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Kingdom of Heaven
20th Century Fox Pictures

Kingdom of Heaven reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 63 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.8 out of 10
based on 40 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 204 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for strong violence and epic warfare

Starring Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Brendan Gleeson, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson, Alexander Siddig, David Thewlis, and Jouko Ahola

An epic adventure about a common man who finds himself thrust into a decades-long war, a stranger in a strange land. He serves a doomed king, falls in love with an exotic forbidden queen, and rises to the knighthood. Ultimately, he must protect the people of Jerusalem from overwhelming forces while striving to keep a fragile peace. (20th Century Fox)


GENRE(S): Action  |  Drama  |  Romance  |  War  
WRITTEN BY: William Monahan  
DIRECTED BY: Ridley Scott  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: October 11, 2005 
Video: October 11, 2005 
Theatrical: May 6, 2005 
RUNNING TIME: 145 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA / Spain / UK 

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
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A gargantuan epic, a historical adventure-drama of overwhelming visual grandeur.
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88
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Bloom finally comes into his own as a man here, somberly thoughtful and melancholic. The elfin archer of "The Lord of the Rings" and the trivial boy-toy of "Troy" have been forgotten.
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88
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Better than "Gladiator" -- deeper, more thoughtful, more about human motivation and less about action.
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83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Its concept is gutsy, its script is literate and intelligent, its visuals and cinematic craftsmanship are mouth-dropping, and its vision of the insanity of various religions vying to dominate the real estate of the Holy Land comes through with great power.
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80
LA Weekly Scott Foundas
In its depiction of a fleeting, but nevertheless factual, peace in the Middle East, Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven may seem a more quixotic Hollywood fantasy than all six Star Wars movies lumped together.
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80
Variety Todd McCarthy
Genuinely spectacular and historically quite respectable, Ridley Scott's latest epic is at its strongest in conveying the savagery spawned by fanaticism.
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80
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Fulfills the requirements of grand-scale moviemaking while serving as a timely reminder that in the conflict between Christianity and Islam it was the Christians who picked the first fight.
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80
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Full of astonishments, not the least of which are its ideas.
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80
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Scott and company have gotten so accomplished at re-creating history that the results have a welcome offhanded quality, making them spectacular without seeming to be showing off.
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78
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The story's parallels with the present are sometimes inescapable, as when Saladin's fireballs catapulted at Balian's castle strike an eerie resemblance to the "shock and awe" of the U.S.-led coalition's initial assault on Iraq.
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75
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Screenwriter William Monahan has fashioned an intelligent and highly topical epic. Director Ridley Scott has brought it home with banners flying.
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75
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Scott's cast is like a grand orchestra with various performers filling the roles of instruments: Thewlis a wise, ironic oboe; Neeson a stout cello; Norton a slightly battered flute. As it happens, the piece they're playing is a piano concerto and the keyboard -- that is, Bloom -- isn't big enough to match.
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75
New York Post Lou Lumenick
A rousing, politically correct, Muslim-sympathetic, $140 million take on the Crusades.
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75
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Odd as it is to say, Kingdom of Heaven loses its momentum the more Balian gets religion.
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75
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Kingdom of Heaven may have problems, but it delivers.
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70
Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
So, if you want to see this loud but rather ordinary epic, don't expect its tricked-up cultural and theological messages to carry much water. For entertainment value, it's hard to beat the climactic siege of Jerusalem, a Ridley Scott-perfect half-hour that matches anything in "Troy" or "Gladiator" for sheer, bloody, helmet-bashing mayhem.
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70
Time Richard Corliss
The battle skirmishes here mix sudden violence with slow-motion artistry. The attractive cast can sell an obsession or articulate a conundrum with equal fervor.
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70
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Thoughtful and impressively mounted.
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70
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Massoud plays Saladin magnetically, and his arrival only illustrates how many opportunities Kingdom misses. Another, better movie would have made him the focus.
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67
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Scott, working from a script by William Monahan, is so busy balancing our sympathies, making sure no one gets offended, that he has made a pageant of war that would have gotten a thumbs-up from Eleanor Roosevelt.
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63
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
But if the film disappoints on an intellectual level, at least it doesn't skimp on pageantry. This is, without question, one of the most beautifully crafted, visually thrilling war pictures ever made -- a painterly spectacle that leaves you looking for Caravaggio's name in the end credits.
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63
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
It's hard to say with assurance whether the flaw is in Bloom's performance or in Monahan's politically correct conception of Balian, precociously secular for a Crusader.
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63
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
What sucks the wind out of the movie's sails is the vacuum at its core.
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63
Premiere Peter Debruge
Although Scott seems to be making a point about both parties' ongoing feud for Jerusalem , the movie seems more like a classic Western than a contemporary political allegory.
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63
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
For all its scale, grandeur, historical context and political brass, "Kingdom" is no more compelling a period drama than last year's "Alexander."
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60
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
The movie does what any self-respecting politician would do: sidestep the issues, soft-pedal mortal costs, talk a fat game, and divert your attention away from history with exercises in spectacle and power.
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60
Empire Ian Nathan
A frustratingly thin epic. You're left wanting more exposition, more character development, the tidying up of loose ends.
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60
The New Yorker Anthony Lane
One imagined that a movie about the Crusades would be gallant and mad; one feared that it might stoke some antiquated prejudice. But who could have dreamed that it would produce this rambling, hollow show about a boy?
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60
Newsweek David Ansen
Fails to rouse any passion. A potentially great subject is frittered away, though this being a Scott movie, there's style to spare.
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60
Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
A handful of nifty battle scenes and some decent performances aren't quite enough to make Kingdom memorable.
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50
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Scott's ravishing visual style, characterized by a fetishistic attention to surface detail and unrelenting beauty, can work wonders with big subjects, but this is also a director who needs actors powerful enough to shoulder narrative and emotional extremes.
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50
USA Today Mike Clark
Dramatically, even a persuasive supporting cast gets Heaven only so far.
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50
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Bottom line: Kingdom of Heaven is the most exciting action-adventure yarn so far this year. Just don't expect anything deeper.
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50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
The movie espouses a kind of Unitarian ecumenical egalitarianism that has about as much to do with medieval times as quantum physics. No one should be offended except -- of course -- those who like movies that excite the mind as well as the pulse.
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50
Slate David Edelstein
I'd have a lot more respect for Scott if he were actually the virtuoso he pretends to be. "Gladiator" had lousy, disjunctive action, and Kingdom of Heaven is even more maladroit.
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50
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Ultimately, despite striving mightily to give everyone a fair shake, the film kindled the ire of conservative Christians and Muslims anyway.
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50
Boston Globe Ty Burr
A mostly lumbering, occasionally rousing epic that walks a bizarre line between historical fact and Hollywood wishful thinking.
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40
Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufmann
While there's gore by the gallon, inventiveness is in short supply.
40
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
This is muddled and oppressive storytelling (the script is by William Monahan) dotted with elaborate but weightless battle sequences.
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30
Washington Post Desson Thomson
To introduce an archetype like this to western audiences -- as the world weathers culturally and religiously demonizing times -- may have been worth this whole flawed movie. Too bad the story didn't just start with him.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 204 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
I liked it. The third act was weak to be sure and Eva Green sucked like hell, but beyond that, everything else is great.

Kieran gave it a6:
The best version of this film is the Directors Cut. Its adds 45 mins extra and is worth every second. Directors cut is a 10/10. This version misses too much and spoils the navative.

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Bring it down to a 59/100, than I'll agree. This movie started great, but unfortunately by the third act the film starts to go downhill. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this movie, but it definitely is the weakest of its genre. In the order from greatest to least, it would be: Braveheart, Gladiator, 300, Troy, and then Kingdom of Heaven. I give this a 6.5/10.

Bob S. gave it a10:
Loved the action, The amazing picture and the the way you come away realizing there are two sides to every war. and usually both sides have pathetically shallow motives.

Mark K. gave it a5:
Ridley Scott should take lessons in how to use action scenes to aid character development from Peter Jackson. 'Kingdom' drags to a crawl too often. The only effective scenes in 'Kingdom of Heaven' are the siege scenes you've already seen in L.O.R. Overall, a 'Kingdom' of a disappointment.

Devon C. gave it a5:
It started off with a good balance, then it got confusing as well as boring. William Monahan's writing was the only good thing about it. Ans also, bad casting, Orlando Bloom fits as a charming romantic character. But in this he's just, bad.

Nicole W. gave it a9:
Orlando and all the other actors did a fine job presenting this film without choosing sides. A great depiction of history, without showing favoritism to Muslims or Christians.

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