Sleuth remains an effective display of acting, with enough twists and turns to satisfy the newcomers and avoid insulting the faithful.
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10/26/07
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Sleuth (2007)
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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
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Reviews for Sleuth
Anyone with 138 minutes to spare can have a fuller, more satisfying entertainment experience in every way by hunting up the original.
10/25/07
A grand exercise in watching two marvelous actors rip into some crackling dialogue. It's the thespian equivalent of jousting, and it's fascinating to watch.
10/25/07
Top CriticLittle more than a sleek, stylish stunt.
10/25/07
Intense cat-and-mouse thriller is for adults only.
10/22/07
The acting alone carries the film.
10/20/07
Ironically it's Branagh's relentless and painfully obvious attempts to keep the action visually 'interesting' that makes the proceedings come off even more stagy.
10/19/07
And, amid the movie's many technologies of watching and acting, its "gotcha" tricks are surprisingly unsophisticated.
10/19/07
Shaffer, who adapted the 1972 version himself, surely would be less than thrilled by the post-modern, minimalist interpretation given to his best-known work, and understandably so.
10/19/07
Top CriticThis remake isn't as radical as last week's Heartbreak Kid redo. But it's similarly unsatisfying.
10/19/07
Sleuth gradually becomes soulless and no fun, and what's the point of that?
10/19/07
...like watching a pair of one-man shows face off against each other.
10/19/07
In Sleuth what he [Kenneth Branagh] celebrates is perplexing, ominous, insinuating material in the hands of two skilled actors.
10/19/07
Top CriticEven though it held no real surprises for me, I was still able to enjoy it simply for the spectacle of watching Caine and Law tearing into each other in the most nastily erudite manner possible.
10/18/07
Sleuth finds Branagh and Pinter at their absolute worst.
10/18/07
Branagh, whose screen career with Shakespeare began on a high note with Henry V and has gone steadily downhill since, does a nice job keeping a stagebound piece relatively cinematic without resorting to the usual opening-up techniques.
10/18/07
Top CriticIf you consider what the exalted quartet of Branagh, Pinter, Caine and Law might have done with the project, and what they did to it, Sleuth has to be the worst prestige movie of the year.
10/16/07
Top CriticA semi-satisfying game, set and match.
10/15/07
Tedious, pretentious, and ludicrous.
10/15/07
Top CriticToo updated and tries too hard.
10/12/07
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