RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
Check out the new RT Community
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / Upcoming / Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Buy Poster External Icon
  • Visit Official Site External Icon
Bookmark and Share

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
10 %
Tomatometer
Template ImageTemplate Image

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted:41

Fresh:4

Rotten:37

Average Rating:2.9/10

Consensus: Full of patronizing, poorly structured arguments, Expelled is a cynical political stunt in the guise of a documentary.

Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

Genre: Education/General Interest

US Box Office: $7,499,617

Synopsis: Though Ben Stein is perhaps most famous for his sleep-inducing drone in FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF or for his eponymous game show, he is also a highly regarded New York Times columnist and was a... Though Ben Stein is perhaps most famous for his sleep-inducing drone in FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF or for his eponymous game show, he is also a highly regarded New York Times columnist and was a speechwriter for both Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford during their presidencies. For EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED, he needs all his powers of persuasion as he calls attention to the plight of exiled scientists and professors. In this documentary, Stein travels the world and speaks to men and women who have lost their jobs and their standings in the scientific world because of their association with intelligent design. EXPELLED uses the Berlin Wall as a metaphor and asserts that these people have been unjustly ousted, merely for speaking their minds. It carefully explains the differences between creationism and intelligent design and demonstrates that the latter is a belief held by people of all deity-based faiths, not just Christianity. It also devotes time to the connections between Darwinism and Hitler's regime. The film's climax features Stein going head-to-head with Richard Dawkins, a renowned atheist and author of the bestseller THE GOD DELUSION. Obviously, neither man budges in his firmly held beliefs, but it's fascinating to watch a debate between two undeniably intelligent men, regardless of whose side you're on. EXPELLED doesn't spend most of its time debating intelligent design and evolution. Instead it focuses largely on how the debate itself and its proponents have been ignored or pushed out of classrooms and academia. Filmmaker Nathan Frankowski inserts both original animations and clips of famous films (including PLANET OF THE APES and THE WIZARD OF OZ) to further illustrate his point. Though critics may find fault with EXPELLED for its one-sidedness, it's no more biased than any of Michael Moore's critically lauded documentaries. [More]

Starring: Richard Dawkins

Starring: Richard Dawkins

Director: Nathan Frankowski

Director: Nathan Frankowski
Screenwriter: Kevin Miller, Walt Ruloff, Ben Stein
Producer: Logan Craft, Walt Ruloff, John Sullivan
Composer: Andy Hunter, Robbie Bronnimann
Studio: Rocky Mountain Pictures

[See More Credits]

  • Trailers
  • Pictures
1 - 2 of 2

See More Movie Trailers & Pictures

Reviews for Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

One of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry.

comment 9 Comments
04/18/08
Jeannette Catsoulis
Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The film's flippant approach undermines the seriousness of its discourse, trading less in facts than in emotional appeals.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment 3 Comments
04/14/08
Justin Chang
Justin Chang
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The filmmakers' intentions are kept deliberately vague but it's a surprisingly entertaining and informative doc that at least tries to address the debate over 'intelligent design' from another angle.

Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | comment 11 Comments
04/16/08
Edward Douglas
Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

This film is cheerfully ignorant, manipulative, slanted, cherry-picks quotations, draws unwarranted conclusions, makes outrageous juxtapositions, segues between quotes that are not about the same thing, tells bald-faced lies, etc.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment 10 Comments
12/04/08
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Surely the film's greatest offense is the utter shamelessness with which it exploits the Holocaust.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment 6 Comments
04/18/08
Ken Fox
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Stein claims to denounce the tyranny of dogma, then browbeats us with his own.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment 2 Comments
04/17/08
Rafer Guzman
Rafer Guzman
Newsday

Junk science meets even junkier filmmaking in Expelled -- a no more shameless, stupid and loathsome piece of propaganda has ever skulked its way into the theater.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment 7 Comments
04/22/08
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Might there be a way to get to God through science? It's a fascinating notion and I wish the slickly produced Expelled investigated it more thoroughly.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
04/25/08
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

To grant Expelled any credibility beyond the opening minutes requires nothing short of a leap of faith.

Full Review Source: Suite101.com | comment Comment
12/17/08
Rob Humanick
Rob Humanick
Suite101.com

Expelled is a classic bait-and-switch, presenting itself as a plea for freedom in the scientific marketplace of ideas, while actually delivering a grossly unfair, contradictory, and ultimately repugnant attack on Darwinists.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment 8 Comments
04/24/08
Steven Hyden
Steven Hyden
AV Club

[I]n a saner universe... you could scoff at Stein and dismiss him and not give this propagandistic nonsense another thought. But... [y]ou need to see this movie because these people are not going away...

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment 16 Comments
04/16/08
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

Like Moore, whose documentary-cum-polemical style they are clearly imitating, the makers of Expelled give their critics too much ammunition, so even if you're sympathetic to some of the ideas and the underlying argument, it is still difficult to defend.

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
10/18/08
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

[T]he No. 1 agenda [here] has much less to do with academic freedom than with political ideology.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles CityBeat | comment Comment
04/16/08
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat

The man made famous by Ferris Bueller, however, quickly wades into waters far too deep for him.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment 9 Comments
04/15/08
Jeffrey Kluger
Jeffrey Kluger
TIME Magazine

This film is an appallingly unscrupulous example of hack propaganda and it sucketh mightily. What's more, I didn't laugh once.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment 1 Comment
06/27/08
Liam Lacey
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail

The movie is unpersuasive, but it's amusing...

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment 1 Comment
04/28/08
Jim Lane
Jim Lane
Sacramento News & Review

"...raises some interesting questions about evolutionary theory, but does so in such a smug, disingenuous and self-serving manner it's hard to take the movie seriously.

Full Review Source: LarsenOnFilm | comment Comment
04/18/08
Josh Larsen
Josh Larsen
LarsenOnFilm

Don't expect any serious debate here about God and evolution. This documentary is like watching a paranoiac making fun of a hysteric.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment 2 Comments
06/27/08
Philip Marchand
Philip Marchand
Toronto Star

Regardless of your personal views, Expelled's heavy-handed bias (a visit to Darwin's home gets the same eerie music as a tour of Dachau) is exasperating.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
04/24/08
Adam Markovitz
Adam Markovitz
Entertainment Weekly

Expelled may prove to be as controversial as the producers hope, but the reactions will be more entertaining and elucidating than the film itself.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
04/18/08
John P. McCarthy
John P. McCarthy
Boxoffice Magazine
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
See All

More Movies

Coming Soon in Australia
Tomatometer Percentage Movie Date

70% 70% Where the Wild Things Are 03/12
83% 83% Paranormal Activity 03/12
89% 89% Zombieland 03/12
76% 76% The Informant! 03/12
— The Strength of Water 03/12

What’s Hot On RT

Shock! Horror?

Shock! Horror?

Lars von Trier talks Antichrist

Avatar

Avatar

Watch an exclusive behind-the-scenes video

RT's Twilight corner

RT's Twilight corner

Everything you need on New Moon is here

Doomed Romance

Doomed Romance

Our top 10 star-crossed movie lovers

Other News

  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • Natalie Portman Says Kat Denning Is in Thor Source: MTV
14
  • Disney Restructuring Has Broad Implications Source: Los Angeles Times
10
  • Joel Silver Talks Ninja Assassin, Sgt. Rock, Lobo, and More Source: Collider.com
1
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
108
  • Idris Elba Joins Thor Source: Hollywood Reporter
112
  • Jackass 3D Coming in 2010? Source: Collider.com
32
  • 6 Reasons 'Twilight' Is Doomed Source: The Wrap
64
  • Forbes Names Hollywood's Most Overpaid Actors Source: Forbes
20
  • Chris Weitz Says He's (Almost) Done with Directing Source: Film School Rejects
26
  • Spider-Man 4 Casting Rumors Multiply Like Rabbits Source: Deadline Hollywood Daily
51
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Box Office Guru Wrapup: New Moon Shatters Records
165
  • Critics Consensus: New Moon Wanes
129
  • Tomatometer Watch: Will Twilight's New Moon Dazzle?
97
  • Total Recall: Star-Crossed Lovers
75
  • Total Recall: John Travolta's Best Movies
56
  • Weekly Ketchup: Idris Elba cast in Thor, more Spider-Man 4 rumors
54
  • Five Favorite Films with Werner Herzog
50
  • Friday Harvest: New Moon, Avatar, and more!
32
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
7
  • RT on DVD: Harry Potter returns, Bella heads to Adventureland
4
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
7
  • Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
8
  • Fight Club Sound Designer Reflects on Film's 10th Anniversary
19
  • James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
6
  • RT on DVD: Wassup, Bruno
3
  • Scott Hicks Talks The Boys Are Back
0
  • John Hurt Talks Harry Potter, Quentin Crisp and Alien - The RT Interview
15
  • Richard Kelly chats about The Box
2
  • Terry Gilliam Talks Doctor Parnassus
19
  • Wes Anderson Talks Fantastic Mr. Fox - RT Interview
8
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed at Rotten Tomatoes
  • Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed at IGN

Fresh Links

Featured
Win Glee DVDs
Win Glee DVDs External Link

We've got 20 copies of the hit TV series' Pilot Episode to giveaway.

New Moon Portraits
New Moon Portraits External Link

TIME offers us a closer look at the characters from the latest Twilight film.

Why Don't Australians Make Sci-fi?
Why Don't Australians Make Sci-fi? External Link

The New Matilda's Lynden Barber looks at the recent success of low-budget sci-fi -- and asks the question.

Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Twitter External Link

Get all the latest movie updates, reviews, interviews and features here.

Competitions
Win Star Wars prizes
Win Star Wars prizes External Link

Enough Prequel, Original Trilogy and Family Guy DVDs to fill a space cruiser

Win the entire 007 collection
Win the entire 007 collection External Link

Everything from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace could be yours.

Win Fight Club Special Editions and more
Win Fight Club Special Editions and more External Link

We're giving away the 10th Anniversary Blu-ray, plus Braveheart and the Rocky collection

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.