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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    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bad 25
    On-screen, Bad 25 moves in the style of a great pop song.
  2. Madrid, 1987
    The actors give their characters a resonance beyond the symbolic, but the action doesn't quite transcend the stagy setup.
  3. The Other Son
    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.
  4. The Revisionaries
    Director Scott Thurman presents a largely even-handed recounting, wisely letting folks - and events - speak for themselves. It's riveting stuff.
  5. Brooklyn Castle
    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.
  6. The Loneliest Planet
    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.
  7. Pusher (2012)
    In the end, Prieto's Pusher feels like a Guy Ritchie knockoff.
  8. Fun Size
    Transiently entertaining, with intermittent sparks, it'll do until something better comes along.
  9. Chasing Mavericks
    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.
  10. The Flat
    No definitive answers are possible to the questions The Flat raises, which makes them all the more provocative.
  11. Cloud Atlas
    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.
  12. Wake in Fright (1971)
    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.
  13. Sister
    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.
  14. We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists
    As a tale of digital power-tripping both exhilarating and terrifying, We Are Legion stands as a useful 21st century narrative.
  15. The First Time
    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.
  16. A Whisper to a Roar
    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.
  17. Tai Chi Zero
    Often more distracting than diverting with its everything-goes aesthetic - there are strains of steampunk, manga and silent film comedy, with video-game touches.
  18. Six Million and One
    Fisher's separate visit with several still-traumatized American World War II vets who helped liberate the death camps is also stirring - and horrifying.
  19. Sassy Pants
    Well-meaning and, in the end, sweetly redemptive, Sassy Pants would have worn better with more depth, energy and, yes, sass.
  20. All Together
    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?
  21. Sexy Baby
    The result is a kind of "Three Ages of Woman, With Plastic Surgery," that veers between insight and hand-wringing.
  22. That's What She Said
    Avoid this one like, well, a yeast infection.
  23. Simon & the Oaks
    A two-hour theatrical feature that has the kind of emotional and storytelling reach regularly found these days only in cable TV miniseries. It's a warmly done family and personal drama that seems to cover familiar territory, but only up to a point and very much in its own way.
  24. For Ellen
    A small but exquisite film, beautifully observed and impeccably executed. Written and directed by So Yong Kim, it shows a different side of an actor we thought we knew and reveals unexpected aspects of a character who turns out to be not as familiar as he seems.
  25. Nobody Walks
    If you allow yourself to drift with it, rather than get frustrated by all the non sequiturs, Nobody Walks becomes a more enjoyable film.
  26. The Sessions
    In a country that embraces cinematic violence with such ease but blushingly prefers to keep sex in the shadows or under the sheets, the grown-up approach of The Sessions is rare.
  27. Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike
    Budgetary constraints aside, director John Putch struggles to find balance or generate a single spark from the clunky mix of romance, political diatribe and thriller.
  28. Paranormal Activity 4
    This film's strong suit is that it finally feels contemporary.
  29. Alex Cross
    The best of the Alex Cross mess suggests that as an actor, he has the talent to move beyond the world of Madea should he want to. He just needs to look for much better material.
  30. Smashed
    Winstead, who appears in nearly every scene, can be compelling but, like the material, often pushes too hard, especially in Kate's climactic dive off the wagon. In a far more limited role, Paul is lower-key and convincing.
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