Oliver! (1968)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:21
Rotten:4
Average Rating:7.7/10
Consensus: It has aged somewhat awkwardly, but the performances are inspired, the songs are memorable, and the film is undeniably influential.
Runtime: 2 hrs 33 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Synopsis: Carol Reed (THE THIRD MAN, ODD MAN OUT) softens the edges of his social commentary as he heads into the slums of 19th-century London in this vigorous adaptation of Lionel Bart's musical version of... [More]
Reviews for Oliver!
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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 4.5/5 |
Reed's memorable and epic musical provides good family fun, some great musical numbers and in Fagin, the Artful Dodger, and Sykes, some of cinema's most beloved unsavoury characters. Full Review |
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Reed is craftsman enough to make an efficient family entertainment out of Lionel Bart's musical, but not artist enough to put back any of Dickens' teeth which Bart had so assiduously drawn. Full Review |
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C+ |
Has little bite. Full Review |
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3/5 |
No review available.
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There's plenty of mileage left in the famous story. Full Review |
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After a season of watching inane twitching in the name of dance, the viewer is most happily greeted by Onna White's choreography, an exuberant step-by-step exploration of Victorian zeal. Full Review |
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B |
Overrated at the time of release, the Oscar-winning Oliver! is a skillful but unexciting movie musical, one that softens considerably Dicken's famous novel, and not helped much by the mediocre staging of the production numbers. Full Review |
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4/4 |
Oliver! is better than most screen musicals of the 1960s, a period when oversized, poorly rendered songfests virtually killed the genre. Full Review |
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In retrospect, it seems emblematic of the triviality Reed descended to in the last years of his career. The Third Man it's not. Full Review |
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4/4 |
An intense and inspired musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic story about an orphan's amazing ordeal on the streets of the big city. Full Review |
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4/4 |
Makes an epic impact, fully exploiting cinema to chase the intensity of a live musical while also allowing time for intimate expression of character. Full Review |
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4/4 |
A treasure of a movie. Full Review |
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5/5 |
Handsome, moving version of famed musical
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4/5 |
No review available.
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4/5 |
Memorable, and responsible for inspiring a cottage industry of ragamuffin musicals a la Newsies. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Eye-filling and lively, but it was better on the stage
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4/5 |
No review available.
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2/5 |
No review available.
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4/4 |
A great family musical, spirited and youthful, with moments of true sadness, tragedy and joy -- full of rosy cheeked dirty-faced angelic-voiced boys with plenty of mischief inside them. Full Review |
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4/5 |
As big-budget adaptations Broadway shows go, this is one of the best.
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