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.

Eagle vs. Shark
Miramax Films


7.3

based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 16 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

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

This debut feature, occasionally arch but consistently affecting, shares the deadpan esthetic of "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Ghost World."

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

The film’s resolution is more implied than complete.

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.

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.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

It's a perfectly cheerful time at the movies, without any hint of drama or surprise.

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.

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.

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.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

In the end, Eagle vs. Shark represents a convincing triumph for Dumb.

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.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Intermittently charming, sometimes tiresome celebration of quirkiness.

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.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

It's a tale that reduces angst, not to mention love, to a generational tic.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The movie's idea of funny is giving the two lovers identical moles bordering their upper lips.

The Hollywood Reporter James Greenberg

More dumb than funny.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Result is still innocuously mild and inconsequential.

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 16 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

Eagle vs. Shark Miramax Films

Eagle vs. Shark
Miramax Films