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Movies / On DVD / Steal This Movie
Steal This Movie

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Steal This Movie (2000)

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Reviews Counted:40

Fresh:22

Rotten:18

Average Rating:5.5/10

Consensus: D'Onofrio's performance fails to do justice to Hoffman, and the depiction of the 60s also rings false.

Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Steal This Movie charts the rise and fall of Abbie Hoffman -- activist, radical, fugitive, lover -- and leads us through the maze of music, politics and personal struggle of the late Sixties and... Steal This Movie charts the rise and fall of Abbie Hoffman -- activist, radical, fugitive, lover -- and leads us through the maze of music, politics and personal struggle of the late Sixties and Seventies.

Abbie's story reflects a culture that abandoned comfort for freedom, money for passion, complacency for instinct. He recognized an enlightened breed of renegade soldiers in this hippie generation. They were young, bold, defiant, reactive. They had invaded his home -- the Lower East Side of Manhattan -- and they stood for resistance, reaction and change.

And Abbie would lead and inspire them through love, sex, and revolutionary joy to raise their consciousness and help end the war in Vietnam. Like a psychological Robin Hood, he "liberated" from the materialistic, narrow-minded rich. He burned money and "levitated" the Pentagon. With the love of his life, Anita, by his side, Abbie outraged the establishment and seduced his passion generation into action.

In 1968, Abbie, Anita, and a small circle of friends founded Yippie! -- a band of revolutionaries organized to protest the war at the Democratic National Convention. The police riots that followed made headlines the world over and exposed the repression at the heart of our free society. Abbie stood trial with seven others for inciting the riot and became the court jester and conscience of the proceedings. The group became known as the Chicago Seven, forever a symbol of the litigious battle for political expression in our country.

Abbie's chutzpah and brilliant theatrics earned him his status as counter-cultural hero and led to their release on appeal. Few know the price he paid. Abbie and Anita lived under constant FBI surveillance and endured a Hoover-led smear campaign that cost them work, friends and, finally, their marriage. Hoffman went underground in 1974, leaving behind Anita and a young son, America. They were desperately in love but no longer able to stay together. [More]

Starring: Vincent D'Onofrio, Janeane Garofalo, Kevin Pollak, Jeanne Tripplehorn

Starring: Vincent D'Onofrio, Janeane Garofalo, Kevin Pollak, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kevin Corrigan, Donal Logue, Troy Garity

Director: Robert Greenwald

Director: Robert Greenwald
Producer: Jacobus Rose

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Steal This Movie

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Greenwald, who knew Hoffman in his later years, infuses the film with authenticity.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
01/01/00
William Arnold
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

For those who regarded Hoffman as the Bugs Bunny of radicalized Amerika, he wasn't the person played by Vincent D'Onofrio in Steal This Movie, good intentions notwithstanding.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Henry Cabot Beck
Henry Cabot Beck
Film.com

Here, finally, is a film about the '60s that comes closest to showing the true grit and idealistic vulnerability that mixed to make the hippie generation an engine for social change.

Full Review Source: IFilm | comment Comment
01/01/00
Rob Campbell
Rob Campbell
IFilm

Greenwald and D'Onofrio bring the man to vibrant life.

Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Michael Dequina
Michael Dequina
TheMovieReport.com

Information enters the screen from too many directions ...This is distracting at first, but the movie smooths out and finds its rhythm, and the closing passages are quite moving.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

What's missing is any sense of who Abbie Hoffman actually was.

Full Review Source: Reel.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Pam Grady
Pam Grady
Reel.com

A committed cast but an awkward script and no budget for production niceties.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
01/01/00
Bob Graham
Bob Graham
San Francisco Chronicle

D'Onofrio's blunderbuss performance obliterates whatever wit and charm Hoffman had.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
01/01/00
J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
Village Voice

Likable but muddled.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Deserves to be seen by a large audience for bringing the man's [Abbie Hoffman] endeavors to glorious life.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
01/01/00
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

Seems to be caught between preaching to the converted and reinventing a complex real-life individual without fully exploring that person's humor, complexity and contradictions.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
01/01/00
Ed Kelleher
Ed Kelleher
Film Journal International

In his attempt to capture Abbie, D'Onofrio ends up with an accent that not only doesn't sound like the way Abbie spoke, but in fact doesn't sound like the way anybody ever spoke.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
New Times

Vincent D'Onofrio does capture Hoffman's charisma and nuttiness -- and he's the only reason to resist the temptation to skip this exasperating movie.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
01/01/00
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post

It's worth seeing just for D'Onofrio's performance, but wait 'till it comes out on cable or video.

Full Review Source: Greenwich Village Gazette | comment Comment
01/01/00
Eric Lurio
Eric Lurio
Greenwich Village Gazette

The greater part of [D'Onofrio's] performance comes of as simply hysterical and shrill, an overwrought portrait of a raving lunatic who just happened to be exceedingly principled.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Wade Major
Wade Major
Boxoffice Magazine

Garofalo is remarkable as the feisty, level-headed Anita.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
01/01/00
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The film implies that it's up to something appetizing, but the prevailing vibe is flimsy speechifying.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
01/01/00
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
San Francisco Examiner

Steal This Movie puts a fresh spin on the late '60s.

Full Review Source: Citysearch | comment Comment
01/01/00
Sean O'Connell
Sean O'Connell
Citysearch

Most of Steal This Movie plays with all the historical verity and cheapo sheen of a made-for-VH1 original.

comment Comment
01/01/00
J. Rentilly
J. Rentilly
TNT's Rough Cut

The movie does a marvelous job of authentically capturing the look and mood of the period.

Full Review Source: Internet Reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Steve Rhodes
Steve Rhodes
Internet Reviews
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
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