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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
75
24 City
66
Adoration
74
Afghan Star
48
Alien Trespass
56
American Violet
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
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Away We Go
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
62
Big Man Japan
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55
Brothers Bloom, The
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx
Call of the Wild
63
Cheri
62
Cherry Blossoms
63
Dead Snow
65
Departures
18
Downloading Nancy
58
Easy Virtue
70
End of the Line, The
77
Every Little Step
64
Examined Life
80
Food, Inc.
38
Gigantic
56
Girl from Monaco, The
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
87
Gomorrah
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Great Buck Howard, The
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx
Home
82
Hunger
91
Hurt Locker, The
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
81
Il Divo
54
Is Anybody There?
71
Jerichow
58
Julia
74
Lemon Tree
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
40
Limits of Control, The
42
Little Ashes
64
Lymelife
50
Management
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Merry Gentleman, The
66
Moon
35
New York
62
Not Forgotten
xx
Offshore
78
O'Horten
64
Outrage
40
Paris 36
54
Pontypool
71
Pressure Cooker
52
Quiet Chaos
83
Revanche
67
Rudo y Cursi
86
Seraphine
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Sex Positive
70
Shall We Kiss?
77
Sin Nombre
59
Sleep Dealer
74
Song of Sparrows, The
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
82
Sugar
84
Summer Hours
61
Sunshine Cleaning
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Surveillance
42
Tennessee
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Tetro
64
Throw Down Your Heart
80
Tokyo Sonata
63
Tokyo!
70
Tony Manero
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Treeless Mountain
88
Tulpan
74
Two Lovers
83
Tyson
83
U2 3D
60
Under Our Skin
69
Unmistaken Child
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
45
Whatever Works
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Zathura
Sony Pictures Entertainment
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG for fantasy action and peril, and some language
Starring
Jonah Bobo,
Josh Hutcherson,
Dax Shepard,
Kristen Stewart,
Tim Robbins,
Frank Oz,
John Alexander,
and
Derek Mears
Based on the best-selling book by the acclaimed children's writer Chris Van Allsburg ("The Polar Express," "Jumanji"), Zathura is a heart-racing sci-fi adventure about two squabbling brothers who are propelled into deepest, darkest space while playing a mysterious game they discovered in the basement of their old house. (Sony Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Adventure
|
Fantasy
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
David Koepp
John Kamps
Chris Van Allsburg (book)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Jon Favreau
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: February 14, 2006
Video: February 14, 2006
Theatrical: November 11, 2005
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
113 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...
91
Entertainment Weekly
Scott Brown
Zathura is a rarity: a stellar fantasy that faces down childhood anxieties with feet-on-the-ground maturity.

90
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
The result is a glorious low-tech pleasure that may be the most lyrical, phantasmagoric boys' adventure story since Joe Dante's Explorers.

88
Miami Herald
Peter Debruge
A wild buckle-up-and-blast-off adventure that plunges every corner of kids' favorite subject.

83
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
Cool!

83
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
Although the drama suffers from the episodic story structure, Zathura feels less like "Jumanji" and more like a really great episode of Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories" TV series.

78
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Favreau keeps the picture throttling forward with a carefree charm.

75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Winda Benedetti
Jonah Bobo and Josh Hutcherson -- may have delivered their parts just a wee too convincingly. Their squabbling is so pitch perfect that most adult viewers likely will want to reach through the screen and start crackin' some heads.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
The movie harks back to a time before state-of-the-art technology when writers and directors had to rely mostly on imagination.

75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Zathura involves a lot of yelling, a lot of explosions and a lot of flying objects -- but what else would you expect from a movie that is, honestly for a change, intended for 10-year-old boys?

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Jon Favreau, the actor-director who made the delightful family film "Elf," has a firm grip and a light touch with this material about bickering brothers who find a board game that zaps the family home into hyperspace.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Will work better for younger viewers than older ones. There's not much plot to absorb and there's plenty of action, so this is the kind of spectacle that will appeal to those without long attention spans.

75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
The result is an odd mix of honesty and hokum that pilots a course toward greatness before settling into a somewhat lower orbit.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
It works gloriously as space opera.

70
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
This handmade feel gives Zathura an appealing, childlike sense of wonder, an element too often forgotten in movies with many times the budget and technological resources.

70
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
In the enchanted limbo between waking and sleeping, Zathura feels both real and unreal, like a dream you could shake off at any moment.

70
Dallas Observer
Luke Y. Thompson
Neither pandering nor dull, Zathura plays exactly like a no-limits replica of the kind of space adventure that imaginative kids left to their own devices might enact.

70
The Hollywood Reporter
John DeFore
Favreau again delivers that rare beast -- a family film that even childless adults can enjoy.

70
Variety
Justin Chang
Its unwieldy title notwithstanding, Zathura: A Space Adventure is arguably the best adaptation of a Chris Van Allsburg book to date.

70
Chicago Reader
Andrea Gronvall
Flawless comic timing and vivid imagination power this rollicking sequel to "Jumanji."

70
Film Threat
Pete Vonder Haar
A low-key, warm-without-being-schmaltzy childhood adventure story that will engage younger viewers without driving their parents too crazy.

63
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
Jon Favreau's adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's kid-lit adventure of the same name, more than fills the bill - though it's unlikely to draw anyone over the age of 11 (not counting baby-sitters).

63
Premiere
Ryan Devlin
There's nary a smidgen of adult humor, so parents might find things a bit on the dull side at times, but in the end they will likely thank Favreau in droves for making a film that is at least certain not to give them a headache.

60
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
Director Jon Favreau, who dipped profitably into family entertainment with 2003's "Elf," effectively recreates the illustrative universe of a good children's book, but he's stuck with a story that noisily grinds its gears.

60
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Crust
The movie has a lot of the elements that might make it thrilling and it's visually arresting, but it's missing the emotional connection necessary to make it interesting.

50
Village Voice
Peter L'Official
One thing: Perhaps my studio-cynic hackles are raised imprudently, but either Favreau reimagined the boys' teenage sister to read as matinee sex bomb, Tootsie Rolling around in pink boxers for half the film, or children's books have become a lot hotter since I put down Seuss and Sendak for Encyclopedia Brown.

50
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
It's a tick better than the movie version of "Jumanji," if that's any help. If you liked the book, you'll find the film of "Zathura" faithful in most respects, though not so much amplified as padded.

50
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Basically "Jumanji" in outer space -- and even without Robin Williams, this is still a singularly loud, charmless and overbearing family movie that could use a hit or two of Ritalin.

50
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
The film's Buck Rogers-style graphics are cool, but the shrilly squabbling brothers -- realistic though they may be -- are insufferable, the story's your-turn/my-turn structure is tedious, and its relentlessly reiterated message about brotherly love and cooperation is really grating.

50
USA Today
Mike Clark
Tim Robbins plays the working dad, and the movie misses him once he bails out early.

38
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Rarely is a movie audience asked to put up with so much noise for such a thankless payoff.


The average user rating for this movie is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 23 User Votes
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