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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
97
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35
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32
Backseat
80
Band's Visit, The
62
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47
Bella
63
Blind Mountain
71
Blindsight
47
Boarding Gate
63
Body of War
58
Bra Boys
70
Caramel
54
Cashback
44
Chaos Theory
32
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69
Chicago 10
82
Chop Shop
46
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78
Counterfeiters, The
30
Cover
48
Dark Matter
35
Deal
61
Dhamma Brothers, The
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
58
Fall, The
43
Favor, The
58
First Saturday in May, The
57
Flawless
87
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
xx
From Within
44
Frontier(s)
59
Fugitive Pieces
41
Funny Games
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
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55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
57
Grand, The
58
Hats Off
68
Honeydripper
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
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Jellyfish
xx
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37
Life Before Her Eyes, The
72
Life of Reilly, The
50
Look
65
Married Life
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Meet Bill
63
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
54
Mister Lonely
52
My Blueberry Nights
71
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49
Noise
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83
Paranoid Park
55
Pathology
48
Penelope
90
Persepolis
62
Planet B-Boy
xx
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67
Praying with Lior
44
Previous Engagement, A
72
Priceless
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24
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56
Then She Found Me
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Tracey Fragments, The
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83
U2 3D
59
Under the Same Moon
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Unforeseen, The
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Unsettled
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Up the Yangtze
55
Vice
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Visitor, The
64
Water Lilies
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Without the King
74
Witnesses, The
63
XXY
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75
Young@Heart
45
Zombie Strippers
97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
91
Up the Yangtze
90
Persepolis
87
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Savages, The
83
Paranoid Park
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
82
Chop Shop
82
Taxi to the Dark Side
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Unforeseen, The
76
Stuff and Dough
75
Young@Heart
75
Shotgun Stories
74
Witnesses, The
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Roman de gare
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Life of Reilly, The
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Blindsight
71
Standard Operating Procedure
70
Caramel
69
Redbelt
69
Chicago 10
68
Honeydripper
67
Snow Angels
67
Praying with Lior
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
67
Jellyfish
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
66
Shelter
65
Married Life
64
Surfwise
64
Son of Rambow
64
Water Lilies
63
XXY
63
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
63
Body of War
63
Blind Mountain
62
Planet B-Boy
62
Battle for Haditha
61
Dhamma Brothers, The
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
61
Girls Rock!
59
Under the Same Moon
59
Fugitive Pieces
58
First Saturday in May, The
58
Fall, The
58
Hats Off
58
Bra Boys
57
Flawless
57
Teeth
57
Without the King
57
Grand, The
56
Turn the River
56
Then She Found Me
55
Vice
55
Tracey Fragments, The
55
Pathology
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
54
Cashback
54
Mister Lonely
52
My Blueberry Nights
50
Look
49
Noise
48
Run, Fat Boy, Run
48
Dark Matter
48
Penelope
47
Bella
47
Boarding Gate
46
CJ7
45
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
45
Zombie Strippers
44
Frontier(s)
44
Chaos Theory
44
Previous Engagement, A
43
Anamorph
43
Favor, The
41
Funny Games
40
Sleepwalking
37
Life Before Her Eyes, The
35
Meet Bill
35
Babysitters, The
35
Deal
32
Backseat
32
Chapter 27
30
Cover
24
Sex and Death 101
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
17
Prom Night
xx
Tashan
xx
Unsettled
xx
Plumm Summer, A
xx
Kiss the Bride
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
xx
From Within
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
20th Century Fox Film Corporation
 |
|
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense battle sequences, related images, and brief language
Starring
Russell Crowe,
Paul Bettany,
James D'Arcy,
Edward Woodall,
Chris Larkin,
Max Pirkis,
Jack Randall,
and
Max Benitz
Based on author Patrick O'Brian's series of Aubrey/Maturin novels, the film is set during the Napoleonic Wars. Crowe is Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, renowned as a fighting captain in the British Navy, and Bettany is ship's doctor Stephen Maturin. Their ship, the H.M.S. Surprise, is suddenly attacked by a superior enemy. With the Surprise badly damaged and much of his crew injured, Aubrey is torn between duty and friendship as he pursues a high-stakes chase across two oceans, to intercept and capture his foe. It's a mission that can make his reputation – or destroy Lucky Jack and his crew. (20th Century Fox)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
|
Adventure
|
Drama
|
War
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Peter Weir
John Collee
Patrick O'Brian (novels)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Peter Weir
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: April 20, 2004
Video: April 20, 2004
Theatrical: November 14, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
139 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
Received 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director (Peter Weir). Also received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Best Picture of 2003, and included on the AFI's list of ten best films of 2003.
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
Time
Richard Corliss
Master and Commander is to movies what Russell Crowe is to acting. With subtlety and power, it explores the complexities of men at war, even with themselves. It puts the passion into action, and the thrill into thought.
100
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Rare proof that a gigantic production in contemporary Hollywood can possess a distinctive personality and its own approach to storytelling, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World proves as bracing as a stiff wind on the open sea.
100
Dallas Observer
Gregory Weinkauf
One of this year's best films--a classic, even, like a C.S. Forester "Hornblower" story on steroids.
100
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
As magnificent as a high-masted 19th-century British warship, as explosive as a Napoleonic-era ocean battle seen above the cannon's mouth... probably the best movie of its kind ever made.
100
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
Stupendously entertaining.
100
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
This is a rip-roaring adventure combining edge-of-your-seat battle scenes with vivid historical details and more fascinating characters than most action movies dream of. Add heartfelt acting and Russell Boyd's atmospheric camera work, and you have the adventure movie of the year.
100
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Magnificent and heartfelt.
100
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Just as Aubrey's authority springs from skill and knowledge, so does the film's power. They don't make movies like this any more because few people know how to make them.
100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Like the work of David Lean, it achieves the epic without losing sight of the human, and to see it is to be reminded of the way great action movies can rouse and exhilarate us, can affirm life instead of simply dramatizing its destruction.
100
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
When it comes to the oft-doomed genre of seafaring adventure, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a spectacular throwback and a great leap forward.
100
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Isn't just a fabulous seagoing spectacle. It's one for the ages.
91
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
It's a wonderfully crafted work, handsome, lively, stirring and utterly convincing in its depiction of the perils and thrills of sea life. But I'm not sure that my personal enthusiasm for it will translate entirely for viewers whose favorite movie about the high seas is, for perfectly good reasons, "Pirates of the Caribbean."
91
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
A story in full billow; it sails through stretches of bloody battle, anxious waiting, wine-soaked relaxation, and marvelous scientific discoveries by the remarkable Maturin (Paul Bettany, well matched again with his ''A Beautiful Mind'' costar).
90
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Few actors can be as convincing as leaders of men, and to see Crowe as Capt. Jack Aubrey in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is to see a consummate performer doing what he does best.
90
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
The epic adventure, set during the Napoleonic Wars, boasts at least two artists at the top of their respective games -- namely filmmaker Peter Weir and actor Russell Crowe.
90
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
On a production of this magnitude, few actors have the presence to assert themselves above the cacophony, but Crowe carries the film with the rare combination of charisma and brute masculinity that has made him a star.
90
Slate
David Edelstein
Master and Commander hooks you from its nifty opening salvo to its nifty closing punch line.
88
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
The opening 15 minutes of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World are so well crafted that they restore your faith in commercial cinema.
88
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
As gorgeous and gripping as it is faithful to the spirit of Patrick O'Brian's celebrated series of historical novels.
88
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
A thoughtful, rousing and beautifully crafted epic.
88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
An intimate epic of infinite grace.
88
USA Today
Mike Clark
And novel insights notwithstanding, this is a plain old good movie, too.
88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Crowe -- fierce, funny and every inch the hero -- gives a blazing star performance.
88
Premiere
Jason Matloff
Weir consistently proves that he can take any kind of material and adeptly make it his own.
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
The music, art direction and camerawork blend together with an integrity and scope that's wonderfully exhilarating. Every frame seems to communicate the grandeur, power and fatal pull of the sea.
78
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
A humanistic adventure film that's both rich with characterization and concussive cannon bursts, Master and Commander is, surprisingly, some of the best work either Crowe or Weir have ever done.
75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
What makes Master and Commander so bracing and transporting -- what makes the movie feel unlike any adventure film you've seen before -- is the precise detail and care with which Weir places us aboard the HMS Surprise.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
In this journey, [Crowe] wears the uniform, the accent and the derring-do with consummate panache. Have him strike a muscular pose on the ship's prow, which Weir does more than once, and the manly sight puts that wussy DiCaprio to titanic shame.
75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
They've made a thrilling traditional nautical picture from untraditional books.
75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
For those with any interest in 18th and 19th century seafaring or naval warfare, this is a must-see motion picture. For others, it's an enlightening and entertaining experience.
70
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
What the novels leave us with, and what emerges more fitfully from this film, as if in shafts of sunlight, is the growing realization that, although our existence is indisputably safer, softer, cleaner, and more dependable than the lives led by Captain Aubrey and his men, theirs were in some immeasurable way better. [17 November 2003, p. 172]
70
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
The director of "Gallipoli" and "The Year of Living Dangerously" has muffled the rage and darkness of his best work in favor of an antiquated pleasingness. Master and Commander is a too-comfy classic.
70
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Persuasively re-creates the experience of sailing aboard a British man-o'-war during the Napoleonic era, but its story never attains comparable grandeur.
70
Film Threat
Chris Barsanti
The best boy’s adventure of the year.
60
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
With the exception of a brief sequence on the Galapagos Islands, where Maturin briefly indulges in some pre-Darwinian study of its unique ecosystem, the entire film takes place aboard the ship, and Weir's greatest accomplishment may be that it never feels claustrophobic.
60
Empire
Colin Kennedy
Oak solid and unsinkable, Master And Commander is old-fashioned entertainment crafted with considerable care; but compared to "Pirates Of The Caribbean's" pleasure cruise, this voyage is choppy and difficult without ever troubling deeper waters.
60
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
Though there is plenty of action, particularly at the start and at the end with two blasting sea battles, much of the film is not sufficiently interesting.
60
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
This is an exercise in civility -- a tasteful "Boy's Life" adventure with plenty of boys aboard to express their appreciation.
50
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
It is a dull and boring film, pretty as a Turner landscape and as sweetly becalmed as the glassy Sargasso Sea in which the men of the unfortunately named “Surprise” find themselves trapped for what felt, to me at least, like weeks on end.
50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
For all the movie's coarse grandeur -- for all the blood in its battle scenes and the grim historical accuracy of its depiction of antediluvian medical procedures -- the story of Master and Commander feels like something intended not for adults but for children.
40
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
Suffers from what might be called colonitis. It comprises too many equal parts, and they tangle each other up. Everything is important, which comes to mean that nothing is important.
20
Film Threat
Phil Hall
It seems as if every possible cliche and story twist from any seafaring picture of the past 80 years made its way into this flick.
 The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 380 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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