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82
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35
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36
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54
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49
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34
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78
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61
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65
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79
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57
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73
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53
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24
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51
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43
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33
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31
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64
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52
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53
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63
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36
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35
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50
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47
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71
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70
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93
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64
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47
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54
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93
WALL-E
82
Dark Knight, The
79
Iron Man
78
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
73
Kung Fu Panda
71
Tropic Thunder
71
Horton Hears a Who!
70
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
64
Wanted
64
Pineapple Express
63
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
61
Incredible Hulk, The
58
House Bunny, The
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
53
Longshots, The
52
Rocker, The
51
Mamma Mia!
50
Step Brothers
49
Hancock
47
Swing Vote
47
X-Files: I Want to Believe, The
43
Meet Dave
36
Space Chimps
36
Fly Me to the Moon
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
35
Death Race
34
Happening, The
33
Mirrors
31
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The
24
Love Guru, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

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39
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66
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73
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xx
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61
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55
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xx
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47
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80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
56
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75
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55
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61
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64
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78
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50
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61
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89
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90
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74
Mongol
80
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66
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72
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61
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71
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78
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51
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52
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81
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56
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71
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71
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81
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83
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86
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79
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61
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53
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66
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64
XXY
75
Young@Heart
90
Momma's Man
89
Man on Wire
86
Up the Yangtze
86
Edge of Heaven, The
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Frozen River
81
Trouble the Water
81
Tell No One
80
Encounters at the End of the World
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Order of Myths, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
78
Last Mistress, The
75
Young@Heart
75
Boy A
74
Mongol
73
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
72
Priceless
72
I.O.U.S. A
71
To the Limit
71
Transsiberian
71
Roman de gare
70
Love Songs
68
Girl Cut in Two, A
67
Jellyfish
66
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
66
American Teen
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
64
Brideshead Revisited
64
XXY
64
Fall, The
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Elegy
62
Kabluey
62
Girls Rock!
62
In Search of a Midnight Kiss
61
Bustin' Down the Door
61
Wackness, The
61
Baghead
61
Man Named Pearl, A
61
Red
61
Brick Lane
58
Hamlet 2
56
Bottle Shock
56
Then She Found Me
55
Beautiful Losers
55
Bra Boys
54
CSNY: Déjà Vu
53
What We Do Is Secret
52
Elsa & Fred
52
Sixty Six
51
Savage Grace
50
Last Stop for Paul
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
Before the Rains
46
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
44
Henry Poole is Here
39
America the Beautiful
25
Hell Ride
xx
I Served the King of England
xx
Bachna Ae Haseeno
xx
Cthulhu
xx
Beer for My Horses
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Paradise Now
Warner Independent Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for mature thematic material and brief strong language
Starring
Kais Nashef,
Ali Suliman,
Lubna Azabal,
Amer Hlehel,
Hiam Abbass,
Ashraf Barhom,
and
Mohammad Bustami
Paradise Now is the story of two young Palestinian men as they embark upon what may be the last 48 hours of their lives. (Warner Independent Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Crime
|
Drama
|
Foreign
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Hany Abu-Assad
Bero Beyer
Pierre Hodgson
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Hany Abu-Assad
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: March 21, 2006
Theatrical: October 28, 2005
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
90 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
France / Germany / Netherlands / Israel |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Arabic (with English subtitles) |
Amnesty International Film Prize, 2005 Berlin International Film Festival

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...
91
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Of all the shocks in the riveting and timely political thriller Paradise Now, the most unsettling may be the dignity bestowed on a pair of prospective Palestinian suicide bombers.

91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
It's a volatile subject and Abu-Assad's thoughtful thriller stokes the debate.

90
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
Along the way, Paradise Now sustains a mood of breathless suspense. Politics aside, the movie is a superior thriller whose shrewdly inserted plot twists and emotional wrinkles are calculated to put your heart in your throat and keep it there.

88
TV Guide
Ken Fox
A thoughtful, unsparing look at a controversial subject: suicide bombing.

83
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
The film is better than the recent "The War Within," which tried for the same things, but ultimately, and perhaps unavoidably, we are left face to face with the unknowable.

80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
A powerful, poignant, provocative drama, it gets its strength from its dispassion, from an uncompromising determination to explain rather than justify or condemn, to put a human face on incomprehensible acts.

80
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
Abu-Assad, who made the lovely 2002 film "Rana's Wedding," is a far more gifted observer of the everyday than he is an action director, which is why, in Paradise Now, he productively sidetracks into a persuasive and often very funny portrait of the irrationalities of life under occupation.

80
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
Even though no reasonably well-informed viewer will learn much factual information from the picture, it grips; it even torments, because it lets us move and breathe and shiver and resolve with two particular young men.

78
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
The details are intriguing, but ultimately we learn little more about what's in their heads.

75
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
Riveting.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
The film offers food for thought, and reminds us that, in any war, one who understands the mindset of his opponent gains an important tactical advantage.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
A compelling, tightly made political thriller.

75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
It's an intricate, sometimes implausible ideological thriller that might be better as a smaller-scaled, less% preachy psychological drama. Still, "Paradise" catches and keeps your attention because of its daring subject, real-life backdrops and the intensity of its actors.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Paradise Now plays like Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot," but with explosives.

75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Shot in the West Bank, the film radiates authenticity. Even when he plays the action like a thriller, Abu-Assad is in search of a deeper truth.

75
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Propaganda is terror's best friend, but Paradise Now is clever enough to make that buddy work for our side for a change.

75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
At the stunning conclusion, you feel as if the weight of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has come down on your head.

70
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
Paradise Now isn't a comfortable viewing experience, but it isn't meant to be. Inevitably, people's reactions to this subject matter -- and this filmmaker's handling of it -- are all over the map. All I can say is that I found it a tremendously compelling existential thriller that kept me up late the night I saw it, and it has resonated in my brain ever since.

70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
A valuable film, provided one doesn't ask too much of it.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
While nothing truly new or shocking emerges, the film does bring clarity and compassion to its depiction of an act that baffles, angers and sickens people the world over.

70
New York Magazine
Ken Tucker
The terseness of a thriller, the clarity of a documentary, and a mixture of high drama and low humor.

70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Tasha Robinson
While "War Within" takes a deeper, more personal look at its protagonist, Paradise Now is a more ambitious film that better contextualizes its central characters and their politics.

70
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
Paradise Now suffers from some odd continuity glitches and takes a few too many narrative curves en route to an overly convoluted ending, but the heart of the movie is as tense as the bus ride in Hitchcock's
"Sabotage."

70
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Paradise may not change anyone's ideology, but it should convince some that, but for some deeply divisive views of religious morality, people are pretty much the same on either side of the holy fence.

70
Slate
David Edelstein
What makes this an important film is the way it puts you in that landscape and in those shoes, so that you almost understand how ordinary human beings can be impelled to do inhuman things.

63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
As a thriller, it's only fitfully suspenseful, and despite the ticking bomb premise, meanders a good deal in its plot convolutions. As a portrait of the absurdity and humiliation of life under occupation, the story is heartfelt but predictable.

63
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
It doesn't take its ideas or its audience far enough. The result is a humanist potboiler.

60
Empire
Staff (Not credited)
There are effective moments of dark humour.

60
Variety
Derek Elley
Handsomely shot in widescreen, mostly on actual West Bank locations, and well-played by the cast, pic lays out the issues in an accessible but rather too over-correct way, seemingly eager to please all parties at the expense of real passion.

60
Dallas Observer
Luke Y. Thompson
Some won't appreciate the mix of tones, but none of the humor cheapens the film's final blow, nor is it designed to condone terrorism in any way.

50
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Watchable but not very illuminating.

40
Film Threat
Phil Hall
Filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad, who helmed the excellent "Rana's Wedding," missed the boat on this one. He may have hoped to give a human voice to the suicide bombers, but instead he gave them a misfired movie.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 29 User Votes
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