Opening

87% Star Trek Into Darkness May 16
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—— Populaire May 17
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78% Iron Man 3 $72.5M
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Coming Soon

—— The Hangover Part III May 23
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The Ref

The Ref (1994)

tomatometer

76

Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 42
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 10

Undeniably uneven and too dark for some, The Ref nonetheless boasts strong turns from Denis Leary, Judy Davis, and Kevin Spacey, as well as a sharply funny script.

50

Average Rating: 5.8/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 5

Undeniably uneven and too dark for some, The Ref nonetheless boasts strong turns from Denis Leary, Judy Davis, and Kevin Spacey, as well as a sharply funny script.

audience

72

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 26,046

My Rating

Movie Info

Caroline and Lloyd (Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey) are a married couple constantly at each other's throats, masters at crafting acid-tongued barbs at the other's expense. Indeed, they are so obsessed with belittling each other that they never stop -- not even at gunpoint. Such is the premise of the acerbic comedy The Ref, which shows what happens when this quarrelsome duo is taken hostage. The gunman is Gus (Denis Leary), a thief on the run from the police, who kidnaps the couple as an insurance

R,

Drama, Comedy

Mar 4, 2003

Buena Vista Internationa

Watch It Now

Cast

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All Critics (42) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (34) | Rotten (10) | DVD (6)

A foulmouthed sitcom of a film.

September 7, 2011 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Ref works virtually none of the miracles of [Richard LaGravenese's screenplay for The Fisher King,] his previous mix 'n' match effort.

March 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
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What makes most of this work is the brio of the acting, though the direction by Ted Demme and the script by Richard LaGravenese and Marie Weiss certainly don't hurt.

November 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
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In his first starring role, comedian Leary makes his ranting career criminal strangely sympathetic.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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Staying clear of any mean-spirited attitudes, The Ref is a film to warm the hearts and touch the nerves of dysfunctional families everywhere.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Demme brings out the comic ease in Leary.

May 12, 2001
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's cynical, mean-spirited and, at least at first, viciously funny.

December 4, 2006 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The Ref is the one Christmas movie that I can relate to.

December 24, 2005 Full Review Source: Bullz-Eye.com
Bullz-Eye.com

[Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey] play this strident high comedy duet with a self-sustaining brio that easily puts them on the level of the stars of Twentieth Century, The Awful Truth, The Philadelphia Story, and His Girl Friday.

December 19, 2005 Full Review Source: Blogcritics.org
Blogcritics.org

Dennis Leary's shining hour. His stand-up persona's greatest moment and it was all down hill from there.

December 21, 2004
Greenwich Village Gazette

Every holiday movie strives to become a timeless classic. The Ref succeeds.

October 22, 2004
Reel.com

One of the most underrated comedies of the 1990s

October 7, 2004
Kalamazoo Gazette

Just because The Ref isn't your typical Christmas movie doesn't mean you should skip it. In fact, it should be just the opposite.

December 24, 2003 Full Review Source: Movie Views

Better in hindsight than it first appeared. Leary truly rises to the challenge of acting opposite Davis and Spacey.

November 28, 2003
New Times

This is a smart witty film- Leary is fantastic, Spacey a blast and Davis brilliant!

October 17, 2003
Blunt Review

Audience Reviews for The Ref

A smartly crafted holiday comedy film that focuses on a cat burglar who takes a dysfunctional family hostage. The Ref is a smart, funny comedy with a great cast. Denis Leary is perfect in his role, and Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey have great chemistry as the dysfunctional couple. Though the humor slows down a bit, the story is engaging enough for you to be entertained and with a good cast like this, it's impossible not to be. There's a perfect blend of effective storytelling that compliments the humor, and though it's not as hilarious as so many mainstream critics have said, The Ref is still funny enough for you to laugh and enjoy a fun, entertaining hour and a half. What really makes this a good film are the performances, everyone of the cast is well picked for the parts they play. I really enjoyed Denis Leary, and I thought watching him loose his mind as the couple and family is driving him crazy was just funny, and simply a great comedic performance. The Ref has its flaws, but overall it works well enough to be a highly entertaining comedy film with a good cast of talented actors that make this film worth watching. This is a good comedy with plenty of laughs that is smartly crafted and is worth seeing if you're in the mood for a comedy with great acting and a good story. Not a perfect film, but for what it is, The Ref delivers a good, solid entertaining hour and a half filled with laughter. Denis Leary is really the one that delivers here, and he makes the film a must see.
November 15, 2011
TheDudeLebowski65
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

"The Ref" is one of my favorite Christmas movies, it stars Denis Leary as a cat burglar who unwittingly takes bickering couple Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis hostage and ultimately ends up having to meet with the entire, annoying family for Christmas dinner.

As the feuding spouses, Spacey and Davis are perfect. They have a corrosive chemistry together and feed off of their character's biting, ill-spirited, hilarious put-downs and rantings. Denis Leary is also crudely effective as the titular character, tortured by the couple's incessant fighting. The family dinner is another laugh riot, with the actors hitting all the right chords as the stereotypically irritating, obligated-to-visit relatives who have an equally uneven family.

Besides the family hostage story, there are also several other stories that run throughout the movie involving blackmail and a disgruntled neighborhood Santa Claus. Director Ted Demme balances all these storylines, albeit sometimes not very developed ones, and juggles them adequately with the main act.

Ted Demme's direction is also controlled and never lets up, sticking to the scripts incisive arguments and family-haranguing and not reducing this smart, sometimes dark comedy to a typical, brainless holiday flick. The only time he falters is with the ending, of which the last minute could have been cut. Otherwise, this is a very funny, stinging, and unusual Christmas movie that gets more laughs than most Hollywood-packaged, uninspired crowd-pleasers.
December 16, 2010
cancercapricorn2002
David Ladd

Super Reviewer

    1. Gus: Great! I just beat up Santa Claus!
    – Submitted by Frances H (4 months ago)
    1. Connie: Who would catch criminals and then just let them go?
    2. Mary: Republicans.
    – Submitted by Frances H (4 months ago)
    1. Gus: Let's get one thing straight. From now on, the only person who yells is me. Why? Because I have a gun. People who have guns can do whatever they want. Married people without guns, for instance, you...
    2. Caroline: Um-hum.
    3. Lloyd: Um-hum.
    4. Gus: Do not get to yell. Why? No guns! No guns! No yelling! Simple little equation!
    – Submitted by Frances H (4 months ago)
    1. Connie: The spirit of Christmas is either you're good, or you're punished and you burn in hell.
    – Submitted by Dann M (5 months ago)
    1. Gus: The army! What the f**k! I am Oswald here.
    – Submitted by Keighley K (13 months ago)

Discussion Forum

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