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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:8

Fresh:7

Rotten:1

Average Rating:7.7/10

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 - 10 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out
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
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
06/10/02
Guardian [UK]
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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
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Although director Marc Forster pulls decent performances from both Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry, coincidence-filled plotting, lame dialogue, and ham-fisted symbolism repeatedly undermine his best intentions.

Full Review Source: CNN.com | comment Comment
02/02/02
Paul Tatara
Paul Tatara
CNN.com
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The movie has the complexity of great fiction, and requires our empathy as we interpret the decisions that are made.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
02/01/02
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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Burning with a quiet intensity, Monster's Ball is bolstered by a poetic, intelligent sensibility not seen in an American film since Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
12/28/01
Robert Koehler
Robert Koehler
Variety
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Enigmatic, elliptical and mesmerizing, Monster's Ball invites myriad responses and interpretations.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
12/26/01
Kevin Thomas
Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
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This is one of those rare movies in which even people glimpsed only for a moment or two seem to have lives that ramify beyond the screen, as if the story were being witnessed rather than dramatized.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
12/26/01
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Given the deliberate scarcity of action and dialogue, the actors are forced to rely heavily upon their interior lives, and more than deliver the goods.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
11/14/01
Michael Rechtshaffen
Michael Rechtshaffen
Hollywood Reporter
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