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Movies / On DVD / Monster's Ball
Monster's Ball

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Monster's Ball (2001)

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Reviews Counted:141

Fresh:120

Rotten:21

Average Rating:7.4/10

Consensus: Somber and thought provoking, Monster's Ball has great performances all around.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong sexual content, language and violence

Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Dec 26, 2001 Limited

Box Office: $31,252,964

Synopsis: MONSTER'S BALL is a hard hitting Southern drama tempered by a story of powerful, life-changing love. It is the story of Hank (Billy Bob Thornton), an embittered prison guard working on Death Row... MONSTER'S BALL is a hard hitting Southern drama tempered by a story of powerful, life-changing love. It is the story of Hank (Billy Bob Thornton), an embittered prison guard working on Death Row who begins an unlikely, but emotionally charged affair with Leticia (Halle Berry), the wife of a man he has just executed. MONSTER'S BALL also features Heath Ledger and Peter Boyle. Boyle plays Hank’s bigoted, aging father, whose hatred seems to have poisoned his entire family as much as the family business, which is working on the prison Death Squad. Ledger plays Hank’s son, who is hell-bent on getting out of the family business. The film is directed by award-winning filmmaker Marc Forster. He was nominated for an IFP/West Spirit Award as Best Low Budget Feature and won the Movado "Someone to Watch" Prize at the 2001 Spirit Awards for his film, "Everything Put Together."

Set in Georgia, MONSTER'S BALL was filmed entirely on location in and around New Orleans, Louisiana and at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola (also known as "The Farm").

MONSTER'S BALL is from an original screenplay by Milo Addica and Will Rokos, is produced by Lee Daniels, executive produced by Mark Urman, Mike Paseornek, and co-produced by Milo Addica and Will Rokos. Lions Gate Films will release the film in December, 2001. -- © 2001 Lions Gate Films [More]

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Heath Ledger, Peter Boyle

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Heath Ledger, Peter Boyle, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Mos Def

Director: Marc Forster

Director: Marc Forster
Screenwriter: Milo Addica, Will Rokos
Studio: Lions Gate Films

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Release:

Jun 11, 2002

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Reviews for Monster's Ball

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81 - 100 (sorted by date)
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The best thing Marc Forster's direction does is take these characters through their experiences at a convincingly naturalistic respiratory rate...

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
02/08/02
Jay Carr
Jay Carr
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Like an exposed nerve -- raw, intensely painful and keenly aware of its surroundings.

Full Review Source: Salt Lake Tribune | comment Comment
02/08/02
Sean Means
Sean Means
Salt Lake Tribune

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Nitrate Online | comment Comment
02/08/02
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
Nitrate Online

The film is much too full of itself.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
02/08/02
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Holds you in thrall from first frame to last.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
02/07/02
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Using a quietly observational style, [Forster] captures fleetingly touching, sporadically horrific and mostly unvarnished moments of universal experience, unadorned by judgment or sentiment.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
02/07/02
Duane Dudek
Duane Dudek
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

I recommend it for a not so ordinary night at the movies.

Full Review Source: Talking Pictures (U.S.) | comment Comment
02/07/02
Tony Toscano
Tony Toscano
Talking Pictures (U.S.)

Does little more than toy with the passions of two Georgia families torn apart by violence.

Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly | comment Comment
02/07/02
Steve Schneider
Steve Schneider
Orlando Weekly

It's Berry who sets the pace. Her performance is a triumph of emotion and abandon.

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
02/07/02
Jay Boyar
Jay Boyar
Orlando Sentinel

Raw moments of naked emotion rip through the contrived tragedies of the script and Forster's careful control and choreography.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
02/07/02
Sean Axmaker
Sean Axmaker
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The courage and poignancy of their performances is deeply moving.

Full Review Source: Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies | comment Comment
02/07/02
Nell Minow
Nell Minow
Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

A stunning achievement that features Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry in career-defining performances.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
02/07/02
Philip Wuntch
Philip Wuntch
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The low-key performances by Thornton and Berry are so deeply felt that you feel like a cell mate in their emotional prisons.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
02/07/02
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Berry ... conveys abundant emotional information, acting up a storm.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Daily News | comment Comment
02/07/02
Gary Thompson
Gary Thompson
Philadelphia Daily News

As oddly comforting as it is unsettling, Monster's Ball honors novelist E.M. Forster's famed dictum: 'Only Connect.'

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
02/07/02
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Forster successfully navigates small-town American Gothic terrain, brilliantly detailing not only the association between grief and self-destruction, but also grief's capacity to engineer profound redemption.

Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY | comment Comment
02/04/02
Adam Nayman
Adam Nayman
eye WEEKLY

Although director Marc Forster pulls decent performances from both Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry, coincidence-filled plotting, lame dialogue, and ham-fisted symbolism repeatedly undermine his best intentions.

Full Review Source: CNN.com | comment Comment
02/02/02
Paul Tatara
Paul Tatara
CNN.com

Directed with great intelligence, sensitivity and restraint by Marc Forster.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
02/01/02
Geoff Pevere
Geoff Pevere
Toronto Star
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

If the tale is explicit in content, it's admirably restrained in the telling, and that tension makes the movie compelling to watch.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
02/01/02
Rick Groen
Rick Groen
Globe and Mail

The movie has the complexity of great fiction, and requires our empathy as we interpret the decisions that are made.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
02/01/02
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
81 - 100 (sorted by date)
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