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79
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76
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73
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71
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69
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67
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65
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64
Wanted
62
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61
Stop Loss
61
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58
Mist, The
57
Forbidden Kingdom, The
57
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
55
Street Kings
55
Nim's Island
55
Baby Mama
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
49
Hancock
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
47
Strangers, The
44
Ruins, The
41
Drillbit Taylor
37
Made of Honor
37
Shutter
37
Speed Racer
36
College Road Trip
36
What Happens in Vegas...
35
Jumper
34
Happening, The
34
10,000 B.C.
33
Superhero Movie
31
Deception
24
Love Guru, The
22
Postal
xx
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
xx
Mamma Mia!
xx
Dark Knight, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

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80
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76
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47
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80
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55
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78
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52
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73
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63
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75
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86
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86
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84
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84
Edge of Heaven, The
83
Chop Shop
83
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83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Chris & Don. A Love Story
82
Last Mistress, The
81
Tell No One
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Reprise
79
Encounters at the End of the World
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Beauty in Trouble
76
Shotgun Stories
75
Young@Heart
75
Mongol
74
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Woman on the Beach
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Surfwise
71
To the Limit
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Roman de gare
70
Standard Operating Procedure
70
Trumbo
70
Love Songs
70
Caramel
69
Go-Getter, The
69
Operation Filmmaker
69
Jellyfish
68
Kabluey
68
Heartbeat Detector
68
Honeydripper
67
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66
Son of Rambow
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
64
Married Life
64
Dreams with Sharp Teeth
64
XXY
64
Water Lilies
64
Fall, The
63
Foot Fist Way, The
63
Gunnin for that #1 Spot
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Stuck
62
Expired
62
Wackness, The
62
Kiss the Bride
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
61
On the Rumba River
60
Fugitive Pieces
60
Brick Lane
60
Jihad for Love, A
59
Blind Mountain
57
Flawless
56
Unknown Woman
56
Then She Found Me
56
Sangre de mi sangre
55
Quid Pro Quo
55
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55
Irina Palm
55
Bra Boys
55
Without the King
54
Tracey Fragments, The
53
Mister Lonely
52
Diminished Capacity
52
Elsa & Fred
52
Mother of Tears, The
52
My Blueberry Nights
51
Finding Amanda
51
Promotion, The
51
Savage Grace
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
Bella
45
Full Grown Men
38
Life Before Her Eyes, The
37
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34
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33
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30
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29
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xx
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Ray
Universal Pictures
FILM:
MUSIC:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for depiction of drug addiction, sexuality and some thematic elements
Starring
Jamie Foxx,
Kerry Washington,
Regina King,
Clifton Powell,
Harry J. Lennix,
Bokeem Woodbine,
Aunjanue Ellis,
and
Sharon Warren
Ray is the never-before-told, musical biographical drama of American legend Ray Charles. Featuring Jamie Foxx in the central role, Ray follows the inspiring story of a one-of-a-kind genius. (Universal)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Musical
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
James L. White (also story)
Taylor Hackford (story)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Taylor Hackford
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: February 1, 2005
Video: February 1, 2005
Theatrical: October 29, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
152 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
Jamie Foxx received an Oscar for his lead performance. The film was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director (Hackford) at the 77th Annual Academy Awards.

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
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
A fit tribute to an entertainer who, no matter what hate or hardship threw in his way or how many mistakes he made, we can't stop loving.

100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
An extraordinary piece of biography.

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
The movie would be worth seeing simply for the sound of the music and the sight of Jamie Foxx performing it. That it looks deeper and gives us a sense of the man himself is what makes it special.

100
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
What Ray does right, combined with its generosity of spirit, makes it the most satisfying American movie of the year.

91
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
As a musical biography, Ray is driven by the primal excitement of rock-and-soul at the moment of its discovery.

90
Time
Richard Corliss
If there were an Oscar for ensemble acting, Ray would win in a stroll.

90
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
At the center of it all is an incomparable singer brought to life by a sensational actor. With a huge soul to fill, Jamie Foxx has filled it to overflowing.
88
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Contains large helpings of Hollywood schmaltz, stereotype and clich, but it's also pretty impossible to resist.

88
USA Today
Mike Clark
Ray could not have been made without star Jamie Foxx.

88
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Every once in a while, a performance pops out of a Hollywood movie that is so brilliant and unique to the matching of actor to role that it's impossible to imagine anyone else achieving it.

88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Jamie Foxx gets so far inside the man and his music that he and Ray Charles seem to breathe as one.

88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Brilliantly embodied by Jamie Foxx in this unflinching, entertaining biography.

83
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
A frequently transporting depiction of the early and middle life of Ray Charles, the film soars on remarkable performances, a convincing sense of time and place, and, of course, the glorious music for which Charles was rightly billed as The Genius.

80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
There may not be a bigger-hearted performance this year than Jamie Foxx's in Ray.

80
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Bursting at the seams with music, Taylor Hackford's ambitious film provides a good sense of the pioneering entertainer's extraordinary journey and brings it to life with plenty of colorful detail.

80
The New Yorker
David Denby
Vibrantly intelligent and tough-minded bio-pic.

80
Empire
Angie Errigo
Falling on the meaty, potential role of a lifetime like a ravenous lion, erstwhile comedian Jamie Foxx, so good in "Collateral," is just wonderful as the eponymous star.

75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
It's conventional in approach and sometimes sentimental, even corny, in its content. But there were so many fascinating overtones in Mr. Charles's life and career that any account of them is bound to be riveting at least part of the time.

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
If Ray fails to present a genuine portrait of a complex man's essence, it does leave you with an even greater sense of awe for Charles' accomplishments, both in his personal and public lives.

75
Premiere
Peter Debruge
Delivers platinum performances, especially Sharon Warren as Ray's tough-lovin' mother, Kerry Washington as his lily-tempered wife, and Regina King as his spitfire mistress.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Foxx's complex performance and the filmmaker's willingness to look at the dark side place Ray safely out of the realm of typical Hollywood hagiography.

70
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Ray may be too by the numbers, but with Jamie Foxx out front, this is one film that knows how to make it all add up.

70
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
While not a great movie, is a very good movie about greatness, in which celebrating the achievement of one major artist becomes the occasion for the emergence of another.

70
Washington Post
Teresa Wiltz
It is to the film's credit -- and Foxx's -- that we are able to see, behind the flash and fury, a man who didn't know how to love, and was so much the lonelier for it.

67
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
No matter the movie's pitfalls, Ray, we can't stop loving you.

63
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
He (Ray) was, a more complicated man than this film, or perhaps any film, dares allow. Foxx is not at fault here.

63
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
It's a shame his (Foxx) performance isn't surrounded by a better film.

63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Ray rambles on for two hours and 40 minutes, mining repetitive episodes like a TV miniseries.

63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
It's a shame about Ray, because Foxx is trapped in a movie that takes the music icon's unique story and turns it into cheesy, sentimental American Dream cliches.

60
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Unlike his songs, the film holds something back. It goes deep into a life filled with as much trouble and pain as triumph and accomplishment but never quite gets at the root of who Ray is.

60
Newsweek
David Ansen
It's hobbled by the too-familiar conventions of the musical biopic: with so many chapters of Charles's life to cover, Hackford's movie never finds a rhythm, a groove, to settle into. It wins its battles without winning the war.
60
New York Magazine
Ken Tucker
Sure, its the Jamie Foxx breakout role. But the movie around it is so systematically inspirational that it comes perilously close to sabotaging the breakout.

60
TV Guide
Ethan Alter
Foxx is the one standout in an otherwise overcrowded film.

60
Film Threat
Rick Kisonak
The heart of Ray, of course, is the music and, whatever other shortcomings the film may have, it does not fall short as a showcase for the artist's greatest hits.

50
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Differs from other authorized Hollywood musical biopics in one striking detail: its subject, still alive when most of this was made, is almost never shown as a likable person.

50
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Sluggish, conventional, and almost completely lacking in energy.

50
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
Hackford's movie falls into a meandering saunter. As the music grows dull, so does the movie.

50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
As Ray nears its abrupt ending, it veers into camp silliness, complete with a psychedelic freak-out withdrawal sequence straight out of a Roger Corman LSD epic.

50
Dallas Observer
Robert Wilonsky
Were it not for the performance of Foxx, the movie, which touches every base and slows to a crawl near home plate, would sink even when the score soars.

40
LA Weekly
Kim Morgan
For too many minutes of its two and a half hours, Ray flips through its cinematic pages with a breathless and-then-this-happened urgency, offering up little in the way of personality (or truth) beyond Jamie Foxx's strong performance.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 47 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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