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Movies / On DVD / Taking Woodstock
Taking Woodstock

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Taking Woodstock (2009)

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Reviews Counted:165

Fresh:81

Rotten:84

Average Rating:5.5/10

Consensus: Featuring numerous 60s-era clichés, but little of the musical magic that highlighted the famous festival, Taking Woodstock is a breezy but underwhelming portrayal.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for graphic nudity, some sexual content, drug use and language.

Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins

Genre: Comedies

Theatrical Release:Aug 28, 2009 Wide

Box Office: $7,366,736

Synopsis: A generation began in his backyard. From Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), comes Taking Woodstock, a new comedy inspired by the true... A generation began in his backyard. From Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), comes Taking Woodstock, a new comedy inspired by the true story of Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was.

It's 1969, and Elliot Tiber, a down-on-his-luck interior designer in Greenwich Village, New York, has to move back upstate to help his parents run their dilapidated Catskills motel, The El Monaco. The bank's about to foreclose; his father wants to burn the place down, but hasn't paid the insurance; and Elliot is still figuring how to come out to his parents.

When Elliot hears that a neighboring town has pulled the permit on a hippie music festival, he calls the producers, thinking he could drum up some much-needed business for the motel. Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbor's farm in White Lake, NY, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life, and American culture, forever. --© Focus Features [More]

Starring: Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, Imelda Staunton

Starring: Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, Imelda Staunton, Eugene Levy, Dan Fogler, Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Director: Ang Lee

Director: Ang Lee
Screenwriter: James Schamus
Producer: James Schamus, Ang Lee, Celia Costas
Composer: Danny Elfman
Studio: Focus Features

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Release:

Dec 15, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 

DVD Features:

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Reviews for Taking Woodstock

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Não se revela particularmente interessante ou minimamente revelador no que diz respeito à natureza de Woodstock ou do próprio protagonista.

Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | comment Comment
11/13/09
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena

A minor work from Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee that is enjoyable but ultimately underwhelming.

Full Review Source: Daily Express | comment Comment
11/13/09
Allan Hunter
Allan Hunter
Daily Express

This may be a minor movie, but it displays the hallmarks of a major talent.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
11/13/09
Tom Huddlestone
Tom Huddlestone
Time Out

Achieves the highly improbable by making one of the most exciting events of the 1960s look really boring.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
11/13/09
Jon Fortgang
Jon Fortgang
Channel 4 Film

A rare misfire for the usually reliable Lee.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
11/13/09
Toby Young
Toby Young
Times [UK]

Taking Woodstock is entertaining, funny but also very slight film. Unlike the real Woodstock, it won’t change lives or burn in the memory.

Full Review Source: Little White Lies | comment Comment
11/13/09
Limara Salt
Limara Salt
Little White Lies

his is by no means a terrible film, but from a filmmaker as exceptional as Ang Lee it's a rare disappointment.

Full Review Source: Digital Spy | comment Comment
11/13/09
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds
Digital Spy

Taking Woodstock will leave the unstoned cold and won’t have anyone aching for those legendary ‘three days of peace and music’ that wasn’t there in the first place.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
11/13/09
Elliott Noble
Elliott Noble
Sky Movies

Some will revel in it, but (younger) viewers may find Taking Woodstock old hat.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
11/13/09
Jonathan Dean
Jonathan Dean
Total Film

Ang Lee's latest dissection of the American dream is one of his most complex and even most deceptively subversive films.

Full Review Source: Uncut Magazine [UK] | comment Comment
11/13/09
Damon Wise
Damon Wise
Uncut Magazine [UK]

Their roles are played largely for easy laughs in James Schamus's script, which meanders in an echo of the freewheeling vibe of peace and love.

Full Review Source: Radio Times | comment Comment
11/13/09
Andrew Collins
Andrew Collins
Radio Times

Undermining the entire snooze-fest is Lee and Schamus's sentimental, clichéd view of Woodstock as the last flowering of hippie innocence.

Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment Comment
11/13/09
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

Ang Lee’s attempt to put the Swinging Sixties on the screen with love, respect and a dash of humour is a distinct disappointment.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
11/13/09
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
This is London

If this is Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee's attempt at comedy he should stick to heavy drama.

Full Review Source: Sun Online | comment Comment
11/13/09
Sun Online

A damp squib, thrown fizzling into the memory arena of the world’s pioneer rock festival.

Full Review Source: Financial Times | comment Comment
11/13/09
Nigel Andrews
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times

Lee wants to combine a landmark moment with a coming-of-age story, but his style here is so loose and rambling it's impossible to sense the excitement of the former and the particularity of the latter.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
11/13/09
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Independent

Lee is a superb director, and finds something resonant in every scene, drawing out telling details in relationships and situations while letting the actors create characters that continually surprise us.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
11/13/09
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Lee's film, rambling and maddeningly vague as it often is, does manage eventually to get at why something so ephemeral meant so much to so many.

Full Review Source: Scotsman | comment Comment
11/13/09
Alistair Harkness
Alistair Harkness
Scotsman

A watchable drama with likeable performances but it never quite comes together, thanks to an unfocussed screenplay that stumbles badly in the second half.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
11/12/09
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

click to read the full review

Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | comment Comment
10/15/09
Joseph Proimakis
Joseph Proimakis
Movies for the Masses
 
 
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Latest News for Taking Woodstock

November 13, 2009: James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
James Schamus might be a workaholic. If it's not enough that he's the head of Focus Features -- the independent imprint of Universal -- he's also an established producer and... More...

November 12, 2009: Five Favourite Films with Ang Lee
The rule that no two Ang Lee movies are ever the same is confidently kept intact with the release of his latest, Taking Woodstock, a comedy about the true story behind the... More...

August 27, 2009: Critics Consensus: Guess Halloween 2's Tomatometer!
This week at the movies, we've got the return of Michael Myers (Halloween 2, starring Malcolm McDowell and Scout Taylor-Compton), three dimensional fatalities (The Final... More...

August 27, 2009: Box Office Guru Preview: Fans Choose Sides in Horror Showdown
In a move that studios rarely make these days, two films from the exact same genre open opposite each other on the same day targeting much of the same audience. The Weinstein... More...

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