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.

Good German, The

EMAILPRINTWarner Bros. Pictures

Good German, The reviews
49
5.2 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 25 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Mystery  |  Romance  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Paul Attanasio
Joseph Kanon (novel)

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 15, 2006
DVD: May 22, 2007

Running Time: 105 minutes, B/W

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for language, violence and some sexual content

Starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire, Beau Bridges, Tony Curran, Leland Orser, Jack Thompson, and Robin Weigert

Based on the novel by Joseph Kanon, The Good German takes place in the ruins of post-World War II Berlin, where U.S. Army was correspondent Jake Geismar (Clooney) becomes embroiled with Lena Brandt (Blanchett), a former lover whose missing husband is the object of a manhunt by both the American and Russian armies. (Warner Bros.)

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...

88

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

This is Soderbergh's show, and a haunting and hypnotic show it is.

Read Full Review >
83

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

With a few self-conscious exceptions, Soderbergh makes an earnest attempt to return to that place and time in both history and American filmmaking, and his risk-taking pays fascinating dividends.

Read Full Review >
80

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Blanchett gets everything right -- the accent, her German dialogue, the weary sexuality (deliberately reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich) and the amorality her character has embraced.

Read Full Review >
75

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The leisure-time viewer will say, ''Hey, this is sort of like "Casablanca," so why play it again?''

Read Full Review >
75

New York Post Lou Lumenick

While Clooney and especially Blanchett give solid performances, and McGuire plays effectively against type, the movie is best appreciated as an exercise in vintage Hollywood style.

Read Full Review >
70

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Set in postwar Berlin, the story involves prostitution, black marketeering, and the death camps, and the tension between the visual style and the adult story makes the movie pretty engrossing -- it's an R-rated "Casablanca."

Read Full Review >
70

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Sumptuous, clever and cold.

Read Full Review >
63

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The Good German, Steven Soderbergh's film noir homage, is nearly perfect when it comes to style and tone, but it concentrates so single-mindedly on the mechanics of the narrative that it loses sight of its characters.

Read Full Review >
63

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

But for all the profane language and sexual frankness, Soderbergh's film is no more cynical or world-weary than its inspirations, and in the end, it feels like a clever trick wrapped around a hollow center.

Read Full Review >
63

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Here's what's good about The Good German: The look is fantastic; technically, the movie is a retro marvel. Here's what's bad: The script sucks; it keeps promising to be clever, engaging, subtle and completely fails to deliver.

Read Full Review >
60

Film Threat Mark Bell

Overall, while the film is a gorgeous, nostalgic cinema experience, and there's definitely a multiple of mini-plots to unravel while you work towards the final resolution, the film comes up as a bit of a dud.

Read Full Review >
58

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The Good German is a prime example of a movie made by highly skilled and intelligent filmmakers that nevertheless seems misguided from the get-go.

Read Full Review >
50

Premiere Glenn Kenny

I hold Soderbergh in high esteem, but as handsome a technical achievement as it is, The Good German plays to me as a failed experiment.

Read Full Review >
50

USA Today Claudia Puig

Soderbergh's homage to film noir and wartime thrillers, is technically stunning but narratively and thematically hollow.

Read Full Review >
50

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

It does get mired in its obsession with its own style.

Read Full Review >
50

Variety Todd McCarthy

For actor and director, the project seems like trying on a new coat, and it doesn't fit either of them.

Read Full Review >
50

Time Richard Schickel

Soderbergh doesn't miss a trick, and for a while it's fun for us to share in his fun. But there comes a moment when his Euro-noir film turns into another sort of exercise for the audience: an exercise in boredom.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Steven Soderbergh is usually an inspired chameleon, perfectly suiting his style to his content. But The Good German is an ambitious miss...It's all very beautiful, high-minded, and remote.

Read Full Review >
50

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

How, then, does The Good German--adapted by Paul Attanasio from Joseph Kanon's novel--wind up so insubstantial, its impact lasting no longer than a cigarette?

Read Full Review >
50

Newsweek David Ansen

Attempting a frame-by-frame duplication of Warner Bros. '40s filmmaking--even the extroverted acting style apes the period--Soderbergh has produced a movie so self-conscious that it's drained of all life.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

If you feel anything other than admiration for its craftsmanship, let me know; The Good German is as emotionally cold and unconvincing as any movie I've seen this year.

Read Full Review >
50

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Of The Good German, it can be said that the operation was a brilliant success, even if the patient is not merely dead but most sincerely dead. The movie, in other words, lies there as if on a slab in a morgue, while you admire the corpse for its beauty.

Read Full Review >
50

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Fascinating in concept but a disaster in execution.

Read Full Review >
42

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Far from the worst movie of 2006, but it may be the most disappointing. It should have been wonderful -- a delicious tribute to classic Hollywood -- but it simply doesn't come off.

Read Full Review >
40

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

I could have managed to bear all the film's shortcomings if it weren't for Clooney. Where was he during the making of this film? His face is there, he knows his lines, he moves as needed, but any traces of the intelligence and rapport, the subtlety and understanding, that have marked his best work are excruciatingly missing. Clooney behaves as if he discovered after he had committed to the film that he really didn't like the script as much as he thought he did but would go through with it anyway. The result is puppetry.

Read Full Review >
40

Empire Ian Freer

This should have been Soderbergh gold. Instead it is mostly unengaging and dull, proof positive that they don't make them like they used to.

Read Full Review >
40

Village Voice J. Hoberman

However flavorsome though, The Good German is seriously deficient in the stars' star power and narrative excitement. The movie is lovingly framed, carefully lit, and fatally insipid. The direction is slack; the pacing is perfunctory.

Read Full Review >
40

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Steven Soderbergh's new film is a puzzle wrapped in a mystery inside a perversity. The puzzle is Mr. Soderbergh's approach to what might have been an intriguing experiment, rather than the off-putting one it turned out to be.

40

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

In his genre pastiche The Good German, Steven Soderbergh has tried to resurrect the magic of classical Hollywood, principally by sucking out all the air, energy and pleasure from his own filmmaking.

Read Full Review >
38

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Tobey Maguire, terribly miscast and squeaky (that voice - it belongs to a kid!).

Read Full Review >
38

Boston Globe Ty Burr

There's a great movie somewhere in The Good German, but it's buried under three tons of run-amok formalism.

Read Full Review >
38

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The Good German is just stiff. When Soderbergh tries one of those patented swoop-in-on-the-diagonal moves at a key dramatic moment, the effect is comic. And at that precise moment, the story starts dying a slow, oxygen-deprived death.

Read Full Review >
30

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

With The Good German, Soderbergh -- generally a terrific and creative filmmaker -- apes a style, and a way of seeing, that he clearly doesn't understand. It feels like a hit to the stomach.

Read Full Review >
25

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Blanchett's performance is Soderbergh's biggest mistake. He either encourages or permits her to play Lena as a Greta Garbo caricature, which is mildly amusing if you're interested in Garbo, but if you're interested in Lena and The Good German, you're out of luck.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 5.2 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes

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

Wilf O. gave it a1:
After reading the novel the film was nothing but a complete disappointment.

R. L. gave it a10:
The Good German is one of the best returns to the 1940s style of film-noir. It has the right mix of action, adventure, mystery, Intrigue & romance. The Good German hypnotizes you with it's blend of murder & mystery, action & Intrigue, Romance & lies. You'll never stop guessing who's behind what, and most importantly who you can trust.

Mark M. gave it a6:
I thought the entire cast was very good, especially Cate Blanchett. The problem was there were too many loose ends. I recommend this movie to anyone who appreciates excellent acting but don't expect too much from it.

Mark M gave it a2:
A plot that wants to be intriguing is terribly boring, bordering on trite. Maguire is absolutely miscast and his horrible performance nearly derails the nmovie before it gets started. Clooney basically stands there looking, but not acting, like an iconic period figure, confused. Only the great Cate is up to her cypher of a role. Of interest only to those who find vintage film stock and camera lenses interesting.

Klaus R gave it a10:
Excellent movie and technically brilliant. My American wife and me (German) think the movie should be more aptly named "The good American". Thats why all the American reviews seem to hate it. How dares Soderbergh to spoil the last US war which was to common understanding won morally and millitarily. Very honest plot like Platoon, life is not black and white, life comes in all shades of gray. You wake up after 50 years, wow the US can still make great movies. Actors were great, and yes they quoted from the very best of film noir but it was not copycat.

Tony B. gave it a6:
"The Good German" is among the more underrated films of 2006.

Dan C. gave it a5:
This film wants desperately to be "The Third Man" but it just isn't. It never manages to create the right mood. It feels staged and non-authentic throughout. The actors are not up to the material or setting. Tobey Maguire and George Clooney are both surprisingly weak, and I say that as a big fan of Maguire. A big disappointment.

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