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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

King Is Alive, The

EMAILPRINTIFC Films

King Is Alive, The reviews
52
5.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 2 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Horror

Written by: Anders Thomas Jensen
Kristian Levring
William Shakespeare (play King Lear)

Directed by: Kristian Levring

Release Date:
Theatrical: May 11, 2001
DVD: November 19, 2002

Running Time: 110 minutes, Color

Origin: Denmark / Sweden / USA

Summary

RATING: R for sexuality and language

Starring Miles Anderson, Romane Bohringer, David Bradley, David Calder, Bruce Davison, Brion James, Janet McTeer, and Jennifer Jason Leigh

Stranded in the heat of a barren African desert, eleven bus-passengers shelter in the remnants of an abandoned town. As rescue grows more remote by the day and anxiety deepens, an idea emerges: why not stage a play. However the choice of "King Lear" only manages to plunge this disparate group of travellers into turmoil as they struggle to overcome both nature's wrath and their own mortality. (IFC Films)

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...

91

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Janet McTeer displays Amazonian power while Jennifer Jason Leigh tears into her role as a high maintenance creature with a ferocity that leaves little room for her usual acting tics.

Read Full Review >
80

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The cast, working in conditions that appear to have been only slightly less dire than those portrayed in the film, work together in a grim, convincing improvisatory rhythm.

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75

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

To some, this will seem the height of aesthetic experimentation; to others, the most unendurable arty hogwash.

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75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Isn't very pretty despite its extraordinary look. In fact, the film is downright queasy and unsettling.

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75

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

It's an excellent fusion of subject and style.

75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It doesn't make the slightest effort to cater to conventional appetites. But the more you appreciate what they're trying to do, the more you like it.

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75

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

Stands as a successful cinematic experiment and a gripping -- though a little too long -- study of humanity's most primitive instincts.

75

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Distinguished less by its elements of melodrama and psychodrama than by its intense acting and the vivid immediacy of Levring's powerful imagery.

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75

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Forget the bug-eating, cow-spearing and one-upsmanship of TV's "Survivor." The real results of isolation and deprivation unfold in The King is Alive: madness, suicide and murder.

75

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

Fascinating and strangely involving piece.

70

Variety Lisa Nesselson

Simultaneously gritty and cerebral.

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63

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Sinks under the weight of its ever more inescapably apparent contrivance, and its forced parallels to ''Lear.''

63

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Intrigues mainly for its spare style and brittle, sweat-soaked performances.

60

TV Guide Ken Fox

wWhat doesn't entirely succeed as convincing psychodrama makes one hell of an acting exercise (it's great fun to see great actors purposely mangle the Bard's immortal words), and Levring's cast -- McTeer in particular -- run with it.

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50

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Stylish and gritty, The King Is Alive lacks the impact of revelation that might have made the journey worth taking.

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50

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Tendency to pretentiousness.

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40

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

The most obvious casualty ends up being Jennifer Jason Leigh, an actress known for her fearless choices, who is literally pissed on for her trouble.

40

Chicago Reader Ted Shen

Most of the confrontations are shot in close-up, dragging us into the melee as the grungy-looking actors spit out their venomous dialogue.

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40

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Either you like your movies to be, well, movie-like: imitations of life, with musical accompaniment and artificial lighting and tracking shots and looped dialogue; or you like them to be re-creations of life, sans the artifice. The King Is Alive clearly falls into the latter camp.

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40

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A deeper problem in The King Is Alive is an almost total absence of spontaneity.

40

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

The tedium of the situation is felt by the audience, but too often in the wrong way: We don't empathize so much as suffer through the movie.

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40

New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson

The prettiest Dogme film to date may be the one that has the least to say.

30

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Becomes a strung-together collection of interesting, semi-interesting, boring and sometimes embarrassing (seemingly improvised) moments from the cast.

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25

San Francisco Chronicle Wesley Morris

Builds into a shapeless riff on the existentialist misery of company.

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20

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Endearingly pretentious -- as if it swallowed a thick brick of Beckett and can't pass the uncooperative Beckettian stool.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes

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

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