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Swept Away
Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment

Swept Away reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 18 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
5.5 out of 10
based on 27 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 20 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for language and some sexuality/nudity

Starring Madonna, Adriano Giannini, Elizabeth Banks, Bruce Greenwood, Patrizio Rispo, and Jeanne Tripplehorn

Guy Ritchie's contemporary adaptation of Lina Wertmuller's 1974 romantic comedy, a story of love, sex, drugs and too much money -- all set against the backdrop of a Mediterranean island paradise. (Sony)


GENRE(S): Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Guy Ritchie  
DIRECTED BY: Guy Ritchie  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: February 11, 2003 
Video: February 11, 2003 
Theatrical: October 11, 2002 
RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA / UK 

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...

67
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Ritchie made a movie that never pretends to be more than a guilty pleasure of soft-core kitsch, and Madonna and Giannini (son of Giancarlo, costar of the original) achieve a lively S&M chemistry.
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63
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
At its best, Swept Away is like a scrapbook of postcards starring two lovebirds with great tans.
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42
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Madonna herself is not so much terrible as merely uninvolving. She's quite credible as the harpy of the first act, but she can't pull off the transition and the spark that makes a movie star instantly sympathetic.
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40
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The effectiveness of this kind of issue-driven give and take relies heavily on casting, and Ritchie puts himself at a disadvantage: Madonna looks terrific in a bikini but she can't act, and the younger Giannini is stunt casting.
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40
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Schizoid romantic comedy -- The first half of the movie is full of broad but capable comedy, but the original film's sexual and class politics are clumsily handled, and the mood turns serious with all the subtlety of a falling guillotine blade.
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40
Variety Dennis Harvey
A simple misfire rather than a world-class fiasco. This misguided attempt to remake Lina Wertmuller's corrosive 1974 satire as a wistful romance is only unintentionally funny in the last reel.
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38
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
One hopes that this is Hollywood's last go-round with Swept Away. Watching this fiasco, I kept having nightmares about a possible cartoon version, co-starring Cruella de Vil and Shrek.
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38
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The fact that Swept Away got made at all implies there simply is no dissuading Madonna from her movie-star aspirations. Her tenacity is admirable, but it's also block-headed.
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38
ReelViews James Berardinelli
A bad movie. No amount of perfume sprayed on talk show audiences by Madonna and her husband can eliminate the stench of failure emanating from this motion picture.
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30
Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis
Madonna may be better in this film than she's been in some of her recent endeavors, especially when she stops screeching her lines, but she's done herself no favors with her choice of material.
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30
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
For starters, it blows. Madonna continues to mistake a knack for striking poses with the interpretive skill of a real actor.
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25
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A deserted island movie during which I desperately wished the characters had chosen one movie to take along if they were stranded on a deserted island, and were showing it to us instead of this one.
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25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
No less laughable is the ending, where Ritchie neatly reflects today's prevailing attitude -- that audiences can't be trusted to handle a hint of ambiguity, but can live happily with flat-out stupidity.
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25
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The junior Giannini, who has inherited Giancarlo's handsome looks, portrays his mercurial character with energy and flair. Madonna doesn't. Indeed, it's hard to remember the last time a certified celebrity gave a performance so monotonous, unimaginative, and all-around tiresome to watch.
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20
Washington Post Desson Thomson
At no point should anyone mistake this for an actual movie. This is an extended beach video that will leave no one swept away.
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20
The New York Times Dana Stevens
There is no credible feeling here, no comedy, no eroticism.
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20
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Merely an indulgent vehicle for Mrs. Ritchie -- and Madonna is so spectacularly convincing as a hateful, self-absorbed, nouveau riche ogress that her character's third-act transformation is as preposterous as her overmuscled physique.
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20
LA Weekly Paul Malcolm
Suggests that we're supposed to take this love story as something more than farce. Please. Tom Hanks fucking that volleyball would have been more convincing.
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20
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Ritchie's frivolous comedy tries to have it both ways, thinning out the material for mass consumption while still sticking to the script -- an unstable alchemy that backfires horribly.
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10
Newsweek Jeff Giles
It stinks. The movie is so inert -- and Madonna’s performance so starkly amateurish -- that it’s impossible to take it seriously as an allegory about class and gender.
10
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Isn't dubbed. But it sure feels like it. The characters open their mouths and their lips don't seem to be shaping the right words -- you can't believe any human beings would ever utter such ludicrous dialogue, with so little conviction.
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10
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The film turns out to have nothing going for it at all, except a small charge for soul-deep Madonna haters.
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10
New York Magazine Peter Rainer
If you were expecting Ritchie to discover something in Madonna that no one else has, something like, say, acting talent, forget it.
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10
Film Threat Michael Dequina
It certainly didn't take long for Madonna to ruin husband Guy Ritchie's career.
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0
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Even camp status eludes this tepid and misguided picture.
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0
New York Post Megan Lehmann
Not as bad as rumor would have it. It's worse.
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0
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
A shrill, amateurish two-character play that demeans women and leaves men with the quaint notion that the best way to a woman's heart is through enslavement.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chuck W. gave it a0:
The original was a decent enough film, but this one is a pale copy. Don't waste your time with this drivel.

Sunny Y. gave it a10:
This movie is so fascinating...and sexy.. I really dont get it the critics...

Diane W. gave it a 1:
Just awful, slow, painful,acting awful, plot awful, Madonna awful, a wste of your life.

Da A. gave it a 7:
I don't understand everyone. I liked this movie. She was unhappy in love who became happy in love. I thought Madonna was realistic in her role. And the male interest was easy on the eyes. Whats wrong with you guys!!!!

Michelle B gave it an 8:
I really liked the span of the camera, how the the backround drapped the emotions and moments.

Dorothy A. gave it a 10:
This was the best love story I have seen and I now have a new respect for Madonna.

Denise Q. gave it a 1:
Ugh...just ugh!

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