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Kingdom of Heaven

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

tomatometer

39

Average Rating: 5.5/10
Reviews Counted: 185
Fresh: 72 | Rotten: 113

Although it's an objective and handsomely presented take on the Crusades, Kingdom of Heaven lacks depth.

51

Average Rating: 5.9/10
Critic Reviews: 37
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 18

Although it's an objective and handsomely presented take on the Crusades, Kingdom of Heaven lacks depth.

audience

72

liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 332,937

My Rating

Movie Info

Ridley Scott directed this epic-scale historical drama inspired by the events of the Crusades of the 12th century. Balian (Orlando Bloom) is a humble French blacksmith who is searching for a reason to go on after the death of his wife and children. Balian is approached by Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), a fabled knight who has briefly returned home after serving in the East. Godfrey informs Balian that he is his true father, and urges the blacksmith to join him as he and his forces journey to

R, 2 hr. 25 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure, Classics

William Monahan

Oct 11, 2005

$47.3M

20th Century Fox

Cast

All Critics (198) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (78) | Rotten (117) | DVD (38)

As Balian and his people withstand the might of Saladin's fiery projectiles, siege towers and the usual computer-generated swarm of soldiers, it's hard not to think we're really watching The Lord of the Rings IV: Legolas Defends Jerusalem.

May 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comments (4)
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Is Orlando Bloom enough of a star to sustain a $100 million costume drama? The answer turns out to be yes.

May 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comments (3)
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Since we barely know what's at stake -- we're too confused and bored to care -- all this fighting means nothing to us, and yet Scott still hopes to rev us up with it.

May 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Salon.com | Comments (8)
Salon.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Considerably more ambitious and significantly less satisfying than Gladiator.

May 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An epic about Christian crusaders who happen to be liberal humanists willing to die for the sake of religious tolerance. That's just ... weird.

May 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Slate | Comments (5)
Slate
Top Critic IconTop Critic

To say that Scott did a beautiful job directing Kingdom of Heaven would be true, but it wouldn't convey the nature of the achievement.

May 6, 2005 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment (1)
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Cinema's least potent leading man, Orlando Bloom, stinks up the screen in Ridley Scott's unsatisfying "epic" about the Crusades...

June 20, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | Comments (11)
ColeSmithey.com

Kingdom of Heaven: The Director's Cut is not just a 2-star movie that earned itself two more stars, but one of Ridley Scott's best, and a film that deserves its place in cinema history - even if that place could only be located on DVD.

December 23, 2008 Full Review Source: IGN Movies | Comment
IGN Movies

Violent movie about the Crusades that isn't meant for kids.

July 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comments (8)
Common Sense Media

Kingdom of Heaven is profoundly relevant for our troubled times.

February 28, 2008 Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com | Comments (2)
BrandonFibbs.com

The DVD features a first-ever interactive production grid that allows viewers to tailor the perspective and time-frame of making-of materials to their own specifications and areas of interest, offering 16 permutations of the film's odyssey.

December 30, 2007 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

There is little else to say except that this DVD set surpasses all expectations.

July 10, 2007 Full Review Source: DVD Review | Comment
DVD Review

... an extraordinary work of art, a plea for religious tolerance that works because of sheer filmmaking prowess and good, old-fashioned storytelling. (Director's Cut)

July 10, 2007 Full Review Source: DVD Review | Comment (1)
DVD Review

Kingdom of Heaven is a much stronger and more interesting epic than Troy.

April 15, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment (1)
Movie Metropolis

One of the more violent films in recent memory. But maybe the violence serves a purpose-it keeps your mind off the inanities of the plot.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

quick review in Greek

October 3, 2006 Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | Comment
Movies for the Masses

Kingdom inevitably invites comparisons to Gladiator, Scott's last major epic. But it is a better film, partly because it does less violence to the history.

September 25, 2006 Comment (1)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Kingdom of Heaven

The director`s cut of the film makes this a materpiece. It adds more accuracy and vison to Scott`s firece and bloody epic of dazzling power and dedication. An exhilerating and spectacular action-packed adventure epic. A stunning, stylish, deeply moving and jaw-dropping historical epic that ranks with Gladiator and

August 21, 2006
allan913

Super Reviewer

As much as I enjoyed this, I think I would have liked it more had I watched the director's cut and not the flawed and disliked (by Scott himself) theatrical cut. Regardless, this is a sweeping epic that is beautiful to look at, has amazing costumes, sets, art direction, and cinematography, and features music that is a

June 9, 2006
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

    1. Sibylla: Sometimes it is better to do a lesser evil to do a greater good.
    – Submitted by Rafia A (5 months ago)
    1. Balian: What could a king ask of a man like me?
    2. Godfrey: A better world than has ever been seen. A kingdom of conscience. A kingdom of heaven.
    – Submitted by Daniel K (5 months ago)
    1. Balian: You go to where the men speak Italian, and then continue until they speak something else.
    – Submitted by Elliott T (6 months ago)
    1. King Baldwin IV: A king may move a man, a father may claim a son, but that man can also move himself, and only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that howsoever you are played or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone, even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say, 'But I was told by others to do thus,' or that virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice. Remember that.
    – Submitted by Catalin G (9 months ago)
    1. Hospitaler: I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of god. I have seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What god desires is here [points to head]
    2. Hospitaler: ...and here [points to heart]
    3. Balian: ...and what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man - or not.
    – Submitted by Catalin G (9 months ago)

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