DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Recent DVD/Video Releases
65
Adoration
42
Aliens in the Attic
56
American Violet
44
Answer Man, The
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil![]()
54
Bruno
55
Casi Divas
63
Cheri
83
Drag Me to Hell![]()
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
76
Every Little Step
70
Fados
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
74
Humpday
32
I Love You, Beth Cooper
50
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
81
Il Divo![]()
54
Is Anybody There?
32
Land of the Lost
74
Lemon Tree
40
Limits of Control, The
43
Love 'N Dancing
63
Medicine for Melancholy
34
My Life in Ruins
51
My Sister's Keeper
48
Not Forgotten
76
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!
50
Nothing Like the Holidays
26
Objective, The
42
Orphan
78
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
48
Proposal, The
39
Spread
83
Star Trek![]()
55
Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
72
Thirst
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
66
Unmistaken Child
88
Up![]()
45
Whatever Works
34
Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Lakeboat
EMAILPRINTPanorama Entertainment

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 18 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by: David Mamet
Directed by: Joe Mantegna
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 13, 2001
DVD: September 24, 2002
Running Time: 98 minutes, Color
Origin: Canada / USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong language and some sexual content
Starring Charles Durning, Peter Falk, Robert Forster, J.J. Johnston, Denis Leary, Jack Wallace, George Wendt, and Tony Mamet
Based on David Mamet's comic play, this is a depiction of the lives of sailors on the shipping freighters of the Great Lakes seen through the perspective of a young sailor working his way through college.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
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...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
The most pure of Mamet's works to come to the screen.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
Mr. Mantegna, who as an actor is one of the leading interpreters of Mr. Mamet's work, gives generous room to the movie's first-rate ensemble.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Mantegna gives us just enough detail, enough exterior shots, so that we feel we're on a ship. All the rest is conversation and idleness. The lake boat is a lot like life.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
It works for the most part, though some scenes come off contrived or directed without flavor. But thanks to the likable, rough-hewn crew and Forster, the film flows along gruffly and with eloquence.
New Times (L.A.) M.V. Moorhead
Forster is the reason that even non-Mamet-heads might consider giving Lakeboat a shot. It's worth it just to see him in his long one-take exchange with Johnston about booze, but he's remarkable throughout.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Michael Dequina
Beautiful moments of performance such as Forster's subtly spellbinding monologues -- make for compelling cinema.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly F. X. Feeney
Mamet's fixation on language is, nonetheless, more effective onstage than onscreen, where the technical and visual requirements distract from the sounds of the words -- the heart of Mamet's work.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
Feels a bit flat and underdeveloped.
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Though Mantegna can't quite lick the essential staginess of Mamet's adaptation of his play, even with lots of scenic shots of Lake Ontario, the performances are what one would expect with such a consummate actor in charge.
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Students of acting will appreciate the relish with which the characters bite off juicy chunks of dialogue.
Village Voice Amy Taubin
Forster not only makes this unlikely story emotionally believable, he moves you to tears. Lakeboat isn't much of a film, but for Forster fans, it's indispensable.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Brought to the screen awkwardly but ardently by Mamet-actor supreme Joe Mantegna in his feature-directing debut.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Lakeboat requires its audiences to embrace it as lovingly as Mamet and Mantegna embrace its men, but it's a lot to ask.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Film feels like a parody of Mamet mannerisms, and the trouble lies with the play, which Mamet first penned some 25 years for an Actors Equity showcase.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune John Petrakis
Though this film shows flashes of the electric writer Mamet was to become, Lakeboat is mostly distant thunder over choppy waters.
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The most striking thing here is a performance by Robert Forster, as one of the older men on the boat, that's so terrific everything else in the picture pales beside it.
Read Full Review >Variety Emanuel Levy
So fractured and so awkwardly staged that end result is an uninvolving film thats dramatically inert and artistically shapeless.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Joaquin A. gave it a 10:
Excellent.
Alan H. gave it a 9:
Minimalist but profound. Great cast.
