Los Angeles Times' Scores

For 16,539 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:
16539 movie reviews
  1. The movie's subversive sensibility and old-school/new-school feel are a total kick.
  2. In its ability to let us hear firsthand what life-and-death combat does to the human body and spirit, this film has few peers.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. This is when the movie earns its hushed exclusivity and kitschy title, when we see an art form bridge generations with a strange mixture of grace, joy and melancholy.
  6. A wildly whirling martial arts spectacle with an endless array of exotic knives, a penchant for Zen philosophizing and an unquenchable thirst for blood. It may just be one of the best bad movies ever.
  7. A solid, often engrossing film that doesn't engage us overall the way Denzel Washington's work does.
  8. There is a flamboyance to some of the imagery - Heather and her demonic doppelganger embrace on a flaming carousel - but no exuberance, no sense of wonder, fascination or enjoyment. Everything feels like a throwaway.
  9. Enjoyably dishy documentary.
  10. The voices in Black Tulip declaim themes of renewed hope and freedom, while the plot's grand gestures too often fall flat.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    On-screen, Bad 25 moves in the style of a great pop song.
  11. The actors give their characters a resonance beyond the symbolic, but the action doesn't quite transcend the stagy setup.
  12. The Other Son is a case of good intentions overwhelming the inherent drama - quite simply, political correctness got the best of it. The French director is so focused on covering all the bases, and ensuring a sense of equal empathy - and screen time - for the plight of both families, she leaves the film struggling to get beyond a log-jam of life lessons.
  13. Director Scott Thurman presents a largely even-handed recounting, wisely letting folks - and events - speak for themselves. It's riveting stuff.
  14. It's a wonderful documentary look at an astonishingly successful public-school chess program that manages to be more moving and heartening than you expect. Which is saying a lot.
  15. Bernal and Furstenberg exist within this meditative space with all the ease and unease of a couple still trying each other on for size. The forces that push and pull them feel so rooted in reality that if not for the layers of meaning it might seem a complete improvisation.
  16. In the end, Prieto's Pusher feels like a Guy Ritchie knockoff.
  17. Transiently entertaining, with intermittent sparks, it'll do until something better comes along.
  18. The footage itself, particularly of the surf, is spectacular, with veteran cinematographer Bill Pope handling the camerawork. But the drama is soggy, overreaching for the heartfelt and overdoing the inspirational.
  19. No definitive answers are possible to the questions The Flat raises, which makes them all the more provocative.
  20. Unfortunately, attempts to be original are not enough, they have to succeed, and this film's solutions tend to present themselves as alternately gimmicky and banal.
  21. As a strictly psychological portrait of destructive masculinity it's a gut-sock, vividly photographed, thrillingly edited and marked by performances (Donald Pleasence and Jack Thompson, most notably) that heave with strange complexity and dark camaraderie.Wake in Fright is true horror.
  22. Meier and cinematographer Agnès Godard make potent use of the setting's alternating highs and lows, delivering a jolt of heartbreaking hope in the film's final image.
  23. As a tale of digital power-tripping both exhilarating and terrifying, We Are Legion stands as a useful 21st century narrative.
  24. 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.
  25. An impressive array of archival news footage, enlightening interviews with activists, politicos, academics and journalists, plus a dispensable Alfred Molina-narrated animated parable, round out this provocative, if at times overly ambitious effort.
  26. Often more distracting than diverting with its everything-goes aesthetic - there are strains of steampunk, manga and silent film comedy, with video-game touches.
  27. Fisher's separate visit with several still-traumatized American World War II vets who helped liberate the death camps is also stirring - and horrifying.
  28. Well-meaning and, in the end, sweetly redemptive, Sassy Pants would have worn better with more depth, energy and, yes, sass.
  29. It's too bad the filmmaker felt the need to lighten his unvarnished observations about aging with "cute" stuff. Has there ever been a worthwhile payoff from the introduction of Viagra to a plot line?

Top Trailers