Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
48 17 Again
76 Adventureland
48 Angels & Demons
54 Battle for Terra
xx Bruno
80 Coraline
40 Dance Flick
83 Drag Me to Hell
72 Earth
45 Fast & Furious
61 Fighting
34 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
72 Gran Torino
73 Hangover, The
47 Hannah Montana: The Movie
51 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
54 Imagine That
41 Knowing
32 Land of the Lost
56 Monsters vs. Aliens
34 My Life in Ruins
51 My Sister's Keeper
46 Next Day Air
42 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
54 Observe and Report
25 Obsessed
48 Proposal, The
70 Public Enemies
61 Soloist, The
83 Star Trek
64 State of Play
55 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
52 Terminator Salvation
35 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
77 Under the Sea 3D
88 Up
43 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
34 Year One

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Universal Pictures


6.4

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 15 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for some violence, sexuality and language

Starring Nicolas Cage, Penélope Cruz, John Hurt, Christian Bale, and David Morrissey

A World War II drama about a beautiful Greek villager (Cruz) and the Italian soldier (Cage), part of Mussolini's occupying army, who wins her heart.

GENRE(S):	War
WRITTEN BY:	Shawn Slovo Louis de Bernières (book)
DIRECTED BY:	John Madden
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 5, 2002 Video: February 5, 2002 Theatrical: August 17, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	120 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK / France / USA

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...

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Although it's in the same genre as "The English Patient," it's a vastly better movie --more surprising and original, more rigorous and sympathetic. This film is oddly shaped. It is also heartbreaking and exhilarating.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

The able cast brings these emotionally complex characters to life, while making Shawn Slovo's occasionally lyrical dialogue sound perfectly natural.

USA Today Mike Clark

The result is far from perfect, but to its many merits, add timing. You never get a movie with this kind of story in mid-August.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's beautifully shot on Cephallonian locations by superb landscape photographer John Toll.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A handsomely staged and craftily constructed tearjerker.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Ultimately, it's a surprisingly empty experience.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Never reaches this level of devastating loss despite its tragedies, but it's not the dismal bomb that much of the British press claims.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Grand passion, secrecy, world politics and mortal danger provide a heady mix for this spectacularly beautiful movie. If only the accents were as reliable as the azure of the sea.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Good old-fashioned romantic entertainment, just restrained enough to skirt schmaltz.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

In this film there is a scene where something is said in English pronounced with one accent, and a character asks, ''What did he say?'' and he is told -- in English pronounced with another accent.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Handsomely weathered John Hurt, as Pelagia's father, gives a performance of such unhackneyed dignity that it provides a moral compass for the action and helps to keep the ricocheting emotional content of the film in balance.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Strives for comprehensive coverage of its theme of forbidden love.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Doesn't so much strike a lot of sour notes as fail to strike the right ones.

Entertainment Weekly Staff (Not credited)

A movie that reduces history, as well as eros, to a postcard.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The only aspect that emerges a winner is the gorgeous Mediterranean scenery.

Time Richard Corliss

Corelli is a coffee-table movie: one leafs through the gorgeous vistas and nods through the narrative.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Partly a travelogue for the Greek islands, partly a simplistic love story, and generally a rehash of the Oscar-winning "Mediterraneo," as if we needed even the first one.

Portland Oregonian Barry Johnson

No crime against the moviemaker's art, but it is flawed in a way we wouldn't expect from the director of "Shakespeare in Love."

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Ms. Cruz...once again proves her inability to give a bad performance even under the worst of circumstances.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

Neither a badly miscast Cage nor an oddly dispassionate Cruz remotely suggest the ardor of love's passion.

Variety Derek Elley

Strikes too many false notes on the dramatic side to add up to a satisfying emotional experience.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Based on an interminable 1994 international bestseller by Louis de Bernières that I found impossible to make my way through. The movie duplicates exactly my experience with the book, although I must say I was thankful to be spared serial outbreaks of hearty Greek dancing.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Given the polyglot nature of the cast, with actors from at least five countries taking their best shots at the English language, it's unclear why Cage felt he needed an accent or, stranger still, why it took him a reported seven months to come up with this one.

New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo

The moviemakers have eliminated the finer points of the novel in favor of broad strokes. Very broad strokes.

Newsweek David Ansen

Every role is miscast. Whose idea was it to have the boyishly British Bale play an illiterate Greek peasant, or the elegant Hurt a gruff-voiced country doctor? Cruz’s run of bad luck in American movies continues.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

We began this dismal movie season with one lethally bad World War II romance -- "Pearl Harbor" -- and now we're wrapping up with another howling dog.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

As the movie methodically plods forward on a screenplay (by Shawn Slovo) consisting entirely of clichés and watered-down exposition, it becomes sadly apparent that its only reliable asset is the gorgeous view.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Sells ignorance as a refined evening's entertainment.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

A bungled screen version of Louis de Bernieres' cult novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin was doomed from the moment Nicolas Cage was cast as the "life-devouring," Puccini-loving hero.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

The real problem is not the maudlin script or Madden's travelogue touch. It's Cage as Corelli, a miscasting that turns the normally volatile, edgy performer into little more than a spokesman for the Olive Garden.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

I wish I'd brought a pair of peas to the screening. Then I could have taken in the glorious scenery without the dumb dialogue, which is delivered in a jangle of accents that makes a mockery of ethnicity.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

To be fair, it's not solely Cage's fault that his new film, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, is lousy -- director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) deserves most of the heat for this listless dud.

Slate David Edelstein

Probably the most horrifying stuff I've seen all week.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.4 (out of 10) based on 15 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

hatem s. gave it a10:
It's a very nice romantic story with some action and with a very great sound track especially the Pelagia Song.

Alexander gave it a 0:
I thought this was a terrible adaptation of the book, some of the very humerous facts where cut out. Especially what happened to Pelagia and Captain Corelli. I also thought the acting was terrible and I did not think much of Nicolas Cage as Captain Corelli thought I do think he is a good actor but just not in this film because of the accent. I am sorry but that is why I have given this move such a low rating

Mike K. gave it a 9:
While I would have liked better accents, at it wasn't as bad as Enemy at the Gates...Russians with British accents? WTF? I though overall that this was a wonderful movie. Beautiful scenery and the general storyline is it's strengths. I did NOT read the book so I wasn't expecting anything. Acting was decent. I agree that Christian Bale was not the best pick for his role (American Psycho fits him better). Penelope Cruz while beautiful (don't be so jealously hateful Darcy... :) ), I think someone else could have played her part more "realistically". As for Cage, dunno...jury is still out on him in this movie.

Johnny B. gave it a 10:
Well done...beautiful romantic and thrilling. Soundtrack is worthwhile purchase. Never read the novel...but cheers to producer! Novel and movie don't always have to be the same. Bravo!

Christine N. gave it a 1:
Horrible !! WHAT a shame that beautifull and compelling book was so badly represented. The actors chosed to play the main characters did nothing to bring them to life = Cruz was just too THIN to be a believable Greek beauty and her acting was horrendous - as for Cage he spoiled the whole movie with his dreadful accent which kept slipping . The only saving grace was the photography.

Jim D. gave it a 2:
What on earth happened to that wonderful, touching, fascinating novel? Everything special about the book has been leeched out for this terrible film.

Michael R. gave it a 9:
A very beautiful adaption of the book...and as far as accents are concerned, what does one expect in an American movie....Greek? Some of the so-called professional criticisms in this respect are entirely unwarranted.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin Universal Pictures

Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Universal Pictures