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47
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54
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93
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82
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79
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78
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
73
Kung Fu Panda
71
Tropic Thunder
71
Horton Hears a Who!
70
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
64
Wanted
64
Pineapple Express
63
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
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
Babylon A.D.
24
Love Guru, The
19
Bangkok Dangerous
15
Disaster Movie
15
College
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

85
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40
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66
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74
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65
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xx
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62
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58
Beautiful Losers
xx
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47
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80
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56
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75
Boy A
55
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61
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64
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47
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61
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49
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54
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xx
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86
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66
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52
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80
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26
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64
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86
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82
Frozen River
71
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62
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xx
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73
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54
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25
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76
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72
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63
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46
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78
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50
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61
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89
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85
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74
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46
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80
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66
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54
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77
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72
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61
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71
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78
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51
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55
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73
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57
Sixty Six
58
Sukiyaki Western Django
xx
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83
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56
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72
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81
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
86
Up the Yangtze
79
Visitor, The
61
Wackness, The
54
What We Do Is Secret
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
67
XXY
54
Year of the Fish
xx
Young People F**king
75
Young@Heart
89
Man on Wire
86
Edge of Heaven, The
86
Up the Yangtze
86
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
Brideshead Revisited
64
Fall, The
63
In Search of a Midnight Kiss
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Kabluey
62
Mister Foe
62
Baghead
62
Girls Rock!
61
Bustin' Down the Door
61
Wackness, The
61
Man Named Pearl, A
61
Red
61
Brick Lane
58
Beautiful Losers
58
Sukiyaki Western Django
57
Sixty Six
56
Bottle Shock
56
Then She Found Me
55
Save Me
55
Bra Boys
54
Year of the Fish
54
Hamlet 2
54
Ping Pong Playa
54
What We Do Is Secret
54
CSNY: Déjà Vu
52
Elsa & Fred
51
Savage Grace
50
Last Stop for Paul
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
Before the Rains
47
Burn After Reading
46
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
46
My Mexican Shivah
44
Henry Poole is Here
40
America the Beautiful
26
Everybody Wants to Be Italian
25
Hell Ride
xx
Young People F**king
xx
Bachna Ae Haseeno
xx
Cthulhu
xx
Goal II: Living the Dream
xx
Surfer, Dude
xx
Beer for My Horses
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Village, The
Touchstone Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for scenes of violence and frightening situations
Starring
Bryce Dallas Howard,
Joaquin Phoenix,
Adrien Brody,
William Hurt,
Sigourney Weaver,
Brendan Gleeson,
Cherry Jones, Judy Greer,
and
Celia Weston
The thrilling tale of an isolated village confronting the astonishing truth that lies just outside its borders. (Touchstone Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Horror
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
M. Night Shyamalan
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
M. Night Shyamalan
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: January 11, 2005
Video: January 11, 2005
Theatrical: July 30, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
115 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...
80
Empire
Ian Nathan
Made with such elegance, atmosphere and wonderfully mannered performances it will nestle deep inside your head, refusing to budge. The more you ponder it, the better it becomes.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
A third-generation performer, this daughter of actor-director Ron Howard makes a stunning feature debut.

75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
The Village, even when its step falters, is on to something more provocative than seeing dead people. Its power, unrelated to digital monsters, comes from the tension building inside the characters.

75
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Spellbinding if ponderous.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
For those who like the director's body of work, appreciate "The Twilight Zone," and have a high suspension of disbelief threshold, The Village is likely to satisfy.

70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
The Village may have finally emptied his usual bag of tricks, but considered on its own merits, its skillful fusion of Grimm fairy-tale horror and pointed social parable find Shyamalan in peak form.

70
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
The Village is a better movie (than Signs) --probably his best since "The Sixth Sense"--but it indulges Shyamalan's penchant for messianic uplift.

67
Entertainment Weekly
Mark Harris
It gives nothing of the plot away to say that there's a fine line between an ''Aha!'' and an ''Oh, brother!'' Whether you feel The Village crosses that line may hinge on whether you think Shyamalan's screenwriting ability is beginning to lag behind his skill as a director.

63
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
A big, creepy dollhouse of a movie--a sometimes engrossing shocker with a surprise ending that isn't especially shocking or surprising.

63
USA Today
Claudia Puig
The Village emerges as a victim of its own ambitions. At one point, Edward advises Ivy: "Do your very best not to scream." That doesn't require much restraint on our part.

63
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
It doesn't take a genius IQ to figure out the movie's final twist far in advance, leaving the attentive viewer to wonder only about how Shyamalan will pull it off and to hope the movie doesn't turn silly.

60
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Unlike "The Sixth Sense," the film's key revelation might be too mild to jolt audiences. Some may even feel cheated.

60
Time
Richard Corliss
The film's payoff raises more questions than it answers, which may be Shyamalan's intent in this political parable of fear.

60
Dallas Observer
Gregory Weinkauf
The result is his (Shyamalan's) most meditative and lovingly rendered offering thus far, if also his least fun.

58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
The Village goes up in smoke (and mirrors). It wants to find a profoundness that hints at something deep and dimensional, but it hasn't the courage of conviction to stay on course as an unabashed ode to innocence.

58
Portland Oregonian
Karen Karbo
Thriller is hardly the word for this tedious exercise in clue-hiding.

50
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
The Village yields a trick ending quite lame, quite tame and quite old; Rod Serling thought of it 40 years ago and he did it better.

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Not only is The Village not credible, its shallowness makes it dislikable, a shopworn gothic plot focusing on stereotypical characters with disabilities, with no ambitions beyond playing a simple-minded audience head game.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Shyamalan remains a stilted screenwriter, but Roger Deakins's cinematography is spooky, creepy, eerie all the way.

50
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Pours on creepy atmosphere, but this dud is too intent on delivering its liberal "message" to actually deliver the kinds of scares it promises in the terrific trailer.

50
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
The Village is Shyamalan's weakest story, and its ending - whether or not you're surprised by it - is a genuine clinker.

50
Variety
Brian Lowry
A watchable film for awhile that unravels in a muddled last act likely to send many opening-weekend filmgoers home head-scratching and grumbling.

50
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
I will tell you what The Village is not: It is not scary. It is not all that interesting. It isn't even much of a movie.

50
Premiere
Aaron Hillis
When the secret is finally divulged, its such a letdown that it feels unfairly manipulative to have sat through such agonizing tedium.

50
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
Shyamalan remains as coolly unstirred by sex as he was in his previous movies--an astounding indifference, given the historical entwining of eros and fright. Even more bizarre is the gradual draining of humor from his work; the anatomy of horror demands a tongue in the cheek to go with the baring of teeth, but much of The Village is a proud and sullen affair.

40
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
The film's ridiculousness would not be so irksome if Mr. Shyamalan did not take his sleight of hand so seriously, if he did not insist on dressing this scary, silly, moderately clever fairy tale in a somber cloak of allegory.

40
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
This undeniably talented writer-director has been repeating himself with steadily decreasing potency ever since the wonderful "The Sixth Sense," and his latest excursion does nothing to buck the trend.

40
Film Threat
Chad Bixby
Everyone here sounds trapped in a high school staging of The Crucible, and after about an hour, this high-toned creature feature wears out its welcome and starts to seem rather boring and pretentious, the two greatest sins any movie can commit.

40
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
The film's gotcha! payoff doesn't justify the gloomy journey.

40
Newsweek
David Ansen
The entire solemn, portentous edifice that is The Village collapses of its own fake weight. Just about everything that makes Shyamalan special misfires here.

30
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
The real mystery at the heart of M. Night Shyamalan's latest: How does he persuade actors like Sigourney Weaver and Adrien Brody to act in his supremely lame movies?

30
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
The screwiest yarn yet from Shyamalan's metaphysical-Limburger career project, a non-horror horror film.

30
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
It's exasperating watching so much top-drawer talent wasted in a film that wraps itself up with one of the most preposterous (not to mention obvious) endings the genre has ever seen.

30
Slate
David Edelstein
The photography is excellent! the music is striking! the movie is a stinker!

30
Chicago Reader
Hank Sartin
Every eerily tranquil shot, weirdly elliptical scene, and peculiar line reading contributes to a mood of detachment rather than creeping dread.

30
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
For the most part, the film's a bewildering disappointment.

30
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
It's tedious instead of provocative and so unconvincing as to be preposterous.

25
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The Village seems poised to become as cheesy in its effects as a low-budget horror film. Shyamalan's gracefulness keeps his movie just out of that abyss.

25
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
A colossal miscalculation, a movie based on a premise that cannot support it, a premise so transparent it would be laughable were the movie not so deadly solemn. It's a flimsy excuse for a plot, with characters who move below the one-dimensional and enter Flatland.

20
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
It's bad enough to make parable a four-letter word.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.6 (out of 10) based on 242 User Votes
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