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97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
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49
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Priceless
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93
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War, Inc.
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Whaledreamers
54
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66
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54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
39
Young People F**king
45
Zombie Strippers
97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
93
WALL-E
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Edge of Heaven, The
83
Paranoid Park
80
Encounters at the End of the World
79
Visitor, The
78
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
75
Boy A
74
Mongol
73
Kung Fu Panda
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
72
Priceless
72
Transsiberian
71
To the Limit
71
Tropic Thunder
70
Standard Operating Procedure
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
63
Planet B-Boy
63
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
63
This Christmas
62
Mister Foe
61
Stuck
61
On the Rumba River
61
Incredible Hulk, The
57
Stone Angel, The
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
55
Sukiyaki Western Django
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
54
What We Do Is Secret
53
Mister Lonely
52
Milarepa
49
Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, The
48
Death Defying Acts
47
Strangers, The
46
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
45
Zombie Strippers
44
Henry Poole is Here
39
Young People F**king
37
War, Inc.
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
34
Happening, The
33
Elite Squad
32
Perfect Holiday, The
25
Hell Ride
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
xx
Whaledreamers
xx
Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips
xx
Kiss the Bride
xx
Beer for My Horses
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Scorpion King, The
MCA/Universal Pictures
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence and some sensuality
Starring
Dwayne Johnson (The Rock),
Steven Brand,
Kelly Hu,
Michael Clarke Duncan,
Grant Heslov,
Peter Facinelli,
Ralph Moeller,
and
Sherri Howard
Inspired by the legendary Egyptian warrior this prequel to the opening sequence of "The Mummy Returns" is set 5,000 years ago in the notorious city of Gomorrah.
| GENRE(S): |
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
David Hayter
William Osborne
Stephen Sommers (also story)
Jonathan Hales (story)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Chuck Russell
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 1, 2002
Video: October 1, 2002
Theatrical: April 19, 2002
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
85 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...
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Like every other action movie, it's designed for a 14-year-old boy's mentality, but it's enjoyable enough to turn most people into 14-year-old boys.

70
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
The Scorpion King, so far from perfect it isn't funny, is nevertheless one of those movies that catches you up in something bigger than yourself, namely, an archetypal desire to enjoy good trash every now and then.

70
Variety
Dennis Harvey
Rouses excitement mostly from stuntwork and thesp agility rather than CGI excess.

70
LA Weekly
Chuck Wilson
Director Chuck Russell ("The Mask") keeps the computer effects to a minimum, emphasizing instead the essential ingredients of a Saturday-afternoon serial, namely, venom-tipped arrows, pissed-off cobras and a buxom babe.

70
New Times (L.A.)
Luke Y. Thompson
Chuck Russell doesn't make masterpieces -- he makes good B movies ("The Mask," "The Blob"), and The Scorpion King more than ably meets those standards.

63
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Has been fine-tuned for adolescent boys, from the hectic pace right down to the way Cassandra's breasts are always barely draped.
63
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Here is a movie that embraces its goofiness like a Get Out of Jail Free card.

60
Chicago Reader
Ted Shen
Within the limitations of the genre, the film succeeds fairly well, with enough giddy sophomoric humor, stunning fights, titillating sex, and exotic sets and costumes to keep an audience entertained.

60
Film Threat
David Grove
The film is dumb, formulaic, the other actors are scarcely worth mentioning, and the plot is merely an excuse to set up the action scenes. But it didnt bore me; The Rock is ceaselessly entertaining.

60
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
The movie itself is a live-action cartoon, a fast-moving and cheerfully simplistic 88 minutes of exaggerated action put together with the preteen boy in mind.

58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
The Rock manages to play both with a crude candor more genuine than the entertaining if contrived spectacle around him, and a surprising big-screen charisma and ease that makes him a natural-born screen hero.

58
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Isn't incompetent; it's just plodding and obvious. If anything holds it together, it's The Rock's ironic ability to tread lightly, which the movie is neither fast nor inventive enough to recognize as different from the spirit of Arnold.

50
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
For a movie with such a misplaced sense of history, The Scorpion King seems afraid to have more fun with its own stupidity.

50
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
The good news about The Scorpion King is that The Rock turns out to be a charismatic, ingratiating screen presence.

50
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
It is possible to make an engaging action/adventure picture of this sort, but The Scorpion King isn't it. The movie isn't godawful, but it's far from inspired, and, as I sat through its 90 minute running length, I found my mind wandering.

50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
Prototypical summer-movie fare, designed to be consumed, enjoyed, and forgotten all at once.

50
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
It's impossible to overstate how deeply dumb all of this is, but it skims along at a brisk clip and manages not to overdo the nudge-nudge, wink-wink humor.

50
USA Today
Mike Clark
Of course, The Rock looks the part, though with a headband and buckskin, he'd also look like Tonto on steroids.

50
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
A dumb movie, but it's also a knowing one: a cheap castle of lewd trivia and corny excitement built on The Rock.

50
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
The Rock isn't always comfortable delivering dialogue. He's handsome, physically sculpted and farther along dramatically than Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Conan the Barbarian," but he's still learning the simple acting skills an action hero needs.

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
The style here is much more in the spirit of the smash and slash of the Conan movies than the banter and computer-generated monsters of the Mummy movies.

40
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Predictably dumber than its predecessors, though that shouldn't get in the way of its profitability.
38
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Plays like Abbott and Costello Meet Conan the Barbarian.

33
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
Bang-bang, kiss-kiss, yawn-yawn. While dull death metal churns on the soundtrack, Johnson engages in one big brawl after another.

30
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
Ultimately undone by its sheer busyness. The screenwriters never get the story to settle down, and it becomes a case of one damn thing after another.

30
Village Voice
Ed Park
Director Chuck Russell lacks the visual panache, the comic touch, and perhaps the budget of Sommers's title-bout features, which refined a historically grounded B-movie sensibility into pure, gasp-inducing entertainment.

30
Washington Post
Dan Via
The movie doesn't stink exactly, but it comes dispiritingly close.

25
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
Unfortunately, Scorpion King has none of the qualities -- epic sweep, relative originality and heartfelt bloodthirstiness -- that made "Conan" so trashily entertaining.

20
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
For all the swords 'n' sandals hoodoo that makes up the wilting backbone of Jonathan Hale's script, the Rock is, nevertheless, fun to keep an eye on.

10
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
As this chaotic barrage of muscle flexing, swordplay, fireballs, crude digital effects and comic-book quips hurls itself off the screen, it's like having several garbage cans clogged with stale pizza, lukewarm cola, soggy French fries and greasy, ketchup-stained napkins emptied over your head.


The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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