District 9 (2009)
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 261
Fresh: 234 | Rotten: 27
Technically brilliant and emotionally wrenching, District 9 has action, imagination, and all the elements of a thoroughly entertaining science-fiction classic.
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Critic Reviews: 44
Fresh: 39 | Rotten: 5
Technically brilliant and emotionally wrenching, District 9 has action, imagination, and all the elements of a thoroughly entertaining science-fiction classic.
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Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 1,168,006
Movie Info
Director Neill Blomkamp teams with producer Peter Jackson for this tale of extraterrestrial refugees stuck in contemporary South Africa. It's been 28 years since the aliens made first contact, but there was never any attack from the skies, nor any profound technological revelation capable of advancing our society. Instead, the aliens were treated as refugees. They were the last of their kind, and in order to accommodate them, the government of South Africa set up a makeshift home in District 9
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Cast
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Sharlto Copley
Wikus van der Merwe -
Jason Cope
Christopher Johnson,... -
David James
Koobus Venter -
Vanessa Haywood
Tania Van de Merwe -
Mandla Gaduka
Fundiswa Mhlanga -
Kenneth Nkosi
Thomas -
Eugene Khumbanyiwa
Obesandjo -
Louis Minnaar
Piet Smit -
William Allen Young
Dirk Michaels -
Nathalie Boltt
Sarah Livingstone - ... -
Sylvaine Strike
Dr. Katrina McKenzie -
Elizabeth Mkandawie
Interviewee -
John Sumner
Les Feldman - MIL En... -
Greg Melvill-Smith
Interviewer -
Nick Blake
Francois Moraneu - C... -
Jed Brophy
James Hope - Police ... -
Marian Hooman
Sandra Van de Merwe -
Vittorio Leonardi
Michael Blomstein - ... -
Johan van Schoor
Nicolas Van de Merwe -
Stella Steenkamp
Phyllis Sinderson - ... -
Mampho Brescia
Reporter -
Tim Irwin Gordon
Clive Henderson - En... -
Morne Erasmus
MNU Medic -
Anthony Bishop
Paramedic -
David Clatworthy
Doctor -
Mike Huff
Doctor -
Anthony Fridjhon
MNU Executive -
Hlengiwe Madlala
Sangoma -
Siyabonga Radebe
Obesandjo's Lieutena... -
Melt Sieberhagen
Anton Grobler -
Andre Odendaal
Mike Van Kerland -
Jonathan Taylor
MNU Doctor -
John Ellis
MNU Medical Scientes... -
Louise Saint Claire
MNU Medical Scientis... -
Alan Glauber
MNU Operating Room D... -
Nicolas Herbstein
MNU Biolab Technicia... -
Norman Anstey
MNU Lead Medical Tec... -
Nick Boraine
Craig Weldon -
Robert Hobbs
Ross Pienaar -
Sibulele Gcilitshana
U Günters Woman, U ... -
Mahendra Raghunath
SABC Anchor Person -
Phillip Mathebula
Meat Stall Seller -
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District 9 Trailer & Photos
All Critics (261) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (234) | Rotten (27) | DVD (17)
You don't feel bamboozled, fooled, or patronized by District 9, as you did by most of the summer blockbusters. You feel winded, shaken, and shamed.
Top CriticPerhaps we're witnessing a new dawn for politically engaged sci-fi and horror, with Blomkamp as a latter-day George Romero. Either way, this is a stunningly impressive debut.
To call this the best shrimp-from-outer-space South African apartheid allegory ever made does not begin to do it justice. But it's a start.
This is a great movie.
What an achievement in filmmaking.
The backstory beats the hell out of the present-tense plot, a routine affair in which a well-meaning doofus working for the Man is infected with a virus, starts turning into an alien himself, and falls in with the oppressed creatures.
If the basic idea is provocative, District 9 never lives up to the promise of its allegorical freight.
District 9's skid into rote convention is matched by a retreat from the documentary conceit that so expertly delivered us into this strange world in the first place.
This stunning mindbender of a movie attempts to prove that science fiction can handle the heftiest allegorical payloads, even the appalling shame of apartheid.
Every once in a great while -- perhaps only a handful of times each decade -- that rare film comes completely out of left field to let us know that there are still some original ideas out there, and that cinema can still be fresh and exciting.
Ghee whiz, how abusive can you get with a movie camera?
This is an excellent idea searching for a film worthy of it. This ain't it.
Smart, funny, touching, thought-provoking and utterly insane in the action department, District 9 is 2009's most entertaining movie by a light year.
Despite its shortcomings, District 9 is an engaging sci-fi romp that features solid CGI work.
A rocking, rolling action drama about alien castaways that just want to go home, an evil corporation that wants to capitalize on them at any cost, and one man who freakishly gets caught in the middle.
District 9 has the potential to satisfy two mutually exclusive groups of bottom-feeding moviegoers.
District 9 isn't without its rough edges. It's a bit obvious and doesn't take as full advantage of its premise as it could. But it's also a visually spectacular and cares mostly about its characters, and that's a rare thing in film today.
Part alien invasion flick, part social commentary, Neill Blomkamp's chilling, thrilling District 9 is a wholly original work. And it features a star-making turn from Sharlto Copley.
Aliens clash with humans in combustible sci-fier.
Although the film is dripping in satire, Blomkamp is more concerned with delivering a balls-to-the-wall action film. District 9 has more in common with Aliens than Babel.
The most audacious, auspicious sci-fi debut in years, Neill Blomkamp's modest-budget "District 9" throws together xenophobic satire, political allegory and raucous action in a knockabout package reminiscent of Paul Verhoeven's finest work.
District 9 is the most original, innovative and entertaining science-fiction film in years and contains the best mix of politics and spectacle since Starship Troopers.
Best when it operates as yarn rather than as social commentary, even if it is filled with logical inconsistencies.
Screw Avatar - this is what people will think of when they talk about science fiction at the end of the aughts.
While the ambitious narrative bites off far more than can be satisfactorily chewed and digested, the fantastic ride through what must be a completely fictional world (right?) is worth a view.
While Blomkamp's disturbing thriller does have a semi-revelatory ending, the real secret is that District 9, for all its pomp and circumstance, is no more than a decent but scrappy science fiction flick.
Audience Reviews for District 9
Super Reviewer
Movies Like District 9
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- Wikus van der Merwe: Hello, little guy! It's the sweetie man coming!
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- Wikus van der Merwe: Hey, you! Don't urinate on your fucking clothing!
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- Christopher Johnson: [subtitled] Three years. I promise.
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- Christopher Johnson: [subtitled] Keep the fuck away from my child!
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- Christopher Johnson: [subtitled] It took twenty years to collect that amount.
- Wikus van der Merwe: Fuck, man, FUCK!
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- Christopher Johnson: [subtitled] You said you had a way out!
- Wikus van der Merwe: I never said anything about a way out! I promised you a way in!
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Latest News on District 9
July 9, 2013:
Dev Patel in Talks for ChappieThe "Slumdog Millionaire" star could join the cast of Neill Blomkamp's next sci-fi opus.
April 9, 2013:
Neill Blomkamp Talks District 10, Halo, and More"I actually still really like the universe and the world of Halo and the mythology of Halo."
September 8, 2011:
Sharlto Copley Books a Trip to EuropaThe "District 9" star signs for a space adventure.
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Foreign Titles
- Distrito 9 (ES)
