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The Sugarland Express (2005)

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 2
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 6,407

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Movie Info

Based on an actual incident, Steven Spielberg's first theatrical feature follows the adventures of a Texas outlaw couple striving to keep their family together by any means necessary. Determined not to lose her child to the authorities, Lou Jean Poplin (Goldie Hawn) gets her obedient convict husband Clovis (William Atherton) to break out of jail and help her kidnap their baby from its foster parents. With hostage Officer Slide (Michael Sacks) in tow, the fugitives head across the plains to

PG, 1 hr. 49 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure, Classics

Aug 17, 2004

Cast

All Critics (30) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (3) | DVD (16)

If the movie finally doesn't succeed, that's because Spielberg has paid too much attention to all those police cars (and all the crashes they get into), and not enough to the personalities of his characters.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie has a casual craziness that seems especially native.

May 21, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Sugarland Express is not terribly original - Bonnie and Clyde, Badlands and The Getaway are indelibly marked in its DNA - but shows an already dazzling young filmmaker honing his skills and vision.

September 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune | Comment

Steven Spielberg in Malickland, with dolly and zoom and a wagonload of familial issues

September 25, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion | Comment
CinePassion

Modest but assured work.

June 12, 2009 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Reflecting the zeitgeist of mid-1970s America, this early Spieleberg picture is still one of his strongest, dealing with alienation, anarchy, and lack of control; Goldie Hawn gives an uncharacteristicaly forceful dramatic performance.

December 1, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

One of the most purely fun and slyly political films Spielberg has ever made. One of Hawn's best performances.

December 22, 2005 Comment
Zap2it.com

[W]ould be mostly forgotten melodrama if it hadn't been directed by a kid named Steven Spielberg...

October 29, 2004 Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | Comment
Flick Filosopher

Spielberg completists who have never caught it might want to rent it, but the rest of us can avoid it with a clear conscience, I should think.

September 21, 2004 Full Review Source: Needcoffee.com | Comment
Needcoffee.com

There's no question that this is a director with a God-given talent.

August 30, 2004 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

Features real attention to the sort of character dynamics that would serve subsequent [Spielberg] titles.

August 19, 2004 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | Comment
Creative Loafing

a fine example of the fugitives-on-the-run genre, holding its own alongside Thelma and Louise, Bandits, The Defiant Ones, and to a lesser extent Badlands and Bonnie and Clyde

August 18, 2004 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment
Filmcritic.com
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Audience Reviews for The Sugarland Express

While not his first film ever, this was the feature length theatrical debut of a nice guy named Steven Spielberg. Based on actual events, this film tells the story of an outlaw couple who take a highway patrolman hostage in an ill-conceived but desperate effort to keep their child from being taken away from them and

July 6, 2011
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

"Every cop in the state was after her. Everybody else was behind her."Lou-Jean, a blonde woman, tells her husband, who is imprisoned, to escape. They plan to kidnap their own child, who was placed with foster parents. The escape is partly successful, they take a hostage, who is a policeman and are pursued

March 26, 2009
LorenzoVonMatterhorn
Lorenzo von Matterhorn

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Sugarland Express (FR)
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