Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

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.

Ninth Gate, The

EMAILPRINTArtisan Entertainment

Ninth Gate, The reviews
44
8.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 30 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 19 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Roman Polanski
John Brownjohn
Arturo Perez-Riverte (novel The Club Dumas)
Enrique Urbizu

Directed by: Roman Polanski

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 10, 2000
DVD: July 18, 2000

Running Time: 133 minutes, Color

Origin: France / Spain / USA

Summary

RATING: R for some violence and sexuality

Starring Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, and Lena Olin

A rare book dealer (Depp) seeking out the last two copies of a demon text discovers a strange demonic conspiracy.

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...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Polanski's directing is marvelously assured and Depp is always fun to watch.

Read Full Review >
80

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Amusing, ultra-deadpan entertainment. The director was lucky enough to have a cast who were in on the joke and tuned in to his wavelength.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The movie falls apart toward the end as it enters "Eyes Wide Shut" territory, but until then, it's fun to see bookworms cast in the James Bond mode.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Elegant, scary fun.

Read Full Review >
75

Philadelphia Inquirer Gary Thompson

Begins to take on a striking resemblance to the infamously bad "Eyes Wide Shut."

Read Full Review >
65

TNT RoughCut Don Kaye

Fairly enjoyable as an old-fashioned horror yarn -- or, if that doesn't work for you, as a black comedy about an obsessive collector.

Read Full Review >
63

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A devilish little comedy whose urbane, satirical humor will probably sail right over the heads of audiences weaned on Scream.

Read Full Review >
60

Film.com Peter Brunette

Compulsively watchable and its occasional lapses into that familiar Polanskian overkill are almost charming.

Read Full Review >
60

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

So visually striking, so compulsively watchable as storytelling, and so personal even in its enigmas that I found it much more pleasurable than any of the Hollywood genre films I've seen lately.

Read Full Review >
58

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Exotic Ninth Gate breaks down into clichés.

Read Full Review >
50

Newsweek Andrea C. Basora

As long as Polanski keeps his focus on character and ambiance, the film is an eerie pleasure. But he doesn't, and it degenerates into a second-rate chase movie which takes its supernatural overtones either too seriously or too lightly to be convincing.

Read Full Review >
50

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Right up to its deliberate thud of a closer, Polanski had me.

Read Full Review >
50

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Summoning silliness Roman Polanski salutes and spoofs satanic thrillers .

Read Full Review >
50

USA Today Mike Clark

The script is so bereft of real surprises that it's best to keep the lid on what few there are.

Read Full Review >
42

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

After a cheeky, campy start, The Ninth Gate leaves you with a bitter and dull aftertaste.

Read Full Review >
40

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Lacking noticeable energy or drive, its almost visceral distaste for dramatic momentum is puzzling, especially in a film about the black arts.

Read Full Review >
40

Variety Lisa Nesselson

This is really a shaggy devil story whose giddy, ironic tone may throw viewers expecting a scary movie.

Read Full Review >
40

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This tale may well weave a more compelling spell on the page; onscreen it's simply ponderous.

Read Full Review >
40

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Euro-kitsch of the highest order, which doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, just unnecessary.

Read Full Review >
40

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

The whole thing seems to meander aimlessly, rarely creating a chill.

Read Full Review >
40

The New York Times A.O. Scott

About as scary as a sock-puppet re-enactment of "The Blair Witch Project," and not nearly as funny.

Read Full Review >
38

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A non-thrilling occult thrillersolame and unoriginal that it would be an embarrassment for any director, much less a talent like Roman Polanski.

Read Full Review >
38

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

A film that really has no idea what it wants to be, so it tries a little of everything, and does nothing very well.

Read Full Review >
34

Mr. Showbiz Richard T. Jameson

The once-talented Mr. Polanski is hard to spot.

Read Full Review >
33

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A film not even a star as foxed and foxy as Johnny Depp himself could save.

Read Full Review >
30

Film.com Gemma Files

A nonsensical mishmash.

Read Full Review >
30

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Never quite becomes unwatchable.

Read Full Review >
30

Austin Chronicle Russell Smith

Most of the actors seem to have been issued one facial expression at the beginning of the film, along with pain-of-death instructions not to change it under any circumstance.

Read Full Review >
25

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A supernatural thriller that is neither super, natural, nor thrilling.

Read Full Review >
20

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Polanski, generally, has fallen farther than Lucifer, and into a more profoundly depressing hell, the hell of utter banality.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

sujana will gave it a9:
The 1st portion was COOL but later part is really bad but depp is excellent.

telmo o. gave it a10:
Special, unforgettable, surrealist, explendid.

raVen gave it an 8:
[***PLOT REVELATIONS***] (7.5) I loved 99% of this movie...The atmosphere...the building and darkening suspense...the double take of realizing Lena Olin doesn't use stairs...Depp is pricelessly Depp. But what he doesn't know, poor Johnny, is that instead of looking for the lost copies of an ancient book, he should have been looking for the last pages of the screenplay. Because when the ending finally comes, it doesn't.

Aaron J. gave it a 10:
Excellent movie. Great mysticism etc.

Vincent F. gave it a 9:
The movie is slow paced yet never boring. The open ending is the only suitable ending for this movie.

Spencer G. gave it a 10:
A movie for the intellectuals.

Keanes L. gave it a 10:
This was a wonderful movie. I loved it. You can't go wrong with Johnny Depp.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use