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Phenomenon
Buena Vista Pictures

Phenomenon reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 41 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
N/A out of 10
based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 0 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG for language and mild sensuality

Starring John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker, Robert Duvall, Jeffrey DeMunn, Richard Kiley, Brent Spiner, and Vyto Ruginis

An uplifting story of an ordinary man transformed by extraordinary events. (BV Entertainment)


GENRE(S): Drama  |  Fantasy  |  Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Gerald Di Pego  
DIRECTED BY: Jon Turteltaub  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: January 15, 2002 
Video: January 15, 2002 
Theatrical: July 3, 1996 
RUNNING TIME: 123 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

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...

75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It's about change, acceptance and love, and it rounds those three bases very nicely, even if it never quite gets to home.
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
John Turteltaub directed the drama, which lapses into medical jargon and new-age clichés near the end, but it scores telling points with its respect for intelligence and optimistic view of human potential.
Read Full Review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
In a film that offers itself as a Gump-esque moral fable, Phenomenon could serve as a case study of When Smart Films Fail.
Read Full Review
63
USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
Phenomenon is a fantasy about super-intelligence that works best if you can switch off your brain. Those who can will reach weepy nirvana. Those who can't will find this sticky-sweet wallow a bit, well, dumb. [03 Jul 1996 Pg.01.D]
50
Newsweek David Ansen
Soft to the point of squishiness, Phenomenon is rescued from terminal bathos by Travolta's radiant conviction.
Read Full Review
50
TV Guide Staff(not credited)
In time-honored Hollywood fashion, PHENOMENON suggests that smart people are friendless freaks who'd be far better off if only they were just as dumb as the rest of us.
Read Full Review
50
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Put simply, this movie is dumb.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
But this soggy, sentimental tour through a rural dreamworld of salt-of- the-earth versus supercharged intelligence never quite gets deep enough to touch the soul -- or to make sense.
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50
San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser
As always, Duvall is magnificent. Even in this small part, he manages to give one of the most stirring performances in the movie.
Read Full Review
42
Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker
Phenomenon (directed by Jon Turteltaub, the guy who sedated us with "While You Were Sleeping") would be pretty unbearable were Travolta not so consistently charming.
Read Full Review
40
Variety Todd McCarthy
Instead, director Jon Turteltaub has taken the easiest road, emerging with a soppy, soft-headed disease-of-the-week-style piece that sentimentalizes or opts out of every interesting issue the script raises.
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40
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Well-meaning and convinced it has something of value to say, its "Reach Out and Touch Someone" sensibility ensures that all its satisfactions will prove hollow, and so they do.
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40
Washington Post Desson Thomson
While Phenomenon attempts, tritely, to ascend into mind-blowing significance, it also plummets into a pit of sentimental mush.
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40
The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
A whopping wrong turn throws this lightweight, benign-looking movie terminally off course.
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30
Washington Post Hal Hinson
Still, well-intentioned sappiness is something we can deal with; the lack of any genuine dramatic conflict is a more damaging shortcoming.
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30
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Phenomenon flails about in a search for direction: inspirational drama, romance, social study, government intrigue- nothing fits or is explored very deeply.
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30
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
I don't doubt the noble motives behind this Disney parable, but the attempts at amiable, laid-back dialogue (script by Gerald DiPego) are painful, the pacing is sluggish, and the confused story's poorly focused.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 0.0 (out of 10) based on 0 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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