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65
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64
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64
Pineapple Express
63
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61
Incredible Hulk, The
60
Traitor
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
55
House Bunny, The
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
53
Rocker, The
52
Longshots, The
51
Mamma Mia!
51
Step Brothers
49
Hancock
47
Swing Vote
47
X-Files: I Want to Believe, The
43
Meet Dave
42
Death Race
36
Space Chimps
36
Fly Me to the Moon
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
35
Mirrors
34
Happening, The
31
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The
26
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24
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

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Young@Heart
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Edge of Heaven, The
86
Up the Yangtze
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Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Momma's Man
85
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Tell No One
82
Frozen River
81
Trouble the Water
80
Encounters at the End of the World
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Order of Myths, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
78
Last Mistress, The
77
Pool, The
76
I Served the King of England
75
Young@Heart
75
Boy A
74
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
74
Mongol
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
73
Secret, A
72
Priceless
72
Transsiberian
72
I.O.U.S. A
71
To the Limit
71
Girl Cut in Two, A
71
Roman de gare
70
Love Songs
67
XXY
67
Jellyfish
66
Elegy
66
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
66
American Teen
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
65
August Evening
64
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Fall, The
63
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62
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62
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62
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61
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61
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61
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61
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61
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58
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58
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57
Sixty Six
56
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56
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55
Save Me
55
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54
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54
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54
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54
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49
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47
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46
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44
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26
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25
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xx
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xx
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Vacancy
Sony Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for brutal violence and terror, brief nudity and language
Starring
Kate Beckinsale,
Luke Wilson,
Frank Whaley,
Ethan Embry,
Scott G. Anderson,
Mark Casella,
David Doty,
and
Norm Compton
When David (Wilson) and Amy Fox's (Beckinsale) car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, they are forced to spend the night at the only motel around, with only the TV to entertain them... until they discover that the low-budget slasher movies they're watching were all filmed in the very room they're sitting in. With hidden cameras now aimed at them... trapping them in rooms, crawlspaces, underground tunnels... and filming their every move, David and Amy must struggle to get out alive before whomever is watching them can finish their latest masterpiece. (Sony)
| GENRE(S): |
Horror
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Mark L. Smith
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Nimród Antal
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: August 14, 2007
Theatrical: April 20, 2007
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
80 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

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
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Vacancy is a schlock surprise: a no-frills motel-hell slasher film -- with a bit of soul.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
For the most part, this movie hits the right notes and gives its audience a dose of white-knuckle tension.

75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
It's a sordid but expert shocker.

75
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Stylish and surprisingly effective thriller.

75
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
The acting is solid, especially Whaley, whose nasty variation on Norman Bates is his showiest role since he memorably played Kevin Bacon's assistant in "Swimming With Sharks."

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Succeeds where so many other recent horror pictures have failed: It consistently scares you silly.

70
Los Angeles Times
Sam Adams
A ruthlessly efficient stalk-and-slash machine.

70
Village Voice
Tim Grierson
Antal smartly adheres to the no-frills demands of B-movie horror, eliciting impressive chills from old-fashioned suffocating dread rather than the now usual gore. And Wilson and Beckinsale superbly execute everything that's required of their characters--namely, yelling and running.

67
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
Making an assured transition to Hollywood after his Hungarian cult sensation "Kontroll," director Nimród Antal gets his business done with an efficiency that recalls "Red Eye," another thriller that clocks in under 90 minutes. But efficiency isn't everything, and Antal sacrifices too much in order to sustain tension.

67
Baltimore Sun
Gene Seymour
A mangy-looking mongrel with a lot of familiar markings and a little more on the ball than you'd expect at first glance.

63
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
At its worst, Vacancy is merely the kind of taut B-chiller they don't make any more, other than to riff on them in "Grindhouse."

63
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
Vacancy could have been some sort of satirical masterpiece had this whole scenario been finally revealed as an extreme form of couple's therapy designed to get Beckinsale and Wilson back together.

63
USA Today
Scott Bowles
It isn't the Bates Motel, but the Pinewood Motel has enough creepy visitors and creaky floors to make Vacancy worth checking into for 90 minutes.

63
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
Short, sharp and to the point, Vacancy has a single goal, and that is to scare the hell out of you.

60
Film Threat
Michael Ferraro
It's rare to see Luke Wilson in such a serious role. He does an admirable job of ignoring his mostly comedic background but the real scene-stealer is Frank Whaley.

60
Empire
Nick de Semlyen
This stripped-down chiller has some decent jump-frights, but a dearth of memorable moments.

50
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
Vacancy, in the end, simply offers a particularly aggressive brand of couples counseling.

50
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Wilson and Beckinsale, as the couple on the rocks, do their damnedest to go along for the creepfest, but nothing in Vacancy manages to come anywhere close to the quiet and steadily mounting dread of the real thing, much less the purview of Norman Bates or his beloved mother.

50
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
If "Psycho" and "Peeping Tom" are the seminal killer-as-voyeur movies, Vacancy is the nasty little runt offspring with no other purpose in life but to gnaw on you.

50
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
While the sadism doesn't stoop -- rise? -- to the level of the "Saw" horror-thrillers, Vacancy does have a name cast.

50
Variety
John Anderson
At the risk of spoiling anything, Vacancy, is one strange movie. It ends so precipitously, one can only assume it's a setup for the sequel (which, given all that happens, seems a mite unlikely).

50
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
This ghastly swatch of pulp horror is compelling at the most basic level, but so little is going on in it that you might as well be watching a sadistic lab experiment performed on mice.

50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
It is a fairly routine exercise in New Millennium movie mayhem.

40
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
For horror fans who appreciate a bit of craft with their second-rate experiences -- Paul Haslinger's fear-mongering score is terrific for what it's worth -- this might merit a future late-night rental.

30
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
80 minutes of formulaic unpleasantness isn't even close to my idea of a good time, and I doubt that Hitchcock himself could have done very much with Mark L. Smith's script.

30
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
This banal horror retread involves a couple of critters flailing inside a sticky trap for what is, in effect, the big-screen equivalent of a roach motel.

25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
This is a no-cable, no-wake-up-call, cash-only dump of a film, where you breathe through a hankie and bring your own Lysol.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 74 User Votes
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