|

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

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

64
Appaloosa
69
Ashes of Time Redux
68
August Evening
54
Battle in Seattle
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
xx
Black Balloon, The
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
50
Breakfast with Scot
63
Changeling
47
Choke
84
Christmas Tale, A
41
Cthulhu
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
xx
Dostana
62
Duchess, The
46
Dukes, The
63
Eden
xx
Extreme Movie
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
26
Filth and Wisdom
28
Fireproof
71
Frost/Nixon
82
Frozen River
43
Gardens of the Night
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
54
Good Dick
30
Guitar, The
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
31
Hounddog
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
47
How About You
68
Hunger
72
I Served the King of England
70
I.O.U.S. A
40
Igor
78
I've Loved You So Long
63
JCVD
27
Lake City
82
Let the Right One In
xx
Let Them Chirp Awhile
xx
Local Color
89
Man on Wire
84
Momma's Man
51
Morning Light
34
My Name Is Bruce
xx
Nobel Son
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
75
Pool, The
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
82
Rachel Getting Married
56
Religulous
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
53
RocknRolla
57
Sixty Six
85
Slumdog Millionaire
57
Special
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
67
Synecdoche, New York
82
Tell No One
83
Trouble the Water
43
Tru Loved
83
U2 3D
59
We Are Wizards
55
What Just Happened?
89
Man on Wire
85
Slumdog Millionaire
84
Momma's Man
84
Christmas Tale, A
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Frozen River
82
Let the Right One In
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
78
I've Loved You So Long
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
72
I Served the King of England
71
Frost/Nixon
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
68
August Evening
68
Hunger
67
Synecdoche, New York
64
Appaloosa
63
JCVD
63
Eden
63
Changeling
62
Duchess, The
59
We Are Wizards
57
Special
57
Sixty Six
56
Religulous
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
Battle in Seattle
54
Good Dick
53
RocknRolla
51
Morning Light
50
Breakfast with Scot
47
How About You
47
Choke
46
Dukes, The
43
Tru Loved
43
Gardens of the Night
41
Cthulhu
40
Igor
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
My Name Is Bruce
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
31
Hounddog
30
Guitar, The
28
Fireproof
27
Lake City
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
26
Filth and Wisdom
xx
Dostana
xx
Black Balloon, The
xx
Let Them Chirp Awhile
xx
Local Color
xx
Nobel Son
xx
Extreme Movie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
Sony Pictures Classics
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for language
Starring
Robert Carlyle,
Vanessa Feltz,
Ricky Tomlinson,
Kathy Burke,
Vicki Patterson,
Shirley Henderson,
Finn Atkins, Kelly Thresher,
and
Rhys Ifans
Patterned after a spaghetti western, this is the story of a small time crook (Carlyle) who returns to his hometown in the English Midlands to try to win back the heart of his ex-lover, who is being pursued by another man.
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Paul Fraser
Shane Meadows
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Shane Meadows
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD:
Video: February 10, 2004
Theatrical: August 29, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
103 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
UK / Germany / Netherlands |

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...
80
Variety
Derek Elley
Marvelously involving family saga.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
It evokes the atmosphere of a Sergio Leone Western, sneaking up under the movie's human comedy and adding a smile.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Carla Meyer
Charming family story.

70
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Always predictable in its outcome, but it still retains a certain charm, mostly because of Meadows's cheerful sympathy and affection for his motley crew of characters.

70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
Sharply drawn and well-acted.

70
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
What really separates "Midlands" from Leone's desiccated, terse genre work is Mr. Meadows's doting attention to his characters' decency. It gives a demonstrative bittersweetness to a likable but small story.

67
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
There are instances when the filmmaker tries for Western iconography and settles for ''Full Monty'' ingratiation.

63
New York Post
Megan Lehmann
Just Brit filmmaker Shane Meadows having some fun with the conventions of the spaghetti western.

63
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
Pure bangers-and-mash realism: a spotty yet ingratiating working-class farce that suggests a Mike Leigh movie with opera buffa tendencies.

63
Chicago Tribune
Loren King
Meadows clearly has a flair for working with actors and for depicting the rough-and-tumble of ordinary provincial lives. If he could go just a bit deeper, the truly great Midlands movie just might surface.

63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Stephen Cole
The film's best players can all be found in the supporting cast.

60
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Often seems like a Mike Leigh movie viewed in a fun-house mirror.

60
Village Voice
Jessica Winter
There are pages missing from this fable: Meadows reports that his financiers asked him to cut one-quarter of his original script just before production began, and his fondness for long takes sits uneasily beside the apparent gaps in the narrative.

58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
It's an interesting experiment that doesn't quite work.

50
Slate
David Edelstein
The sheer novelty of the enterprise is probably why Once Upon a Time in the Midlands has gotten so many rave reviews when it's actually sort of
middling.

50
Dallas Observer
Gregory Weinkauf
This movie's just so-so, but at its heart lies a true leading lady.

50
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
The story, which feels more like a sprawl of television episodes than a film, is a little tedious to sit through.

50
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Crust
It's a compelling and ambitious idea, but one that misfires because of its underwhelming characters and slack storytelling.

50
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
A movie saved by great acting.

50
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
Midlands finds some measure of success in its use of regular, real-looking people -- as opposed to the oddly glamorous characters who turn up in most romantic comedies -- but it's as though the writer used up all the personality traits before he got to Shirley.

50
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
In the end, Meadows' film lacks the bite it needs to make us care about this oddball trio, endearing though they are.

40
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
The complications are predictable, as is the resolution; what keeps the film from sinking into its own inconsequentiality is the throaty-voiced Henderson, who can make the most preposterous behavior ring absolutely true.

38
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
After 45 minutes of incomparable boredom, the movie gets slightly better when it stops reaching for cheap yuks and lets the actors do what they do well.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Discuss this movie in our forums |
|