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

48 21
80 Band's Visit, The
78 Before I Forget
64 Chronicle of an Escape
46 CJ7
68 Cool School, The
78 Counterfeiters, The
35 Deal
51 Doomsday
58 Felon
59 Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour
57 Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
27 How to Rob a Bank
55 Irina Palm
69 Last Winter, The
38 Life Before Her Eyes, The
65 Married Life
33 Miss Conception
63 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
71 My Brother Is an Only Child
39 Never Back Down
55 Nim's Island
70 Outsourced
22 Postal
17 Prom Night
51 Promotion, The
77 Rape of Europa, The
69 Redbelt
xx Rogue
76 Shine a Light
57 Smart People
55 Street Kings
72 Surfwise
56 Then She Found Me
55 Turn the River
65 Water Lilies
36 What Happens in Vegas...
45 Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
55 Without the King

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Mighty Aphrodite
Miramax Films


6.0

based on 16 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for language and sex-related material

Starring Mira Sorvino, Woody Allen, Helena Bonham Carter, F. Murray Abraham, David Ogden Stiers, and Olympia Dukakis

A New York couple discovers that their adopted son's biological mother (Sorvino, in an Oscar-winning performance) is a hooker and minor porn star.

GENRE(S):	Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	Woody Allen
DIRECTED BY:	Woody Allen
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 18, 1999 Video: March 2, 1999 Theatrical: November 3, 1995
RUNNING TIME:	98 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Winner, Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Sorvino), 1996 Academy Awards; Nominated, Best Screenplay, 1996 Academy Awards; Winner, Best Screenplay, 1996 Writers Guild of America 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...

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie reveals its serious undertones (with commentary by the Greek chorus, which occasionally breaks into song and dance) while at the same time developing a plot that lends itself to slapstick.

San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser

It was only natural that Allen would eventually have to make a Greek drama.

San Francisco Chronicle Leah Garchik

Woody Allen's incredible wit is at the heart of all that's wonderful in Mighty Aphrodite, and Woody Allen's incredible ego is at the core of its major flaw.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Allen appears determined to craft a motion picture that can be laughed at without plumbing any especially deep neuroses of the human condition.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A zippy, frothy confection that emerges as agreeable middle-range Woody.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Dependably well made and not quite like any Allen film that came before. Nimble film making like this isn’t necessarily geared to the magnum opus, but Mr. Allen can achieve fine, amusing results even while thinking small. [27 October 1995, P.C1]

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A sketchy trifle that is sporadically amusing but also off-putting around the edges.

Washington Post Hal Hinson

It's a mixed bag--deftly and hilariously philosophical in some places, deeply disengaged and prosaic in others.

USA Today Mike Clark

Allen's connective scenes are slack and barely functional, and even his asides lack bite.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

An uneven blend of mirth and malice.

TV Guide Harlan Jacobson

Is there no one in Allen's circle who dares to tell the master this ain't funny?

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

It treads enjoyably over old ground, and it has a surprisingly foul mouth, though rather than cruising along with the ease of Allen's best work it tends to hobble, and it closes in a flurry of undecided endings.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Fans of Allen, the comedian, will be glad to hear there are more chuckles here than in his last film, "Bullets Over Broadway." Fans of Allen, the plot craftsman, will find a lot less discipline and imagination in the writing. In truth, Mighty Aphrodite is mighty slight.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Allen gets a chance to unload all his usual patronizing contempt for and middle-class "wisdom" about his own working-class origins.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

In this loser-and-the-whore story line, Allen's sensibilities have taken a turn for the nasty.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

Mighty Aphrodite may take its thematic and structural cues from Greek tragedy, but it's second-rate Borscht Belt all the way.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Anthony M. gave it a10:
This movie is halrious; and ultimately, very sweet. The parady of a Greek chorus alone is worth the price of a DVD. But be warned! If your idea of great movie making involves in any way special effects laden films about the interspecies romances of sexy girls and chimps with hyperractive tyroids, you probably should skip this movie.

Laura J. gave it a2:
What boring, terrible crap. I cannot beleive Woody Allen directed thid piece of garbage!!

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page

Mighty Aphrodite Miramax Films

Mighty Aphrodite
Miramax Films