Rate this Movie 
How does the Tomatometer work
Reviews Counted:117
Fresh:42
Rotten:75
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: Sleuth is so obvious and coarse, rather than suspenseful and action-packed, that it does nothing to improve on the original version
A Dead Film Walking, a zombie of a film, a shuffling Frankenstein's monster of a film, leaking electricity from its badly-fitting neck bolts, tragically whimpering at the pointless agony of its own brief existence.
Message to Jude: You have more chance of convincingly concealing that receding hairline than becoming the new Michael Caine. Stop trying to be something you are not — a charismatic actor.
This is the kind of intimate physicality that Pinter pumps into Shaffer’s script. But it will take a better director than Branagh to tease it into the real world.
Directed by Kenneth Branagh and scripted by no less than Harold Pinter, the wicked charm of Sleuth Mk1 has been stripped away to leave a nasty, dispiriting and strangely cold psychological thriller.
A bold, initially fascinating but ultimately misguided attempt to 'Pinter-ize' an old-fashioned puzzle. Great mysteries leave their audience marveling 'how did they do that?' Sleuth 2007 leaves you scratching your head, wondering why they bothered.
Caine and Law rustle up a spicy chemistry which sustains a sizzle for an hour or so. But the second half panders to Pinter’s self-indulgence, unravelling Branagh’s high-tensile head-fuck as a hollow skirmish.
No amount of visual flourish, sadly, can compensate for the woeful lack of chemistry between the leads or arch dialogue that sounds more like a Pinter parody than the man himself.
When Sylvester Stallone’s Get Carter is no longer the worst remake of a Michael Caine movie, you have to ask yourself: what’s it all about?
Perhaps the year's most pointless remake (and that's saying something), Sleuth is something of a disappointment, thanks to poor direction, dodgy acting and a laughably bad script.
Kenneth Branagh’s direction, its self-consciously skewed angles and surveillance-cam cutaways highlighting his weakness for the misplaced flourish, is more of a hindrance than a help.
Minus a couple of brisk, black laughs, this hollow remake botches the twists and sucks the fun right out of its feisty source.
Sloppy execution of a reasonable concept. A wasted opportunity.
Sleuth is no longer a fun whodunnit; it's been transformed into a baffling whatthehellweretheythinking?
A film that’s right up there with Crash, The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), and the Kennedy White House for sheer wasted potential and misguided ambition.
The movie never achieves anything like a life of its own.
A tedious bit of shenanigans and sleight of hand lifelessly realized by director Kenneth Branagh.
Director Kenneth Branagh clearly is having fun navigating Tim Harvey's slick set design, but eventually the characters' deadly competitiveness becomes tedious.
Top CriticAn utter redundancy...
While the cagey old pro does manage to hold our interest throughout, Law badly flounders in the sort of vehicle that seems tailor-made for him.
It doesnt work, and the reasons why are no mystery, no mystery at all.
March 10, 2008:
RT on DVD: Call It, Friend-O -- No Country For Old Men Hits DVD
The critically-acclaimed, Oscar-winning No Country For Old Men comes to DVD this week, accompanied by a litany of fellow Fresh films (Lake of Fire, Summer Palace, Dan in Real... More...
November 23, 2007:
Kenneth Branagh on Sleuth: The RT Interview
The Shakespearian thesp tells us about re-adapting the classic play, originally made into a 1972 film with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. More...
October 11, 2007:
Critical Consensus: No Debatin' Clayton, Night Almost Owns, Elizabeth Not Golden
This week at the movies we got lawyer types (Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney and Tilda Swinton), dueling brothers (We Own the Night, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark... More...
Last week, MSN gave us their top 09 films. Now see what their favorites of the decade are!
Here's a list of the 50 best movies of 2009, according to the good people over at Moviefone.
Hollywood.com takes a stab at determining who in movies will be on Santa's naughty list in 2009.
TIME chimes in with their own list of the best films released this year.
Click through to see which movies BuzzSugar placed in their Best-of-Decade list!
Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!
RSS Feeds
Comment
