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K-PAX
Universal Pictures


8.2

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 34 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for a sequence of violent images, and brief language and sensuality

Starring Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Mary McCormack, Alfre Woodard, and Ajay Naidu

A psychiatrist (Bridges) is baffled by a mysterious patient (Spacey) at a mental hospital who claims to be from a distant planet called K-PAX.

GENRE(S):	Sci-fi
WRITTEN BY:	Gene Brewer (novel) Charles Leavitt
DIRECTED BY:	Iain Softley
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 26, 2002 Video: March 26, 2002 Theatrical: October 26, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	118 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...

Salon.com Charles Taylor

What keeps the movie going, besides Softley's intelligent direction and Mathieson's inventive cinematography, is the actors' duet between Spacey and Bridges.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

This is a tour-de-force performance, delivered by an actor at the top of his game, and it's a shame that K-Pax, instead of engaging our imaginations as it promises to, devolves into such a conventional, paint-by- numbers disappointment.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The movie itself is not completely successful, but it's consistently both engrossing and entertaining, and -- once again -- Spacey's performance creates a spell that lingers long after the lights come back on.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The heart of the movie is in the Spacey performance, and in knowing that less is more, he plays Prot absolutely matter-of-factly.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

The images are lustrous, the cutting is brisk and the acting of the two leads is right on the money.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Both actors are so good that one might easily overlook the Pollyannaish subplot.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

When Kevin Spacey takes center stage, our planet really does seem bright.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Primarily, it's a warm, fuzzy and funny duet between Spacey and Bridges, one that brings to mind the interplay between Spock and Kirk.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

I rather like the whole mystic- crystal-revelations aspect of K-PAX, and the idea that even a psychiatrist of Jeff Bridges' handsome, American substantiality is open to notions of cosmic improbability.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Both consoling and confounding.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

It would be gratifying to report that there's a lot more to K-Pax than Spacey at the top of his form, but there isn't.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Entertaining for so long it's a downer to sit through the dumbed-down finale.

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

Spacey and Bridges -- generally provide exactly the level of investment required for their characters to be convincing. Neither one showboats, and both make good use of the dry humor in Leavitt's script.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A pleasant enough entertainment raised above its station by the quality of its acting.

USA Today Claudia Puig

As impressive as Kevin Spacey ordinarily is, this isn't the best vehicle for his considerable talents.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It's all very "Cuckoo's Nest," but in a glib, facile way, and it leaves K-PAX adrift in its fuzzy, New-Agey orbit.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The casting in K-PAX is canny, but the picture as a whole is a clunky mix of the canny and the would-be uncanny.

Variety Robert Koehler

Frustratingly fritters away what fascination it develops and bows to the basic conventions of a standard detective story mixed with the theme of a physician healing himself.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Not worth the rocket fuel.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The biggest load of New Agey hogwash to grace the big screen since Spacey's "Pay it Forward."

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

Isn't quite as offensive as it sounds, nor is it in any way rousing; Spacey and Bridges are watchable, but nothing more.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

While nowhere near as mawkish at the abysmal "Pay It Forward," K-PAX nevertheless seems somehow unfocused and meandering; it's Spacey-light.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

A two-time Oscar winner playing a crazy person in a big studio film released in late October. Can't you just smell the pretension? Probably not, given the other ways in which this film stinks.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

It's hard to watch these two actors plow through the nonsense of K- Pax without feeling that a terrific opportunity has been squandered.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

K-PAX undertakes a garbled but comprehensive survey of Hollywood therapeutic clichés: The rain man has an awakening from his cocoon, pays it forward, turns into the fisher king.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Spacey is turning into another Robin Williams: Between this film and "Pay It Forward" he cops the prize for the Sappiest Performances by an Actor Previously Known to Have Great Talent.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

The latest offender in the odd "let's see what the cute and funny mentally ill can teach us" genre, this mystery/domestic drama commits all the usual sins and clichés.

Slate David Edelstein

Much of K-Pax consists of Spacey grinning like Stevie Wonder behind sunglasses, -- taking dippy steps, and bobbing his head as if attached to an invisible Walkman.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

Manipulative, feel-good drivel wrapped around a cloying performance by Kevin Spacey.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Just pass on K-PAX.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

In short, this movie is exactly the kind of starry-eyed escapist fantasy that Dr. Powell suspects Prot of having. It's harmless enough, since we can be cured just by leaving the theater.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 34 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Andrew gave it a9:
Very good apart from the ending. However you can not deny that he was from k-pax. Bridges stated that for one way to prove was to use the hypnosis. Prot, while under hypnosis, says when he was a young boy that he was from k-pax. Also at the observatory nobody on earth could have done what he did, I see that as proof.

tom w. gave it a10:
So many little things that you can look back on and make a case for Spacey being from Kpax, while the overwhelming psychological evidence points squarely at multiple personality disorder. Anyone with an imagination will like it, acting is excellent to boot.

Erwin K. gave it a2:
Tiresome new-age sentimentalism. Director and scriptwriter should shot. Spacey eating a raw banana was about the only interesting thing in the whole movie.

Joris gave it a10:
Wtf? Critics have gone mad again I guess. This is one of the better movies released in the last 5 years, egts you from the very first second till the very very last... Spacey's stellar acting is one of the better performances I've seen lately too!

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
Critics are somewhat wrong, but it's all up to you. The ending is quite interesting, and brings up more questions in your mind, in a good way. Interesting. Wonder what happened to that other aptient, though.

Megan R. gave it a 9:
I felt this movie was very interesting. I believe that Port was an alien that was transposed into humans bodies at times. He had these memories b/c the body he was in had these memories. When he left to go back home, he transposed himself into her body and left the old one in a catatonic state. This is why no one in the hospital recognized him as Port, becuase Port was gone.

Florian B. gave it a 10:
It's very good. Why? Because everybody have a problem,and if you have a problem you will escape. Escape from the reality to K-pax,which is in your mind. But who knows? Maybe it's not just your fantasy... Have a god day.

K-PAX Universal Pictures

K-PAX
Universal Pictures