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Reviews Counted:107
Fresh:102
Rotten:5
Average Rating:8/10
Consensus: Though decidedly one-sided, The Cove is an impeccably crafted, suspenseful expose of the covert slaughter of dolphins in Japan.
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
US Box Office: $619,467
Synopsis: The Cove is an astounding piece of investigative journalism with the heart of an action thriller. Led by Louie Psihoyos, leader of the Ocean Preservation Society, and Richard O'Barry, an... [More]
Director: Louie Psihoyos
By any measure, this is a horror film: graphic, shocking, uncompromising. The horrors, moreover, are real: the annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins in a secluded cove in Japan, where they are trapped in nets and hacked and speared to death.
Top CriticIt is put together so smartly you can almost feel the urgency – from the patient set-up, which lays on the information and statistics without getting boring or too preachy, to the horrific finale.
Top CriticThe result is quite horrific. No-one could be unmoved. But at the same time I did back away from the campaigning elements of the film.
Top CriticThis tense doco covers many disturbing issues at the same time capturing incredible images at great personal risk.
Top CriticIt is overwhelming, compelling and very depressing. In short, The Cove does its job very, very well.
Top CriticHorror film, spy thriller, disaster movie, corruption expose and more, The Cove is a gripping and devastating indictment of Japan's barbaric and secretive dolphin harvesting program
Top CriticThere is nothing simplistic about this story, nor the range of emotions we experience as our journey skids from fascination to devastation.
Top CriticRestrained and harrowing.
This outstanding documentary is as exciting as a thriller.
This documentary is also as well made as anything released all year, blending hard facts, cold scientific reason plus the thrills of a Hollywood spy movie to terrific effect.
This film virtually creates a new genre: the horror doc. It's a gripping and compelling film about something utterly unthinkable.
A taut, thrilling documentary that plays out like a heist movie while never overshadowing its message or activist credentials.
Top CriticThere’s an effective thriller element to this vividly assembled doc.
The Cove stands out from the crowd due to the readily apparent awfulness of the event it depicts.
The great strength of this documentary about the covert killing of wild dolphins in Japan is its aesthetic: artful edits, zippy music, even a few jokes. Radical stuff for an eco-documentary.
Top CriticA gripping, powerful and heart-wrenching expose ... activist filmmaking at its best.
One would imagine, and hope, that an Oscar nomination beckons.
Facts, stats and grim archive footage help build up a convincing if one-sided case, but it is the film’s revelatory covert recording that encapsulates the true power of documentary cinema.
If The Cove isn’t in the running for next year’s Best Doc Oscar, there’s something terribly wrong with this world. Gripping exposé, harrowing horror-thriller and devastating agitprop, it takes us to “a little town with a big secret”.
In this new, post-Michael Moore age of documentary filmmaking as lucrative big-screen fare, a documentary that educates without condescension, informs without bias and entertains without losing its focus is a valuable commodity.
November 19, 2009:
Academy Releases Documentary Shortlist 
Awards season is just around the corner, and to prove it, the Academy just released its list of the 15 films still vying for a Documentary Feature Oscar. More...
August 13, 2009:
Green Docs Finding Box Office a Hostile Environment
They have timely topics, great buzz, and meaningful messages -- so why are environmental documentaries like "The Cove" struggling to find theatrical audiences? More...
July 30, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Funny People Is Ambitious But Uneven
This week at the movies, we've got the tears of a clown (Funny People, starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen), extra-terrestrial visitors upstairs (Aliens in the Attic, starring... More...
June 21, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review
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