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97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
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Beer for My Horses
75
Boy A
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Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips
48
Death Defying Acts
85
Edge of Heaven, The
33
Elite Squad
80
Encounters at the End of the World
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
54
Get Smart
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
34
Happening, The
25
Hell Ride
78
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
44
Henry Poole is Here
61
Incredible Hulk, The
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
46
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
xx
Kiss the Bride
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
73
Kung Fu Panda
52
Milarepa
62
Mister Foe
53
Mister Lonely
74
Mongol
61
On the Rumba River
83
Paranoid Park
32
Perfect Holiday, The
49
Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, The
63
Planet B-Boy
72
Priceless
63
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
70
Standard Operating Procedure
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
57
Stone Angel, The
47
Strangers, The
61
Stuck
55
Sukiyaki Western Django
63
This Christmas
71
To the Limit
72
Transsiberian
71
Tropic Thunder
79
Visitor, The
93
WALL-E
37
War, Inc.
xx
Whaledreamers
54
What We Do Is Secret
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
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.
|
Sweet Home Alabama
Touchstone Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some language/sexual references
Starring
Reese Witherspoon,
Josh Lucas,
Patrick Dempsey,
Candice Bergen,
Ethan Embry,
Fred Ward,
and
Mary Kay Place
Bound and determined to end their contentious relationship once and for all, newly-engaged New Yorker Melanie (Witherspoon) sneaks back home to Alabama to confront her past (including her redneck husband), only to discover that you can take the girl out of the South, but you can never take the South out of the girl. (Touchstone Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Romance
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
C. Jay Cox
Douglas J. Eboch (story)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Andy Tennant
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: February 4, 2003
Video: February 4, 2003
Theatrical: September 27, 2002
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
105 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
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
It is a fantasy, a sweet, light-hearted fairy tale with Reese Witherspoon at its center. She is as lovable as Doris Day would have been in this role (in fact, Doris Day was in this role, in "Please Don't Eat the Daisies").

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Jonathan Curiel
There's a certain formulaic and familiar quality about Sweet Home Alabama, but it doesn't matter.

70
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
If Sweet Home Alabama, directed by Andy Tennant from a screenplay by C. Jay Cox, has the ingredients for a classic screwball comedy, the movie is in such a rush to entertain that it barely connects the dots of its story. But it still has its effectively goofy comic moments.

63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Die-hard fans of Witherspoon and the romantic comedy genre will probably find enough to like in this film to make it worth a trip to the theater. Everyone else would be best served by spending their hard-earned money on something else.

63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
If you can tolerate the redneck-versus-blueblood cliches that the film trades in, Sweet Home Alabama is diverting in the manner of Jeff Foxworthy's stand-up act.

63
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
It's only when you're leaving the theater that her spell wears off and you realize just how bad the movie, directed by Andy Tennant, really is.

60
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
If you're a fan of Witherspoon, this movie was produced, shot, edited and distributed entirely for you.

60
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
Makes a suitable staging post in Witherspoon's headlong career. She may want to forget it by Christmas, yet its cushioned slackness allows her to sharpen her grasp of a steely American type: the girl next door who will kill to get out of town. [30 Sept 2002, p. 145]
60
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
At the movie's thoroughly expected conclusion, a visual joke has a bedraggled cat licking at the icing on a wedding cake, but it's really Melanie who gets to have it and eat it, too.
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Witherspoon shines. She's never looked better, and she carries herself with both her usual comedic flair and a surprising elegance.

50
Portland Oregonian
Kim Morgan
Too sugary to be funny or offensive or even offensively funny, though any kind of funny would be welcome here.
50
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Trying to resist Reese is like trying to resist Reese's Pieces: They're always the same but you can't help yourself.

50
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
A good-natured but massively flawed little comedy.

50
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
This is the usual cartoon of hound dogs, roadhouses, antebellum mansions, and Civil War reenactments. Aside from that, it's not a bad date movie.

50
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Fluff in the tradition of Hollywood's screwball comedies of remarriage, lacking the wit or grace of such classics as "His Girl Friday" (1940) and "The Awful Truth" (1937).

50
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Witherspoon has the class, the sass and the full-out talent to sustain a major career. Who else could turn the wimpy Sweet Home Alabama into a date-movie winner? She's one of that select group who is worth watching in anything. Even in this less-than-magic kingdom, Reese rules.

50
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
Isn't just lame; it's neutered.

50
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
The whole dumb movie is a baloney cake, but the enticing icing on it is Reese Witherspoon, who manages to have a few moments of spontaneous fun in this half-baked store-bought comedy.
50
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Unbearable were Witherspoon not such a genuinely attractive performer.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
It doesn't have a speck of authentic heart -- you can bet its Hollywood creators wouldn't move to Alabama if their lives depended on it -- but if you belong to the growing legion of Witherspoon worshippers, this is definitely the movie of the week.

50
USA Today
Mike Clark
The latest picture to give you the sense that Hollywood filmmakers simply plucked another old pop-tune title ripe for ripping off, then were shaken by the rude reality of coming up with a script to jerry-build around it.

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Light to the point of disposability, Sweet Home Alabama is a small screwball comic idea that spins out far too long.

50
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
What it needs is a little more dirtying down. What it needs, in short, is less New York, and more Alabama.

40
Village Voice
Laura Sinagra
The clunky yee-haw script full of tired bitch/angel oppositions and Witherspoon's school-play petulance cranks the twang to a blare.

40
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
The film does coast along smoothly to the inevitable, which is a credit to the always-game Reese Witherspoon, who's courteous enough to pretend she doesn't know what's coming, then make it look like a huge surprise.

40
Los Angeles Times
Manohla Dargis
The South takes another beating in Sweet Home Alabama, but that's nothing compared with the one conferred on the sweetheart personality of its pint-sized Gen. Sherman.

40
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Revives the format but not the fun of classic Hollywood screwball comedies about rediscovering the virtues of a former mate.

40
Film Threat
Rick Kisonak
Goes south early and its director never comes close to turning things around.

40
Time
Richard Corliss
The film (directed by Andy Tennant) has more problems than Melanie, and they're insoluble. Its lazy calculation telegraphs each plot turn and underlines emotions with corn-pone music.

38
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
And Witherspoon? She does the American equivalent of a mechanical British performance: She hits every note too perfectly. There's no shadow to her smile.

38
Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro
This movie is phony, phony, phony -- from its Disneyland version of the Deep South to its pious lessons about the values of simple rural living.

38
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
A romantic comedy so rote, dull and predictable that it makes "You've Got Mail" seem innovative and fresh.

38
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Speaking of sounding Southern, I have to admit that the accents didn't match, and half the actors couldn't even do accents. But since we all sound alike down here, that's no big deal.

30
New Times (L.A.)
Robert Wilonsky
Which leaves Witherspoon, that delicious pastry, to heave the movie on her small shoulders and carry it home. The load is light -- the movie weighs no more than a glass of flat champagne -- but even she can't withstand the burden.
30
LA Weekly
Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
To call the film contrived would imply that some sort of effort had been made, when Sweet Home Alabama is nothing but dead lazy and slow — y'all.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 53 User Votes
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