Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,520 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: 8,697 out of 16520
  2. Mixed: 5,806 out of 16520
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16520
16520 movie reviews
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  1. Traveller
    The cast is really fine, but the script requires a lot of hard swallowing. The story moves along briskly and colorfully but gets further and further from the intimate atmosphere that initially makes it so appealing. [25 Apr 1997]
    • Los Angeles Times
  2. McHale's Navy
    Although it comes under the increasingly crowded category of Why Did They Bother, McHale's Navy does offer an example of a movie that tries to be all things to all people. As long as they're 13 and male.
  3. Grosse Pointe Blank
    A wild at heart, anarchic comedy that believes in living dangerously.
  4. Anaconda
    Such a classic combination of feckless dramaturgy and rampant excess that giving way to giggles is the only sane response.
  5. Paradise Road
    A warmhearted horror show that puts cliched movie people into a realistic situation, the signals it sends out are nothing but mixed.
  6. Schizopolis
    Soderbergh has lots to say but this time seems to lack the confidence to express himself seriously.
  7. Inventing the Abbotts
    Inventing the Abbotts is pointless soap opera, anecdotal and superficial, mixing sibling rivalry, class conflict and tragic romantic entanglements in a style that mimics fictional life in the '50s more than it illuminates what went on.
  8. Chasing Amy
    A little movie with big truths, a work of such fierce intelligence and emotional honesty that it blows away the competition when it comes to contemporary romantic comedy.
  9. The Saint
    For the future, the Saint is such an unpleasant and predatory manipulator, it's difficult to root for romance. And when Kilmer's mightily convincing Ice King begins to melt, it's so out of character with what's gone before that its believability is touch and go.
  10. Double Team
    This is one slam-banger that looks to connect with action fans at home as well as abroad.
  11. Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie
    Has lots of energy and a sensational villainess, Divatox (Hilary Shepard Turner), whose fashion tips come from Ming the Merciless and who has been given all the film's sharpest lines.
  12. The Devil's Own
    With two of the world's biggest stars in tow, the creators of The Devil's Own can be forgiven for figuring that nothing else really mattered. If you've got Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt, do you really need a coherent script? Unfortunately for everyone concerned, the answer is yes.
  13. Cats Don't Dance
    Cats Don’t Dance treads this territory with a whimsy that will be over the heads of young kids and too unimaginative for adults.
  14. Selena
    Selena is in part a completely predictable Latino soap opera that should satisfy those who complain they aren't making movies like they like used to.
  15. Liar Liar
    For Liar Liar is marking time through the duller moments of exposition, wishing the film was as sharp overall as Carrey is himself.
  16. Crash
    The filmmaking here is so glacially paced (the final script was only 62 pages for a 100-minute film) and enervating that boredom is the most frequent result.
  17. Gray's Anatomy
    Steven Soderbergh takes Gray (who appeared in his little-appreciated gem "King of the Hill") places he's never been on-screen. Motion, color and brazen stylizing enhance what is at times a genuinely hysterical work on rationalized terror.[9 May 1997, p.F12]
    • Los Angeles Times
  18. The Substance of Fire
    But as Isaac, Rifkin is simply transcendent, giving what is the most accomplished performance of the year. He does not, however, have a completely successful movie around him.
  19. Love Jones
    There are some effective group scenes with Darius and Nina and their friends, but Witcher's dialogue and direction more often show the craft than the naturalism he's after. [14 Mar 1997, p.F1]
    • Los Angeles Times
  20. Private Parts
    Private Parts is a supremely crafty, smartly written, and--given the number of "himselfs" and "herselfs" on the cast list--surprisingly well-acted piece of pop kitsch.
  21. Jungle 2 Jungle
    Beautifully designed and well-crafted, Jungle 2 Jungle is arguably the equal of the French original and perhaps even better, thanks to Tim Allen.
  22. The Watermelon Woman
    Philadelphia filmmaker Cheryl Dunye has such a light, easy touch both in front and in back of the camera that you're in danger of not noticing how skillful a craftsman she really is or how deftly she raises serious issues of race and sexual orientation in The Watermelon Woman.
  23. The Daytrippers
    Smartly nuanced and darkly comedic. [21 Mar 1997, p.F2]
    • Los Angeles Times
  24. Donnie Brasco
    That bland, opaque quality is a disadvantage here; whatever else [Depp] is capable of, making audiences feel his pain is not at the top of the list.
  25. Hard Eight
    Anderson, who makes as impressive a directing debut as has been seen in some time, creates a perfectly modulated mystery that doesn't even feel like one. It's a character play, and Hall, Reilly and Paltrow are so convincingly damaged they take on the properties of fine china.
  26. Smilla's Sense of Snow
    Though enlivened by occasional touches, "Smilla's" is like the food at Taco Bell: exotic only to someone who hasn't experienced the real thing.
  27. Booty Call
    It's not that the movie is never funny. It's just that you don't feel very good when it is.
  28. Lost Highway
    Beautifully made but emotionally empty, it exists only for the sensation of its provocative moments.
  29. Rosewood
    As written by Gregory Poirier and produced by Jon Peters, whose credits are mostly of the blockbuster variety, the film is broader and more simplistic than it needs to be, settling more than it should for obvious emotions and situations.
  30. Fools Rush In
    Reback's script has real substance and perception, with Alex and Isabel emerging as individuals of depth and dimension, and their story is told with humor, passion and wit.
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