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12/06/05
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The Slaughter Rule (2002)
68 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 25
Fresh: 17
Rotten:8
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Theatrical Release: Jan 8, 2003 Limited
Synopsis: Winter in Montana and everything breaks down. Just days after his estranged father dies, Roy Chutney gets cut from his high school football team. Football, for Roy, meant more than a proving ground— it promised escape from his lonely rural... [More]
Starring: Ryan Gosling, David Morse, Clea DuVall, Kelly Lynch
Director: Alex Smith, Andrew Smith
DVD Info
Reviews for The Slaughter Rule
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09/05/03
Best movie I saw in 2002. Features a terrifyingly real performance by David Morse.
03/10/03
Montana's wide-open spaces -- and the closed hearts of the people who live there -- make for a sincere, superbly acted story of loss and need.
02/11/03
Writer-directors Andrew and Alex Smith go for emotional truth, but what they come up with is often silly.
02/07/03
A timid template of an indie movie that glides through all the proper turns, sticks up all the appropriate signposts, and never once takes a demanding or truthful step.
02/07/03
Clear, cold and yet uniquely sensitive, The Slaughter Rule isn't a by-the-book flick, but that's what makes it so good.
01/24/03
Unlike Terrence Malick, whose shadow looms over the film's visual style, the Smiths over-explain, not grasping that all those barren fields and blood-red clouds are doing plenty of work for them.
01/23/03
Top Critic None of the characters' troubled histories or transformations are as compelling as Gosling and Duvall's unforced emotional complexity would promise or merit.
01/23/03
The movie has a richness that blows away most first features, not to mention most sports movies.
01/16/03
The film's real strength lies in two excellent performances, from veteran Morse and up-and-comer Gosling.
01/12/03
First-time filmmakers Andrew and Alex Smith have a potentially intriguing and very different tale, but they consistently shoot themselves in the foot with their amateurishly self-conscious direction.
01/11/03
Sex, alcohol, and the brutality of football. It may seem like a 'guy' movie, but the relationship struggles make this accessible to all audiences.
01/10/03
There's no miraculous 'Renegades rally from thirty points down in the last two minutes to win' nonsense here.
01/09/03
Related Forums for The Slaughter Rule
THE SLAUGHTER RULE gets a nomination just before an DVD release!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 1/1/03
by: REEL_REVIEWER 1/1/03
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