CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

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

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

83 Alexandra
80 Band's Visit, The
76 Beauty in Trouble
47 Bella
80 Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
59 Blind Mountain
55 Bra Boys
60 Brick Lane
70 Caramel
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
83 Chop Shop
83 Chris & Don. A Love Story
78 Counterfeiters, The
52 Diminished Capacity
64 Dreams with Sharp Teeth
73 Duchess of Langeais, The
84 Edge of Heaven, The
52 Elsa & Fred
79 Encounters at the End of the World
62 Expired
64 Fall, The
51 Finding Amanda
57 Flawless
86 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
63 Foot Fist Way, The
60 Fugitive Pieces
45 Full Grown Men
55 Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
69 Go-Getter, The
74 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
63 Gunnin for that #1 Spot
68 Heartbeat Detector
34 Holding Trevor
68 Honeydripper
55 Irina Palm
69 Jellyfish
60 Jihad for Love, A
68 Kabluey
62 Kiss the Bride
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
82 Last Mistress, The
38 Life Before Her Eyes, The
70 Love Songs
64 Married Life
30 Meet Bill
33 Miss Conception
53 Mister Lonely
74 Mongol
52 Mother of Tears, The
52 My Blueberry Nights
71 My Brother Is an Only Child
84 My Winnipeg
61 On the Rumba River
69 Operation Filmmaker
61 OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83 Paranoid Park
72 Priceless
51 Promotion, The
55 Quid Pro Quo
29 Red Roses and Petrol
79 Reprise
71 Roman de gare
xx Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
56 Sangre de mi sangre
51 Savage Grace
76 Shotgun Stories
66 Son of Rambow
70 Standard Operating Procedure
62 Stuck
72 Surfwise
81 Tell No One
56 Then She Found Me
xx Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
71 To the Limit
54 Tracey Fragments, The
70 Trumbo
72 Tuya's Marriage
83 U2 3D
56 Unknown Woman
86 Up the Yangtze
79 Visitor, The
62 Wackness, The
37 War, Inc.
64 Water Lilies
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?
55 Without the King
72 Woman on the Beach
64 XXY
67 Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75 Young@Heart

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Eagle vs. Shark
Miramax Films

Eagle vs. Shark reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 55 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.2 out of 10
based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 15 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for language, some sexuality, and brief animated violence

Starring Jemaine Clement, Taika Cohen, David Fane, Craig Hall, Morag Hills, Cohen Holloway, Loren Horsley, and Rachel House

From New Zealand comes a wickedly offbeat love story - a funny, fractured romance between two total misfits, woven into an all-consuming quest for revenge, and shot through with the strange, sweet hilarity of the human condition. (Miramax Films)


GENRE(S): Comedy  |  Foreign  
WRITTEN BY: Taika Waititi  
DIRECTED BY: Taika Waititi  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: January 8, 2008 
Theatrical: June 15, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 88 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: New Zealand 

Nominated, Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema - Dramatic), 2007 Sundance Film Festival

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...

80
Empire Olly Richards
So quirky that it’s almost in danger of collapsing under the weight of its own antic whimsy at times, but a comic delight destined for cult adoration.
Read Full Review
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A Kiwi nerd love story and loopy portrait of Down Under underachievers, Eagle vs. Shark offers a deadpan take on family, friendship, obsession and self-delusion.
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
What rescues Eagle vs. Shark is its focus on Lily. Although Horsley overdoes the winsomeness, she is genuinely appealing. Love erases Lily's geekiness and in its place stands an attractive young woman.
Read Full Review
75
USA Today Scott Bowles
Unlike so many big-studio films that pass off models in horn-rimmed glasses as nerds, this little New Zealand gem embraces the inner geek and, just as effectively, celebrates misfit love.
Read Full Review
75
TV Guide Ken Fox
With an often very funny story line that eventually touches on parental disappointment and suicide, it's clear that, his debt to Hess and Wes Anderson notwithstanding, Waititi has learned a thing or two from fellow antipodean Jane Campion as well.
Read Full Review
75
Premiere Stephen Saito
The film is punctuated by a literal knock down, drag out affair that has all the perverse curiosity of watching a "late career" Mike Tyson bout. But by the end, the real knockout is the discovery of this comic gem.
Read Full Review
75
New York Post Kyle Smith
Never before have I been so emotionally involved with an apple core, or seen salvation in a flip-flop. Taika Waititi, you had me at nunchuks.
Read Full Review
70
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The movie isn't funny in any big way so much as recognizable in its patterns of dysfunction, delusion and futility. But you believe in it, because you believe in the small but decent lives of its characters, a rare experience for a hot weekend in June.
Read Full Review
70
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
This debut feature, occasionally arch but consistently affecting, shares the deadpan esthetic of "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Ghost World."
Read Full Review
67
Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
The film’s resolution is more implied than complete.
Read Full Review
63
Boston Globe Ty Burr
Watching Eagle vs Shark is like sitting next to a terminally awkward first date at a restaurant. You cringe and feel protective toward the poor, sweet dweebs at the same time.
Read Full Review
63
Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Eagle vs. Shark feels like a low-budget, foreign cousin to Napolean Dynamite, less polished and sly. But it's definitely in the same family, lulling us into friendly acceptance with its persuasively silly rhythm and deceptively big heart.
Read Full Review
60
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
It's a perfectly cheerful time at the movies, without any hint of drama or surprise.
Read Full Review
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Despite Clement's best efforts to make Jarrod a deadpan oddball nerd, it becomes apparent early on that excessive teenage eccentricity and terminal self-delusion isn't quite as cute in the adult male and absent father.
Read Full Review
50
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
This is the kind of movie in which Jarrod's nemesis turns out to be paraplegic, while his dad lives in a wheelchair despite the fact that he can walk just fine. Ha.
Read Full Review
50
The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
Might feel like a colorful little train-wreck drama, but given the recent popularity of such films, it comes across more like a nerdcore clip show, a sort of straight-faced "Epic Movie" for fans of discomfort comedy.
Read Full Review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
In the end, Eagle vs. Shark represents a convincing triumph for Dumb.
Read Full Review
50
ReelViews James Berardinelli
There are occasional nice moments scattered throughout, but this is mostly a big, uncomfortable cartoon focused on the twisted attraction between two caricatures.
Read Full Review
50
The New York Times A.O. Scott
Intermittently charming, sometimes tiresome celebration of quirkiness.
Read Full Review
50
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
As it turns out, spending a couple of hours with emotionally arrested, socially moronic characters is not a whole lot more fun than spending a couple of hours with actual emotionally arrested, socially moronic people.
Read Full Review
42
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
It's a tale that reduces angst, not to mention love, to a generational tic.
Read Full Review
40
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The movie's idea of funny is giving the two lovers identical moles bordering their upper lips.
Read Full Review
40
The Hollywood Reporter James Greenberg
More dumb than funny.
Read Full Review
40
Variety Todd McCarthy
Result is still innocuously mild and inconsequential.
Read Full Review
30
Village Voice Jim Ridley
You can't see the forest for the twee in writer-director Taika Waititi's thicket of cutesy conceits, from the stunted supporting characters to the precious animated interludes.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 15 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ben gave it a9:
It's not the laughs that get you, but the package in general. It's a sweet tale that refuses to take itself to seriously.

Jake K. gave it a10:
Jemaine, from Flight of the Conchords, was awesome in this movie. Really quirky.. much better than Napoleon Dynamite.

Robert gave it a10:
I really enjoyed this film. The direction, screen play, acting, and music were all wonderful and I laughed continually. As the film progresses, the character study of Jarrod becomes deeper and, while you still laugh at his ridiculous pretensions, you begin to pity him as well.

Mark S. gave it an8:
I was initially apprehensive about seeing this film due to the mixed ratings, but a 5-star review from Film Threat (oddly not included on Metacritic which usually includes them) helped turn me around and give it a chance. I found it to be a cute, fun movie that is funny, but not gut-bustingly so. The romance is nice and cute, but never chick-flick illogical. It's simply a nice tale of a couple of amusingly odd and awkward people who fall in love. Comparisons to Napoleon Dynamite make sense, but are not entirely appropriate. It's more like an entire world of people who have the same sort of unrealistic awkwardness of Napoleon, but without any real people to play them off of. I, and everyone I was with, enjoyed it thoroughly.

Evan P. gave it a1:
This was an average movie with a well below average cast.

Blanco A. gave it an8:
Laren Horsley, as the Dangerous Person, is a really pleasant surprise. It's definitely reminiscent of the charms of Napoleon Dynamite, but it also has hints of Muriel's Wedding - the whole New Zealand, Pacific Island weirdness. It's a "little" movie, but worth seeing by all means.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: World News | Fantasy Football | Amy Winehouse | Baseball | E3 | Batman | Firefox 3 | iPhone 3G

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use