I ended up feeling sorry for Mr. Spacey, Ms. Winslet and Ms. Linney, so contrived was the foolishness in which they found themselves embroiled.
Comment
04/04/03
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The Life of David Gale (2003)
14
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:35
Fresh:5
Rotten:30
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: Instead of offering a convincing argument against the death penalty, this implausible, convoluted thriller pounds the viewer over the head with its message.
Theatrical Release:Feb 21, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $19,593,740
Synopsis: Gale (Kevin Spacey) is a Texas professor and anti-death penalty activist who, ironically enough, winds up on death row for the rape and murder of a colleague. Kate Winslet plays Bitsey Bloom, the... [More]
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Laura Linney, Kate Winslet, Gabriel Mann
Director: Alan Parker
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Reviews for The Life of David Gale
Top CriticGrading on the curve, I give it high marks for trying something different, but somewhat lower ones for entertainment value.
03/06/03
Top CriticLow thrills and high dudgeon are a bad mix.
03/02/03
Top CriticA dazzling mess.
02/24/03
Top CriticOne to add to the list of recent films not worthy of Spacey's talents.
02/21/03
Top CriticBy the end, it reveals itself as too pat, too absurd and -- as a polemic against capital punishment -- philosophically self- defeating.
02/21/03
Top CriticA convoluted mystery that thinks it's way smarter than it is.
02/21/03
Top CriticA movie that at first glance seems to be using the mystery/suspense genre as a lure for a serious discussion of the death penalty, but turns out to be merely exploiting capital punishment arguments for easy goosebumps.
02/21/03
Top CriticThe picture is neither flawless nor foolproof, but it's smart and tight enough to keep audiences off-balance and entertained for the running length.
02/21/03
Top CriticParker and screenwriter Charles Randolph throw plausibility to the wind at every turn, and every emotional moment feels contrived.
02/21/03
Top CriticA snide, juvenile, plot-twisting story about capital punishment that should provoke activists truly concerned about the death penalty to rage, and guilty-pleasure seekers to lament that the movie fails even as decent trash.
02/21/03
Top CriticDeserves the chair for its brutal assault on subtlety.
02/21/03
Top CriticThe very things that give the picture its entertainment value -- the suspenseful contrivances of the story -- are precisely what undermine its ostensible message.
02/21/03
Top CriticAfter two hours of bludgeoning by Parker's moralistic mallet, even those who came in sympathetic to his views may leave with second thoughts.
02/21/03
Top CriticThe Life of David Gale is the world's first movie with a penalty phase.
02/21/03
Top CriticI am sure the filmmakers believe their film is against the death penalty. I believe it supports it and hopes to discredit the opponents of the penalty as unprincipled fraudsters.
02/21/03
Top CriticDoes Kevin Spacey have a weird secret? Um, yeah, as always. But this death-penalty fable is so overwrought, no one will care.
02/21/03
Top CriticNot a great film, and it's doubtful its 'surprise' endings will surprise many people, but it manages to be both smoothly entertaining and engaging while carrying a strong point of view.
02/20/03
Top CriticThe script constantly trips over small points.
02/20/03
Top CriticSo nasty, hysterical and long-winded -- and unintentionally makes capital punishment foes look so twisted -- you wish someone had administered a lethal injection to this dreck in its planning stages.
02/20/03
Top CriticWhat’s Hot On RT
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