This is a dramatic, slow moving Mad Max with a kid along for the awful ride. It's a survival tale, and The Road should be seen for those who want to keep carrying the fire.
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11/26/09
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The Road (2009)
72
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:124
Fresh:89
Rotten:35
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: The Road's commitment to Cormac McCarthy's dark vision may prove too unyielding for some, but the film benefits from hauntingly powerful performances from Viggo Mortensen and Kodi McPhee.
Rated: R [See Full Rating]
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Nov 25, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $1,977,453
Synopsis: After the Oscar-winning success of the adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, another of the author's works arrives on screen. Viggo Mortensen stars in THE ROAD, a thriller... [More]
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi McPhee, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce
Director: John Hillcoat
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Reviews for The Road
Is the film too grim? Or not grim enough? In a perverse way, I fear it's both.
11/26/09
Top CriticBy only allowing us a peek at the characters' interior lives before we're forced to move on down that eternal Road is to deny this fascinating piece its full power. An emotional highway robbery, if you will.
11/26/09
Alas, this Road is long and hard, but it leads nowhere.
11/26/09
I could watch my favorite stars gather supplies all day long.
11/25/09
A powerful film adapted from Cormac McCarthy's powerful apocalyptic novel...One of the most faithful translations of a novel to cinema that I've ever seen.
11/25/09
The high-minded antithesis of 2012... The Road is mired in morning-after misery, set in a world where fear of a living hell is more reasonable than hope of heaven.
11/25/09
Mortensen and Smit-McPhee may deliver intense, often gut-wrenching performances, but their journey is too mysterious and soaked in one-note misery to keep you rapt.
11/25/09
Tedious, dull and anticlimactic despite decent performances and exquisite cinematography filled with bleak images. It's ultimately an underwhelming experience that lacks emotional resonance.
11/25/09
Hillcoat's noble effort ultimately falls under the category of things much better imagined than seen. Instead of The End of All That Is, this is, well, just a movie.
11/25/09
This year's entry in the Movies You Admire and Respect but Don't Ever Want to Watch Again Sweepstakes.
11/25/09
Top CriticThe most arresting aspect of The Road is just how fully the filmmakers have realized this bleak, blighted landscape of a modern society reduced to savagery.
11/25/09
Top CriticMortensen has proven to be one of the best actors in the business, and The Road is his masterpiece.
11/25/09
(T)hanks to Hillcoat's reverence to the source material and his desire to visualize McCarthy's mind's eye Armageddon, we wind up with something so harsh it's almost unbearable.
11/25/09
The Road possesses undeniable sweep and a grim kind of grandeur, but it ultimately plays like a zombie movie with literary pretensions.
11/25/09
I'm not sure if The Road could ever have worked on the big screen, but I am sure that this version could be used to make that case.
11/25/09
Zombieland was the same movie with laughs, but if you take away the comedy, what is left? Nothing, on a vast scale.
11/25/09
Top CriticCormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize–winning, Oprah-endorsed, post-apocalyptic survivalist prose poem... was a quick, lacerating read. John Hillcoat's literal adaptation is, by contrast, a long, dull slog.
11/25/09
Top CriticThis adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is intense and, yes, depressing -- and earns every minute that it rattles inside your head.
11/25/09
Unless you're far better at walling yourself off from identification than I am, you walk out in a state of untreated shock. Rather than thinking about the movie afterward, you wait for it to wear off.
11/25/09
Latest News for The Road
November 24, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Flee From Ninja Assassin
This week at the movies, we've got martial arts mayhem (Ninja Assassin, starring Rain and Naomie Harris); family-friendly hi jinks (Old Dogs, starring John Travolta and Robin... More...
October 02, 2009:
New: Brand New Trailer and Poster
More...
September 22, 2009:
Viggo Mortensen Dismisses Retirement Rumors, Talks The Road
With the long-delayed "The Road" finally reaching theaters in a few weeks, Viggo Mortensen might have one of the year's best movies on his hands -- and despite rumors of his... More...
September 08, 2009:
Up in the Air, The Road Impress at Telluride
"Up in the Air" generated applause, "The Road" brought people to tears, and "Paranormal Activity" scared them half to death. This year's Telluride Film Festival is on the books,... More...
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