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District 9

District 9 (2009)

tomatometer

91

Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 255
Fresh: 232 | Rotten: 23

Technically brilliant and emotionally wrenching, District 9 has action, imagination, and all the elements of a thoroughly entertaining science-fiction classic.

90

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 35 | Rotten: 4

Technically brilliant and emotionally wrenching, District 9 has action, imagination, and all the elements of a thoroughly entertaining science-fiction classic.

audience

81

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 1,059,276

My Rating

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

Dec 22, 2009

$115.6M

Sony Pictures/Screen Gems

Cast

All Critics (256) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (236) | Rotten (24) | 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.

September 7, 2009 Full Review Source: New Yorker | Comments (17)
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

August 17, 2009 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This is a great movie.

August 17, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comments (4)
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

What an achievement in filmmaking.

August 17, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comments (10)
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

August 14, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comments (122)
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A bloody good time. One of the most original movies of the summer.

August 14, 2009 Full Review Source: Richard Roeper.com | Comments (8)
Richard Roeper.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Despite its shortcomings, District 9 is an engaging sci-fi romp that features solid CGI work.

February 26, 2012 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

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.

September 29, 2011 Full Review Source: American Profile | Comment
American Profile

District 9 has the potential to satisfy two mutually exclusive groups of bottom-feeding moviegoers.

August 29, 2011 Full Review Source: East Bay Express | Comment
East Bay Express

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.

March 18, 2011 Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | Comment
ComingSoon.net

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.

February 14, 2011 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | Comment
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Aliens clash with humans in combustible sci-fier.

January 3, 2011 Full Review Source: sbs.com.au | Comment
sbs.com.au

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.

October 27, 2010 Full Review Source: Quickflix | Comment
Quickflix

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.

September 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com | Comment
Suite101.com

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.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Cinema Autopsy | Comments (4)
Cinema Autopsy

Best when it operates as yarn rather than as social commentary, even if it is filled with logical inconsistencies.

June 15, 2010 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | Comment
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Screw Avatar - this is what people will think of when they talk about science fiction at the end of the aughts.

March 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Projection Booth | Comments (9)
Projection Booth

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.

February 10, 2010 Full Review Source: JWR | Comments (2)

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.

January 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Bangitout.com | Comments (7)
Bangitout.com

Artsy vertigo, racial profiling from outer space, black on prawn violence, Nigerian gangsters into cannibalistic health food diets, and inter-species creature sex for sale. And no, I did not have sex with that alien.

December 27, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comments (5)
NewsBlaze

The disconnect between the first and second half of the movie shows you how great District 9 could have been, if Jackson and his financial backers had allowed it, instead of what it is, exciting, but with nothing lingering in the mind after it was over.

December 25, 2009 Full Review Source: Examiner.com | Comment (1)
Examiner.com

Sci-fi stunner is gory, but also fascinating and smart.

December 21, 2009 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for District 9

A gory sci fi smorgasbord with an amazing message.

August 11, 2009
jmanard52

Super Reviewer

District 9 is a brilliant film from director Neill Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson. With great characters, great CGI aliens (or Prawns), a fantastic score, and a fascinating, original storyline, District 9 is one summer film not to be missed. Wikus van der Merwe is the main character here, and is so relatable in

April 4, 2012
Raymond Wieser

Super Reviewer

    1. Christopher Johnson: [subtitled] FUCK!
    – Submitted by Jack B (6 months ago)
    1. Wikus van der Merwe: I did not have sexual relations with a fokken prawn!
    – Submitted by David J (6 months ago)
    1. Wikus van der Merwe: Fucking prawns!
    – Submitted by Jake R (6 months ago)
    1. Koobus Venter: Listen to me, you fuck! Get that fucking camera out of my face!
    2. Wikus van der Merwe: Fucking doos.
    – Submitted by John D (7 months ago)
    1. Christopher Johnson: It took twenty years to collect that amount.
    2. Wikus van der Merwe: Fuck, man! Fuck!
    – Submitted by John D (7 months ago)

Latest News for District 9

September 8, 2011:
Sharlto Copley Books a Trip to Europa
The "District 9" star signs for a space adventure.

January 20, 2011:
Sony Picks Up Blomkamp's Elysium
Neill Blomkamp's "District 9" follow-up "Elysium," a sci-fi project taking place 100 years in the...

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Foreign Titles

  • Distrito 9 (ES)
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