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

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
48 17 Again
76 Adventureland
48 Angels & Demons
54 Battle for Terra
xx Bruno
80 Coraline
40 Dance Flick
83 Drag Me to Hell
72 Earth
45 Fast & Furious
61 Fighting
34 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
72 Gran Torino
73 Hangover, The
47 Hannah Montana: The Movie
51 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
54 Imagine That
41 Knowing
32 Land of the Lost
56 Monsters vs. Aliens
34 My Life in Ruins
51 My Sister's Keeper
46 Next Day Air
42 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
54 Observe and Report
25 Obsessed
48 Proposal, The
70 Public Enemies
61 Soloist, The
83 Star Trek
64 State of Play
55 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
52 Terminator Salvation
35 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
77 Under the Sea 3D
88 Up
43 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
34 Year One

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Rendition
New Line Cinema


7.3

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 53 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Tsotsi

MPAA RATING: R for torture/violence and language

Starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, and Peter Sarsgaard

When an Egyptian-born chemical engineer disappears on a flight from South Africa to Washington, his American wife desperately tries to track him down. Meanwhile, a CIA analyst at a secret detention facility outside the U.S. is forced to question his assignment as he becomes party to the man's unorthodox interrogation. (New Line Cinema)

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Kelley Sane
DIRECTED BY:	Gavin Hood
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 19, 2008 Theatrical: October 19, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	120 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / South Africa

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 Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Rendition is valuable and rare. As I wrote from Toronto: "It is a movie about the theory and practice of two things: torture and personal responsibility. And it is wise about what is right, and what is wrong."

TV Guide Ken Fox

Taut, powerfully acted political thriller.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

About two-thirds of the way through, Rendition takes a bad turn and sells out most of what made it worth watching in the first place. Witherspoon is given little to do except look weepy, Freeman's change of heart is Q.E.D., and the radical Islamist subplot overwhelms the action, which becomes so confusingly structured that I thought the projectionist had misplaced a reel.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

There are some problems with the pacing, but this topical thriller about CIA-sanctioned torture is one of the most important "message" movies of the year.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

A rarity – a political film that delivers its timely message with a cinematic punch and no undue speechifying.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A maddening film, maddening in a good way, but maddening nonetheless.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Occasionally a movie's subject outweighs any aesthetic flaws, as it does in this unsettling thriller about the extraordinary rendition of terror suspects.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The movie Rendition asks, admittedly in a one-sided way, whether the ends justify these means.

USA Today Claudia Puig

While the ingredients are there to make a tense and compelling post-9/11 thriller, Rendition falls flat.

Empire Angie Errigo

Disappointingly dull given the explosive subject matter, this at least attempts to get a message into the mainstream. An extra star for effort rather than execution.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The jumping around is as deft as a hippo in a tutu, and the director, Gavin Hood, never finds a rhythm.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Rendition offers few surprises, and it tips its hand too soon and too predictably to do much more than goose your weary outrage.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Rendition certainly makes the case that torture, whatever name it goes under, is indefensible, yet one can agree with that view entirely and still feel that the movie is just a borderline exploitation of what anyone who reads the papers already knows.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The movie is not exciting, original or instructive enough to justify the unpleasant experience.

Newsweek David Ansen

Manages to take an urgent, important topic and turn it into standard Hollywood melodrama. What a waste.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

A well-meaning, honorable movie. Which is not to say that it is a very good one.

Slate Dana Stevens

Forget the thin characters and showoffy temporal structure. Rendition's worst flaw is its political deck-stacking.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Reese Witherspoon paces and cries through Rendition in a performance that does as much a disservice to her talent as the movie does to the issues it raises.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Rendition tackles the concern in a heavy-handed thriller with simplistic characters and manipulative story lines.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Rendition has the depth of a bumper sticker without the brevity.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Intelligent and well-meaning, Rendition is nevertheless an oversimplified and uneven attempt to arouse righteous indignation among its viewers.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

In Rendition Gyllenhaal is supposed to be the smartest one in the room, yet he’s essentially just a good-looking plodder. And despite its whirligig story machinations, so is Rendition.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

What a cast, indeed. And what a bust as persuasive drama.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

With a cast this stacked, the performances are predictably strong (particularly from Sarsgaard, whose slow-burning role recalls his work in Shattered Glass), but the first impression they make is the same as the last.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The film's disappointingly black-and-white approach robs characters and situations of badly needed ambiguity.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

Unlike Hood's far more persuasive gangster picture "Tsotsi," Rendition feels generic and lackluster.

Variety Todd McCarthy

By underplaying the melodrama in the presumed hope of seeming subtle when Kelley Sane’s script is so baldly melodramatic, the “Tsotsi” helmer drains the life out of an obviously explosive subject.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

One reason to see Rendition is for Naor's stunning performance as the torturer who is the one character aware of the political and moral contradictions of what he's doing. Every time he was on screen, he commanded it.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Painfully boring.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Rendition is a reminder that, in the wrong hands, political outrage can be a slog.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

None of the actors is able to do much with their characters, because they are all playing game pieces on a schematic board. Rendition has passion to spare, but it is saddled with a story designed exclusively to drive home the filmmakers' message.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

If it makes anybody feel better, one character in the picture does point out that the whole "extraordinary rendition" concept originated with Clinton. So there's balance for you.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

If these new, allegedly topical movies are to make us feel anything -- to move us toward any action or even just toward any fresh realization -- they need to at least seem alive on the screen, instead of just courting our polite, measured applause.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Overheated claptrap that takes an issue of vital national importance and turns it into an inept cartoon that emboldens the worst instincts in our national character.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 53 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

John V gave it a1:
One of the worst movies I have seen in a long time. Painful performances by Witherspoon and Streep. I dont know who is worse or more unconvincing Peter S. or Jake G. Jake G's character is totally undeveloped and unconvincing. Peter S's character is laughable. Walks right up to a CIA chief at a cocktail party and threatens her. Hes an adviser to a Senator! And she discusses it with him. Give me a F-ing break. Subject matter deserves a more serious movie. Total crap.

joel r gave it an8:
Good movie. slow paced, but sometimes you have to do that to build a story. i'd guess that this movie was hated by bush apologists, but hey, that 8 years of torture is almost over.

Jim S. gave it a10:
Nothing wrong with it... did what it wanted to do adequately, and it was a good point making exercise. Would like to know their sources for the plot.

S M gave it a10:
AWESOME!!! One of the few movies in which every actor/actress did his/her BEST. Music tracks were perfect. And after all, the story was fairly close to the truth.

Aibar A. gave it a10:
True...everything felt so true..n at some level it probably was...Many lives have been destroyed by this process of extraordinary rendition...the misuse of the law has made many innocent suffer...Brilliant piece of work...outstanding acting.

Tom B. gave it a5:
I didn't mind it until the director had to butcher all conventions for the sake of "surprising" the viewer. If the plot isn't difficult to understand, don't arbitrarily make it more contrived.

Sam S. gave it a9:
I can only think most of the reviewers saw a different film. Not much that is hard to believe - Washington cynicism, flagrantly illegal detention, torture, - does the ends justify the means? This stuff happens only worse insofar as these detentions are for months not the week depicted in the movie. Brutal thought it was it did display both sides of the debate, but ultimately the corrupting and corrosive nature of excessive power are unmistakable. The movie is well acted, atmospheric,and tense. One might argue there is a twist that is unnecessarily clever, but it does increase the tension. Reese Witherspoon is the least convincing element, somewhat unidimensional, but the movie has a lot to get through. This is a movie about a complex problem, which it necessarily oversimplifies, but still a topic that shames every American. A good movie.

Rendition New Line Cinema

Rendition
New Line Cinema