solemnity, needs to be more dynamic; the film's portentous score further weighs it down.
  26. Shake Hands with the Devil
    A quietly powerful, incisive portrait of Canadian Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallarme (Roy Dupuis), who was sent to Rwanda in 1993 on a peacekeeping mission as the ruling Hutu attacked the rebel Tutsi, yet he was hobbled by the U.N. leadership and faced with the indifference of the world's superpowers.
  27. Walkaway
    Only 97 minutes but feels much longer. It suffers from a marked lack of energy, a condition not cured by its many, many pop-music-scored montages.
  28. Amer
    Consistently outrageous and relentlessly surreal, the Belgian film is, intentionally or not, frequently funny; it's also compelling and distinctive.
  29. Welcome to the Rileys
    Fortunately Stewart seems to thrive in water over her head, and when she pulls Gandolfini in with her the movie gels. It makes you wish the filmmaker had left them in the deep end longer.
  30. Monsters
    An attempt to counter noisy, hyper effects-laden alien invasion flicks with something teasing, indie and good for you. Instead, it's like a pendulum swing too far in the other direction.
  31. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
    Rapace moves through the escalating exposure with a series of subtle shifts that are both painful and exquisite to watch. The actress can make eye contact seem like salt in an open wound.
  32. Paranormal Activity 2
    More of the same, for all the good and acceptably routine that that implies.
  33. Kalamity
    This hollow downer about deep wells of male anger, wallowing regret and mental disintegration is ultimately a thematic cop-out.
  34. GhettoPhysics: Will the Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up?
    GhettoPhysics undercuts its approach with too much cant, too much rambling and too much that is self-evident.
  35. Inhale
    It takes a while to get there, but Inhale eventually emerges as a tense and morally complex thriller with a devastating twist.
  36. Conviction
    The film falls short of delivering the outrage and uplift that should have come easy for this true-life fight against justice denied. Unfortunately, that makes Conviction more a trial than a triumph.
  37. Hereafter
    This is quiet but potent filmmaking that believes nothing is more important than the story it has to tell.
  38. Tamara Drewe
    It all leaves "Drewe" and its often jarring turns of motivation and tone - feeling haphazard and cartoony, and the whole thing more a vibrant mess than something comically disarming.
  39. ParaGold
    An illuminating and heartwarming documentary.
  40. Air Doll (2009)
    It’s remarkable how Bae’s commitment to the physical mechanics of a trickily metaphoric role in no way interferes with the heart she needs to show, and vice versa.
  41. Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
    What starts as a biography turns into a detective thriller as Green crisscrosses the globe, searching for clues as to why Guy-Blaché has been forgotten.
  42. Police Story 2 (1988)
    If the choreography behind these intricate set-pieces is dauntingly complex, the satisfactions they produce could hardly be simpler.
  43. Holiday
    Eklöf doesn’t seem to care if you like her film or her characters — including the protagonist — and it’s this boldness that keeps you watching.
  44. On Happiness Road
    At a time when viewers are calling for greater diversity in film, On Happiness Road marks the introduction of a promising new female voice in animation.
  45. The Gilligan Manifesto
    It might have made for an inspired college paper thesis, but as a documentary, The Gilligan Manifesto, which attempts to draw a direct link between “Gilligan’s Island” and the Communist Manifesto, is conceptually shipwrecked well before completing its one-and-a-half-hour tour.
  46. 22 Chaser
    It’s a reasonably grabby tale despite its familiarity and trying too hard to make its milieu menacing.
  47. Hillbilly
    While an effective rebuttal to media stereotyping, especially in its own portrayals of people of color and the LGBTQ community, Hillbilly feels less assured in dealing with the election, a subject that is getting a little tired but no less confounding.
  48. My Hero Academia: Two Heroes
    The first theatrical feature adapted from the hit anime adventure My Hero Academia: Two Heroes gives fans of the manga and broadcast series exactly what they want: a high-energy blend of heroism, comedy, friendship and take-no-prisoners battles.
  49. White Rabbit
    Wein and Bang deftly balance the comedy and the commentary, resulting in a fast-moving, funny film that’s as alive as the city of Los Angeles itself.
  50. The Icarus Line Must Die
    The movie’s only intermittently successful at blurring the lines between art and life. But it’s a sincerely felt experiment, and it has spirit.
  51. To a More Perfect Union: U.S. v Windsor
    “To a More Perfect Union” could be more focused, particularly given its brief running time. However, the larger history behind the gay rights movement may be a helpful primer for those unfamiliar with it. But this doesn’t cloud the documentary’s emotional impact and effectiveness.
  52. Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk
    Eric Stoltz makes a confident if tonally wavering feature directorial debut with Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk.
  53. The Final Year
    The election’s startling results give the movie more resonance and emotional heft than it might have otherwise. A brief closing interview with Obama provides some stirring — and haunting — grace notes.
  54. 32 Pills: My Sister's Suicide
    While “32 Pills” is a devastating depiction of the effect suicide has on families, it’s more so a heartfelt tribute to her sister’s work and the connection that they shared.
  55. The Man from Earth: Holocene
    There’s no shortage of areas to explore in philosophy, science and religion, but The Man From Earth: Holocene would rather spend its time with unlikable characters than deal with complex concepts.
  56. Sieranevada
    A nearly three-hour talkfest that plays out in something close to real time may sound daunting on paper, but if you can make it past the opening shot, you will find yourself gripped for the duration.
  57. Deep
    Scrape away the soggy one-liners, generic CGI and cheesy musical numbers and what remains has all the briny allure of reheated fry oil.
  58. The Small Town (Kasaba)
    Such is the intensity of Ceylan's vision that a perfectly natural, even casual, course of events, which is what the film consists of, makes Kasaba utterly compelling. [30 Sep 2004, p.E13]
    • Los Angeles Times
  59. RED
    Red can't stop itself from trying too hard to be hip. It's not that it doesn't have effective moments, it's that it doesn't have as many as it thinks it does. The film's inescapable air of glib self-satisfaction is not only largely unearned, it's downright irritating.
  60. Down Terrace
    Down Terrace is long on talk but generates its own internal rhythms and pace that makes it feel bracing and vibrantly alive.
  61. Carlos
    Hypnotic and sprawling five-hour-plus piece of cinematic genius.
  62. Gerrymandering
    Despite much archival and news footage, along with ample face time from that initiative's most ebullient supporter, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the contest lacks the kind of inherent drama and tension that could have helped quicken the movie's measured pulse.
  63. Secretariat
    Secretariat shows no fear of the sentimental, and that's putting it mildly. This is an old-fashioned, super-genteel family movie that opens with an equine quote from the Book of Job and makes ample use of the Edwin Hawkins Singers' gospel song "Oh Happy Day."
  64. I Spit on Your Grave
    For most, there will be no adrenaline rush from fear or thrill, or vicarious release from seeing tormentors tormented; one leaves feeling sad. Sad that this is what "entertainment" has come to. Come on, filmmakers. Can't you do better?
  65. It's Kind of a Funny Story
    It's Kind of a Funny Story is kind of a perfect coming-of-age comedy, with its bittersweet fun set loose in the adult psych ward of a Brooklyn hospital where this clever case of teenage depression, identity and self-esteem is examined.
  66. Life as We Know It
    What you may not expect is quite how satisfying much of the film is, with Duhamel turning out to be a very good sparring partner for Heigl.
  67. Nowhere Boy
    There are so many ways in which Nowhere Boy, an emotionally raw and yet raucous, rockin' riff on John Lennon's turbulent teenage years, is such an entertaining piece of nostalgia.
  68. My Soul to Take
    Sadly, there's not an ounce of tension or a single decent scare to be found amid any of this convoluted mayhem.
  69. It's a Wonderful Afterlife
    While her latest, It's a Wonderful Afterlife, is affectionate and energetic, its comic premise seems too silly, and at times, too tedious, to hope for much cross-cultural appeal, despite a fine, committed cast.
  70. Inside Job
    After watching Charles Ferguson's powerhouse documentary about the global economic crisis, you will more than understand what went down - you will be thunderstruck and boiling with rage.
  71. Case 39
    One can't help experiencing the same dread about the exhausting flood of lackluster horror films that swamp our screens and, as Case 39 unfolds, realizing we're enduring one more.
  72. Chain Letter
    Chain Letter is a nonsensical, bloody mess that, well, is missing a few links.
  73. The Social Network
    Smartly written by Aaron Sorkin, directed to within an inch of its life by David Fincher and anchored by a perfectly pitched performance by Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network is a barn-burner of a tale that unfolds at a splendid clip.
  74. Freakonomics
    Overall, these brief sections, which feature both authors on camera, come off more like self-congratulatory infomercials than they should.
  75. Barry Munday
    Greer's wallflower is bitter, and their respective families - played by Jean Smart, Malcolm McDowell, Cybill Shepherd and Chloë Sevigny - come off like a second-rate sitcom's castoffs.
  76. Douchebag
    This underdeveloped, lackluster glance at brotherhood practically demands a response of "Is that all there is?" at its 70-minute fadeout.
  77. Hatchet II
    You don't go to this film for Sorkinesque repartee; you go for the world's longest chainsaw, or equal-opportunity genital mutilations, or very, very long bludgeonings. And here they are, in buckets.
  78. Leaving
    If Leaving is a romantic parable, it is a dark and depressing one, emphasizing not the sensuality of attraction but rather the obsessive side of romantic behavior. This is mad love for sure, and that is not usually a pretty picture.
  79. Hot Summer Days (Chuen sing yit luen - yit lat lat)
    Unlike the similarly multi-strand "Valentine's Day," Hot Summer Days has heart, however overstated most of its action.
  80. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
    If the bad guys didn't reappear with welcome regularity, "Money Never Sleeps" would be even more of a snooze than it already is.
  81. You Again
    The girl world found in crass comedies such as You Again, movies that reduce women to sad clichés and a uniform level of bad behavior that would appall the cast members of "Jersey Shore."
  82. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
    There's a confusion that you can sense as well, with the film pulled between its light and dark sides just as the owls struggle with forces of good and evil. That hesitation keeps "Guardians" from reaching the deep, emotionally rich center that confers greatness in the animation world.
  83. A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism
    (A)beautifully shot, fascinating film.
  84. Howl
    The film of Howl, like its source material, is undeniably brave, committed and inventive.
  85. Enter the Void
    Suffice to say, unrelenting material like this isn't for everybody. That it is a gloriously filmic gesture - by turns jaw-dropping, elusive, silly, obnoxious, painful and beautiful - is celebration enough.
  86. Waiting for 'Superman'
    Much of the film is told compellingly and heartbreakingly through the wide-eyed innocence of five children.
  87. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
    This kinder, gentler Allen is still clever, still amusing, and the film itself is a confection tempting enough to consider a taste. Yet there is that empty-calorie letdown after it's over. Maybe it's time to book another trip to Spain.
  88. Jack Goes Boating
    Best appreciated for its sweet eccentricities (beginning with reggae lover Jack's would-be dreadlocks), optimistic outlook and authentic New York vibe, as much as for its commitment to being exactly what it is: an affectionate homage to working-class underdogs trying to carve out their own little corners of happiness.
  89. Easy A
    Neither as smart nor as funny as it wants to be. With the verbal-cleverness dial set at 11, the teen comedy wears its glib cultural references - pop and 19th-century literary - in boldface embroidery.
  90. Devil
    By the time the patented Shyamalan Extra-Strength Third Act Twist is revealed, being asked to care about fate, redemption and forgiveness when a satan-in-an-elevator gimmick hasn't delivered is like getting medicinal aftertaste from what should have been a box of delectably fiery Red Hots.
  91. Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo
    Informally sketched but deeply felt, Bradley Beesley's documentary Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo mingles with the spirited cowgirl inmates who compete in Oklahoma's annual state penitentiary rodeo.
  92. The Town
    A fast-paced, character-driven heist movie that combines robberies with romance and solidifies Affleck's reputation as an actor with a genuine gift for directing.
  93. Catfish
    Catfish was built to charm, not indict, and on that front it makes for a diverting seriocomic wade into the pitfalls of Internet-based immediacy, and by extension, the manipulative mysteries of documentary assemblage.
  94. The Freebie
    This engaging, nicely observed look at a 30ish L.A. couple who allow each other a one-night stand to help reheat their 7-year-old marital bed moves quickly and simply.
  95. The Girl
    The result is a kind of quiet Scandinavian cousin (OK, twice removed) to "Home Alone," in which patient viewers will find sporadic rewards.
  96. Picture Me: A Model's Diary
    There have been any number of behind-the-scenes documentaries on the world of fashion, but Ole Schell and Sara Ziff's revealing and engaging Picture Me must surely be unique.
  97. Music Makes a City: A Louisville Orchestra Story
    Despite its gorgeous soundtrack, historical sweep and wealth of archival material, (the film) is weakened by sluggish pacing and an overly detailed, increasingly narrow focus.
  98. The Other City
    All these individuals and organizations are deeply affecting in their attempt to better themselves and society against daunting odds.
  99. Never Let Me Go
    This is a moving and provocative film that initially unsettles, then disturbs and finally haunts you well into the night.
  100. Kings of Pastry
    The French, no one needs to be told, take food and food preparation with extreme seriousness. "There are no 'all-you-can eat' places in France," one chef sniffs in this excellent Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker documentary. "The idea is to eat small amounts of the best food."
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