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Rize (2004)

tomatometer

83

Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 89
Fresh: 74 | Rotten: 15

The dances in Rize are electric even if the documentary doesn't go that deeply into the performers' lives.

86

Average Rating: 7/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 4

The dances in Rize are electric even if the documentary doesn't go that deeply into the performers' lives.

audience

83

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 8,522

My Rating

Movie Info

Noted photographer David LaChapelle makes his feature directorial debut with this documentary on a new facet of street culture in South Central Los Angeles. In 1992, after long-simmering racial tensions in Los Angeles erupted in riots following the verdicts in the Rodney King trial, a man named Tommy Johnson sought to spread a new message in a new way to the city's African-Americans. Creating a character called Tommy the Clown, Johnson developed an act that combined hip-hop-flavored comedy and

Oct 25, 2005

$3.3M

Lions Gate Films

All Critics (99) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (78) | Rotten (15) | DVD (11)

It's a well-known truth in the dance world that the body doesn't lie. As long as the characters in this film are dancing, we have little reason to doubt their sincerity. But once turned into talking heads, the dancers begin to sound like propagandists.

August 5, 2005 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment (1)
Toronto Star
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A vivid portrait of art rising from deprivation and social hopelessness.

August 5, 2005 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
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[LaChapelle's] not the world's best documentarian, but he saw something that needed chronicling. So he turned his camera on the krumpers and let them do the rest. Smart choice.

July 1, 2005 Comment
Denver Rocky Mountain News
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Clowning and krumping are urban art and art therapy in motion.

July 1, 2005 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment
Denver Post
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It's a feel-good film that actually makes you feel good.

July 1, 2005 Full Review Source: Boston Globe | Comment
Boston Globe
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It's an incomplete film. We don't get to know these kids well enough.

June 27, 2005 Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | Comment
Ebert & Roeper
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Vibrant, in-your-face chronicle of an urban dance movement.

July 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

[F]or all its mis-steps, Rize gets by on enough jumping, pumping energy to fuel the national grid.

December 20, 2005 Full Review Source: BBC | Comment

Dealing with life's darkness is what this type of dancing is all about.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat

An unusual movie whose energy lingers.

November 11, 2005 Full Review Source: Bangor Daily News (Maine) | Comment
Bangor Daily News (Maine)

Recommended to fans, potential fans, and the curious; the main thing you can ask from a documentary is that it show you something new, and for me this one certainly did.

November 3, 2005 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

David LaChapelle's documentary is a spirited but less-than-insightful look at contemporary youth culture in south-central Los Angeles.

October 27, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

Arguably one of the greatest films about dance ever made...Rize resonates with a freshness and a force that is all too lacking in current cinematic language.

October 19, 2005 Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com | Comment
DVDTalk.com
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Rize

Having lived in Los Angeles for the last decade, I was here when Krumping was a big thing amongst the inner city youth. I didn't live in the same neighborhoods, but I went to school in South Central for a couple of years. So I got to witness the dance first hand. When I first saw it, I laughed at it. To me it looked

June 26, 2010
RJ Smoove
Ryan Rutherford

Super Reviewer

I only watched a half hour of this and already had more than enough. But hey, if you love to watch people from the ghetto uttering half hearted, believe-in-yourself cliches while performing at first appealing, then off putting "dance" moves, then this is the movie for you.

July 21, 2007
zeravenyoej
Joey Nevarez

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Rize - Uns hält nichts auf! (DE)
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