Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
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.
Man, The

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Comedy | Crime
Written by:
Jim Piddock (also story)
Margaret Oberman (also story)
Stephen Carpenter
Directed by: Les Mayfield
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 9, 2005
DVD: January 17, 2006
Running Time: 83 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for language, rude dialogue and some violence
Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Eugene Levy, Luke Goss, Anthony Mackie, Miguel Ferrer, Susie Essman, and Horatio Sanz
A comedy about an affable dental salesman (Levy) and a hard-edged federal agent (Jackson) who are forced to work together and who eventually grow to tolerate each other. (New Line Cinema)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: American Outlaws Blue Streak Code Name: The Cleaner Flubber
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
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...
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Who knew Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy would make such a dynamic comic duo?
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
An action buddy comedy is such an offbeat and inspired notion that it's impossible not to think of it without smiling.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Levy and Jackson save the day, and the film. The Man isn't great entertainment, but it contains enough laughter-provoking material to make it worth a look.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
Functional if thoroughly uninspired movie. Because it clings to the comedy-action template of "48 Hrs.," pic feels like it could have been made 15 years ago.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder
Both Jackson and Levy are better than director Les Mayfield's ("Blue Streak") meandering comedy.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
While nothing in the movie - least of all the two main performances - is especially fresh or original, it does have a few decent gags and amusing moments.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Les Mayfield doesn't know how to stage showdowns and chases so they're exciting or funny.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
If it weren't for the running flatulence gag, the whole silly business might be mistaken for slight, clean, fast-moving fun.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
It's the kind of featherweight slot-filler people turn off after 15 minutes on a plane or have on in the background on cable while they vacuum the floor.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The only characters in this formulaic crime comedy that I halfway liked were a couple of barely glimpsed wives, but the two leads keep it going through sheer determination.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly John Patterson
Jackson and Levy strike only damp sparks off each other, and they seem to have been introduced to each other --without benefit of rehearsal -- mere moments before the director cried "Action!"
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Yet another screwed-up mess that will give audiences another excuse to shun the multiplexes this weekend.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
In Roy Orbison terms, enduring this movie is like working for The Man.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Nobody needed to make it, nobody needs to see it, Jackson and Levy are too successful to waste time with it. It plays less like a film than like a deal.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
The screenplay has no idea how to modulate the banter between the movie's talented stars so that it approximates affectionate and playful sparring.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Most of The Man is as awful as last year's debacle, "Taxi," yet Levy, stuck in a no-brainer variation on Billy Crystal's predicament in "Analyze This," shows just enough noodgy passive-aggression to suggest what the movie might have been were it not shackled to buddy-action clichés.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Unfortunately, The Man makes the mistake of assuming casting is all it takes to make a good comedy.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
In some ways, The Man plays like a sequel to some terrible movie that was mercifully destroyed before it was ever released.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
Less a movie than a longform, live-action Celebrity Death Match between its leads, this wheezing comedy may herald the death knell of the interracial buddy-cop farce.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Arrives in theaters today with a sheet over its head and a tag on its toe. So to speak. What we have here is a complete systemic failure, a comedy that's not funny, with action that's not thrilling.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
I haven't seen such meaningful insight into the nature of human cooperation since this morning's "Sesame Street."
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
Indeed, this is the very kind of lame-brained folly Levy and his SCTV cohorts used to mock on their old show; now it's how he makes rent.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
It's just awful. Pointless, lazy, derivative and paralyzingly dull.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.9 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jerash J. gave it a9:
I liked it. Sure doesn't deserve all those pro reviewers who slammed it.
Malcom M. gave it a3:
It's no wonder the critics bombed this film. The producers got the wrong man as The Man. Coz I'm the man. Yeah, that's right, me. I am The Man. I would have made a much better Man. Ya dig?
Jon D. gave it a9:
This movie was HILARIOUS. I can't understand the bad reviews. I think part of it is understanding Eugene Levy's sense of humor. The humor is in his expressions & hand gestures (It's very much a Jewish sense of humor.) He is a perfect foil for Samuel Jackon's kick-ass no-nonsense. So if you don't get, you lose!
Kevin gave it a9:
Dumb but funny.
Cosmo P. gave it a10:
A brilliant slice of movie magic. A landmark motion picture.
Hinckley A. gave it a0:
Oh my God was this terrible. Were they working without a script? It was if they took two excellent actors threw them in front of the camera and said do whatever you want for two hours? The movie must have been shot in two days. Absolutely inept.
