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05/17/01
The King is Alive (2001)
60
%
Tomatometer
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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.
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... [More]
Starring: Miles Anderson, Romane Bohringer, Bruce Davison, Brion James
Director: Kristian Levring
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Reviews for The King is Alive
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03/24/02
You can take The King Is Alive as a bold gamble or a pretentious folly. No, take it as a pretentious folly.
06/15/01
A high-minded project that never lifts off as intended despite all the right elements seemingly coming together.
05/02/01
Top CriticThe performances are admirable, the location evocatively exploited and the psychological intensity often unbearable. But the spark isn’t there.
05/11/01
It doesn't escape its own ascetic pretensions.
07/20/01
Top CriticComplete waste of time.
05/10/01
Levring's film isn't nearly as smart or original as he seems to think it is.
11/18/02
Thoroughly self-serving as well as pretentious and butt-numbingly dull.
06/14/01
The predictability and repetitive nature of the story, our own patience is challenged.
04/02/01
Sinks under the weight of its ever more inescapably apparent contrivance.
06/15/01
Top CriticBy the time you figure out who's who, you've almost ceased to care.
10/21/02
If the purpose of the story is to get us to dislike the characters, then mission accomplished.
06/15/01
Kristian Levring's The King is Alive operates on a conceptual, pseudo-intellectual level, perhaps a touch too orderly to convey true madness.
05/14/01
The performances Levring gets from his international cast are almost strong enough to distract you from his failure to develop any of the grand themes so self-consciously set-up by the choice of King Lear.
05/11/01
Top CriticIf I'd been interested in this movie's acrimonious characters I might have appreciated the actors' performances more.
04/11/01
Top CriticBut what doesn't entirely succeed as convincing psychodrama makes one hell of an acting exercise (it's great fun to see great actors purposely mangle the Bard's immortal words), and Levring's cast -- McTeer in particular -- run with it.
05/11/01
There's no real sense of tragedy when these lost souls begin to drop dead in their eleventh hour -- just more pain and suffering for an already strongly unsympathetic group.
05/11/01
Top CriticStylish and gritty, The King Is Alive lacks the impact of revelation that might have made the journey worth taking.
05/11/01
Top CriticSomebody should really plop these guys down in front of an old Rodgers & Hammerstein spectacle.
03/10/03
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