Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,550 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: 8,714 out of 16550
  2. Mixed: 5,819 out of 16550
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16550
16550 movie reviews
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    • 37 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
    He's so over-energized from the start you keep thinking he'll wear out his welcome pronto; an hour and a half later, his lunacy is still hard to take your eyes off. [04Feb1994 Pg. F6]
    • Los Angeles Times
  2. My Father the Hero
    There's something sordid about the way the filmmakers offer up this -- shall we say questionable -- entertainment as a refreshment. [4 Feb 1994, p.C-15]
    • Los Angeles Times
  3. Romeo Is Bleeding
    The disjointed, self-conscious, over-the-top stylistics are supposed to make it seem avant-garde but mostly it's just annoying. The artsy clutter gets in the way of the crime story, which is pretty flimsy to begin with.
  4. The Scent of Green Papaya
    The Scent of Green Papaya, a film as delicate and evocative as its name, recognizes that out of illusion can come reality.
  5. Car 54, Where Are You?
    Thanks to a relentlessly terrible script by many hands, it's a dumb movie about dumb cops that should have remained on the shelf, where it's been sitting for over two years. [31 Jan 1994, p.F5]
    • Los Angeles Times
  6. Body Snatchers
    Ferrara hasn't merely remade Body Snatchers; he has reimagined and reinvigorated it, using the best of special-effects talent and cool directorial skill to turn out a splendidly creepy and unsettling piece of genre filmmaking that knows how to scare you and isn't afraid to try. [04 Feb 1994, p.F1]
    • Los Angeles Times
  7. Iron Will
    Not as slick as “Free Willy” or as sophisticated as “Searching for Bobby Fischer,” this is a throwback to the sweet and sentimental Disney family films that Walt himself loved, a live-action fairy tale about a boy, his dogs and a darn tough race.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Cabin Boy
    The problem is that it doesn't find a lot of laughs in much of anything, referential or otherwise. [7 Jan 1994]
    • Los Angeles Times
  9. The War Room
    The Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside of the Arkansas governor’s presidential campaign, with Carville playing Huck Finn to Stephanopoulos’ Tom Sawyer, these lively presences lit up Clinton’s drive to the White House and turn The War Room into a tiptop political documentary that offers a candid and entertaining backstage look at a most unlikely electoral Juggernaut.
  10. In the Name of the Father
    Strongly tied to a powerful underlying reality (though it inevitably tends to simplify), this film has the additional advantage of being concerned with the emotional truth of its key relationships, adding an unusual father and son story to its incendiary mix. [29 Dec 1993 Pg. F1]
    • Los Angeles Times
  11. Ghost in the Machine
    All the ways in which the killer’s evil spreads and manifests itself are consistently dazzling. The trouble is that they show up the film’s human relationships as drab and conventional in comparison.
  12. Grumpy Old Men
    If you're young enough to have missed some of the better Lemmon-Matthau pairings, like "The Fortune Cookie" or "The Odd Couple," then Grumpy Old Men won't seem so grumpy. [25 Dec 1993, p.2]
    • Los Angeles Times
  13. Tombstone
    A few stirring shoot-'em-ups help relieve the logjam of cliches. Director George P. (Rambo) Cosmatos does an OK job at the O.K. Corral. But even the good stuff goes on for too long.
  14. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
    Background stylist/co-director Eric Radomski has created a terrific-looking world of film noir-influenced Art Deco skyscrapers, shadows, gargoyles and windows. Unfortunately, some of the worst-animated characters in any recent feature get in front of those stylish backgrounds.
  15. Philadelphia
    Genuinely moving at times, Philadelphia is trying, perhaps too hard, to break America's heart. [22 Dec 1993, p.1]
    • Los Angeles Times
  16. Faraway, So Close!
    Wenders’ ideas, emotions--and his characters--eventually do converge in a stately manner, rewarding the patient with a stunning, enlarging vision of human experience, a melding of the material and spiritual worlds.
  17. The Pelican Brief
    So it is a surprise to say that the biggest mystery this legal thriller presents is how a film based on a novel by John Grisham, starring the bankable duo of [Julia Roberts Darby Shaw] and [Denzel Washington Gray Grantham] and written and directed by veteran Alan J. Pakula can end up more of a fizzle than an explosion. [17 Dec 1993 Pg. F1]
    • Los Angeles Times
  18. Schindler's List
    Quietly devastating.
  19. Naked
    Naked is a mesmerizing character study, an attempt to stretch the emotional boundaries of truth on film as far as they will go. For once we think we've seen as much of Johnny as we can take, like an etching by Escher we start to see something else, a glimpse of another person easily missed.
  20. Wayne's World 2
    What a relief it is to discover that Wayne's World 2 is just as hilarious as last year's original, which was one of the best, most distinctive American comedies in years. [10 Dec 1993, p.F14]
    • Los Angeles Times
  21. Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit
    Even by sequel standards, a minimal amount of creativity has gone into Sister Act 2, and not even the talents of its cast, including several likable young people, can compensate for this thrown-together feeling.
  22. Geronimo: An American Legend
    A handsome and respectful Western that wants to simultaneously echo and modernize the myths of the past, it is an impressive piece of work that, perhaps inevitably, ends up being more than a little cold around the heart. [10 Dec 1993, p.F8]
    • Los Angeles Times
  23. Six Degrees of Separation
    What seems to start out as a burlesque against the rich -- a satire of class-consciousness -- ends up mutating into something stranger and richer and more ambiguous. [10 Dec 1993, p.F4]
    • Los Angeles Times
  24. The Snapper
    The Snapper is amiability itself. Good-humored and sassy, it is one of those charmingly off-the-cuff films that doesn't let its small scale stand in the way of pleasure. [03 Dec 1993, p.F1]
    • Los Angeles Times
  25. Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
    In the end, the great thing about “Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould” is that rather than creating a desire to meet this formidable individual, it makes you feel as if in some way you actually had.
  26. Mrs. Doubtfire
    Anyone looking for the kind of comic brio that Dustin Hoffman and company brought to "Tootsie" will not find it here. [24 Nov 1993 Pg. F1]
    • Los Angeles Times
  27. A Perfect World
    A rehash of plot conventions from a slew of mismatched movies. A Perfect World will remind you of any number of previous films, but almost everything it attempts to do was done better the last time around.
  28. Addams Family Values
    Sonnenfeld does somewhat better with Addams Family Values than he did with Addams Family. But he still gooses the film with hyperactive slapstick whenever things get talky; he doesn't trust the performers enough, or the material, which seems designed for a less frenetic approach.
  29. Carlito's Way
    A mid-level commercial thriller, it is a solid and acceptable if not overwhelmingly exciting piece of work from a star and a director not previously known for their centrist tendencies.
  30. Ernest Rides Again
    The humor in this film is so elementary, so numskull, it defies description or extended discussion.
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