Bunraku
ARC Entertainment (II) | Release Date: September 30, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
28
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
3
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Village VoiceMark HolcombSep 27, 2011
Insular and indulgent as it is, though, the movie is never less than a visual treat. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreSep 28, 2011
Bunraku comes up frustratingly empty, and just as many of its elements simply bloat an overlong run time. (Demi Moore shows up seemingly to give the film more than one female speaking part.) It looks good, but Bunraku feels like a Frankenstein's monster of references that someone failed to animate. Read full review
40
Time OutEric HynesSep 27, 2011
Bunraku aspires to be "Kill Bill: Vol 3"; it's more like an ornate pitch for a "Dick Tracy" reboot. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttSep 25, 2011
Moshe, who wrote and directed, creates a boldly Expressionistic alternate reality to background this heavy-on-the-action story, but neglects narrative and character beyond the most basic strokes. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisSep 29, 2011
If Bunraku were serious about subverting or reinventing the genres it's cobbled together, Moore would play the gunslinger or the samurai or the crime boss. But no. All she gets are a couple of scenes that demonstrate that she still looks great soaking wet. Read full review
30
The New York TimesAndy WebsterSep 29, 2011
Everything feels secondhand in Guy Moshe's Bunraku, a potpourri of genres that ends up a morass of clichés. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleSep 29, 2011
No image or moment is grounded – every shot is augmented with restless animation, smart-ass narration or video game sounds. The artificiality of it all is smothering. Read full review
30
VarietyDennis HarveySep 25, 2011
It's a picture that's akin to a terrarium of plastic flowers -- gaudily decorative, but airless and lifeless. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierSep 30, 2011
It should surprise no one that visually quirky, graphic-novelish, pulp-noir action flicks rarely come through the sausage machine intact. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineNick SchagerSep 25, 2011
Writer-director Guy Moshe's crime saga is a work of second-generation derivation, weaving together scraps from homages to Westerns, film noir, samurai films, gangster pics, and class-warfare dramas. Read full review
0
New York PostLou LumenickSep 30, 2011
Extremely cool-looking in the manner of "Sin City,'' but clumsily staged, slackly acted and mind-numbingly dull, Israeli director Guy Moshe's English-language fantasy is set in a future when guns, and apparently coherent conversations, have been outlawed. Read full review
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