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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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21 - 40 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Halle Berry turns in an amazing performance.

Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | comment Comment
01/29/03
Wesley Lovell
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy

Click to read the article

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

Recalls Tender Mercies, another astutely acted character study that remained resolutely small-scale and was all the more affecting because it didn't overreach.

Full Review Source: Movieline | comment Comment
12/02/02
Stephen Farber
Stephen Farber
Movieline

It's not a polemic on the death penalty, race relations or family dynamics. It's a character study that really sticks with you.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
11/06/02
Jeff Strickler
Jeff Strickler
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Much of the film works, performances all around are better than the script, and the whole (especially the first part) is well directed by Marc Forster.

Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | comment Comment
10/21/02
Jean Lowerison
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Film Snobs | comment Comment
10/17/02
Jimmy O
Jimmy O
Film Snobs

A fine film that packs enormous ambition into a modest, carefully executed package.

Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer | comment Comment
10/15/02
Margaret A. McGurk
Margaret A. McGurk
Cincinnati Enquirer

In a movie season already nourished with tales of domestic despair, Monster's Ball is the most complex, naturalistic, and sympathetic.

Full Review Source: Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) | comment Comment
08/26/02
Mark Palermo
Mark Palermo
Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
08/17/02
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
08/09/02
Robert Denerstein
Robert Denerstein
Denver Rocky Mountain News

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

A serious movie made by seriously talented people, and I never quite came 'round to it.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment 1 Comment
07/20/02
Mark Caro
Mark Caro
Chicago Tribune

How nice it must be to be Hank, the strong man, swooping in to be Leticia's knight-in-shining-armor. How convenient, also, that this woman happens to be as beautiful as Halle Berry.

Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | comment Comment
07/12/02
Jeffrey Chen
Jeffrey Chen
Window to the Movies

Marc Forster’s downbeat Southern drama really is a low-rent version of Carl Franklin’s powerful One False Move

Full Review Source: Matinee Magazine | comment Comment
06/14/02
Jason Clark
Jason Clark
Matinee Magazine

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Dark Horizons | comment Comment
06/13/02
Garth Franklin
Garth Franklin
Dark Horizons

There is so little love in this movie - it's really depressing. It's hard to buy into the rapid transformation that Billy Bob Thornton's character makes. You either believe the chemistry between the two actors, or you don't - I didn't.

Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | comment Comment
06/07/02
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com

Sadness engulfs the people in this provocative drama like a dense fog, leaving them with little sense of direction or purpose except trying to get by each day. Stunning performances!

Full Review Source: ReelTalk Movie Reviews | comment Comment
06/05/02
Betty Jo Tucker
Betty Jo Tucker
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

In its deliberate pacing and its jolting turns, the movie is reminiscent of director Casi Lemmons' "Eve's Bayou," another Southern tale swamped in moodiness.

Full Review Source: Kalamazoo Gazette | comment Comment
06/03/02
James Sanford
James Sanford
Kalamazoo Gazette

A Última Ceia mergulha sem reservas no triste universo de seus protagonistas, retratando-os de forma honesta e, justamente por isso, despertando reações ambíguas na platéia.

Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | comment Comment
05/30/02
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena

Halle Berry, of all people, gives one of the year's strongest performances

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
05/25/02
Collin Souter
Collin Souter
eFilmCritic.com
 
 
21 - 40 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|
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