Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
39 Adventures of Power
66 Afterschool
73 Amreeka
49 Antichrist
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
71 Big Fan
65 Black Dynamite
76 Bliss
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
76 Broken Embraces
70 Bronson
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
60 Collapse
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
53 Dare
50 Defamation
67 Departures
70 Earth Days
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
88 Fantastic Mr. Fox
31 Fix
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
xx From Mexico with Love
28 Gentlemen Broncos
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Horse Boy, The
74 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
26 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
43 Little Traitor, The
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
46 Love Hurts
84 Maid, The
45 Mammoth
75 Messenger, The
55 Missing Person, The
59 More Than a Game
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
48 New York, I Love You
66 No Impact Man
26 Oh My God
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
79 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73 Red Cliff
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
65 Skin
41 Splinterheads
42 Staten Island
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
58 Storm
82 Sun, The
49 Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73 That Evening Sun
61 Trucker
49 Turning Green
83 U2 3D
45 Uncertainty
67 Visual Acoustics
32 War on Kids
67 Way We Get By, The
65 Wedding Song, The
xx White on Rice
59 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74 Woman in Berlin, A
43 Women in Trouble
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Tears of the Black Tiger

EMAILPRINTMagnolia Pictures

Tears of the Black Tiger reviews
69
7.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Action  |  Comedy  |  Foreign

Written by: Wisit Sasanatieng

Directed by: Wisit Sasanatieng

Release Date:
Theatrical: January 12, 2007
DVD: April 24, 2007

Running Time: 113 minutes, Color

Origin: Thailand

Language(s): Thai (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Chartchai Ngamsan, Suwinit Panjamawat, Stella Malucchi, Supakorn Kitsuwon, Arawat Ruangvuth, Sombat Metanee, Pairoj Jaisingha, and Naiyana Sheewanun

Tears of the Black Tiger takes a journey back to a lost past -- the heroic years of Thai genre cinema, when influences from Hollywood and everywhere else were subsumed into rollicking Thai melodramas for an audience of avid fans. (Magnolia Pictures)

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...

88

New York Post V.A. Musetto

What do you get when you mix a Douglas Sirk melodrama with a Sergio Leone Western? Tears of the Black Tiger, a high-camp Western from, of all places, Thailand.

Read Full Review >
88

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

A parody of and winking homage to the history of Thai melodrama, Wisit Sasanatieng's uproarious filmmaking debut exuberantly combines pop and kitsch with a wholesome belief in the thrills of bad art.

Read Full Review >
83

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It has a tendency to overextend its outrageous arias, but this pop-art confection both spoofs and celebrates the crazy conventions of movie melodramas and genre cinema with pure affection.

Read Full Review >
80

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

It is astonishing to realize that the highly confident Tears of the Black Tiger marks the directorial debut of Sasanatieng, after having written two movies hugely successful in Thailand, yet in truth he belongs to a long line of first-rate filmmakers who understand the wisdom of taking big chances the first time at bat.

Read Full Review >
80

Slate Dana Stevens

Written and directed by Wisit Sasanatieng, a commercial director making his first feature film, Tears of the Black Tiger is a technical and aesthetic marvel.

Read Full Review >
80

Village Voice Nathan Lee

Nothing is too crazed, corny, or freakishly florid for Tears of the Black Tiger. The debut of writer-director Wisit Sasanatieng is a delightfully unabashed affair, conceived in such good, giddy spirits it might have been called "Blissfully Yours."

Read Full Review >
78

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

If Tears is indeed too weird to take America by storm – Miramax bought the film after Cannes and shelved it until it is now being released by Magnolia – it should neither be considered a cult item, approachable only to film nerds (though they will appreciate it best).

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

The result is something so old it's new, so corny it's funny. And while Tears of the Black Tiger is nothing more than entertaining, at least it's that.

Read Full Review >
75

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

The movie is never going to have broad appeal. Though Sasanatieng makes a few swings at real poignancy--which don't really connect--mostly this is the kind of relentlessly postmodern "fun" best served in small portions, and preferably on dessert plates.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Director Wisit Sasanatieng uses every trick imaginable to create surreal postmodern nostalgia. Has he wound up with pure camp, or a cult classic? As he clearly understands, the best B-movies are both.

Read Full Review >
75

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

A delirious fever dream of pulp-western conventions by way of 1950s Hollywood melodrama, Thai filmmaker Wisit Sasanatieng surreal oddity unfolds in heavily manipulated colors so rich they seem ready to leap off the screen, punctuated by spasms of over-ripe dialogue, floridly dramatic songs and maniacal villainous laughter.

Read Full Review >
70

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

This is a scrapbook, a happy jumble, of many of the things we instinctively respond to in movies: color, shape, sound and movement, all intensified by heightened emotion.

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The intoxicating madness of Tears of the Black Tiger is in the end too willed, too deliberate, to be entirely divine.

Read Full Review >
70

New York Magazine David Edelstein

A jaw-dropper: a delirium-inducing crash course in international trash.

Read Full Review >
70

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Its giddy stylistics include extravagant use of color and rapid montage, which are said to be a direct homage to legendary Thai independent Ratana Pestonji.

Read Full Review >
70

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The movie alternates between cornball and ridiculous, and the frequent violence is extremely bloody if stylized. Love it or hate it, and I'm not sure which applies to me, you've never seen and never will see anything quite like Tears of the Black Tiger.

Read Full Review >
50

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

The movie is one big in-joke. It's watchable, but eventually wears you down with its over-the-top cleverness.

Read Full Review >
50

Variety Ken Eisner

Fun, if finally too silly.

Read Full Review >
25

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A few more films like Tears of the Black Tiger, and kitsch will be on its way to having a bad name.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Gilbert L. gave it a7:
This movie doesn't leave one cowboy movie or romance cliche unturned. Romance moves WAY too slowly but cowboy portions are a blast. Movie is part sendup and tribute. The sidekick character is a standout.

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use