Metacritic Film

Celestine Prophecy, The

Starring Matthew Settle, Thomas Kretschmann, Sarah Wayne Callies, Annabeth Gish, Hector Elizondo, Joaquim de Almeida, Jürgen Prochnow, and John Aylward

MPAA RATING: PG for some violence

Celestine Films Holding Company
Adventure
99 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters April 21, 2006

Based on James Redfield's worldwide best-selling novel, The Celestine Prophecy is a spiritual adventure film chronicling the discovery of ancient scrolls in the rainforests of Peru. The prophecy and its nine key insights predict a worldwide awakening, arising within all religious traditions, that moves humanity toward a deeper experience of spirituality. (Celestine Films)

WRITTEN BY
James Redfield (also novel)
Barnet Bain
Dan Gordon

DIRECTED BY
Armand Mastroianni

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

23 / 100

Critic Reviews

50	Variety Celestine Prophecy demands all skepticism be left in the lobby. That's a leap few may be willing to take -- few beyond those millions who bought the book, that is.
42	Portland Oregonian As to claims that the book provides a path to enlightenment, I'm an agnostic. But I can swear on a stack of ancient scrolls that the movie plays like 90-odd minutes of purgatory from which you feel you may never escape.
40	LA Weekly The film taps the same spiritual thirst and anxiety that has made cultural phenomena of "The Da Vinci Code" and the "Left Behind" series. And it’s just as cheesy.
33	Baltimore Sun It's hard, bordering on impossible, to evaluate this movie without stepping on people's beliefs.
30	Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen The movie is flatly acted and extremely ill-paced, lacking any sense of urgency, momentum or fun. "Romancing the Stone" it is not.
25	San Francisco Chronicle A big disappointment.
25	Seattle Post-Intelligencer Redfield's fans will rejoice, if only to see the beloved novel illustrated on the screen, no matter how tediously. The rest of us probably should stay away.
25	New York Post Arguably as effective as Ambien at inducing sleep, but possible side effects include uncontrollable laughter.
20	Austin Chronicle The Celestine Prophecy's biggest stumbling block (and there are many to choose from) is that the film's dramatic arc hinges on John's awakening to the prophecy. But spiritual epiphany is tough to convey onscreen.
10	The New York Times This delectable fusion of New Age babble and luridly bad filmmaking may not "open" you up, to borrow one of the film's favorite verbs, but it might leave your jaw slack and your belly sore from laughter.

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