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34
10,000 B.C. Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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World Trade Center
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense and emotional content, some disturbing images and language
Starring Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Jay Hernandez, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Stephen Dorff, Michael Shannon, and Patti D'Arbanville
September 11, 2001 was an unusually warm day in New York. Will Jimeno, an officer with the Port Authority Police Department, was tempted to take a personal day to enjoy his hobby of bow hunting, but ultimately decided that he would go to work. Sergeant John McLoughlin, a respected veteran of the PAPD, had been up for hours – a requirement of his daily, 1½-hour trek to the city. They and their colleagues made their way to midtown Manhattan, just like they did any other day. Only this wasn't any other day. (Paramount)
| GENRE(S): | Drama |
| WRITTEN BY: |
Andrea Berloff
John McLoughlin. Donna McLoughlin, William Jimeno and Allison Jimeno (true story) |
| DIRECTED BY: | Oliver Stone |
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: December 12, 2006 Theatrical: August 9, 2006 |
| RUNNING TIME: | 129 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...
The average user rating for this movie is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 108 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jared B. gave it a10:
I absolutely loved this movie! At first, I was a little unsure of this movie, given the fact that these events are still fresh in the minds of many americans. I loved the fact that, instead of focusing on the horror America faced that day, Oliver Stone chose to focus on the courage and brotherhood shared by the two cops at the center of this movie. An excellent movie with great performances, especially by Nicholas Cage and Michael Pena.
Frank D gave it a2:
A colossal disappointment! What has happened to Oliver Stone??? Can this movie (and "Alexander") actually be from the same man who gave us "JFK" (which I consider to be a masterpiece)?
Chah C. gave it a1:
I thought it was very disappointing. The special effects were not good.
Mark B. gave it a7:
This may not be the most tasteful analogy in the world, but just as 1965 saw a cultural division between "Beatles people" and "Rolling Stones people", and 1994 featured a similar rift between "Pulp Fiction people" and "Forrest Gump people", so will 2006 come to be known as the year in which the "United 93 people" and the "World Trade Center" people squared off. For the record, count me in the former camp: Paul Greengrass's semidocumentary, semi-fly-on-the-wall reenactment of one aspect of 9/11 was a brilliantly executed (if necessarily harrowing and somewhat depressing) one-of-a-kind masterpiece, while Oliver Stone's interpretation of another is a really, really good made-for-TV movie. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and the universe is certainly big enough to hold both approaches, but you've got to either credit or criticize Stone for pulling off the daunting task of transforming a national, history-changing tragedy into a film that's second only to Akeelah and the Bee as THE feel-good film of 2006! Stone accomplishes this by focusing on two New York cops, John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena) who were pinned under tons of brick, stone and metal awaiting either death or rescue; since falling asleep could very conceivably doom them, each had to keep the other awake, and surprisingly, their very different personalities and temperaments helped considerably: the extremely talkative Jimeno wouldn't LET McLoughlin drift off, while McLoughlin was so taciturn that Jimeno had to take special care on frequent occasions that he was still conscious. Cage is solid, Pena remarkably good, and Maggie Gyllenhaal (Secretary, Sherrybaby) and Maria Bello (Flicka, A History of Violence) are such strong actresses that they make the standard Wives Who Wait roles that you've seen hundreds of times before seem remarkably new. Much has been said about Oliver Stone's body of work, and while this is certainly atypical in many ways, it also lines up with a common thread to most of his films that isn't often discussed: from Platoon and Wall Street (with their warring good and bad father figures) to the underrated epic Alexander, they're often such effective studies in the qualities of leadership that they could be excerpted and shown in management seminars. (Even Snoop Dogg has commented that you can watch the Stone-scripted Scarface to learn what Tony Montana did both right and wrong...and who are we to argue with Snoop?) Because of Stone's (partially self-created) reputation as a controversial leftist provocateur, his announced (and almost completely successful) intention to make World Trade Center a totally apolitical film has truly earned him some strange bedfellows: left-of-center website film critic MaryAnn Johansen ("The Flick Filosopher") quite unjustly lists this as second to the latest Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie as the worst of 2006 thus far, while right-wing columnists Cal Thomas and Michael Medved have sung the film's praises to the heavens. Break out the galoshes and heavy-weather gear, folks: hell has frozen over at last!
Anna K gave it a10:
It showed the actual feeling of the captured people inside of the twin towers. Highly Recomended.
Markus G. gave it a9:
A deeply touching, slowly evolving must-see for everyone who ever thought of giving up hope. People who weren't touched by this film have a rock where others have a heart. Highly recommended.
Ken G. gave it a5:
I realize there are those who think that to dislike a movie like this (that celebrates the heroes of 9/11) is almost "un-American", but those people can go away as far as I'm concerned. A poorly made movie is a poorly made movie, regardless of the subject matter. Unlike "United 93" (one of the year's best movies) which was told in a very matter-of-fact manner, "World Trade Center" is busting at the seams with reverence for what it is doing, and thus comes off as somewhat ponderous, and also somewhat full of itself. It also has some bad dialogue, and some moments that come off more corny then poignant (which considering the subject matter, was probably actually kind of hard to do) there is also something really generic about this. Much of movie focuses on Cage and the other guy trapped in the rubble. But this feels like a lot of other movies we've had about people trapped in cave-ins. Then you had the very familiar, formula scenes of their families standing by anxiously waiting for word, which could have been taken out of a lot of movies. And the flashbacks also could have been taken out of a lot of movies. Bottom line is that this film never captures the scope of the unbearable tragedy of that day, or the overwhelming poignancy.
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