New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

63 11th Hour, The
47 27 Dresses
29 Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
39 Alvin and the Chipmunks
81 Bamako
84 Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
47 Bella
68 Business of Being Born, The
69 Charlie Wilson's War
64 Cloverfield
30 Cover
68 Delirious
92 Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
43 Final Season, The
41 First Sunday
51 Golden Compass, The
49 Good Night, The
65 Great Debaters, The
63 Hannah Takes the Stairs
52 Hollywood Dreams
7 Hottie and the Nottie, The
60 I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
15 In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
81 Juno
70 Lars and the Real Girl
47 Lions for Lambs
41 Mad Money
71 Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
xx Moondance Alexander
53 Music Within
77 Nanking
44 Nina's Heavenly Delights
24 One Missed Call
74 Orphanage, The
30 Over Her Dead Body
39 P.S. I Love You
37 P2
46 Reservation Road
55 Resurrecting the Champ
57 Romulus, My Father
85 Savages, The
78 Starting Out in the Evening
83 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
57 Teeth
92 There Will Be Blood
38 Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
32 Untraceable
63 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
68 War Dance
71 Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
43 Youth Without Youth

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Brothers McMullen, The
Fox Searchlight Pictures


8.3

based on 20 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for language and some sexuality

Starring Jack Mulcahy, Mike McGlone, Edward Burns, Connie Britton, and Maxine Bahns

An portrait of the lives and loves of three Irish-Catholic brothers living on Long Island.

GENRE(S):	Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	Edward Burns
DIRECTED BY:	Edward Burns
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 3, 2000 Video: February 3, 1998 Theatrical: August 18, 1995
RUNNING TIME:	98 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Burns also took home an award for Best First Feature at the 1996 Independent Spirit Awards.

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...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

Burns has created an endearing gathering of people we all know, and every one of them is so much fun that leaving the theater at the end elicits a touch of regret.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

While other films struggle for their effects, Brothers simply lives and breathes, thoroughly likable from beginning to end.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

One of the most enjoyable experiences of the year.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Good old-fashioned virtues of three-dimensional characters, fine dialogue, recognizable life situations and meat-and-potatoes content.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

This modest, enormously likable film, about love and temptation and ties that bind, is about brotherhood most of all. [9 August 1995, p.C9]

Austin Chronicle Alison Macor

It is a rare treat of a film.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

You don't have to be Catholic, or Irish, or even American, to "get it." Burns' language, despite originating on Long Island, is universal in appeal and meaning.

Film.com Ed Brubaker

It's old-fashioned filmmaking, and more people should do it.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The women's characters are as well drawn as the men's in a splendidly acted film that captures the confusion of love in ways that are ardent, affecting and wonderfully funny.

Film.com Tom Keogh

A smart marriage of modest technical ambition, sophisticated material, and a hang-loose presentation that belies the production's no-frills sacrifices.

USA Today Mike Clark

This meaty Irish stew isn't arty or elliptical. It ought to connect with anyone who's survived sibling tension or romantic fence-sitting. [9 August 1995, Life, p.5D]

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie brings into focus how rare religion and spirituality are in American films.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A clever, amiably low-key mix of family drama and romantic comedy.[18 August 1995, Friday, p.C]

Film.com John Hartl

It's not a profound film, but it is heartfelt, and Burns has done his best to keep it clear and emotionally direct.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

This knowing, low-budget comedy will appeal to men, who'll recognize their behavior, but also to women, who'll see it as goosing the gander.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The romantic troubles of three Irish-Catholic brothers on Long Island don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Respectable by the tube's standards, even a cut above dumbed-down Hollywood, but hardly the stuff of creative renewal.

TV Guide Staff (not credited)

Solid, old-fashioned narrative moviemaking with just enough no-budget cachet to disguise its essential blandness.

Mr. Showbiz Anne Harris

This is, recognizably, an indie film, in the best sense of the term.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

If you want to waste a couple of hours, you can surely do much better looking elsewhere.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Seamus M. gave it an8:
Burns captures the moral conflict felt by Irish-American males in this delightful treat of a movie. I wonder if this movie were about 3 Jewish brothers, would Lisa Shwarzbaum and the other 'baum', John Rosenbaum feel a little differently?

Kevin V. gave it a10:
Wonderful and realistic...this is what indie is meant to be!

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page

Brothers McMullen, The Fox Searchlight Pictures

Brothers McMullen, The
Fox Searchlight Pictures