Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,524 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 2.3 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: 8,698 out of 16524
  2. Mixed: 5,809 out of 16524
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16524
16524 movie reviews
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    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
    Morgen has crafted an often brilliant, sometimes overheated but always humane documentary, one in which Nirvana’s music and fame is just the scaffolding to Cobain’s inner life.
  2. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
    To his credit, director Andy Fickman (“The Game Plan,” “Parental Guidance”) keeps the inanity moving apace and there are a few chuckles to be had courtesy of the supporting cast. But, as is so often the case with big, star-driven studio laffers, “Cop 2” needed several more spins in the comedy punch-up machine before cameras rolled.
  3. Revolution
    We, unfortunately, learn very little in this Earth Day release (originally completed in 2012) that we haven't seen before in more evolved, better focused documentaries.
  4. John Doe: Vigilante
    The fatal flaw of "John Doe" is its focus on ideas, rather than people.
  5. El Niño
    Director Daniel Monzón delivers a conventional genre exercise — albeit a very effective one, with twists and turns that manage to surprise.
  6. The Living
    What could have been a taut and tense thriller is ankled by the inert characters, clunky screenplay and nonexistent back story.
  7. Futuro Beach
    If director-co-writer Karim Aïnouz has set out to depict soulless gay lives, he has more than succeeded.
  8. 1915
    Amid thespian antics, it contemplates weightier ethical dilemmas such as personal tragedy versus collective grief, artistic license versus historical responsibility, revisionist history versus corrective narrative, forgetting versus moving on. It's one creative way to do justice to such a monumental topic when full-blown reenactments aren't within the budget.
  9. Song from the Forest
    A strikingly poetic documentary that illustrates the push and pull of life's opposing forces.
  10. Welcome to New York
    This frank, unruly look at sex, privilege and power unfolds so much like real life that it proves an intriguing and strangely immersive experience.
  11. Dior and I
    Since Dior and I was made with the house's cooperation, the film is not exactly a slashing piece of investigative journalism, but it does give us glimpses of the reality of this kind of business.
  12. Monsters: Dark Continent
    Whereas the original "Monsters" was a road movie about an odd couple fleeing an alien-infested zone, "Dark Continent" cribs from contemporary war movies like "The Hurt Locker" and "American Sniper," then tosses in extraterrestrials as an afterthought.
  13. The Dead Lands
    The only aspects of the tale that seem uniquely Maori are the action sequences featuring the martial art of mau rakau. Aside from intermittent dream sequences in which Hongi communicates with his late grandmother (Rena Owen), the storytelling is Westernized.
  14. The Road Within
    The Road Within suffers from midfilm wandering and a hasty ending, but the message of self-acceptance rings true and clear.
  15. The Squeeze
    Between plot and character, there are definitely 18 holes in The Squeeze.
  16. Beyond the Reach
    Beyond the Reach is a grueling, unsatisfying thriller that fails the logic test in spectacular ways.
  17. Child 44
    Problematic but involving, Child 44 offers a picture of what individuals did to survive in a world turned upside down. The film's singular premise allows it to survive its various shortcomings, but it is a near-thing.
  18. The Human Experiment
    Co-directors Dana Nachman and Don Hardy haven't attributed all of their facts and figures, hence the proverbial grain of salt.
  19. True Story
    Unfortunately this "Story" never finds its footing as either a creepy morality play or a performance-driven two-hander.
  20. Monkey Kingdom
    The film offers a valuable life lesson in the powers of determination and timing, but most of all it's darned entertaining.
  21. Unfriended
    As a harangue about cyberbullying, it's purely exploitative, but when Unfriended zeros in on the whiplash mixture of freedom and torment we get from multitasking our online lives? It's srsly fun, imo.
  22. WA-SHOKU ~Beyond Sushi~
    Despite its clumsiness, the film conveys the melding of modern and ancient, sensuous and sacred.
  23. The Reconstruction of William Zero
    Byrne does a fine job fragmenting William's innocent, scary and guilt-ridden sides, and Amy Seimetz makes his wife a compelling, grief-stricken figure. But The Reconstruction of William Zero has its own identity problem, essentially, being a solid sci-fi story with a welcome emotional component, yet never fully effective at either.
  24. The Hand That Feeds
    Unfortunately, directors Rachel Lears and Robin Blotnick have squandered a worthy subject.
  25. Candlestick
    Despite Presswell's evident enthusiasm, the tediously talky, dramatically stilted results offer conclusive evidence that mastering suspense requires artistic skill beyond sampling the Master of Suspense.
  26. The Sisterhood of Night
    What director Caryn Waechter does best is artfully and lyrically capture moments of teenage abandon where the girls feel free, self-possessed and full of friendship love.
  27. Desert Dancer
    Ghaffarian's story plays out within such a generic framework, and with such self-importance, that it's all too easy to remain untouched by the onscreen events.
  28. Below Dreams
    From bus stations to jazz concerts, Bradley finds epiphanies in public spaces, expressed visually, musically and, in the way the practical entwines with the philosophical, in dialogue spoken by friends and strangers alike.
  29. Dial A Prayer
    Snow is excellent, though, as she attempts to inhabit her murky character. If only we had a better sense of what the movie was trying to say about faith — or the lack thereof.
  30. The Riot Club
    Although the performances are uniformly on point and the dialogue is tartly British, the film ultimately fails to earn its riotous stripes.
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