After 90-odd minutes of bludgeoning us into open-jawed bafflement, Shadowboxer is best aborted, and flushed away as one of 2006's more unpleasant memories.
Comment
07/20/06
Shadowboxer (2006)
20
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:56
Fresh:11
Rotten:45
Average Rating:4/10
Consensus: With random characters and a preposterous plot, this bizarre thriller might leave you with your mouth hanging open in disbelief.
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Hardboiled and at times incongruous, Lee Daniels's (MONSTER'S BALL) directorial debut sets out to smash stereotypes with a noirish crime thriller about loyalty, loss, love, and guilt. Cuba Gooding... [More]
Starring: Cuba Gooding, Helen Mirren, Vanessa Ferlito, Macy Gray
Director: Lee Daniels
Reviews for Shadowboxer
"Shadowboxer" is supposed to be concerned with how parents' lifestyles can be passed down to their children, but that is too simplistic here. The film, instead, is more a showcase of naked bodies, gory scenarios and over-the-top performances.
09/02/06
"Mr. and Mrs. Smith" in an altered consciousness--one that'll bring arthouse habituees to attention, if not to their feet, out of respect for courage and originality.
03/05/06
This is a sick flick. Sick, but satisfying.
07/20/06
A rubbernecker's movie....There's a new Zalman King in town, and his name is Lee Daniels.
07/27/06
That most wonderful of films, the kind that works on every level, but can't be easily pigeonholed.
12/30/06
There's no glee here, just a handful of glum characters stuck in an unending cycle of sex, violence, and heavy-handed preaching.
08/19/06
The script can't quite get a grasp on character depth, yet it also can't quite deliver the cheap thrills such a trashy tale might otherwise provide.
11/04/06
The casting seems to be an attempt to manufacture interesting characters, instead of depending on the script to do that.
08/04/06
The raw materials for a gutsy, gritty, fearless, fascinating thriller are here, but they amount to some intriguing individual parts and not a satisfying, cohesive whole.
08/26/07
Despite assembling a talented cast and crew, Daniels is stymied here by a script that takes itself far too seriously.
03/01/07
Clayton is one of those outsized movie villains. He's the sort who wears his designer shirt unbuttoned and beard slightly fuzzy, shoots his minions when they fail him, and keeps a zebra on his front lawn.
07/21/06
It doesn't take long to figure out that Shadowboxer's Helen Mirren, as a cancer-ridden hitwoman, and Cuba Gooding Jr., as her doting stepson, are the most unconvincing team of hired assassins in movie history.
07/28/06
Gosh, it's almost too bad/good to be true.
08/25/06
Mirren and Gooding are interesting -- and sexy -- to watch together. Once she leaves the film, the picture loses a bit of its uniqueness.
12/30/06
Should you go? Not in public. But with a group of like-minded friends and the DVD, there might be circumstances under which you'd find it hilarious.
08/04/06
A strident and shocking jumble.
07/20/06
Shadowboxer, a gaudy thriller saturated in sex and violence, is an extravagance that leaves you with your mouth hanging open -- partly in admiration of its audacity and partly in disbelief at its preposterousness.
07/20/06
Top CriticThumbs down to a movie of such vile and violent temper.
08/25/06
An envelope-pushing melodrama just this side of 'Pulp Fiction' parody.
07/05/06
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