GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

DVD and Video

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 



 

Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Sonny
Samuel Goldwyn Films

Sonny reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 31 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.6 out of 10
based on 9 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for strong sexuality, language, some drug use and violence

Starring James Franco, Brenda Blethyn, Mena Suvari, Harry Dean Stanton, Brenda Vaccaro, Scott Caan, Seymour Cassel, and Nicolas Cage

The story of a young man, Sonny (Franco), living in New Orleans and trained to follow the family tradition as a paid male prostitute for wealthy women.


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: John Carlen  
DIRECTED BY: Nicolas Cage  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: August 19, 2003 
Video: August 19, 2003 
Theatrical: December 27, 2002 
RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

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...

70
Variety Lisa Nesselson
Besides "Midnight Cowboy" and "American Gigolo," there aren't many mainstream movies centered on straight male prostitutes. Sonny is a worthy, if indie-style, addition to the list.
Read Full Review
63
USA Today Mike Clark
While compellingly watchable, it's as overheated as Cage-the-actor's 1991 soft-core (and direct-to-video) "Zandalee," also set in New Orleans.
Read Full Review
50
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
The day-to-day realities, especially economic, of Sonny and Jewel's lives could have been more fully detailed to good effect, and Cage might have also have risked setting off the tenderness of his storytelling with an edgier style. Even so, few films take the viewer by surprise with such emotional impact as Sonny.
Read Full Review
50
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Amid the cliché and foreshadowing, Cage manages a degree of casual realism.
Read Full Review
40
TV Guide Ken Fox
It's just plain lurid when it isn't downright silly, and that "drunk cam," a blurred, cockeyed lens through which Sonny's soused point-of-view is shown, is just a terrible idea.
Read Full Review
30
The New York Times Dana Stevens
Emotionally incoherent.
Read Full Review
25
New York Post Lou Lumenick
An instant candidate for worst movie of the year.
Read Full Review
25
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Shows what can happen when a bunch of good actors get together without adult supervision. They emote all over the place, banging into each other, talking too loud, knocking over furniture, wallowing in clichés and otherwise behaving like rank amateurs.
Read Full Review
20
LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
Preposterous and tedious, Sonny is spiked with unintentional laughter that, unfortunately, occurs too infrequently to make the film even a guilty pleasure.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Douglas R. gave it a10:
Extremely well done and one of the year's best films!

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: iPhone 3G | Fantasy Football | Moneywatch | Antivirus Software | Recipes | E3 2009

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use