Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,536 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: 8,706 out of 16536
  2. Mixed: 5,813 out of 16536
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16536
16536 movie reviews
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  1. Blood Punch
    Writer Eddie Guzelian's grindhouse-meets-"Groundhog Day" scenario is not without its clever plot turns, but his terrible faux-noir dialogue is mostly crass, witless snark, and the fresh-faced, hollow actors don't have the scuzzy charm or fatalistic comic rhythms needed to make this material disreputably fun.
  2. A Reason
    Unfortunately, A Reason doesn't have enough story to justify its running time of nearly two hours, and though the performers are skilled, the melodramatic score and deliberate pace result in a piece that is overwrought but underdone.
  3. The Golden Dream
    The movie exists in a space beyond arguments about immigration policy and border security, and while sometimes a little too willfully pokey, it speaks to something indelibly human about dreams and their costs.
  4. Windsor Drive
    There isn't a whole lot to the script, and the exasperating direction by Natalie Bible only makes the film look like an extended trailer that teases but never delivers.
  5. When Animals Dream
    Though the careful mood is invariably dissipated when it comes time to kill, kill, kill, Arnby's ace in the hole remains Suhl, a young actress of Streep-ian intensity.
  6. The Mend
    By turns opaque, harsh, self-aware, indulgent and wickedly funny. It's never dull, pummeling you with its prickly smarts.
  7. Unsullied
    It's almost inconceivable that this effective, nerve-racking thriller is the first feature from former NFL defensive end Simeon Rice. It requires the usual suspension of disbelief, and pacing problems are a sign of Rice's directorial inexperience. But the tension he creates is unrelenting.
  8. Guidance
    Mills peppers his fresh script with an assortment of throwaway lines, kooky character beats and off-kilter emotional truths. That he packs so much memorable silliness into one 80-minute film is quite the feat. Sequel, please.
  9. Butterfly Girl
    Sometimes it's those with the hardest struggles in life who remember to appreciate life more than anyone else. This message comes through loud and clear in Cary Bell's documentary, Butterfly Girl.
  10. I Touched All Your Stuff
    It's too bad that Bühler and Mariani take Kirk's tall tale at face value instead of doing their own investigative work and tracking down other characters for interviews.
  11. Zipper
    Instead of taking the audience in unfamiliar directions, filmmaker Mora Stephens (who wrote the script with Joel Viertel) is in such a heated rush to get to all the salacious bits, the story doesn't build crucial dramatic tension.
  12. Z for Zachariah
    What should be a sexually and emotionally charged atmosphere instead ends up feeling like an intellectual exercise, with the actors attempting mightily to simulate chemistry that simply doesn't exist.
  13. The Second Mother
    The Second Mother is a satisfying contradiction. It's a soap opera with a social conscience that casually mixes dramatic elements about serious class issues with a crowd-pleasing audience picture sensibility.
  14. Rosenwald
    As revealed by writer-director Aviva Kempner, it's not just the amount of money he donated that makes Rosenwald special, it's the specifics of who he gave it to and how and why he did it that sets him apart.
  15. Steak (R)evolution
    Ribière and Le Bourdonnec get almost hypertechnical with all the cattle breeds, feeds, grades, cuts, marbling, dry-aging and preparation. Nevertheless, most any carnivore would find this absolute torture on an empty stomach.
  16. We Are Your Friends
    The movie is visually inventive and with enough good moments and smart moves to never be entirely dismissible, while not strong enough to overcome its essential thinness.
  17. Home Run Showdown
    A pleasant if somewhat by-the-numbers family film that lacks any real crack-of-the-bat energy.
  18. No Escape
    It's hardly essential viewing, but No Escape is a tense, at times riveting action-thriller about innocents abroad. Supersize your popcorn, check your logic at the door and settle in for a pretty good ride.
  19. The Park Bench
    A sweet tale with a smart storytelling device and charming performers, but not much more beyond the cute.
  20. When Bette Met Mae
    The performances are cringe-worthy, the appeal of the material marginal.
  21. The Curse of Downers Grove
    The Curse of Downers Grove seems to be jumping on that 1990s teen slasher bandwagon two decades too late.
  22. We Come as Friends
    Because Sauper views himself as a storyteller first, as political as "We Come as Friends" may be, it is always dramatic, never didactic.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Station to Station
    Its individual moments are quite seductive. But if there is a deeper meaning — of what it means to hit the rails in the 21st century, to peer into America's de-industrialized guts — it lies well beyond the scope of this film.
  24. One & Two
    Gorgeous and naturalistic shots by cinematographer by Autumn Durald speak volumes, and the atonal, foreboding score by Nathan Halpern creates a sense of dread, though they are ultimately squandered in an underdeveloped story.
  25. Mateo
    What begins as a quirky portrait of the artist as a gringo mariachi troubadour proves to be a telling study of a lost soul whose palpable passion for his music acts as a surrogate for more meaningful human contact.
  26. Searching for Home: Coming Back From War
    Searching for Home: Coming Back From War touches on wide-ranging veterans' issues, but goes no deeper than that.
  27. She's Funny That Way
    [It] is it all forced and regrettably laugh-free, despite the considerable energy the actors put into it.
  28. Some Kind Of Beautiful
    A treadmill sex comedy, huffing and puffing in place until its time is up.
  29. Being Evel
    The rise-and-fall trajectory of Knievel's career is colorfully captured in Daniel Junge's Being Evel, a savvy documentary that gives the granddaddy of extreme sports his due while gauging the national climate that welcomed his shrewdly timed arrival.
  30. After Words
    The good news about After Words is that it offers Marcia Gay Harden a rare film lead. The bad news: Harden's role in this groan-worthy dramedy is so dreary and ill-conceived that even her formidable talents can't bring it to life.
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