All The King's Men (2006)
Average Rating: 4.2/10
Reviews Counted: 155
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 138
With a scenery-chewing performance from Sean Penn, an absence of political insight, and an overall lack of narrative cohesiveness, these Men give Oscar bait a bad name.
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Critic Reviews: 47
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 43
With a scenery-chewing performance from Sean Penn, an absence of political insight, and an overall lack of narrative cohesiveness, these Men give Oscar bait a bad name.
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Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 91,694
Movie Info
The legacy of a populist Southern politician whose lofty ambitions for the future leave him open to corruption and scandal is detailed as author Robert Penn Warren's thinly veiled portrait of Depression-era Louisiana governor Huey Long comes to the screen -- again -- this time courtesy of director and screenwriter Steven Zaillian. Willie Stark (Sean Penn) is a man of the people, and for the people; at least that's what he tells the people. Propelled into a race for governor by opposing forces
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Cast
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Sean Penn
Willie Stark -
Jude Law
Jack Burden -
Kate Winslet
Anne Stanton -
James Gandolfini
Tiny Duffy -
Mark Ruffalo
Adam Stanton -
Patricia Clarkson
Sadie Burke -
Kathy Baker
Mrs. Burden -
Jackie Earle Haley
Sugar Boy -
Anthony Hopkins
Judge Irwin -
Kevin Dunn
Alex -
Tom McCarthy
Editor -
Glenn Morshower
Commissioner -
Frederic Forrest
Willie's Father -
Talia Balsam
Lucy Stark -
Michael Cavanaugh
Mr. Peyton
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All Critics (155) | Top Critics (47) | Fresh (17) | Rotten (138) | DVD (7)
What should have been an incisive study of the American political scene turns out a lumbering celluloid white elephant.
The film isn't dreadful: it is just generally disappointing.
The director can't seem to find a natural rhythm for the movie -- it's portentous and vague at the same time.
All the King's Men was suspended in editing limbo for nearly a year, and the final result only makes the mind reel at what it could have been carved from.
It's Zaillian's overdirection that cooks this whole mess into a flavorless gumbo. He never shows you something just once when he could show it twice and never leaves a point unhammered home.
All the King's Men is full of bits that work; unfortunately, they never quite add up to a whole.
There's a good movie in here somewhere but Zaillian's muddied storytelling and lack of focus hides it beyond recall.
All the King's Men is a dull movie, mainly due to the fact that it is full of boring characters which are poorly written by writer/director Steven Zaillian and led by an underwhelming Jude Law.
Static and dreary, drained of juice and drenched in "respectable" lighting
"All the King's Men" is a grand scale embarrassment.
Mesmo que não o comparemos ao clássico de 49, este filme constrange pelo roteiro confuso, pela montagem artificial, pelas atuações decepcionantes e pela trilha excessiva, salvando-se apenas a bela fotografia.
...a lush melodrama about the corruptibility of us all.
A "shouty" film... a bit too long, a bit heavy handed with the rhetoric.
Leaves out too much of the story to really work. Why are these people doing what they're doing? If I hadn't seen the 1949 version first, I would not have known.
As much an old-fashioned potboiler as it is a political morality tale.
It's beautifully shot, acted and designed, but there's little cohesion in the story. Maybe one day we'll see a better cut, but for now this is a sadly fumbled opportunity.
We have a series of beautiful threads weaved together in such haphazard fashion that, despite their potential, form a surprisingly ugly quilt.
A Louisiana swamp of overacting and muddled plotlines sinks this cumbersome new version of Robert Penn Warren's political thriller.
Penn is terrific and the production values are impressive, but All the King's Men gets lost in a poorly-structured, overly complicated plot that fails to engage.
It's a typical politician's tale -- all talk and no action.
Plays as a veritable autopsy of itself; to watch the movie is to watch it go wrong, to observe the tempting gleam of the film that might have been grow ever dimmer.
What's worse -- a bad remake of a classic film, or just a bad literary adaptation with delusions of grandeur?
This is a misfire of almost epic proportions, a lavishly produced but wholly hollow and nonsensical adaptation of a magnificently constructed novel.
a powerful story in real life, but it just doesn't come across on film.
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