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Plunkett & Macleane
Gramercy Pictures


9.7

based on 27 reviews
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based on 9 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for some strong violence, sexuality and language

Starring Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Iain Robertson, and Liv Tyler

Plunkett (Carlyle) is a highwayman who's partner is killed by the evil Chance. He soon hooks up with disgraced gentleman soldier Captain MacCleane (Miller) to continue infiltrate wealthy society in order to rob the rich and fund his move to America. MacCleane falls in love with Lady Rebecca Gibson (Tyler), pushing the partners' daring and loyalty to the limit.

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Selwyn Roberts Robert Wade Neal Purvis Charles McKeown
DIRECTED BY:	Jake Scott
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 21, 2000 Video: March 21, 2000 Theatrical: October 1, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	102 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK / Czech Republic

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...

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Lewd, crude and occasionally too brutal to take, it's also gorgeous, heartfelt.

Newsweek Louise Rosen

A highly entertaining movie in a genre that is often as stiff as the Lady Gibson's boning.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

A cross between a Hogarth painting and an MTV video, Plunkett & Macleane cuts quite a swath.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Scott makes it easy to overlook the conventionality beneath his sometimes overdone but almost always enjoyable combination of atmosphere and propulsiveness.

Baltimore Sun Milton Kent

Too much fun to ignore.

Miami Herald Curtis Morgan

A tad too raunchy for its own good.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's vulgar, to be sure, but it's also brash and invigorating.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

This buddy movie grows on you.

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

Its greatest flaw is the casting of Miller ("Trainspotting," "Hackers"), who continues to have virtually no screen presence...For all that, Plunkett & Macleane is fun.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The whole thing seems to have been faked up for our amusement, like a circus freak show.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

Cheerful mishmash.

USA Today Mike Clark

The plunk-ing of a rap/disco soundtrack onto a movie about debtors' prisons and 18th century British highwaymen?

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Its noisily inappropriate pop-rock score overwhelms its meager subplots about British class conflict.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

None of it adds up to terribly much beyond a rip-roaring adventure that shows off Carlyle and Miller as cynical British city cousins of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

There's not an original idea rattling around in the empty-headed but gorgeous-to-behold period film.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Watchable in a facile, trashy way. Unfortunately, most of the movie is mired in sludge, slime, mud, blood, and studiously dank cinematography.

Film.com Gemma Files

It doesn't really hang together. And waaay too much style. Pity.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Rollicking is the term that best sums up Plunkett and Macleane, not in itself a bad thing, just, I think, not a very good thing.

Chicago Tribune Barbara Shulgasser

Scott treats the material as if it were grist for a 30-second spot or a rowdy music video.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A noisy, amateurish mess that doesn't work on any level - an extended, clich-ridden MTV video set to anachronistic bad music.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A film overgrown with so many directorial flourishes that the heroes need machetes to hack their way to within view of the audience.

Village Voice Gary Daupin

The script is as full of holes as some of the highwaymen's bullet-riddled victims -- why not throw a drum-and-bass track over everything?

Washington Post Desson Thomson

No darn good.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

An ugly, stupid movie it turned out to be. Incoherent, arbitrary, hyperactive and dark enough to make you fear you've gone blind.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A repellent, stupid film.

Los Angeles Times Jan Stewart

Everything is stunningly photographed by John Mathieson, but to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a cockroach is a cockroach is a cockroach.

TNT RoughCut Daysun Chang

An empty void of tasteless action, formula plot, and dull dialogue set in a sadly under-utilized time period.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.7 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Luke S gave it a9:
Enjoyable from start to finish but is obviously not high cinema and will detract from your viewing if you treat it as such. It's dark, gritty, romantic and evil shameful fun, taking a distinct tangent from similar period stuffs in this genre. Also, the scene where an injured Macleane awakes to find a Lady Rebecca at his table is wonderful. Carlyle is consistently exceptional in everything he does, including this.

Piret gave it a9:
Have watched it twice and will watch again. Soundtrack very good!

Jack R. gave it a 10:
It's got all the balls in it's oversized sac. A bloody excellent movie! And if anyone disagrees, send them round, I'll show them the meaning of stand and deliver.

Eddie Q. gave it a 10:
Simple plot with a great sound track. Love the time period.

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Plunkett & Macleane Gramercy Pictures

Plunkett & Macleane
Gramercy Pictures