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Last Castle, The
DreamWorks Distribution L.L.C.


7.9

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 24 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Resurrecting the Champ

MPAA RATING: R for language and violence

Starring Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Steve Burton, George Scott, Addison Pate, and Nick Kokich

The Castle -- the unlikely last stop in the brilliant career of three-star General Irwin (Redford). Court-martialed and stripped of his rank, Irwin has been sentenced to the maximum-security military prison, which is run with an iron fist by its warden, Colonel Winter (Gandolfini).

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	David Scarpa (also story) Graham Yost
DIRECTED BY:	Rod Lurie
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 5, 2002 Video: March 5, 2002 Theatrical: October 19, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	131 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...

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

It's an even rarer pleasure to see a film that combines exciting action with a smart, well-informed script and vivid yet restrained performances.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It could have been more, could have been a triumph and a classic, instead of simply an effective entertainment.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

The kind of movie you can enjoy easily enough, as long as you don't think about it much.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Not as simple as it looks, though its appeal is simple: Robert Redford goes to prison, and James Gandolfini ("The Sopranos") is the warden. That's a movie worth seeing right there.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Like Lurie's previous two films, it's also simplistic and somewhat muddled.

Chicago Reader J. R. Jones

Engrossing if standard-issue prison drama.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

Lurie manages, despite these obstacles, to inspire Redford to give one of the most layered and interesting performances of his career.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

If this melodrama has that haven't-we-met-before look, it's because it combines elements of "The Caine Mutiny" (Gandolfini's Winter is Queeg-like) with those of "Stalag 17."

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

An outrageously unlikely prison action movie made with lots of eye-catching pizzazz and undeserved expertise.

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

It's good enough, smart enough, and people will like it. It's also a high-concept cop-out, a convention-strangled genre movie that never zigs when your every instinct is screaming that it's about to zag.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A disappointingly pedestrian prison meller that falls between stools artistically and politically.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

This is, after all, not just Robert Redford. It's Redford in the nobly burnished self-mythologic perfection of his late-middle-aged golden god-ness.

USA Today Claudia Puig

They may call it The Last Castle, but moviegoers will ultimately feel rooked.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The movie is exuberant, strapping and obvious -- a problem drama suffering from a steroid overdose.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Often feels choppy, as if chunks of connecting narrative had been lopped off in the editing room.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

While the film is shot in shades of gray, the drama is played out in black and white.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

All crass in its empty bluster and bogus uplift.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Ruffalo, actually, who was so perfect in the little-seen "You Can Count On Me," is the only real reason to sit through The Last Castle.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Robert Redford does everything but wear a crown of thorns as the selfless war hero of The Last Castle, a heavy-handed military prison melodrama.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

This is an odd and ultimately dispiriting film, despite some intriguing ideas about brute force vs. moral authority, the elaborately staged uprising -- and impressive actors in the cast. That is to say, they've been impressive elsewhere.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It's not objectionable (which is saying something these days) but neither does it have any compelling reason to be seen.

The New Yorker David Denby

(Lurie's) a shameless, if skilled, manipulator of easy emotions. (29 Oct 2001, p. 93)

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Although the movie has a few interesting twists and turns, its mind-versus-mind conceit devolves into a mundane warden-versus-inmate conclusion.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

It's a mishmash of "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "From Here to Eternity" and "The Great Escape," with everything complex and entertaining siphoned off.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

I don't know why Redford and the white-hot Gandolfini signed on for this fiasco, but the give-and-take between them is the film's sole pleasure.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Miscast, clumsily staged and ideologically wobbly.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Deadly dull.

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

Lurie's politics aside, it's astonishing that a man who once reviewed films keeps churning out movies full of cinema's most hollow clichés; indeed, he turns out stuff that's even more disjointed and improbable than the most mediocre fare.

Slate David Edelstein

A melodrama in which the clichés prove more lethal than the bullets.

Time Richard Schickel

Redford underacts, Gandolfini overacts, and this movie is directed with the same air of unreality, the same grim passion for cliches, both cinematic and emotional, that Lurie brought to his first film, "The Contender."

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Bizarre, confused, sanctimonious manure that makes Lurie's own "The Contender" look responsible by comparison.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Plays out like "Cool Hand Luke" meets "Attica," and it's quite the silliest thing.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 24 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Sam J. gave it a10:
Easily one of the most underated movies of all time. An action packed, dramatic story, and great performances. It should and probably will be a classic.

Pat C. gave it a 3:
It had me on the edge of my seat the whole time, as I was ready to walk out. I should have. It's always easy to attack the military because, short of a declaration of war, their hands are tied. Just because military service, with its premise of we're-here-to-kill-the-people-and-break-the-things-of-those-who-want-to-do-the-same-to-us, is inherently unfair doesn't mean the lines of patriotism and conscience can be neatly allocated. The exact situation of this film was much better portrayed by Sean Connery in "The Hill."

Andrew L. gave it a 10:
Great movie. Some have claimed that it doesn't have a point. Well, for the blind and deaf, no, it doesn't. But for the rest of us it teaches that although you may be down and out, you can still make a difference.

JkooFISH gave it a 9:
The Last Castle was an excellent movie in many ways, the little twists and turns were stylish and the end was quite intense. The show has stirred something inside of me for sure.

Nick P. gave it a 10:
One of the best movie I've ever seen. Really worth to see it!

Chris gave it a 10:
Realy Good!

San gave it a 9:
I thought this movie was great! I thought it should have gotten more attention at the theatre. The performances were all great, down to the very last actor. A film I would watch again. 2 thumbs up!

Last Castle, The DreamWorks Distribution L.L.C.

Last Castle, The
DreamWorks Distribution L.L.C.