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Boarding Gate

Boarding Gate (2007)

tomatometer

30

Average Rating: 4.9/10
Reviews Counted: 44
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 31

Boarding Gate has little substance beneath its faux-thriller surface, and marks a step down from director Olivier Assayas' usual work.

33

Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 15
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 10

Boarding Gate has little substance beneath its faux-thriller surface, and marks a step down from director Olivier Assayas' usual work.

audience

20

liked it
Average Rating: 2.5/5
User Ratings: 2,255

My Rating

Movie Info

From director Olivier Assayas comes this erotic thriller starring Asia Argento as Sandra, a former prostitute, and Michael Madsen as Miles, her onetime pimp-turned-high-powered businessman. Brought back together after a separation, Sandra and Miles are reunited when Sandra returns to Paris after an extended absence. Despite the fact that neither of the two former lovers are the same people they were back in the day, their kinky sexual relationship is nonetheless rekindled. It seems that some

R, 1 hr. 46 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Olivier Assayas

Jun 3, 2008

Magnolia Pictures

Cast

All Critics (45) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (31) | DVD (1)

What it all means is up for grabs, but for connoisseurs of sadomasochistic nastiness, it's a must-see.

April 17, 2008 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | Comment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The main thing interesting about Boarding Gate is the spectacle of Assayas' effort -- the attitude and the international backdrop -- not the story itself.

April 11, 2008 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The plot may be murky, but actress Asia Argento is a clear and commanding force throughout.

March 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This hypnotic, angular thriller about sex, murder, betrayal and money takes you on a feverish journey from nowhere to somewhere.

March 21, 2008 Full Review Source: Salon.com | Comment
Salon.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A ridiculous poseur thriller that seems to be made up of the slow moments from Hong Kong action films and Euro-flashy stuff like Run Lola Run.

March 21, 2008 Full Review Source: New York Daily News | Comment
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Even an ultra-feral performance by Asia Argento -- the art house Angelina Jolie -- isn't enough to suffer through Boarding Gate, a draggy and incoherent thriller by French director Oliver Assayas.

March 21, 2008 Full Review Source: New York Post | Comment
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Distills genre tropes (and their consequent pleasures) to their lean, potent essence.

November 30, 2008 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comment
Lessons of Darkness

When all the nonsense of Boarding Gate ends, only Asia remains in memory. She can light up the best and the worst of 'em.

July 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat

As for Argento ... yeah, she's got something. Now we'd like to see her in a movie that makes sense.

April 24, 2008 Comment
Kansas City Star

In the "B" movie days, a story like this would shoot by in about 70 minutes without time to pick holes in the motives. But Assayas takes a bloated, boring 106 minutes.

April 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

Could have been an exciting and inventive film, if only it weren't so bland and familiar.

April 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Oregonian | Comment
Oregonian

Like just about everything in Boarding Gate, the finale suggests that its creators have been watching too many other movies with similar premises and payoffs.

March 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Seattle Times | Comment
Seattle Times

[Assayas] has concocted a plot that is dizzying and annoying at times, and it's hard to care about the characters in the shifting story. But B-movie veteran Argento's portrayal of Sandra is like watching a car careening down an incline.

March 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | Comment
Los Angeles Daily News

Writer-director Olivier Assayas must have been working out some personal demons to make something as embarrassing as Boarding Gate, the most trite and trivial piece of sleaze since Abel Ferrara's Snake Eyes.

March 27, 2008 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Comment
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Boring gate.

March 23, 2008 Full Review Source: Horror.com | Comment

There are long, droning bouts of dialog about nothing meant to link scenes together, but all Boarding Gate really does is fixate on watching Asia Argento do stuff.

March 22, 2008 Full Review Source: TheDivaReview.com | Comment
TheDivaReview.com

The latest entry in this perplexing preoccupation with lowlifes is Boarding Gate, an astonishingly un-thrilling thriller.

March 21, 2008 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | Comment
Boxoffice Magazine

Seriously flawed and not for every taste, the film was shot quickly and on the cheap, and is driven by Argento's slurred, scratchy voice and Bette David eyes.

March 21, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Boarding Gate

At firt i didnt wanna see this, i wasnt interested in this at all and i should have stuck to that because this movie is extremely shit! i gave it 1 and half stars just because there was a shooting and murders that made it a little bit interesting but the rest shit! The sotryline is shit and so shit that even at the end

October 10, 2008
FiLmCrAzY
Film Crazy

Super Reviewer

Meandering thriller with much style but little substance. Argento may have a smouldering beauty but her acting leaves much to be desired and Madsen is unconvincing.

February 19, 2009
gor41
Gordon A

Super Reviewer

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