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65
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64
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63
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62
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60
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58
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58
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58
Quarantine
57
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57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
57
Flash of Genius
55
House Bunny, The
54
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53
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53
Lucky Ones, The
52
Longshots, The
51
Mamma Mia!
49
Family That Preys, The
47
Swing Vote
47
X-Files: I Want to Believe, The
46
Lakeview Terrace
45
Blindness
43
Meet Dave
43
Death Race
43
Eagle Eye
41
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
39
Nights in Rodanthe
37
Miracle at St. Anna
36
Space Chimps
36
Righteous Kill
36
Fly Me to the Moon
35
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
35
Mirrors
34
My Best Friend's Girl
27
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26
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24
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20
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15
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15
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72
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Lower Learning
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Universal Pictures
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...
88
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.

80
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.

75
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.

75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
It's beautifully shot on Cephallonian locations by superb landscape photographer John Toll.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
A handsomely staged and craftily constructed tearjerker.

67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Ultimately, it's a surprisingly empty experience.

63
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.

63
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.

60
Mr. Showbiz
Kevin Maynard
Good old-fashioned romantic entertainment, just restrained enough to skirt schmaltz.
50
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.

50
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.

50
Chicago Reader
Lisa Alspector
Strives for comprehensive coverage of its theme of forbidden love.

50
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
Doesn't so much strike a lot of sour notes as fail to strike the right ones.
50
Entertainment Weekly
Staff (Not credited)
A movie that reduces history, as well as eros, to a postcard.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
The only aspect that emerges a winner is the gorgeous Mediterranean scenery.

50
Time
Richard Corliss
Corelli is a coffee-table movie: one leafs through the gorgeous vistas and nods through the narrative.
50
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.

42
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."

40
Village Voice
Jessica Winter
Ms. Cruz...once again proves her inability to give a bad performance even under the worst of circumstances.

40
Austin Chronicle
Steve Davis
Neither a badly miscast Cage nor an oddly dispassionate Cruz remotely suggest the ardor of love's passion.

40
Variety
Derek Elley
Strikes too many false notes on the dramatic side to add up to a satisfying emotional experience.

30
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.

30
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.

30
New Times (L.A.)
Bill Gallo
The moviemakers have eliminated the finer points of the novel in favor of broad strokes. Very broad strokes.

30
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.

25
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.

20
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.

20
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
Sells ignorance as a refined evening's entertainment.

20
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.

20
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.

20
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.
20
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.

10
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.
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