The performances are admirable, the location evocatively exploited and the psychological intensity often unbearable. But the spark isn’t there.
Comment
05/11/01
The King is Alive (2001)
60
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:65
Fresh:39
Rotten:26
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Though the plot feels rather contrived, the ensemble acting in this Dogme 95 film is good.
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: The fourth contribution to the grass roots Dogme 95 collective, THE KING IS ALIVE is a psychological horror film that uses a bleak yet beautiful African landscape to tell a haunting tale of human... [More]
Starring: Miles Anderson, Romane Bohringer, Bruce Davison, Brion James
Director: Kristian Levring
Reviews for The King is Alive
Top CriticPretentious, overlong, and visually unappealing.
05/07/01
Top CriticDespite astonishing camera work and editing, it just gets duller and duller even as the story is supposedly heating up.
12/10/01
The endless vistas of sand that surround the forlorn settlement embody the void at the heart of its abandoned, terrified characters.
07/06/08
Top CriticIt's all very watchable, thanks to excellent performances all around...
06/24/06
Top CriticClick to read the article
05/17/01
Top CriticClick to read the article
03/24/02
Top CriticYou can take The King Is Alive as a bold gamble or a pretentious folly. No, take it as a pretentious folly.
06/15/01
A high-minded project that never lifts off as intended despite all the right elements seemingly coming together.
05/02/01
Top CriticIt doesn't escape its own ascetic pretensions.
07/20/01
Complete waste of time.
05/10/01
Levring's film isn't nearly as smart or original as he seems to think it is.
11/18/02
Thoroughly self-serving as well as pretentious and butt-numbingly dull.
06/14/01
The predictability and repetitive nature of the story, our own patience is challenged.
04/02/01
Sinks under the weight of its ever more inescapably apparent contrivance.
06/15/01
By the time you figure out who's who, you've almost ceased to care.
10/21/02
If the purpose of the story is to get us to dislike the characters, then mission accomplished.
06/15/01
Kristian Levring's The King is Alive operates on a conceptual, pseudo-intellectual level, perhaps a touch too orderly to convey true madness.
05/14/01
The performances Levring gets from his international cast are almost strong enough to distract you from his failure to develop any of the grand themes so self-consciously set-up by the choice of King Lear.
05/11/01
If I'd been interested in this movie's acrimonious characters I might have appreciated the actors' performances more.
04/11/01
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