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

xx Beer for My Horses
xx Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips
62 Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The
48 Death Defying Acts
33 Elite Squad
80 Encounters at the End of the World
20 Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
86 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
36 Fly Me to the Moon
42 Fred Claus
54 Get Smart
73 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
49 Hancock
25 Hell Ride
78 Hellboy II: The Golden Army
44 Henry Poole is Here
61 Incredible Hulk, The
57 Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
xx Kiss the Bride
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
73 Kung Fu Panda
xx Lower Learning
63 Man Named Pearl, A
43 Meet Dave
52 Milarepa
62 Mister Foe
53 Mister Lonely
61 On the Rumba River
32 Perfect Holiday, The
63 Planet B-Boy
72 Priceless
63 Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
36 Space Chimps
35 Star Wars: The Clone Wars
51 Step Brothers
81 Still Life
57 Stone Angel, The
47 Strangers, The
55 Sukiyaki Western Django
63 This Christmas
71 To the Limit
72 Transsiberian
71 Tropic Thunder
93 WALL-E
64 Wanted
xx Whaledreamers
54 What We Do Is Secret
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?
47 X-Files: I Want to Believe, The
45 Zombie Strippers

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Kiss the Girls
Paramount Pictures


6.7

based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for terror, violence and language

Starring Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Cary Elwes, Alex McArthur, Tony Goldwyn, Jay O. Sanders, Roma Maffia, and Jeremy Piven

Eight kidnapped women. All beautiful. All talented. All in danger of having their lives cut cruelly short if police detective Alex Cross (Freeman) and key witness Kate McTiernan (Judd) can't locate the elusive "collector" who calls himself Casanova. (Paramount Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Drama \| Mystery \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	David Klass James Patterson (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Gary Fleder
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 12, 2003 Video: May 29, 2001 Theatrical: October 3, 1997
RUNNING TIME:	111 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...

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

David Klass, the screenwriter, gives Freeman and Judd more specific dialogue than is usual in thrillers; they sound as if they might actually be talking with each other and not simply advancing plot points.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It features a pair of well-developed characters, the plot contains some clever twists and turns, the dialogue is reasonable, and director Gary Fleder (Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead) keeps the level of tension and intrigue high. Put together, all of that adds up to a worthwhile motion picture.

Los Angeles Times Jack Mathews

Fleder has directed three-quarters of a terrific movie and one-quarter of pure Hollywood baloney. After carefully building up the suspense and tension through Cross and McTiernan's search, spiked with nail-biting encounters on both coasts, Fleder lets it trail off in anti-climax and banal violence.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

A solid second film from director Gary Fleder ("Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead"), it's sure to set pulses racing and spines tingling. Too bad it's at the expense of the dignity of young women everywhere.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Replete with smart, capable characters and crimes so bizarre that they lend the film a suspiciously lurid nature, this tony suspenser is hampered by the presence of a villain who is all too obvious from the very beginning.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The movie -- adapted from James Patterson's novel by David Klass -- operates on the crime-movie equivalent of automatic pilot. It takes off, flies and lands without much creative intervention.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Kiss the Girls is a fake psychological thriller that turns into a garishly schlocky and implausible bogeyman hunt.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Fleder delivers the requisite shocks, and his direction is brisk, efficient and occasionally stylish; Judd and Freeman both give more than the material demands.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Sensitive acting by Morgan Freeman and stylish directing by Gary Fleder can't overcome the bottom-line pointlessness of the movie's melodramatic material, which never achieves the dark resonance that helped "The Silence of the Lambs" get under the skin of many moviegoers.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

For Morgan Freeman ("Seven") fans, it's a chance to see a great actor save a movie from itself.

San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser

Director Gary Fleder seems to be trying for the mood and atmosphere of "Seven," another Freeman film about murder and police work, but this movie isn't as stylish and the script by David Klass, based on the James Patterson novel, doesn't really hang together.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Mr. Freeman projects a kindness, patience and canny intelligence that cut against the movie's fast pace and pumped-up shock effects. His performance is so measured it makes you want to believe in the movie much more than its gimmicky jerry-built plot ever permits.

Austin Chronicle Russell Smith

It's diverting enough, and intermittently suspenseful, but also strangely empty and decadent in a way that truly merits that overused term.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Freeman and Judd are fine, as could be expected, but their pairing deserves a better movie -- not one with a cheap twist ending that will easily be spotted by anyone who's studied the complex machinations of any episode of Murder, She Wrote.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Here's the kind of movie thriller that can make you scream (in annoyance) and bite your nails (to pass the time) and sit on the edge of your seat (ready to bolt the theatre).

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

A movie that leaves you wondering what the fuss was all about when its end credits appear; it's a mish-mash of a dozen other, better films ground up and watered down--Seven, Silence of the Lambs, and Manhunter, to name a few of the usual suspects.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Misguided attempts at political correctness make this serial-killer movie stupid instead of just dull.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Frank O. gave it a7:
Morgan Freeman shines as Alex Cross in this adaptation of a James Patterson's thriller novel. Ashley Judd is good as 2nd character..movie was too long but plotline kept it going.

Andrew M. gave it a 5:
Kiss The Girls is not a good film, nor is it a bad film. It is something of a Libran film, symbolised by scales. On one side of the scales we have the good aspects of the film, on the other the bad. And, like all true scales when used correctly, both sides balance perfectly. Taking a closer look at the scales, we notice that representing the things done well side is Mr Morgan Freeman, for yet another typically solid performance. Along side him the beautiful Miss Ashley Judd, for the professionalism and quality she brings to every role, not just this one. Keeping them company we have a talented cinematographist, incisive screenwriter (who's relatively wasted here) and of course, a superb novelist. On the other side of the scales representing things done not-so-well, keeping the union in harmony, is an inconsistent director, sloppy editor and ignorant producer(s) who have not the faintest inkling for the atmosphere and structure of the novel. In my belief, errors that plagued the adaptation of Along Came A Spider have unfortunately tainted this one too. Hopefully James Patterson will have the desire and means to avoid a third disappointment....

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page

Kiss the Girls Paramount Pictures

Kiss the Girls
Paramount Pictures