While the cons do finally outweigh the pros... oh what marvelous pros they are.
Comment
10/12/07
Sleuth (2007)
36
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:117
Fresh:42
Rotten:75
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: Sleuth is so obvious and coarse, rather than suspenseful and action-packed, that it does nothing to improve on the original version
Australian Rating: M [See Full Rating]
Runtime: 86 mins
Genre: Thriller, Murder, Theatrical Release, Remake
Australian Theatrical Release:
Mar 6, 2008 Wide
US Box Office: $205,005
Synopsis: In 1972, Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine starred in the screen adaptation of SLEUTH, based on Anthony Shaffer's Tony Award-winning play and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Olivier played... [More]
Reviews for Sleuth
81 - 100 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Both stars definitely deliver and the movie directed by Kenneth Branagh is handsome enough, but for some reason it just doesn't connect the dots.
10/12/07
Kenneth Branagh is not a director with a light touch, or an aversion to self-importance, and the movie's visuals are too painfully obvious.
10/12/07
Caine and Law go at it like tigers, but in the end they're just chasing their own tails.
10/12/07
Just when things should be getting exciting and complex, they become repetitive and predictable. Subtext becomes hint becomes statement becomes declaration. For once, Pinter is a little too easy to understand.
10/12/07
So what's it all about? Got me.
10/12/07
Language this lethal has all but disappeared from the movies, and it's an unmitigated pleasure to observe Caine and Law attack it with such ferocity. Sleuth is nasty fun.
10/12/07
Top CriticOne of the more entertaining films of the season, a tight, efficient thriller with two actors, a director, and a writer firing on all creative cylinders
10/12/07
Entertains more than it should, a sure sign that the real culprit is the fine talent assembled.
10/12/07
In spite of its strengths for the first two-thirds, you're better off tracking down the original Sleuth than this one.
10/12/07
In the remake of Sleuth, what was once insignificant is now insufferable.
10/12/07
Top CriticIt's hard to fault a 35th anniversary retelling for not being able to fool us, but you would think in that time they'd be able to find a way to make that second-act twist work on film.
10/11/07
Caine and Law are in fine form bantering cleverly in this entertaining cat-and-mouse game, thanks to the inspired dialogue of Harold Pinter.
10/11/07
Top Criticambitious if not fatally amateurish
10/11/07
Despite interesting cinematography, this remake it fails because Michael Caine is no Laurence Olivier and Jude Law is no Michael Caine.
10/11/07
It has a certain edge and daring, or more to the point it pretends to. That goes some distance toward concealing that Sleuth is a horrible mismatch of writer and material.
10/11/07
It's an interesting failure -- a film that works more successfully as a study of technique and writing than as a motion picture.
10/11/07
Leaving aside two brilliant 1963 film adaptations of [Pinter's] best work, The Caretaker and The Servant, the terse opacity of the dialogue that served his early plays so astringently has never translated well onto the big screen.
10/11/07
Purely as an exercise in stylistic face-lifting, Sleuth is fascinating.
10/11/07
A delicious truffle filled with poison, with a sleek beauty that makes Sleuth all the more dangerous.
10/11/07
Latest News for Sleuth
March 10, 2008:
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The critically-acclaimed, Oscar-winning No Country For Old Men comes to DVD this week, accompanied by a litany of fellow Fresh films (Lake of Fire, Summer Palace, Dan in Real... More...
November 23, 2007:
Kenneth Branagh on Sleuth: The RT Interview
The Shakespearian thesp tells us about re-adapting the classic play, originally made into a 1972 film with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. More...
October 11, 2007:
Critical Consensus: No Debatin' Clayton, Night Almost Owns, Elizabeth Not Golden
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