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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
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24 City
66
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Girl from Monaco, The
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Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
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Song of Sparrows, The
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Under Our Skin
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Unmistaken Child
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Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
45
Whatever Works
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Hustle & Flow
MTV Films / Paramount Classics
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for sex and drug content, pervasive language and some violence
Starring
Terrence Dashon Howard,
Anthony Anderson,
Taryn Manning,
Taraji P. Henson,
Paula Jai Parker,
Elise Neal,
DJ Qualls,
and
Ludacris
The redemptive story of a streetwise Memphis hustler trying to find his voice and realize his long-buried dreams. (Paramount Classics / MTV Films)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Musical
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Craig Brewer
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Craig Brewer
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: January 10, 2006
Theatrical: July 22, 2005
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
114 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

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
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
The writing, acting and filmmaking make Hustle & Flow nothing short of amazing.

91
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
The home-studio recording sequences in Hustle & Flow are funky, rowdy, and indelible. Brewer gives us the pleasure of watching characters create music from the ground up.

90
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
The performances are accomplished, but the real star of Hustle & Flow is Brewer, a playwright who has written and directed a few other movies but who is effectively making a breathtaking national debut here.

90
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
In a world of movies that try far too hard to move, entertain and dazzle us, the artistry of Hustle & Flow lies in the way it waits for us to come to it. We can walk as slowly as we want, but sooner or later, it's going to get us.

88
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
The feel-good movie of the summer. And the song this pimp works up, about how hard it is to manage a stable of ho's, is catchy and moving.

88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Every good actor has a season when he comes into his own, and this is Terrence Howard's time.

83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Bill White
Speaks in the raw mumble of the dirty South. A regional film in the truest sense, it does for Memphis what its producer, John Singleton, once did for South Central Los Angeles.

80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
I found Hustle & Flow hard to get into at first, if only for its dialogue. But DJay's turf turns out to be everyone's turf -- a jagged landscape of hopes, disappointments, folly and fulfillment.
80
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Unfolds in the satisfying fashion of classic Hollywood movies that strike a balance between grit and heart.

80
Film Threat
Michael Dequina
While never sacrificing any of the hard-knock authenticity and specificity of his characters and their milieu, Brewer has crafted a deeply felt film.

80
Empire
Colin Kennedy
As soon as Howard steps up to the mic, the movie crackles to life.

78
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
It's a winning formula, and when done right like it is here, it transcends the clichés and moves audiences.

75
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
In Hustle & Flow, a star is born playing a star who's born.

75
Premiere
Peter Debruge
A definite crowd-pleaser, Hustle & Flow has all the makings of a massive cultural phenomenon - if only audiences can get past the whole pimp thing.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
So much love went into Hustle & Flow that it almost glows with it.

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
What makes the picture sail past its flaws is its earnest understanding of the desperation that drives people to regain control of their lives -- and the profound courage required to attempt it.

75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
The best thing Hustle & Flow has going for it is Terrence Howard's powerful performance.

75
Chicago Tribune
Allison Benedikt
Brewer achieves near perfection in this tense, intimate meeting between two lifelong hustlers.

75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
It's a satisfying experience, whatever kind of picture you label it.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
A weird fusion of blaxploitation and American indie, built on a template of old-style, follow-your-dream Hollywood drama. But it works - sometimes magnificently.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
It celebrates art, hope, and dreams, and you don't have to like hip-hop to appreciate the message or the way in which it is delivered.

75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Explosive entertainment.

70
The New Yorker
David Denby
Ends with a burst of movie-ish mayhem, and then a burst of sentiment, but when Brewer, Howard, and Ludacris stick to the bitter texture of South Memphis failure and success they produce a modest regional portrait that could become a classic of its kind.

70
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Director Craig Brewer has given his second feature film a vibrant pulse amplified by an outstanding cast led by Terrence Howard.

70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
The vibrant rap drama Hustle & Flow wraps the authentic around the inauthentic, telling an underdog story that sticks to formula, yet resonates with an undeniably real energy and texture.

70
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
It's more of an urban fairy tale, a surprisingly charming story that -- in certain sections -- almost crystallizes into the sweetness of a Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musical.

70
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Craig Brewer's sweaty, feel-good story about a small-time pimp and dope dealer making one last, desperate grab at his long-deferred dream is driven by longtime supporting player Terrence Howard's subtle, go-for-broke performance as Memphis mack Djay.

70
Chicago Reader
Joshua Katzman
Despite occasional patches of hokey dialogue, this drama by writer-director Craig Brewer is solid and genuinely uplifting.

63
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Hustle & Flow promises gritty street drama but delivers "Pretty Woman" with crunk instead of Roxette.

63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
D.J. Considine
Fortunately, writer-director Craig Brewer manages to conjure a world so rich and believable that we barely notice the Hollywood predictability of the plot.

50
Slate
David Edelstein
Howard might be a major actor. His DJay, though, is a major character in search of a major author.

50
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Some will find it chicly inspired, recalling blaxploitation's heyday with its grimy urban realism. Some will rightly find it corny, absurd, and an insultingly limited presentation of options for the most disenfranchised African-Americans: I'm still waiting for the movie fantasy about the pimp who wants to get his GED.

50
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
This disdain for women is not incidental to the film; it is integral to the fantasy Mr. Brewer is selling, which is that pimping is not as hard as it looks.

50
Newsweek
David Ansen
Howard redeems this lumpy fantasy. Soft-spoken and mysterious, he presides over the movie with a dangerous, feline grace.

40
Village Voice
Laura Sinagra
There's something wrong with Hustle. A bad aftertaste, and not just the dry grit of Memphis dust, but something meaner. A feeling that Brewer's sensibility is way off. Aside from Howard's characterization, the most indelible parts of the movie are the demeaning caricatures forced on DJay's women.

40
Dallas Observer
Luke Y. Thompson
Spends most of its 114 minutes on the making of a demo tape. People in a studio, rapping and recording. If you're going to watch that, wouldn't you prefer it to be Dr. Dre, or Lil Jon, or whoever, rather than actors pretending to be their kind?

40
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
But while some may leave the theater tapping their toes and whistling the lyrics to such inimitable original ballads as "Hard for a Pimp" and "Whoop That Trick," they should hang their heads low and mourn the sorry state of the contemporary African-American movie.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 57 User Votes
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