Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,533 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: 8,703 out of 16533
  2. Mixed: 5,813 out of 16533
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16533
16533 movie reviews
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  1. Cold Creek Manor
    A lightweight popcorn movie, hardly the scariest of the year but with enough jolts to be satisfying. Writer Richard Jefferies' solid script emphasizes character and psychology over plot and provides Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone with engaging, multidimensional starring roles.
  2. Mambo italiano
    Intent on offering viewers a good time yet manages to sneak in considerable substance in a disarming, even old-fashioned manner.
  3. In This World
    What we are seeing may be a representation of the truth, but it is not real, and this collision of artifice and reality is jarring and disconcerting. This is a hurdle but not an insurmountable one. Even if it is counterfeit in a number of ways, the story In This World tells finally wins us over because it is too disturbing and well told not to.
  4. Anything Else
    Feels newly hatched. Some of the laugh lines creak as loudly as grandma's rocker and the cultural references send up billows of dust.
  5. Blue Hill Avenue
    This is a demanding, intelligent film of considerable complexity and of sufficient seriousness to justify its 128-minute running time.
  6. How It All Went Down
    The only element that keeps the film from falling apart entirely is powerful physical presence of Pollio, an experienced, impassioned young actor.
  7. Casa de los babys
    There is often not enough space for all these personalities to truly play out. They tend to become types rather than people, representatives of classes and points of view more than individual human beings.
  8. To Be and to Have
    Part of what makes a great documentary great is the subject, and though the film never scrapes below the surface of the schoolteacher -- we never find out if he lives alone or has children of his own -- Lopez pulls as hard on the imagination as a fictional character.
  9. Secondhand Lions
    Something we want to like more than we can. It's a mild family film with an excellent cast that never develops traction.
  10. The Fighting Temptations
    A rousing, warmhearted comedy, as infectious as the gospel music it celebrates.
  11. Underworld
    Alas, as is often the case with lower-end genre movies, the story cooked up by Wiseman and his friends, actor Kevin Grevioux and the film's screenwriter, Danny McBride, is decidedly less important than the look of the film and its influences.
  12. Emerald Cowboy
    Rich in authentic locales but is unevenly directed by Andrew Molina and is hazy in its chronology. Hayata's story in all its myriad implications might well have been better told in documentary form.
  13. The Year That Trembled
    Evokes the fear, anger and conflict that swept over the country at the time, but it doesn't offer sufficient fresh insights to justify doing so.
  14. Millennium Actress
    Millennium Actress fascinatingly goes where films have not often gone before.
  15. Dummy
    A romantic comedy of considerable charm and humor.
  16. Luster
    Has a charming, skittish quality, and Lewis finds pathos and humor in his characters' often painful search for love.
  17. So Close
    A martial arts valentine to the power of fighting women. It's a slick and delirious Hong Kong action film.
  18. Matchstick Men
    Everything in Matchstick Men moves and looks right, from John Mathieson's cinematography to Tom Foden's production design, so it's puzzling that the film fizzles rather than fizzes.
  19. Cabin Fever
    Rather than steep his story in dread, ideas or something, anything, fresh and different, first-time director Eli Roth just pours on the blood, along with some recycled surrealism and plenty of giddy movie allusions.
  20. Lost in Translation
    The fact that this kind of serious material ends up playing puckishly funny as well as poignant is a tribute both to Coppola and to her do-or-die decision to cast Murray in the lead role.
  21. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
    Depp's performance reminds us that, yeah, it's only a movie -- just not a good one.
  22. The Same River Twice
    Other documentaries have crisscrossed between time frames, but Moss' beguiling The Same River Twice represents one of the most effective uses of the device.
  23. Where's the Party Yaar?
    Looks good but overstays its welcome.
  24. Grisbi (re-release)
    A wonderful treasure from the seemingly inexhaustible cornucopia of crackling French crime dramas.
  25. Carnage
    There's undeniable pathos to many of these encounters, and because the director has a wonderful feel for color and knows how to throw a frame around the world, there's also unmistakable beauty.
  26. The Order
    Cast adrift with vague, improbable characters and a plot that's at once under-and overcooked, the actors struggle to find a steady tone, lurching from somber to silly as the director tries to figure out what he's doing.
  27. Home Room
    Feels like detention -- without the possibility of recess.
  28. Party Monster
    For all its decadence, it moves effectively from outrageous camp humor to stark pathos and in the process manages to be oddly touching. As for Culkin, he succeeds as an adult actor in completely unexpected ways.
  29. Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star
    This sleek and sunny comedy is an all-too-rare example of smart and inventive Hollywood filmmaking.
  30. Taking Sides
    In compelling, suspenseful fashion, Taking Sides illuminates brilliantly the dilemma of a great, world-renowned artist flourishing in a totalitarian regime.
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