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47
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54
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93
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82
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79
Iron Man
78
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
73
Kung Fu Panda
71
Tropic Thunder
71
Horton Hears a Who!
70
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
64
Wanted
64
Pineapple Express
63
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
61
Incredible Hulk, The
60
Traitor
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
55
House Bunny, The
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
53
Rocker, The
52
Longshots, The
51
Mamma Mia!
51
Step Brothers
49
Hancock
47
Swing Vote
47
X-Files: I Want to Believe, The
43
Meet Dave
42
Death Race
36
Space Chimps
36
Fly Me to the Moon
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
35
Mirrors
34
Happening, The
31
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The
26
Babylon A.D.
24
Love Guru, The
19
Bangkok Dangerous
15
Disaster Movie
15
College
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

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Man on Wire
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Edge of Heaven, The
86
Up the Yangtze
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Momma's Man
85
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Tell No One
82
Frozen River
81
Trouble the Water
80
Encounters at the End of the World
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Order of Myths, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
78
Last Mistress, The
77
Pool, The
76
I Served the King of England
75
Young@Heart
75
Boy A
74
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
74
Mongol
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
73
Secret, A
72
Priceless
72
Transsiberian
72
I.O.U.S. A
71
To the Limit
71
Girl Cut in Two, A
71
Roman de gare
70
Love Songs
67
XXY
67
Jellyfish
66
Elegy
66
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
66
American Teen
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
65
August Evening
64
Brideshead Revisited
64
Fall, The
63
In Search of a Midnight Kiss
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Kabluey
62
Mister Foe
62
Baghead
62
Girls Rock!
61
Bustin' Down the Door
61
Wackness, The
61
Man Named Pearl, A
61
Red
61
Brick Lane
58
Beautiful Losers
58
Sukiyaki Western Django
57
Sixty Six
56
Bottle Shock
56
Then She Found Me
55
Save Me
55
Bra Boys
54
Year of the Fish
54
Hamlet 2
54
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54
What We Do Is Secret
54
CSNY: Déjà Vu
52
Elsa & Fred
51
Savage Grace
50
Last Stop for Paul
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
Before the Rains
47
Burn After Reading
46
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
46
My Mexican Shivah
44
Henry Poole is Here
40
America the Beautiful
26
Everybody Wants to Be Italian
25
Hell Ride
xx
Young People F**king
xx
Bachna Ae Haseeno
xx
Cthulhu
xx
Goal II: Living the Dream
xx
Surfer, Dude
xx
Beer for My Horses
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Bend It Like Beckham
Fox Searchlight Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for language and sexual content
Starring
Parminder K. Nagra,
Keira Knightley,
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers,
Anupam Kher,
Archie Panjabi,
Shaznay Lewis,
Frank Harper,
and
Juliet Stevenson
A British film about a teenage girl named Jess (Nagra) living in London who must make a choice between following the traditions of her Indian family or pursuing her dream of becoming a soccer sensation. (Fox Searchlight)
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Gurinder Chadha
Paul Mayeda Berges
Guljit Bindra
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Gurinder Chadha
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: September 30, 2003
Video: September 30, 2003
Theatrical: March 12, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
112 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
UK / Germany |

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...
100
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
The most exhilarating movie so far this year. It's made up of many familiar elements -- think ''Monsoon Wedding'' meets ''My Beautiful Laundrette'' meets ''Personal Best'' -- yet before long, you catch on to how buoyant and funny and original it is.

91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
Terrifically fun entertainment; wonderfully shot and acted, instilled with spirit and life and able to woo us with its exhuberant freshness.

88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Pure, undiluted joy.

88
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
Terrifically charming and energetic film.

88
USA Today
Claudia Puig
The juxtaposition between the fast-paced plays on the soccer field and the color-drenched, music-infused wedding party is a highlight of this captivating film.

88
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
A joyful celebration of spirit and endurance.

88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
I saw more important films at Sundance 2003, but none more purely enjoyable than Bend It Like Beckham, which is just about perfect as a teenage coming-of-age comedy.

80
Dallas Observer
Gregory Weinkauf
Bright, lively and liberating movie.

80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Smart, lively and altogether warmhearted dramatic comedy.

80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
There's a great sense of fun in the cultural collision between Indian and British lifestyles -- often within the same person.

80
Washington Post
Rita Kempley
You seldom leave a theater walking on air, much less float all through a movie. But the joyous Bend It Like Beckham never lets you down.

80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
I'm still smiling as I recall Jess, the soccer star-to-be, standing behind her straitlaced mother in the kitchen and casually bouncing a head of lettuce on her knee.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Energetic, eager-to-please culture-clash comedy.

75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
The feel-good movie of a feel-blah movie year, with all the positive qualities and one negative trait that this description implies.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Enjoyable enough that the sprinkles of artificial sweetness in the mix don't do lasting or irreparable damage.

75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
The film's most natural appeal is to adolescent athletes -- in particular, cleat-wearing young ladies who will bask in its hard-won girl-power message. This is a movie with bruised shins and a huge heart.

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
As the movie breathlessly cuts back and forth from a boisterous wedding celebration to a high-stakes soccer match, even the grumpy cynics will have been won over.

75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Writer-director Gurinder Chadha juggles all the angles with flair and fairness. Like Nagra and Knightley, the movie is a sweetheart.

70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
Like the rest of the film, Beckham's climax is surprisingly satisfying, however, in large part because director Gurinder Chadha films the competing big game and big fat Indian wedding of Nagra's sister with equivalently bursting levels of color, panache, and verve.

70
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Fine character work by Juliet Stevenson, Archie Panjabi, and Bollywood regular Anupam Kher make this well worth seeing.

70
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
Every generation has to discover the same clichés that were drummed into previous generations, and kids could do worse than to learn them from this film.

70
Film Threat
Rick Kisonak
The portrait of traditional Indian life Chadha provides manages to mine laughs from characters without resorting to making them laughable.

70
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
Enjoyably shameless confection.

63
Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro
Much of the value -- entertainment and otherwise -- of seeing a culture-specific movie is to connect with a larger world than your everyday life offers.

63
New York Post
Megan Lehmann
An energetic, feel-good blend of comedy, romance and benign drama -- with a side dish of social commentary -- that works despite its strict adherence to the culture clash/generation gap formula.

60
Variety
Derek Elley
Writer-helmer Gurinder Chadha assembles a gallery of broadly played stereotypes into a movie about social attitudes that's more rooted in small-screen sitcom than anything deeper.

60
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Lightweight, thoroughly charming fluff.

60
Slate
David Edelstein
The movie isn't unwatchable. It's clumsily good-natured, the actors are appealing, and there are worse ways to spend two hours than looking at pretty young girls in shorts kicking balls. But the movie is way, way too pleased with itself.

60
Film Threat
Darrin Keene
While this film offers plenty of laughs and a cool soundtrack, it also tiptoes around complex subjects of social change and inter-racial relations.

50
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
There's nothing terribly bad about Bend It Like Beckham -- in fact it's a fine Friday-night-out film -- it's just that it strikes me as being an awful little piffle cloaked in the garb of something so much more.

50
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Bend It Like Beckham is supposedly a movie about youth; its biggest shortcoming is that it rarely feels young.

50
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Director and co-writer Gurinder Chadha continues in the vein of her previous movies, "What's Cooking?" and "Bhaji on the Beach," exploring with humor and compassion how cultures adapt in foreign climes.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Just a few years ago, the generally felt aspiration of ethnic groups was to blend in with the majority culture. Today it's to flourish in modern society while actively remembering old-country values...Bend It Like Beckham could cement the trend.

50
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
Its cheery inoffensiveness, though, is in some ways disappointing.

50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Routine, genial sports movie.

20
Village Voice
Jessica Winter
Only silent Becks himself rises unstained from this reheated ethno-niche stew.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 81 User Votes
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