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Battlefield Earth (2000)

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Average Rating: 2.3/10
Reviews Counted: 123
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 120

Ugly, campy, and poorly acted, Battlefield Earth is a stunningly misguided, aggressively bad sci-fi folly.

Average Rating: 2.4/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 28

Ugly, campy, and poorly acted, Battlefield Earth is a stunningly misguided, aggressively bad sci-fi folly.

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Average Rating: 1.6/5
User Ratings: 51,651

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Movie Info

This big-budget science fiction adventure centers on a final battle between good and evil for control of the world. In the year 3000, Earth is ruled by the Psyclos, a vicious alien race of which Terl (John Travolta) is a member, that has laid waste to the planet, killed the majority of the population, and stripped Earth of its valuable resources. Pockets of resistance remain among the surviving humans; Jonnie "Goodboy" Tyler (Barry Pepper) is one such rebel, living in hiding in the mountains

PG-13, 1 hr. 47 min.

Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Directed By: Roger Christian

Written By: Corey Mandel, J D Shapiro, Corey Mandell, J.D. Shapiro

In Theaters: May 12, 2000 Wide

On DVD: Jan 16, 2001

Warner Bros. Pictures

Pretty much the Showgirls of sci-fi shoot-'em-ups.

March 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comments (2)

Dennis Harvey

Variety

Top Critic

This 117-minute adaptation of an 800-page SF adventure for teenagers seems like a miscalculation on multiple levels.

January 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Lisa Alspector

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

[It looks like] Klingons having a bad hair day.

March 19, 2002 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail

| Comment

Rick Groen

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

What this movie lacks in simple logic, it makes up for in its apparent unintentional campy humor.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: CNN.com

| Comment

(CNN.com) Paul Clinton

CNN.com

Top Critic

Battlefield Earth is just a lumbering, poorly photographed piece of derivative sci-fi drivel, full of grunting extras scampering around in animal pelts and more dank, trash-strewn sets than I ever care to see again.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly

| Comment

Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

A noisy, chaotic, sloppily edited and embarrassingly banal and derivative saga.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Detroit News

| Comment

Susan Stark

Detroit News

Top Critic

Worst example of vanity filmmaking in years.

September 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

| Comment

Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

There's really only one way to summarize my sheer hatred for what is possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. And it's through a list.

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed

| Comment

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

"Battlefield Earth," based on a crappy 1982 sci-fi novel by cult religion dips#*t L. Ron Hubbard, is so inept and pathetic that it should forever end any questions about the validity of Hubbard's manufactured religion of Scientology.

April 12, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com

| Comments (6)

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

There's really nothing here you haven't seen before, except maybe the sight of John Travolta walking around with tubes in his nose.

March 10, 2009 Full Review Source: Hollywood.com

| Comment

Steve Ryfle

Hollywood.com

If you are looking for something to hate and despise, get thee to this movie.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review

| Comment

Bob Grimm

Sacramento News & Review

A folly so supreme that it occasionally inspires awe, in the sense that so many people spent so much time and money on it without ever realizing how awful it is.

July 23, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com

| Comment

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

Watching Battlefield Earth is to a movie-watching experience what having a yeast infection is to having sex.

April 6, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com

| Comments (2)

Mark Bourne

DVDJournal.com

Warner Home Video is not marketing Battlefield Earth's inevitable DVD release as some sort of 'camp classic' in the Ed Wood so-bad-it's-good vein. Instead ... as a DVD this is a first-rate product.

April 6, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com

| Comment

Mark Bourne

DVDJournal.com

Place it next to The Omega Code and The Omega Code shines.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: F5 (Wichita, KS)

| Comment

Jake Euker

F5 (Wichita, KS) Source: F5 (Wichita, KS)

Travolta, it seems, had wanted to star in a film of Battlefield Earth since first reading the novel in 1982. Only the all-seeing L Ron knows why.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comments (2)

Nigel Floyd

Time Out

John Travolta will forever be haunted by this sci-fi travesty based on L. Ron Hubbard's novel.

October 25, 2004 Comment (1)

Steve Crum

Kansas City Kansan Source: Kansas City Kansan

Blame this mess on Travolta.

June 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

| Comment

Judith Egerton

Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

Robin did not review "Battlefield Earth"

June 11, 2004 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews

| Comment (1)

Robin Clifford

Reeling Reviews

Scientologist or not, this is as inane as summer blockbusters get.

May 22, 2003 Full Review Source: Film Blather

| Comment

Eugene Novikov

Film Blather

If this is what we have to look forward to in the year 3000, count me out.

May 14, 2003 Comments (2)

Jeanne Aufmuth

Palo Alto Weekly

The sets are laughably cheap, and the aliens look like geeks from a Star Trek convention who couldn't afford to buy the "good" Klingon costumes

March 20, 2003 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com

| Comment

Brian Mckay

eFilmCritic.com

This film maintains a surprising consistency of bad acting and directing almost from the first frame to the last.

February 8, 2003 Full Review Source: Film Quips Online

| Comment

John R. McEwen

Film Quips Online

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Battlefield Earth

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It's difficult to describe how bad this movie is. It's one of those movies that's so bad it deserves to be classified as a comedy.

December 4, 2011

Joe McCall

Super Reviewer

Well la dee dah. What do we have here? Oh yeah, one of the worst movies ever made. Terrible script, beyond awful acting, absolutely no logic, pitiful lighting, ugly sets. I truly believe that there are only about 50 or 60 people who even found this one tolerable. It may very well be one of the 10 worst movies of all

August 23, 2011

Marc Lewis

Super Reviewer

Battlefield Earth Quotes

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1. Terl: While you were still learning how to SPEELL YOUR NAME! I, was being trained, to conquer GALAXIES!
– Submitted by Aaron N (21 days ago)
1. Terl: While you were still learning how spell your name. I was being trained to conquer galaxies.
– Submitted by Rocky F (2 months ago)
1. Terl: Do you WANT LUNCH?
– Submitted by Mike L (4 months ago)
1. Terl: While you were still learning how spell your name. I was being trained to conquer galaxies.
– Submitted by Steven P (11 months ago)
1. Terl: You are out of your skull bone if you think that I am going to write on the report "shot by man-animal" as the cause of the death unless I see it!
– Submitted by Chris P (13 months ago)