RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
RT's Blu-ray HQ
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / The King is Alive
The King is Alive

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Get this Movie
  • Buy Poster External Icon
Bookmark and Share

The King is Alive (2001)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
60 %
Tomatometer
Template ImageTemplate Image

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted:65

Fresh:39

Rotten:26

Average Rating:5.8/10

Consensus: Though the plot feels rather contrived, the ensemble acting in this Dogme 95 film is good.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for sexuality and language

Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:May 11, 2001 Limited

Synopsis: The fourth contribution to the grass roots Dogme 95 collective, THE KING IS ALIVE is a psychological horror film that uses a bleak yet beautiful African landscape to tell a haunting tale of human... The fourth contribution to the grass roots Dogme 95 collective, THE KING IS ALIVE is a psychological horror film that uses a bleak yet beautiful African landscape to tell a haunting tale of human weakness and survival. The story concerns a group of vacationers who are traveling through the torturous Namibian desert. When they discover that the compass the driver, Moses (Vusi Kunene), has been using is actually broken, they quickly become terrified at the prospects of becoming stranded. This fear quickly turns into reality after the bus runs out of gas near a small abandoned village. The only resident, Kanana (Peter Khubeke), watches the foreigners slowly unravel with a resigned detachment. The travelers themselves--including the unhappily married couple Ray (Bruce Davison) and Liz (Janet McTeer), French intellectual Catherine (Romane Bohringer), flaky American Gina (Jennifer Jason Leigh), condescending Englishman Charles (David Calder), and sensitive actor Henry (David Bradley)--begin to lose their sanity ever so slowly, fighting with each other and themselves, until there appears to be no hope left. Henry's last attempt to keep the group unified, by engaging them in staging a performance of Shakespeare's KING LEAR, provides the weary individuals with an outlet that just might save them after all. Kristian Levring uses Dogme's tenets to breathe striking new life into an otherwise traditional genre. [More]

Starring: Miles Anderson, Romane Bohringer, Bruce Davison, Brion James

Starring: Miles Anderson, Romane Bohringer, Bruce Davison, Brion James, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Lia Williams, David Bradley, David Calder, Vusi Kunene, Janet McTeer, Chris Walker

Director: Kristian Levring

Director: Kristian Levring
Screenwriter: Anders Thomas Jensen, Kristian Levring
Studio: IFC Films

[See More Credits]

Get This Movie

Rent DVD
 
 

Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.

 
 
Buy DVD
 
 
Release:

Nov 19, 2002

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for The King is Alive

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

:ags in the middle, growing more interesting -- if hardly more original -- only as the situation deteriorates.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
07/06/08
Lisa Nesselson
Lisa Nesselson
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The endless vistas of sand that surround the forlorn settlement embody the void at the heart of its abandoned, terrified characters.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
07/06/08
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Here is a small masterpiece about the erosion of civilized egos by the elements.

Full Review Source: Detour Magazine | comment Comment
08/06/06
Brandon Judell
Brandon Judell
Detour Magazine

It's all very watchable, thanks to excellent performances all around...

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

The real problem is the way the story tries so hard to incorporate Shakespearean themes.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Film Threat

No review available.

comment Comment
06/10/04
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
New Times

Even for a Dogma 95 movie, this one is unusual because it features a remote, exotic setting and a Shakepearean subtext.

comment Comment
01/06/04
Dan Lybarger
Dan Lybarger
Nitrate Online

About as far from a Shakespearean stage but as close to Shakespearean essence as it can be.

Full Review Source: Offoffoff | comment Comment
10/13/03
Joshua Tanzer
Joshua Tanzer
Offoffoff

An imaginative film that feels ten times more genuine than any ten movies of the "Castaway" variety (or as I like to call it, "The 90 million dollar Fed-Ex Commercial")

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
03/18/03
Brian Mckay
Brian Mckay
eFilmCritic.com

Somebody should really plop these guys down in front of an old Rodgers & Hammerstein spectacle.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
03/10/03
Kimberly Jones
Kimberly Jones
Austin Chronicle

Admittedly not for all tastes, but I liked what I bit into even if there was some sand in the offering.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
11/25/02
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Levring's film isn't nearly as smart or original as he seems to think it is.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
11/18/02
Ernest Hardy
Ernest Hardy
L.A. Weekly

By the time you figure out who's who, you've almost ceased to care.

Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | comment Comment
10/21/02
Jean Lowerison
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
03/24/02
Boston Phoenix
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

... sitting through "The King Is Alive" was a tedious exercise that tried my patience and bored me.

Full Review Source: Baseline.Hollywood.com | comment Comment
12/21/01
Ted Murphy
Ted Murphy
Baseline.Hollywood.com

Despite astonishing camera work and editing, it just gets duller and duller even as the story is supposedly heating up.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
12/10/01
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

A piece of art rather than reality -- and a slo-o-o-w piece of art, though it rewards your patience.

Full Review Source: Charlotte Observer | comment Comment
11/09/01
Lawrence Toppman
Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer

Pick-me-up, this ain't. But fascinating, it is.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
09/21/01
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

May seem self-consciously arty, but in the playing it grabs us early and doesn't let go.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
08/20/01
Robert W. Butler
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star

An especially demanding, misanthropic and nihilistic work about human nature's worst face and it, more often than not, chills despite the relentless desert heat.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
08/10/01
Paula Nechak
Paula Nechak
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
See All

More DVDs

Close
Top Rentals
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
15% 15% The Ugly Truth
98% 98% Up
36% 36% G.I. Joe: The Rise of …
52% 52% The Taking of Pelham 1…
45% 45% Ice Age: Dawn of the D…

More Rentals…

New On DVD This Week
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
36% 36% Angels & Demons
68% 68% Funny People
25% 25% Four Christmases
45% 45% Shorts

More New Releases…

See All

RT On Current TV

The Rotten Tomatoes Show on Current TV

DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...

Learn how you can be part of the show

More...

What’s Hot On RT

Total Recall

Total Recall

John Travolta's top reviewed movies

Disney Countdown

Disney Countdown

Look back on Disney's best animated movies!

RT's Gift Guide

RT's Gift Guide

Give the best movies, gear, and more!

Ninja Assassin

Ninja Assassin

Learn to train like a ninja in this clip!

Other News

Close
  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • First Look (Sort Of) at New Nightmare's Freddy Source: ShockTillYouDrop.com
1
  • First Look at Shrek Forever After Source: USA Today
2
  • Woody Harrelson Will Battle Zombies in 3-D Source: Moviehole
8
  • Natalie Portman Says Kat Denning Is in Thor Source: MTV
34
  • Disney Restructuring Has Broad Implications Source: Los Angeles Times
10
  • Joel Silver Talks Ninja Assassin, Sgt. Rock, Lobo, and More Source: Collider.com
1
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
116
  • Idris Elba Joins Thor Source: Hollywood Reporter
112
  • Jackass 3D Coming in 2010? Source: Collider.com
32
  • 6 Reasons 'Twilight' Is Doomed Source: The Wrap
64
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Box Office Guru Wrapup: New Moon Shatters Records
176
  • Critics Consensus: New Moon Wanes
130
  • Tomatometer Watch: Will Twilight's New Moon Dazzle?
97
  • Total Recall: Star-Crossed Lovers
75
  • Total Recall: John Travolta's Best Movies
71
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
58
  • Friday Harvest: New Moon, Avatar, and more!
32
  • Critics Consensus: Flee From Ninja Assassin
24
  • RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Angels & Demons, Funny People, and Superman
18
  • WB offers DVD to Blu-ray Trade-In Program
17
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
12
  • Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
9
  • Fight Club Sound Designer Reflects on Film's 10th Anniversary
19
  • James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
6
  • John Hurt Talks Harry Potter, Quentin Crisp and Alien - The RT Interview
15
  • Terry Gilliam Talks Doctor Parnassus
20
  • Wes Anderson Talks Fantastic Mr. Fox - RT Interview
8
  • Wolverine Creator Len Wein Talks About the Film
28
  • Gavin Hood Talks Wolverine; Possible Sequel
28
  • Duncan Jones talks Moon, Sam Rockwell, and Mute
14
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • The King is Alive at Rotten Tomatoes
  • The King is Alive at AskMen

Fresh Links

Featured
Wes Anderson on Fox
Wes Anderson on Fox External Link

The director talks about puppetry perfection and his film, Fantastic Mr. Fox

The New Cult Canon
The New Cult Canon External Link

AV Club looks at a beloved cult classic, Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness.

New Moon Portraits
New Moon Portraits External Link

TIME offers us a closer look at the characters from the latest Twilight film.

Unsexiest Men Alive
Unsexiest Men Alive External Link

Moviefone lists their choices for the least attractive men in Hollywood.

Promos
Follow RT on Twitter
Follow RT on Twitter External Link

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Games| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.