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Movies / On DVD / Monster's Ball
Monster's Ball

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Monster's Ball (2001)

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Reviews Counted:141

Fresh:120

Rotten:21

Average Rating:7.4/10

Consensus: Somber and thought provoking, Monster's Ball has great performances all around.

Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: MONSTER'S BALL is a hard hitting Southern drama tempered by a story of powerful, life-changing love. It is the story of Hank (Billy Bob Thornton), an embittered prison guard working on Death Row... MONSTER'S BALL is a hard hitting Southern drama tempered by a story of powerful, life-changing love. It is the story of Hank (Billy Bob Thornton), an embittered prison guard working on Death Row who begins an unlikely, but emotionally charged affair with Leticia (Halle Berry), the wife of a man he has just executed. MONSTER'S BALL also features Heath Ledger and Peter Boyle. Boyle plays Hank’s bigoted, aging father, whose hatred seems to have poisoned his entire family as much as the family business, which is working on the prison Death Squad. Ledger plays Hank’s son, who is hell-bent on getting out of the family business. The film is directed by award-winning filmmaker Marc Forster. He was nominated for an IFP/West Spirit Award as Best Low Budget Feature and won the Movado "Someone to Watch" Prize at the 2001 Spirit Awards for his film, "Everything Put Together."

Set in Georgia, MONSTER'S BALL was filmed entirely on location in and around New Orleans, Louisiana and at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola (also known as "The Farm").

MONSTER'S BALL is from an original screenplay by Milo Addica and Will Rokos, is produced by Lee Daniels, executive produced by Mark Urman, Mike Paseornek, and co-produced by Milo Addica and Will Rokos. Lions Gate Films will release the film in December, 2001. -- © 2001 Lions Gate Films [More]

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Heath Ledger, Peter Boyle

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Heath Ledger, Peter Boyle, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Mos Def

Director: Marc Forster

Director: Marc Forster
Screenwriter: Milo Addica, Will Rokos
Studio: Lions Gate Films

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Reviews for Monster's Ball

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1 - 20 (sorted by source; UK critics are listed first)
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Intimate, gruelling, and in some strange way, uplifting.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
02/17/02
Ben Falk
Ben Falk
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Forster's poised direction, as well as powerful turns from Billy Bob Thornton and the Oscar-winning Halle Berry, make this compelling viewing.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
03/02/03
Caroline Westbrook
Caroline Westbrook
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: FilmFour.com | comment Comment
06/10/02
FilmFour.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

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Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
06/10/02
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

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Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
08/12/02
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Teletext | comment Comment
08/07/02
Victor Olliver
Victor Olliver
Teletext
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A great film. Considers genuine personalities and extreme feelings, and lingers in the mind, holding some kind of spell over us long after it has ended.

Full Review Source: UK Critic | comment Comment
06/10/02
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
UK Critic

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
10/30/02
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

Yes, Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry give Oscar caliber performances. But so do Peter Boyle and Puff Daddy. When all the performances are excellent, critics' understand it's the direction.

Full Review Source: ABCNEWS.COM | comment Comment
12/27/01
Joel Siegel
Joel Siegel
ABCNEWS.COM

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: About.com | comment Comment
12/17/02
Rebecca Murray
Rebecca Murray
About.com

This complex, rich film dwells in the shades of grey, never offering an easy answer and always leaving us with questions.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
02/09/02
Brian Webster
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

Director Marc Forster shapes his love story like a master potter, forming a story of pure love, untainted by cliché.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
02/10/02
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

A textbook example of fearless filmmaking, exhibiting a brand of gritty realism that's hard to watch but impossible to ignore.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
03/04/02
Bill Muller
Bill Muller
Arizona Republic

less a love story than a movie about love — about how it leeches into disparate hearts and desperate circumstances, about raw and unlikely and redemptive it can be

Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment Comment
07/26/02
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

As oddly comforting as it is unsettling, Monster's Ball honors novelist E.M. Forster's famed dictum: 'Only Connect.'

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
02/07/02
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The kind of quiet, effective film that burrows under the viewer's skin and takes root before you've had a chance to realize that it's permeated your constitutional makeup.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
02/10/02
Marjorie Baumgarten
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

While Billy Bob transforms terrifically from a bigot to a noble man in a biracial relationship, Halle is just plain brilliant as a poor and exhausted woman who finally reaches her breaking point.

Full Review Source: BeatBoxBetty.com | comment Comment
03/07/02
BeatBoxBetty.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | comment Comment
07/14/07
Joe Lozito
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound
N/R

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Full Review Source: BlackFilm.com | comment Comment
05/13/03
Wilson Morales
Wilson Morales
BlackFilm.com
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by source; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|
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