Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Barbarian Invasions, The
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 23 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Foreign
Written by: Denys Arcand
Directed by: Denys Arcand
Release Date:
Theatrical: November 21, 2003
DVD: July 13, 2004
Running Time: 95 minutes, Color
Origin: Canada / France
Summary
RATING: R for language, sexual dialogue and drug content
Starring Rémy Girard, Stéphane Rousseau, Dorothée Berryman, Louise Portal, Dominique Michel, Yves Jacques, Pierre Curzi, and Marie-Josée Croze
Director Denys Arcand revisits the situations and relationships that informed his international breakthrough "The Decline of the American Empire." Set 17 years after Decline, this film, like its predecessor, examines the varying politics -- economic, personal and sexual -- at play among a group of friends, lovers and ex-spouses. (Miramax)
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A brilliant entertainment, full of bemused skepticism and reckless, prodigal love -- for these people and their vanishing era and lives.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Dying is not this cheerful, but we need to think it is. The Barbarian Invasions is a movie about a man who dies about as pleasantly as it's possible to imagine; the audience sheds happy tears.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Ted Shen
Arcand's fondness for the good old 60s can be cloying, but despite an uneven cast, he finds a tonal balance between sentimental and cynical that keeps the conversations real and heart wrenching.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Where Denys Arcand's delightful 1986 comedy "The Decline of the American Empire" celebrated the good life, his profoundly funny sequel The Barbarian Invasions heartily toasts the good death.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
It's a feast of smart, sexy, glorious talk. The Oscar for best foreign film belongs right here.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Although the specter of death hovers over the entire film, it is neither a grim nor a depressing experience. Arcand has injected a great deal of wit into the movie, and it meshes perfectly with the anticipated pathos.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
The combination of ideas and wit, lively characterizations, believable human dilemmas and a climax that both melts and braces you makes for a fine blend. A movie about ideas may sound like a drag, but this one packages them in well-earned emotions.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Admirable in its refusal to be politically correct.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Admirable in its refusal to be politically correct.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
A movie that, in the story of one man dying, shows us all how to live.
Read Full Review >Variety Lisa Nesselson
A full-bodied, funny and gloriously unpretentious ode to family, friendship and the meaning of life, The Barbarian Invasions is solidly entertaining, sharply written and genuinely touching.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
The Barbarian Invasions might be called an idyll of death. Without excessive sentiment (but without slighting sentiment, either). [24 November 2003, p. 113]
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
A reunion movie, and while it's often very funny, it has none of the self-satisfied piety or strenuous jokiness of "The Big Chill." Its mood shifts between defiant exuberance and wistful contemplation, but it's never mawkish.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
The rapprochement between Rémy and Sébastien is beautiful to watch, and all of the characters in The Barbarian Invasions are played with a lusty warmth that makes them lovable even when they are being tiresome.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The film grows on you too, a later-stage version of "The Big Chill" that starts schematically and ends as a stirring celebration.
Boston Globe Ty Burr
A honey, but your response to it may depend on where you fall on life's big curve.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The treatment of the subject isn't maudlin, thanks to a witty script and an enormously likable lead character, Remy (Remy Girard), who remains bullheaded and lusty to the finish.
Read Full Review >USA Today Staff [Not Credited]
Despite a slight tendency to be overly pleased with itself, this is a smart piece of work that got Arcand's screenplay an award at Cannes.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
A deeply felt celebration of the life force, as embodied in Girard's fierce performance as a man who may not have done all he could, but had an enviably great time on the way.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
As a film about intellectuals, The Barbarian Invasions can sometimes seem maddeningly scattered and contradictory.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
The Barbarian Invasions' flaws are mainly glaring because the movie is occasionally so winning.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
Arcand loyalists are bound to miss Rémy, but at least he goes out in style. Even the antagonists will have to admit that.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Like a family visit during the holidays. Tensions run high, not everyone is likable but being there's an uneasy comfort because everything is so familiar.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
I kept wondering how Arcand could have chosen as his generational representative a man not just flawed in his hedonism but one so fundamentally lacking in tenderness for others.
Read Full Review >Premiere Maia Abraham
Girard gives feisty life to the battle-weary professor, but Rousseau just follows the drill--he is glass-eyed to the point of distraction. And for all its intellectual maneuvering, the film never regains the simple power of its opening salvo.
Read Full Review >Empire Patrick Peters
The structure similarly misses the flashbacking subtlety of the original. Even the characterisation lacks depth.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
If the banter lacks the often brilliant and erudite -- if showy -- sparkle of its predecessor, the acting is still first-rate, and the film will be best enjoyed by fans eager to spend another 90 minutes with a group of old friends.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
A bit too neat and calculated to make the emotions ring really true.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Which would all be well and good, if only Arcand's approach weren't so deliberate and stupefyingly superior.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
Arcand has a gift for witty dialogue but a weakness for force-feeding his story with sentiment. References to ancient holocausts and to 9/11 simply expose the intent of a director who will do anything to touch his audience -- with a sweet gesture or a cattle prod. And in a comedy of manners, that behavior is very impolite.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Shear away the film's pretensions, and it's a soap opera of assholes.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 23 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Pat C. gave it a7:
Intelligent and relevant without being inspiring, being somewhat diluted by itself.
Bob M. gave it a9:
A beautiful film; very unhollywood; thoughful; and thank God, not something the Villlage Voice liked.
Naoma J. gave it an 8:
An intellectual film - beautifully done. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
John T. gave it a 10:
Punch in the stomach film, celebratory interpretation of Freudian thanatos (cf Decline and eros).
Josh C. gave it a 10:
I like this movie. Good movie.
Vince H. gave it a 6:
This is a good example of how any film, whether it's good or bad, will get critical acclaim mainly because it's in French. If this same script was made in Hollywood with a big name cast, it would most likely get panned. Yes, this film is very pretentious, and at times slightly irritating, but nonetheless very entertaining & moving film that in the end won me over sheerly on the glide of the performances, which should be a textbook on good casting (there is not one bad casting choice throughout).
Barbara P. gave it a 10:
Wonderful end to Arcand's "empire" trilogy: The Decline of the American Empire, Jesus of Montreal, and now Barbarian.
