Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

34 10,000 B.C.
55 Baby Mama
62 Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The
36 College Road Trip
xx Dark Knight, The
31 Deception
41 Drillbit Taylor
57 Forbidden Kingdom, The
67 Forgetting Sarah Marshall
54 Get Smart
49 Hancock
34 Happening, The
57 Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
xx Hellboy II: The Golden Army
71 Horton Hears a Who!
61 Incredible Hulk, The
65 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
79 Iron Man
35 Jumper
73 Kung Fu Panda
24 Love Guru, The
37 Made of Honor
xx Mamma Mia!
58 Mist, The
48 National Treasure: Book of Secrets
55 Nim's Island
22 Postal
69 Redbelt
44 Ruins, The
53 Sex and the City: The Movie
76 Shine a Light
37 Shutter
37 Speed Racer
61 Stop Loss
47 Strangers, The
55 Street Kings
33 Superhero Movie
93 WALL-E
64 Wanted
36 What Happens in Vegas...
54 You Don't Mess with the Zohan

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

83 Alexandra
80 Band's Visit, The
76 Beauty in Trouble
47 Bella
80 Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
59 Blind Mountain
55 Bra Boys
60 Brick Lane
70 Caramel
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
83 Chop Shop
83 Chris & Don. A Love Story
78 Counterfeiters, The
52 Diminished Capacity
64 Dreams with Sharp Teeth
73 Duchess of Langeais, The
84 Edge of Heaven, The
52 Elsa & Fred
79 Encounters at the End of the World
62 Expired
64 Fall, The
51 Finding Amanda
57 Flawless
86 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
63 Foot Fist Way, The
60 Fugitive Pieces
45 Full Grown Men
55 Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
69 Go-Getter, The
74 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
63 Gunnin for that #1 Spot
68 Heartbeat Detector
34 Holding Trevor
68 Honeydripper
55 Irina Palm
69 Jellyfish
60 Jihad for Love, A
68 Kabluey
62 Kiss the Bride
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
82 Last Mistress, The
38 Life Before Her Eyes, The
70 Love Songs
64 Married Life
30 Meet Bill
33 Miss Conception
53 Mister Lonely
75 Mongol
52 Mother of Tears, The
52 My Blueberry Nights
71 My Brother Is an Only Child
84 My Winnipeg
61 On the Rumba River
69 Operation Filmmaker
61 OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83 Paranoid Park
72 Priceless
51 Promotion, The
55 Quid Pro Quo
29 Red Roses and Petrol
79 Reprise
71 Roman de gare
56 Sangre de mi sangre
51 Savage Grace
76 Shotgun Stories
66 Son of Rambow
70 Standard Operating Procedure
62 Stuck
72 Surfwise
81 Tell No One
56 Then She Found Me
xx Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
71 To the Limit
54 Tracey Fragments, The
70 Trumbo
72 Tuya's Marriage
83 U2 3D
56 Unknown Woman
86 Up the Yangtze
79 Visitor, The
62 Wackness, The
37 War, Inc.
64 Water Lilies
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?
55 Without the King
72 Woman on the Beach
64 XXY
67 Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75 Young@Heart

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Lookout, The
Miramax Films


7.8

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 41 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for language, some violence and sexual content

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode, Isla Fisher, Carla Gugino, Bruce McGill, Alberta Watson, and Alex Borstein

This intelligent crime drama is centered around Chris (Gordon-Levitt), a once promising high school athlete whose life is turned upside down following a tragic accident. As he tries to maintain a normal life, he takes a job as a janitor at a bank when he ultimately finds himself caught up in a planned heist. (Miramax Films)

GENRE(S):	Crime \| Drama \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Scott Frank
DIRECTED BY:	Scott Frank
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 14, 2007 Theatrical: March 30, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	98 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

If you enjoyed any of Frank's previous work, or thought "Brick" was the bomb, you'll love this.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

Gordon-Levitt's worth the admission all by his lonesome. He's that good--the proverbial young man with an old soul who brings unexpected depth, complexity, and sincerity to what could have been just another damaged-guy role. He's the one to look out for.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The Lookout is Frank's show. He's crafted a haunting and hypnotic film that transcends pulp by creating characters that get under your skin.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Rarely does a first-time director make as auspicious a debut as Scott Frank has done with the haunting, engrossing and intelligent thriller The Lookout.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The Lookout's thriller elements could stand to be more surprising, but they're ultimately in service of a better understanding of the characters. Usually, it's the other way around.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Nobody can play stupid better than Daniels – think "Dumb and Dumber" – and, as it turns out, few can play smarter. He's a sharp asset in a sharp movie.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

The Lookout is funny, tender and littered with elegantly written characters played by actors cast for goodness of fit rather than star wattage.

Variety Joe Leydon

A stealthy neo-noir drama that isn't afraid to take its time developing characters on the way to the payoff of a neatly designed caper scenario.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Frank's writing is razor-sharp, his filmmaking whistle-clean. As a fan of sharp razors and clean whistles, I enjoyed The Lookout--yet I did feel let down by the climax, which ought to have been blunter and messier and crazier and more cathartic.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A writer's thriller. True, it's cleanly and efficiently directed, and it showcases some crackerjack acting, but the reason it's a real pleasure to watch is that a writer's sensibility is the foundation everything is built on.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

We saw what Mr. Gordon-Levitt could do in such diverse films as "Mysterious Skin" and "Brick," and in the TV sitcom "3rd Rock From the Sun." But this performance is something else. It's unforgettable.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

So refreshingly straightforward that at first you may not know what to make of it.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

A sensitive coping drama after all, while still serving up that noirish heist flick with comic flourishes. That's some range, and in 99 succinct minutes too: Most pictures would be lucky to do half as much in twice the time.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

With his directorial debut, screenwriting stalwart Scott Frank concocts a compelling variation on a reliable film noir convention.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Exactly the right length. That sounds like faint praise, but isn't it rare? Many movies drag past the points where they should stop; others end abruptly, leaving you to wonder at things unexplained or unconcluded.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Promises minor pleasures and delivers them. In the process, it's gracious enough to kick in a few extras: a nifty central gimmick, a self-effacing lead performance, and a big slice of ham from supporting actor Jeff Daniels .

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Coolly crafted crime thriller.

TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

A smart, engrossing thriller in which you care as much about the characters as the crime.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Though The Lookout is eventually a genre film, with a tense, bang-up ending, it is also a thoughtful study of a young man trying to make sense of a world that he is having to learn all over again.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

A solidly above-average thriller.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Frank's dialogue owes a little something to Elmore Leonard, but it's less comic and heavily brocaded.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

More of a leisurely paced ensemble character-study than the slam-bang traditional action gut-buster that its trailer seems to promise.

The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz

Mr. Frank’s screenplay for The Lookout was long considered one of Hollywood's great unproduced scripts. The end product doesn't justify that buildup...Still, there's a lot to like here, and the film's bleak setting and empathetic tone add interest to what could have been a by-the-numbers affair.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The way Frank structures and directs this film, it's too predictably "unpredictable."

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

The Lookout marks Frank's directorial debut after years of working as a screenwriter on movies like "Get Shorty" and "Out of Sight," and though his new movie may lack the sexual tension and bubbly wit that elevated those films to rarefied heights, there's a newfound, and not unwelcome, sobriety to his writing.

Miami Herald Bob Strauss

The Lookout boasts some very interesting, original performances. They make this noirish, bank-heist caper intriguing, but in some ways they actually work against making it believable.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The movie's anti-climatic resolution in concert with the holes left by the occasionally untidy script result in The Lookout not living up to its promise. Compared to some of Frank's past projects, this is a tepid offering.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The dour, downbeat story eventually spirals into grisly Grand Guignol and contrivance. Still, Gordon-Levitt is superb, and Jeff Daniels delivers a wry and wily performance as Pratt's blind roommate.

Film Threat Mark Bell

It is worthy of your time, simply because of the brilliant acting and the first and final acts but... the middle of the film feels like an endurance challenge.

Empire Alan Morrison

Plot holes and a mixed tone lessen the impact but Gordon-Levitt holds it together with a strong lead performance.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Combines the sweet strangeness of "Fargo" with the existential panic of "Memento" and some Elmore Leonard tough talk. It all creates a cinematic tummy ache.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Sleekly tooled but eminently forgettable thriller.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A thriller that wheezes along on bits and pieces of ''character.''

The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 41 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Dave N. gave it an8:
Slow, but effective. The acting, script and cinematography are all superior. Somehow, this movie got almost no "buzz" when it came out, but it's worth seeking out as a rental.

Nick A. gave it a9:
In 1998, George Clooney co-starred alongside then-pop-diva, Jennifer Lopez, in 'Out of Sight,' a film by Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh. The film was hailed by critical masses as one of that year’s best and received two Academy Award nominations, one of which was for its screenplay, which was adapted from the same-titled Elmore Leonard novel by screenwriter Scott Frank. Since then, Frank has accumulated quite a resume – one that includes writing credits for Spielberg’s critically-acclaimed box office smash, 'Minority Report,' and the star-studded Hollywood satire, 'Get Shorty' (also first a novel by Elmore Leonard), which was released prior to 'Out of Sight,' in 1995. However, Frank had never taken a stab behind the camera – not until 'The Lookout' – and, basing his talent as a director on this film, I wonder why. Chris Pratt had everything. Once a teenage prodigy, Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was the star of his high school’s hockey team, raised in an upper-class family, and was the apple of every girl’s eye. One night, while driving with his girlfriend and two others, Pratt lost it all to a terrible car accident. Now the janitor of a small town bank, Pratt struggles daily with physical and mental consequences of that night. Feeling psychologically abandoned by his family, and without friends, Chris finds his only company in a middle-aged blind man named Lewis (Jeff Daniels), whom he shares his apartment with. Yearning for more in life – a more respectable job, female companionship – Chris is left vulnerable to Gary (Matthew Goode), a con whose intentions are to rob the bank at which Chris works. Pratt forms a friendship with Gary and even falls for a former-dancer named Luvlee (Isla Fisher), herself a friend of Gary’s. “Whoever has the money has the power.” Unfortunately for Chris, Gary is power-bent, caring not for a friendship with Chris, but rather for Chris’ access to the bank’s vault. As previously acknowledged, Frank’s writing ability is boundless, and 'The Lookout' will only increase the realization of that fact. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is captivating as the tormented 24-year-old, delivering a profoundly emotional performance that will sneak under your skin and tear itself out by film’s end. Daniels is convincing as the blind friend, whose life experiences have evolved into wisdom, which he volunteers to Chris. Daniels is also the film’s comic relief, which, actually, gives this already thrilling film some much-appreciated charm. In her brief screen time, Isla Fisher provides a supple romantic subplot and entices with her sexy character, Luvlee. Matthew Goode, as the malevolent mastermind behind the impending robbery, delivers a riveting, completely absorbing performance. In fact, don’t be surprised if you find his name on the nominee list, next to Frank (for his screenplay), come Oscar time. 'The Lookout' is a compelling study about the effects of past mistakes and the consequences that come with such, enthralling because of its broken protagonist, its gripping, crime-toting side-story, its talented cast and its fine-tuned dialogue. As one of 2007’s most inspired, lucidly scripted motion pictures, Scott Frank’s directorial debut will soon be regarded as a classic and may do what last year’s 'Little Miss Sunshine' did when February rolls around. “Whoever has the money has the power.” Well, for the price of a rental – or, if you’re feeling over-zealous, the DVD – you can experience this powerful example of a well-constructed movie.

Hal B. gave it an8:
A breath of fresh air amidst the usual summer rehashing of action-thrillers. A bank heist movie that is about so much more than a robbery. A character-driven plot with an excellent script, cast, locations and photography. This little gem should not be missed, except by numbskulls simply looking for another cheap thrill. Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Goode are superbly cast in the leads; with great supporting turns by Isla Fisher (remember her from Wedding Crashers?) and Jeff Daniels. Even MadTV's Alex Borstein has a nice little part... And watch out for "Deputy Doughnut"!

Patrick C. gave it an8:
The movie isn't perfect. Sure Levitt is out of character at times and Daniels might not be blind but the movie is enjoyable. The movie has the right mix of suspense and drama to get you invested in the characters. At the end of the movie you'll be happy you went and even hopeful that Levitt with continue his film noir streak. Brick was great, The Lookout is good hopefully his next film will be perfection.

Shsch gave it a10:
I think a lot of the reviews here miss the point. This is not really an action heist movie although there is both action and a heist. Rather this is a character study of Chris Pratt who has to cope with the limitations of his life after suffering severe brain damage as a result of a car accident which he stupidly causes. I was intrigued by the ways he attempts to regain normalcy such as the ability to sequence events and relate to others in a personal way. I think the gradual manner in which the plot reveals the important things you need to know about Chris's pre-accident life, and especially his family, was very effective in holding the viewer's interest. I also thought Isla Fisher was quite sexy and very effective as bait for Chris's attraction to his "new-found friends." I would highly recommend this film. I think you too will be drawn into the movie and hope that its main character Chris will somehow be able to conquer his limits.

Frank O. gave it a9:
A very good thriller written by Scott Frank. I enjoyed the plot development and sympathized with the end character-Chris Pratt. Highly recommended for the "indy" crowd.

Jimmy K. gave it a10:
A top-notch thriller with another great preformance Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Lookout, The Miramax Films

Lookout, The
Miramax Films