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Movies / On DVD / Taking Woodstock
Taking Woodstock

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Taking Woodstock (2009)

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Reviews Counted:166

Fresh:81

Rotten:85

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

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DVD Features:

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Reviews for Taking Woodstock

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161 - 166 (sorted by date)
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Alas, the fun does not last. Once the concert starts and Elliot has his inevitable LSD trip and introduction to free love, the film drops the comedy for a needless coming-of-age denouement.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
05/16/09
Kaleem Aftab
Kaleem Aftab
Independent

One man’s near-emotionless trip through an event that was the high watermark for US counterculture moves along without any real sense of purpose or pace.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
05/16/09
Philip Wilding
Philip Wilding
Empire Magazine

The biggest surprise of all – it’s actually pretty average, at least by Lee’s own impeccable standards.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
05/16/09
Jamie Graham
Jamie Graham
Total Film

Enjoyable in places and merely humdrum in others, Taking Woodstock ultimately feels like a minor Ang Lee digression in between more memorable works.

Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
05/16/09
Allan Hunter
Allan Hunter
Screen International

It's a low-wattage film about a high-wattage event. Which is somewhat disappointing, though you do get a thoughtful, playful, often amusing film about what happened backstage at one of the '60s' great happenings.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
05/16/09
Kirk Honeycutt
Kirk Honeycutt
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A sort of let's-put-on-a-show summer-camp lark for director Ang Lee after the dramatic rigors of "Brokeback Mountain" and "Lust, Caution," the picture serves up intermittent pleasures but is too raggedy and laid-back for its own good.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
05/16/09
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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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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