Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
64 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Corporation, The

EMAILPRINTZeitgeist Films

Corporation, The reviews
73
8.7 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 32 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary

Written by: Joel Bakan (also book The Corporation : The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power)
Harold Crooks

Directed by: Jennifer Abbott
Mark Achbar

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 4, 2004
DVD: April 5, 2005

Running Time: 145 minutes, Color

Origin: Canada

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Naomi Klein, and Milton Friedman

This feature documentary analyzes the very nature of the corporate institution, its impacts on our planet, and what people are doing in response. (Zeitgeist Films)

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...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It’s coolheaded and incisive, a thorough and informative study of corporations, their origins and their place in the modern world.

Read Full Review >
100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Over the course of almost two and a half fascinating hours, they make a cogent, compelling, powerful argument, and they also make a terrific movie.

Read Full Review >
100

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Riveting cinematic essay.

Read Full Review >
90

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Cogent, scary and, at times, sickening.

Read Full Review >
83

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The Corporation has better manners and a longer fuse than ''Fahrenheit 9/11.'' But the acerbic, sardonically illuminating Canadian documentary shares with its American cousin a certain bleak leftist glee in pursuit of its cause.

Read Full Review >
80

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The Corporation takes great and successful pains to be as visually diverse and clever as it is intellectually provocative.

Read Full Review >
80

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Powerful, infuriating, and ultimately sobering. Make an effort to see it.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety Dennis Harvey

A surprisingly cogent, entertaining, even rabble-rousing indictment of perhaps the most influential institutional model for our era.

Read Full Review >
80

Newsweek David Ansen

Smart, informative and lively polemic.

Read Full Review >
80

Empire Dan Jolin

What it covers is so fundamentally relevant, and its polemic so persuasively structured, it’s worth braving the runtime even if it could easily have been more concise.

Read Full Review >
75

Miami Herald Marta Barber

Takes one side, but it tries to offer hope that change can happen.

Read Full Review >
75

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

One of the film's cleverest devices is a "Personality Diagnostic Checklist" that equates corporate "serial behaviors" - exploitation, deception, greed, lack of empathy and guilt - with the antisocial makeup of a certifiable psychopath.

Read Full Review >
75

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

At its most effective, the movie is a chastening, sobering, and thorough work of film journalism, however shortsighted.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

An impassioned polemic, filled with information sure to break up any dinner-table conversation. Its fault is that of the dinner guest who tells you something fascinating, and then tells you again, and then a third time. At 145 minutes, it overstays its welcome.

Read Full Review >
75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

Too short to tell the whole story. It is, however, a fast-paced, highly enjoyable and provocative introduction.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's good stuff: a non-fiction film on weighty issues that also manages to entertain.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

An informative, amusing and unnerving overview of the history and consequences of corporations.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Delivers its provocative message in the measured tones of a college professor -- yet there's no danger of falling asleep in this lecture.

Read Full Review >
70

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

The filmmakers are pretty nimble at filling the screen with snappy graphics and canny editing to keep you alert and amused.

Read Full Review >
70

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

It's a powerful polemic in its own right, despite some maddeningly glib generalizations, a documentary that functions as a 2½-hour provocation in the ongoing debate about corporate conduct and governance.

70

Village Voice J. Hoberman

A leisurely, never boring, grimly amusing, and not entirely hopeless disquisition on the contemporary world's "dominant institution."

Read Full Review >
70

TV Guide Ken Fox

Bakan's arguments are buttressed by entertaining clips culled from commercials, industrial films and, appropriately, monster movies.

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The Corporation is a dense, complicated and thought-provoking film, but it simplifies its title character.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

With an over two-hour running time, these side issues come across as unnecessary weight and threaten to turn off the very viewers the filmmakers worked so hard and so ably to win over in the first place.

Read Full Review >
60

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

As a clear, exhaustive and highly intelligent discussion of one of the most pressing issues of our time, it's a success. As a work of documentary, however, it's flawed by its failure to limit its scope (or at least pare down its material), by its strangely stylized narration and by its lack of a story.

Read Full Review >
60

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Without a unifying authorial voice to tie it together, the film often feels shapeless and rambling, brought together by little more than free-ranging contempt for capitalism's excesses.

Read Full Review >
60

The Hollywood Reporter Richard James Havis

The film will still prove a tonic to those holding left-of-center views.

Read Full Review >
30

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

This is another unhelpful screed, uncontaminated by sense or perspective, that preaches loudly to the choir.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Morgan G. gave it a10:
A wonderful, compelling indictment of the most powerful institution of our times. For those that claim about partiality; it is supposed to be. The film makers clearly state they are looking to critique this institution; and even still they clearly present the arguments of those on the far-right and prominent corporate figures. Critical theorists in political philosophy always preach that, even when attempting to be, impartiality is impossible. Indeed, the guise of impartiality is as much a subordination to an illiberal and unfair status quo. Thus, what is left is to make an argument based on logic and evidence; reason, to make one's point. This, the corporation clearly does. The movie makes a clear argument and takes on opposing evidence! A great documentary that will hopefully open the eyes of some.

Pep P. gave it a9:
Fantastic documental movie!!!

Rudy S gave it a10:
Those who condemn it as some form of propaganda or completely partial fail to realize that this film attempts to give you one side of the story. The movie makes convincing arguments as to why the corporate agenda may not be sustainable. Criticizing the movie for not giving a pro-corporation side is condemning it for something it isn't meant to be. It's a critique of the corporate agenda and should be something people on all sides of the political spectrum should see. Even if you disagree with their positions view it at least to broaden your own view and understand the anti-corporate side of the argument while people who agree with this movie should examine the pro-corporate side.

Mike B. gave it a4:
About as impartial as Triumph of the Will, this mashup of lefty talking points will no doubt thrill the hearts of the choir to which it preaches, but it leaves the rest of us bored silly by its two-plus hours of unrelenting Chicken Little-ism. The politics are hopelessly naive--does anyone to the right of Noam Chomsky really think that the solution to our problems is just to turn the economy over to the government? There may be valid points tucked away in all the verbiage, but the treatment is so unrelentingly one-sided that you end up distrusting everything the movie puts forth. A couple of the incidents discussed would have been interesting if both sides got a fair hearing, but then, that wasn't the point, was it?

Kevin gave it a9:
Forget your standard-issue horror flicks, this film is truly the most frightening piece of cinema I've ever subjected myself to. The Corporation puts the fear of the Invisible Hand into the viewer, doing for capitalism what Jaws did for beaches.

Mark gave it a10:
Another must see! Open your eyes folks and be engrossed, scared and perplexed with this powerful film.

Dor J. gave it a10:
Excellent film. Thought the comparison to psycopathic traits very interesting. Film quite balanced. The book is very worth reading. Lots of sources, very detailed.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use