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76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
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53
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66
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45
Box, The
61
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55
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43
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66
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29
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23
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80
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61
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39
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xx
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30
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34
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60
Funny People
32
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27
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41
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39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
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55
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66
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69
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58
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47
Jennifer's Body
66
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34
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33
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54
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67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
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42
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28
Pandorum
63
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86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
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30
Saw VI
53
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24
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83
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33
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45
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55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
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35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
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88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
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39
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78
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61
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66
Afterschool
xx
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58
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72
Amreeka
48
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73
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62
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55
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76
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86
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13
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70
Beeswax
35
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71
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66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
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76
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35
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26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
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45
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81
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70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
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57
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62
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65
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69
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59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
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75
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82
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67
Departures
xx
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71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
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55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Lucky Break

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Crime
Written by: Ronan Bennett
Directed by: Peter Cattaneo
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 5, 2002
DVD: October 22, 2002
Running Time: 107 minutes, Color
Origin: Germany / UK
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for brief strong language and some sexual references
Starring James Nesbitt, Olivia Williams, Timothy Spall, Bill Nighy, Lennie James, Ron Cook, Frank Harper, and Christopher Plummer
A comedy about a prison escape with a musical twist. (Paramount Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Opal Dream The Full Monty
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer
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...
Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Apart from the deja vu all over again, Lucky Break is no worse a film than "Breaking Out," and "Breaking Out" was utterly charming.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A minor comedy, though a major delight.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
There is not much here that comes as a blinding plot revelation, but the movie has a raffish charm and good-hearted characters, and like "The Full Monty" it makes good use of the desperation beneath the comedy.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
It's what the Brits themselves might call fair to middling.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Hank Sartin
Cattaneo proceeds gamely, though without much spark, through this familiar fare, but at least Nesbitt, with his sly, oddball charm, is fun to watch.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Ray Conlogue
Isn't quite funny enough to make it as a comedy, or touching enough to make it as a romance. It's a pleasant effort that doesn't hit any of its targets.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Lightly reflective and consistently entertaining, Lucky Break is an easy-to-take diversion.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ed Park
Mike Leigh mainstay Timothy Spall deftly shades in the designated goner, fellow "Still Crazy" alum Bill Nighy is sweetly wispy as the capable fop, and anger-management counselor Olivia Williams trembles pleasantly as usual.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
The big musical setpiece, rife with possibilities for humor and uplift, needed to be funnier and more energetic than the half-hearted lyrics and choreography bother to muster.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein
This is mostly well-constructed fluff, which is all it seems intended to be.
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Without the surprise, realism, audacity and upstart cheekiness -- pun intended -- that made "The Full Monty's" blue-collar strippers so irresistible.
Boston Globe Loren King
The movie moves predictably to its formulaic finale, which -- unwittingly perhaps -- reprises Plummer's own sugary classic, ''The Sound of Music.''
Read Full Review >LA Weekly John Patterson
The end result is like cold porridge with only the odd enjoyably chewy lump.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Neither the appealing cast nor the bouncing, ska-inflected soundtrack can keep the party going.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Every porridgy inmate in this instantly forgettable romp warbles in the prison's amateur musical, and one of them demonstrates a rather extreme devotion to the tomatoes he grows in the on-site greenhouse.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Perfectly inoffensive and harmless, but it's also drab and inert.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dave Kehr
Mr. Cattaneo restricts himself to the smiling blandness that has become the stock in trade of British comedies made for export, turning in a film that is forced, familiar and thoroughly condescending.
Read Full Review >Variety Derek Elley
Chained to the floor by a script that isn't particularly funny, direction that goes for realism rather than stylization and an almost complete lack of comic timing.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Terry H gave it an8:
This was a great movie. Don't listen to the critics.
Mulroneycakes gave it an 8:
Oh, for crying out loud. It's. Just. A. Bit. Of. FUN. Remember fun? Where you smile? Good good good.
