Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,526 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: 8,699 out of 16526
  2. Mixed: 5,810 out of 16526
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16526
16526 movie reviews
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  1. The Art of the Steal
    The actors give it punch, but in the grand scheme of caper comedies, The Art of the Steal is more breathlessly imitative than authentic.
  2. War of the Worlds: Goliath
    War of the Worlds: Goliath is just a few cereal commercials shy of a pointlessly cartoon marathon — violent, messily drawn and lifelessly dragging.
  3. Special ID
    The lens work by "Crouching Tiger" cinematographer Peter Pau looks super slick; and the film's conformity to trends in regional commercial cinema yields respectable results. But Special ID truly comes alive when it busts out the good ol' fashioned Hong Kong daredevil stunt work.
  4. Particle Fever
    There's a palpable excitement around the search for knowledge, and this film captures that beautifully.
  5. Mr. Peabody & Sherman
    The animation style mirrors the original, which is simple in an appealing way. It is particularly effective in the action sequences, which make the most of animation's ability to create a playful reality. But the multi-layered historical references designed to be adroitly wry are a trickier gambit.
  6. Southern Baptist Sissies
    Irrational camera work and editing render Southern Baptist Sissies more fitting for the theater merchandise stand than for theatrical distribution.
  7. 300: Rise of an Empire
    The spectacularly brutal fighting is the film's main calling card, and in that "Rise of an Empire" doesn't disappoint. Still, in the battle for best guilty pleasure, I'd give it to the Spartans of "300," by a head.
  8. The Activist
    It's an intriguing setting — and set-up. But a lack of subtlety in the writing and much of the acting (particularly Circus-Szalewski and Ron Roggé as a pair of good cop/bad cop jailers) mitigate the power of the caged men's plights as well as the movie's intended tension.
  9. Awful Nice
    Even when bits go thud, there's a brittle, unsentimental wit about kin's inexplicable tug that's hard to ignore, and the leads — game for some surprisingly sublime bits of physical comedy — eventually wear one's anti-charm defenses down.
  10. Bethlehem
    The movie has the taut efficiency of a well-constructed crime thriller, while its real-world underpinnings play out with a less convincing sense of urgency.
  11. In Fear
    Lovering keeps In Fear visually absorbing through unsettling close-ups and a well-paced series of scares.
  12. Journey to the West
    The spectacular combination of slapstick, love story and superhero antics doesn't entirely avoid awkwardness, but mostly it defies gravity, like many of the stunts.
  13. Haunt
    Too often, Carter sacrifices characterization for one more flickery effect or carefully composed shot of moody elegance, then overdoes unlighted interiors to an almost absurd degree.
  14. Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me
    Whatever this woman is saying or doing, you want to be there to hear it and see it, and there's no better formula for an entertaining documentary than that.
  15. Kids for Cash
    A vital, urgent and infuriating look at the devastating failures of the juvenile court system and the insidious reach of prison privatization.
  16. The Face of Love
    Arie Posin regrettably sticks to the tastefully designed, artless tear-jerker. The lost opportunity is that he's got the masterful Bening and Harris to play with, great enough actors to turn any interaction — however tritely written — into an intimate, emotionally honest dance of the scarred and delicate.
  17. Lucky Bastard
    Lucky Bastard is a bold little thriller — and deft cautionary tale.
  18. The Grand Budapest Hotel
    The writer-director's familiar style blends with a group of unexpected factors to create a magnificently cockeyed entertainment.
  19. Repentance
    The ludicrous and bloody New Orleans melodrama Repentance offers the despairing sight of talented actors in full flounder.
  20. The Pirate Fairy
    Director Peggy Holmes' glittery romp offers plenty of pretty spectacles, but true flights of fancy... are far too rare.
  21. Chlorine
    The uninvitingly titled Chlorine is a flat, undercooked suburban comedy. Or is it a drama? Or maybe a kind of satire? Regardless, it's short on style, substance or any clear raison d'être.
  22. Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys
    Aatsinki is a work of cinéma vérité of the highest order: vivid, immersive and unflinching.
  23. Odd Thomas
    In adapting Dean Koontz's series, Sommers nails the hero but bungles the world-building.
  24. Stalingrad
    Though plenty of road-tested war truths about sacrifice, honor, grit and intimacy get trotted out, "Stalingrad" is deep down a spectacle campaign forged in operatic violence and a siege of the senses, and on those terms it has its moments.
  25. Generation War
    With performers this engaging, we never want to stop watching, even as events go from grim to grimmer over four long and bitter years.
  26. Ernest & Célestine
    A magically understated mash-up, Ernest & Celestine has a comforting storybook effect and proves a refreshing departure in an age of high-tech, hyperkinetic animation set to soaring pop ballads, as entertaining as they can be.
  27. The Lunchbox
    One thing that makes Lunchbox so strong is that a touch of melancholy hangs over its sweetness. Finally this is a film about the wheel of life, about what helps us cope with its turns and find our way in its unforgiving labyrinth.
  28. The Bag Man
    It is the most nonsensical crime caper to make it on screen in a while.
  29. Non-Stop
    Non-Stop is a crisp, efficient thriller that benefits greatly from the intangibles Neeson can be counted on to supply.
  30. Son of God
    If "The Bible" was CliffsNotes for the Scriptures, Son of God is the cheat sheet. The two-hour film condenses about four hours of what already was hasty television, and it all winds up a little dramatically static.
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