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Brassed Off

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Musical | Romance
Written by: Mark Herman
Directed by: Mark Herman
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 23, 1997
DVD: March 1, 2005
Running Time: 107 minutes, Color
Origin: UK / USA
Summary
RATING: R for language
Starring Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald, Ewan McGregor, Stephen Tompkinson, Jim Carter, Philip Jackson, Peter Martin, and Sue Johnston
A story about two old friends -- and ex-lovers -- whose surprise reunion turns their lives, and the lives of everyone else in town, hilariously upside down! (Miramax)
What The Critics Said
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 New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Herman handled his script cleanly and cast the picture well. [09Jun1997 Pg 30]
USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
The pitch of the script, written by director Mark Herman, isn't perfect. But these earthy blokes are an engaging lot, the soot of the earth, with an admirably wry view of their bleak situations. [23May1997 Pg 03.D]
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Brassed Off is a sweet film with a lot of anger at its core.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Brassed Off! is a traditional feel-good motion picture with an element of social commentary thrown in for good measure.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
The characters are beautifully drawn in this bittersweet melodrama written and directed by Mark Herman.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Brassed Off is shamelessly manipulative and sentimental, but in an agreeably familiar way.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
The music's great, but frequent tight shots of actors ostensibly blowing their horns look phony enough to be distracting.
Read Full Review >Variety Derek Elley
This well-played, often very sparky dramedy about the shenanigans in a northern brass band composed of miners threatened with pit closure gets a bad attack of social realism in the latter stages that rocks the crowded craft.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Russell Smith
In the end, though, the undeniable power and emotional richness of this film swing the balance toward the good.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
There's a double meaning in the title of this folksy, relentlessly political, heavy-handed story, written and directed by Mark Herman and set among the coal mines of Yorkshire, England, in 1992.
Read Full Review >Empire Ian Freer
However, writer-director Mark Herman never really achieves the correct balance between the serious and the feelgood, allowing an uneasy tone to prevail, while the small screen style and supporting cast of familiar TV faces suggests this would play more comfortably on the box.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
If you're in a triumph of the human spirit frame of mind, this is your cup of dark, sweet tea.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Brassed Off gets bogged down in sentimentality; and that political agenda is spread on thick.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
An odd duck of a movie, it's really a British Labor Party television commercial bitterly shoehorned into the cheesy format of an American triumph fantasy, with a horn section.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
As well-meaning elegies go, especially ones to working stiffs prematurely ripped from their subterranean roots, Brassed Off is the pits: It's a miner opus in a minor key.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego
Writer-director Mark Herman seems genuinely moved by the plight of the mining communities, but his attempt to translate those feelings into a story shows the effects of hard labor.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Herman isn't sure if he's doing a big-statement picture or a tiny treasure of a comedy, and his confusion throws Brassed Off off balance.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times John Anderson
The difficulty is that Brassed Off operates at an emotional pitch that starts at a crescendo and never relents--rendering almost everything equally inconsequential.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
Trimmed to an hour, and tucked between a documentary on snails and an episode of Coronation Street, writer-director Mark Herman's Brassed Off could prove lively watching indeed. As it is, however, his pedestrian if sweetly well-meaning inspirational about a coal-mining town done in by Thatcherism is too long, too laborious and 15 years too late.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Natalie E. gave it a7:
Based on actual events, this is an original, heartfelt film about a brass band in a mining town.
