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Twisted
Paramount Pictures


2.1

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 13 votes
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FILM:

Quills

MPAA RATING: R for violence, language and sexuality

Starring Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, Andy Garcia, David Strathairn, Russell Wong, Camryn Manheim, Mark Pellegrino, and Titus Welliver

Newly promoted police inspector Jessica Shepard (Judd) is searching for a serial killer, and is shocked to discover that the men she has recently slept with are the victims. (Paramount)

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Sarah Thorp
DIRECTED BY:	Philip Kaufman
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 31, 2004 Video: August 31, 2004 Theatrical: February 27, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	97 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / Germany

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...

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Twisted is an unusual forensic crime film because it's witty and sophisticated as well as taut and creepy.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Twisted is a movie so derivative it's hard to pinpoint exactly how many other thrillers it poaches from.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A neo-noir movie nightmare gone sadly wrong.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

By Twisted's final twist, though, it's all Judd can do to keep a straight face.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

It's always rather sad to watch gifted performers stranded in a tepid thriller. You can see them, as professional pretenders, trying to believe that they're creating a character, but the lie is transparent -- all they're really doing is advancing a retarded plot.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

A snore.

Empire Anna Smith

The movie may dole out a few guilty pleasures, but you won’t believe a word of it.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Laborious and nonsensical psychological thriller, a mediocre piece of studio hackwork unredeemed by a first-rate director.

Premiere Sara Brady

Laughably clichéd, abominably written, astonishingly dreadful attempt at a psycho-sexual thriller.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Twisted is a D-grade thriller with an A-list cast. It's a disappointment from start to finish...But, in the final quarter-hour, it committed the unpardonable sin of insulting my intelligence.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Walks like a thriller and talks like a thriller, but it squawks like a turkey.

USA Today Mike Clark

This is by far Kaufman's worst outing since becoming a major filmmaker more than a quarter-century ago, and the fact that his only other stinker from this period is 1993's "Rising Sun" means that maybe he ought to stay away from cop melodramas.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

No one associated with the film tries very hard, from cinematographer Peter Deming -- San Francisco has never looked so drab -- to composer Mark Isham, whose watery jazz score is meant to summon melancholy but merely relieves insomnia.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It's an old maxim that you can't make a good movie from a bad script. But with the suspense thriller Twisted, Philip Kaufman shows that you can make one that looks like it should be good.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A nasty, formulaic and unforgivably obvious procedural.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Totally unwatchable if it weren't for Ashley Judd.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Twisted is rubbish, but it looks good enough, moves fast enough and does improve as it progresses, principally because its plot disintegrtes to the point of outright comedy.

Newsweek David Ansen

Sarah Thorp’s lazy script lurches from the lame to the ludicrous.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Director Philip Kaufman's usual flair for erotic detail largely deserts him here, and this thriller seems most interested in lingering over battered and bloodied male faces.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Gives new meaning to the word "obvious."

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Insipid embarrassment.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Combining the ludicrous with the lurid, Twisted is twisted all right.

Variety Scott Foundas

A dreary, weary psychosexual thriller that's neither sexy nor thrilling.

Entertainment Weekly Scott Brown

A pretty lousy movie, which would be offensive were it not safely neutered by its own stupidity.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Surely it couldn't be meant as dramatic realism! But it is. And amazingly, the movie gets worse as it goes along.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The movie is a resounding dud: immaculately composed and shot (very much in the Kaufman tradition), but riddled with crime-movie cliches, wincingly obvious in its plot twists and rather badly acted.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Not surprisingly, only Samuel L. Jackson seems fully to understand that he's in a bad movie, and he makes a virtue of it, using it as an excuse to hang loose, overact and ride the scenes for wherever they might go.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Eerily similar in its story line to "In the Cut," the much pasted Meg Ryan sex-and-death thriller that came out last year. Only it's worse.

Slate David Edelstein

Kaufman proves again how miraculously in synch with his material he can be. Directing a fourth-rate, maladroit, derivative mystery, he becomes a fourth-rate, maladroit, derivative director--worse even than a TV-movie hack.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Ridiculously overwrought.

Village Voice Jorge Morales

No mystery here: Twisted is D.O.A.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

In the hands of a more gleefully provocative filmmaker, this variation on the standard erotic-thriller stew of sleaze, tease and murder, this ludicrous farrago might have been tawdry fun.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Twisted marks a bottoming-out for pretty much everyone involved, particularly Judd and director Philip Kaufman, who should know better. The film is the creative equivalent of waking up naked in a puddle of cheap wine and vomit.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

So utterly devoid of suspense, energy or credibility it should have been shipped straight to the remainder bin at Blockbuster.

The average user rating for this movie is 2.1 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Graham M. gave it a0:
Pointless.

Bvyuo V. gave it a 10:
Amazing.

tyler c gave it a 0:
I thought with Ashley Judd, Andy Garcia, and Samuel L Jackson this movie would at least be watchable. Boy was I wrong! I was never engaged with the plot, did not care who the killer was, and almost fell asleep to this movie. This gives the "thriller" genre a bad name!

Sue H. gave it a 0:
I got a beef against Baltimore Sun / Michael Sragow how the hell could he give it 100 for this movie? Sue this paper immediately and get your money back for seeing a movie that pukes of vomit for a false rating. "Sony Pictures may be nearing a settlement in the class action over the use of fake critics, filed by two LA filmgoers, Omar Rezec and Ann Belknap. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the settlement - which charged Sony with misleading filmgoers by quoting a fictional critic in advertisements - could be for more than $1m, meaning that individual moviegoers could receive as much as $5 each, depending on how many decide to claim. "

Efe B. gave it a 0:
I think since they are making films like this...metacritic fellas need to create a "below zero" rating system that enables us the mighty online critics to be able to score points like "-8". because frankly...i think i am putting the big fat red zero to shame by associating it with this. i am gona kill this movie...you wanna read it and have a good time?...here we go, number one: the name of the film is twisted, but for something to be "twisted" it needs to be straight first...thats not this movie. number two: make sure you bring a friend with you when you see this film, because you will need a witness to remind you that you were NOT infact in hell, but rather in your home watching a dvd. nunmber treeee: if you want to be a filmmaker or just join the film industry, this film is sure to make you wanna be a plumber, you will think that cleaning peoples toilets is a more rewarding line of work. number four: make sure you are not eating while watching this film, because whatever you eat, will reappear smack on your plate in the manner of vomit. number five: your t.v might reek of rotten flesh for weeks and attract near by rodents because this film STINKS. number six: while watching this movie, you will question your sanity and you may rise to a conclusion that you are insane, pick up an axe and swing it left and right, damaging furniture or other civilians. number seven: if you make it through the 50 minutes of this film, you will have an urge to receive a medal of courage of somesort, you will stand up, right hand on salute and just wait there for hours for nothing. number whatever: you will write a long and low rating rant at metacritic, and beg hollywod to not kick you in the bottom once again.

Dean T. gave it a 0:
Ashley Judd is a gifted actress doing a surprisely bad movie. I will give her the benefit of the doubt and say it was her agent that talk her into doing this crap. This movie sucks. The plot has so many holes even Sherlock Holmes would walk out of the cinema. The ending is totally implausible to say the least. Leave your brain - thinking cap at home.

Lumiere gave it a 0:
Worst movie of the year. On a level so bad its worse then Gigli. Everything is wrong with this film that's possible. Please avoid it or you will feel horrible.

Twisted Paramount Pictures

Twisted
Paramount Pictures