|

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

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
83
Alexandra
43
Anamorph
35
Babysitters, The
32
Backseat
80
Band's Visit, The
65
Battle for Haditha
47
Bella
63
Blind Mountain
71
Blindsight
47
Boarding Gate
60
Body of War
58
Bra Boys
70
Caramel
54
Cashback
44
Chaos Theory
32
Chapter 27
69
Chicago 10
xx
Children of Huang Shi, The
83
Chop Shop
46
CJ7
78
Counterfeiters, The
30
Cover
49
Dark Matter
35
Deal
62
Dhamma Brothers, The
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
83
Edge of Heaven, The
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
58
Fall, The
43
Favor, The
58
First Saturday in May, The
57
Flawless
87
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
xx
From Within
44
Frontier(s)
57
Fugitive Pieces
41
Funny Games
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
61
Girls Rock!
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
57
Grand, The
58
Hats Off
68
Honeydripper
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
67
Jellyfish
51
Jihad for Love, A
xx
Kiss the Bride
37
Life Before Her Eyes, The
72
Life of Reilly, The
50
Look
65
Married Life
35
Meet Bill
63
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
55
Mister Lonely
52
My Blueberry Nights
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
55
Noise
63
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83
Paranoid Park
55
Pathology
48
Penelope
90
Persepolis
62
Planet B-Boy
xx
Plumm Summer, A
67
Praying with Lior
46
Previous Engagement, A
72
Priceless
80
Reprise
71
Roman de gare
48
Run, Fat Boy, Run
50
Sangre de mi sangre
85
Savages, The
24
Sex and Death 101
66
Shelter
75
Shotgun Stories
40
Sleepwalking
67
Snow Angels
67
Son of Rambow
71
Standard Operating Procedure
76
Stuff and Dough
68
Surfwise
xx
Tashan
82
Taxi to the Dark Side
57
Teeth
56
Then She Found Me
55
Tracey Fragments, The
55
Turn the River
72
Tuya's Marriage
83
U2 3D
59
Under the Same Moon
76
Unforeseen, The
66
Unsettled
90
Up the Yangtze
55
Vice
79
Visitor, The
xx
War, Inc.
64
Water Lilies
45
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
57
Without the King
75
Witnesses, The
63
XXY
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75
Young@Heart
45
Zombie Strippers
97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
90
Up the Yangtze
90
Persepolis
87
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Savages, The
83
Paranoid Park
83
Chop Shop
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Edge of Heaven, The
82
Taxi to the Dark Side
80
Reprise
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Unforeseen, The
76
Stuff and Dough
75
Young@Heart
75
Witnesses, The
75
Shotgun Stories
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Life of Reilly, The
71
Standard Operating Procedure
71
Roman de gare
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Blindsight
70
Caramel
69
Chicago 10
68
Surfwise
68
Honeydripper
67
Snow Angels
67
Praying with Lior
67
Jellyfish
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
67
Son of Rambow
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
66
Unsettled
66
Shelter
65
Battle for Haditha
65
Married Life
64
Water Lilies
63
XXY
63
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
63
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
63
Blind Mountain
62
Planet B-Boy
62
Dhamma Brothers, The
61
Girls Rock!
60
Body of War
59
Under the Same Moon
58
First Saturday in May, The
58
Fall, The
58
Hats Off
58
Bra Boys
57
Flawless
57
Teeth
57
Fugitive Pieces
57
Without the King
57
Grand, The
56
Then She Found Me
55
Vice
55
Turn the River
55
Tracey Fragments, The
55
Mister Lonely
55
Noise
55
Pathology
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
54
Cashback
52
My Blueberry Nights
51
Jihad for Love, A
50
Sangre de mi sangre
50
Look
49
Dark Matter
48
Run, Fat Boy, Run
48
Penelope
47
Bella
47
Boarding Gate
46
CJ7
46
Previous Engagement, A
45
Zombie Strippers
45
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
44
Frontier(s)
44
Chaos Theory
43
Anamorph
43
Favor, The
41
Funny Games
40
Sleepwalking
37
Life Before Her Eyes, The
35
Meet Bill
35
Babysitters, The
35
Deal
32
Backseat
32
Chapter 27
30
Cover
24
Sex and Death 101
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
xx
Tashan
xx
Plumm Summer, A
xx
Children of Huang Shi, The
xx
Kiss the Bride
xx
War, Inc.
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
xx
From Within
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Hotel Rwanda
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / United Artists
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 on appeal for violence, disturbing images and brief strong language
Starring
Don Cheadle,
Sophie Okonedo,
Nick Nolte,
Joaquin Phoenix,
Desmond Dube,
David O'Hara,
Cara Seymour,
and
Fana Mokoena
Based on true events from the civil war in Rwanda, this film profiles Paul Rusesabagina (Cheadle), the manager of a luxury hotel who opened his establishment to Tutsi refugees despite the danger to himself and his family.
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
War
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Keir Pearson
Terry George
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Terry George
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: April 12, 2005
Theatrical: December 22, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
110 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Canada / UK / Italy / South Africa |
Nominated, Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Original Song - Motion Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama (Cheadle), 2005 Golden Globe Awards; People's Choice Award, 2004 Toronto International 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...
100
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Emerges as an African version of "Schindler's List."

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Deep movie emotions for me usually come not when the characters are sad, but when they are good. You will see what I mean.

100
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
An extraordinary and effective film.

100
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Enraging and enthralling.

91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Several times, Hotel Rwanda teeters on the edge of making a unique, visionary statement about our times, but can't quite do it. Too bad. If it could have pulled itself together in one brilliant scene, this may have been a great movie, instead of just a very good one.

90
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Magnificent.

90
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
A startlingly effective and upsetting political melodrama.

90
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
Cheadle impressively carries the entire picture, delivering the kind of note-perfect performance that's absolutely deserving of Oscar consideration.

90
The New Yorker
David Denby
The film turns into a triumph for Don Cheadle, who never steps outside the character for emotional grandstanding or easy moralism.

90
Time
Richard Schickel
It is a powerful portrait of a slightly befuddled man who, when inhuman demands were placed on him, found within himself an unexpected response.

88
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
By turns harrowing and stirring, it’s a shame-inducing history lesson that never feels like a lecture.

88
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
This role could represent a career performance for Cheadle, whose forceful and multi-dimensional portrayal keeps Hotel Rwanda at a consistently high level.

88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
An articulate plea to Westerners not to repeat these terrible sins of omission.

88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Not a striking film visually. It's deliberately plain looking, focused on the appalling events with an almost documentary immediacy.

88
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
One of the year's best.

88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
A gut-punch of a drama.

83
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Cheadle's performance elevates Hotel Rwanda, making it a film that does justice to the tragedy it commemorates.

80
Empire
Dan Jolin
It's a weighty message movie, but it's a message worth delivering – and the cast's delivery is flawless.

80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
It sweeps over you with blunt, unequivocal conviction.

80
Slate
David Edelstein
Cheadle is extraordinary.

80
Dallas Observer
Jean Oppenheimer
Cheadle, always a fine actor, is outstanding here--an almost willfully naive yet uncommonly decent man who sees civilization crashing and burning around him yet who, almost against his own better judgment, refuses to give in to it.

80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Hotel Rwanda isn't impersonal, even though it only hints at the story's full horror. It's stunning.
80
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Cheadle's quiet, superbly modulated performance as an ordinary man driven to heroism by hellish events reminds us that the slogan "no justice, no peace" has a private as well as a public dimension.

80
LA Weekly
Ernest Hardy
Hotel Rwanda, based on real lives and events, aims unequivocally to break your heart.

80
Newsweek
David Ansen
Ultimately, one's reservations are overwhelmed by the story's urgency; it's impossible not to be shattered.

78
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Scrappy, powerful, and shocking.

75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
George has been criticized for simplifying a complex story into an African "Schindler's List." But despite flaws in execution, this is a film of rare courage and imperishable heart.

75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
In condensing Rusesabagina's story, George has undoubtedly overstated the specific dramatic moments; the movie has more cliff-hangers than the "Indiana Jones" series.

75
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
All we can do is hope that films such as Hotel Rwanda remind us all -- moviegoer and politician -- of the terrible cost of doing nothing.

75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Throughout the film, Cheadle's eyes are constantly scanning his environment for opportunities or anything that may be amiss.

75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
I wish Hotel Rwanda felt like something more than a very, very good TV movie.

70
TV Guide
Ken Fox
It's a great part for a great actor and Cheadle does a magnificent job turning this living legend back into flawed, flesh-and-blood reality.

70
Variety
Scott Foundas
The genocide of some one million Rwandan Tutsis by their Hutu neighbors remains a disgraceful and too-little-known episode in recent world history. Alas, Terry George's ineffectual Hotel Rwanda only partly rectifies that problem, taking what ought to have been a complex, powerful inquiry and simplifying it to a story about the resilience of the human spirit.

70
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
It's a gut-twisting story handled, largely and predictably, with asbestos mitts.

70
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
The story it tells is such a wrenching one it cannot help but move us, especially when the performance of a lifetime by Don Cheadle is added to the mix.

70
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
A political thriller based on fact that hammers every button on the emotional console.

70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
The Rwandan genocide was one of the most shameful marks on Bill Clinton's presidency, but for all the film's powerful images, George stops short of the forceful political statement that Rusesabagina's story demands.

58
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
A strange history lesson that leaves us more overlectured than properly overwhelmed.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
The subject is crucially important, but the movie dilutes its impact with by-the-numbers filmmaking, and Cheadle's one-note performance displays few of his acting gifts.

40
Film Threat
Phil Hall
The film presents the Rwandans in the worst possible way: venal, corrupt, vicious, stupid, barbaric and completely incapable of governing themselves. Honestly, I've seen more intelligent and sympathetic depictions of Africans in Tarzan movies.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 144 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Read more user comments...
Discuss this movie in our forums |
|