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Love Ranch (2010)

tomatometer

12

Average Rating: 3.7/10
Reviews Counted: 50
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 44

Despite its saucy setup and the always marvelous Helen Mirren, Love Ranch is disappointingly flaccid.

10

Average Rating: 3.4/10
Critic Reviews: 21
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 19

Despite its saucy setup and the always marvelous Helen Mirren, Love Ranch is disappointingly flaccid.

audience

27

liked it
Average Rating: 2.6/5
User Ratings: 991

My Rating

Movie Info

Director Taylor Hackford explores the rift that opens between Grace and Charlie Bontempo -- the husband-and-wife owners of Nevada's first legal brothel -- after ambitious entrepreneur Charlie attempts to expand his dominion by inviting South American heavyweight boxer Armando Bruza to train at the ranch. When passions ignite between Grace (Helen Mirren) and Armando (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), Charlie's jealousy threatens to be the wrecking ball that brings his entire empire crumbling to the ground.

R, 1 hr. 57 min.

Drama

Nov 9, 2010

$0.1M

E1 Entertainment

All Critics (50) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (6) | Rotten (44)

Once Hackford has committed to the characters and to their compelling (if dark) world, he has nowhere to go but to some predecided facts that might not be the most interesting end to the characters' journey.

July 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | Comment
Arizona Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The only vaguely interesting aspect to this film is the subplot involving a past-his-prime Argentinian heavyweight owned by Charlie.

July 9, 2010 Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | Comment
Christian Science Monitor
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Even Helen Mirren on a bad day is better than nine out of ten American film queens polluting movie screens on any given Sunday, but really, this is one time she should have stayed in bed.

July 7, 2010 Full Review Source: New York Observer | Comment
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Try though she might, Mirren can't save the hackneyed and singularly unerotic story...

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It starts flat and gets so tired.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comment
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Gives you only a superficial, clichéd picture of brothel life.

July 2, 2010 Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The picture feels edited with a chainsaw, reducing Hackford's story of desire to crummy Lifetime Movie theatrics, wasting the numerous gifts of Helen Mirren along the way.

November 3, 2010 Full Review Source: BrianOrndorf.com | Comment
BrianOrndorf.com

A misbegotten jumble that clumsily synthesizes various incongruous elements.

October 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comment
Lessons of Darkness

Presumably the aim was to meld dark humor with passionate ardor and high drama, but the tone here is lumpy, crass and overheated.

August 17, 2010 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | Comment
One Guy's Opinion

It's the story of a marriage but not the one on screen. Taylor Hackford tarnishes wife Helen Mirren's illustrious streak but gets a paycheck. Horrible TV script.

August 5, 2010 Full Review Source: FilmsInReview.com | Comment
FilmsInReview.com

If Hackford & Co. really and truly wanted to evoke the Sleazy Seventies, they should have studied Pam Grier's filmography like a religious text.

July 15, 2010 Full Review Source: East Bay Express | Comment
East Bay Express

Hackford's films have been uneven, but he's generally an intelligent and tasteful director. His last film, Ray, may have been his best. Unfortunately, Love Ranch is almost certainly his worst.

July 14, 2010 Full Review Source: Brand X | Comment
Brand X

A worthwhile tale might lurk somewhere in Taylor Hackford's latest, but this flaccid look at the early days of Reno's legalized bordello business takes a fictionalized approach to history...

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | Comment
Boston Phoenix

Familiar to the point of blandness. But then again, every time The Mirren walks into view ...

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Windy City Times | Comment
Windy City Times

It's all melodrama and yelling. The material is way beneath the actors... at least you get to see Pesci do "angry Joe" again.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Can Magazine | Comment
Can Magazine

Love Ranch proves to be a provocative, highly entertaining and surprisingly touching peek into a unique world movies don't often explore.

July 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | Comment (1)
Boxoffice Magazine

A hackneyed drama in which even Helen Mirren can't make much out of her bewildered character.

July 1, 2010 Full Review | Comment
Spirituality and Practice

Screenwriter Mark Jacobson has done little to make this love triangle clearer than mud. The script is one trite cliche after another, and Pesci is little more than a caricature of himself in past roles.

July 1, 2010 Full Review | Comment
Kaplan vs. Kaplan
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Love Ranch

Fair movie. Joe Pesci brings nothing new to his character. It's as if I were watching another actor imitating Joe Pesci in a thug role. The only reason to watch this is for Helen Mirren. Why she took this part is anyone's guess, but even she didn't make this movie interesting...even though she tried.

October 11, 2011
itsjustme2004

Super Reviewer

This film is a fictionalized account of the story of the first legal brothel in Nevada. It had the potential to be an excellent and insightful film. What it turns out to be though, is a half-assed, tired, and bland film that, even though it does have some good scenes and moments, is a really big disappointment and

June 14, 2010
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

    1. Grace: Amid all the lies, I knew the truth. That we had it, for a moment, love and truth together. How many people can say that?
    – Submitted by Rochelle D (5 months ago)

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