All the King's Men

PG-13

Now Playing

2 hr. 8 min.

Drama

List

12%

158 Reviews

Tomatometer

40%

50,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Charismatic Southern politician Willie Stark's (Sean Penn) idealism and good intentions give way to corruption after he becomes governor of Louisiana. Unfortunately for Stark, his right-hand man (Jude Law) retains the same good moral fibre he had when the men both entered the political arena.

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Critics Consensus

With a scenery-chewing performance from Sean Penn, an absence of political insight, and an overall lack of narrative cohesiveness, these Men give Oscar bait a bad name.

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Lars P

The topic should be interesting, the film is not. Penn as Stark also does not grab me.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

04/20/24

Full Review

Stacey E

This movie was awful. Sean Penn was particularly annoying. Was he supposed to be perpetually drunk? That's what he acted like. Waste of time.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

10/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

When your trailer is better than the rest of the movie, you know the rest of the movie sucks. This is the case with this movie. It's awful because it lacks historical accuracy and little on the book its after. Just watch the trailer and not the flim.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

steve d

The original was a strong story with great performances and some political commentary, This film has none of that but it does succeed at one thing, this one is longer.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

While the original was an archetype, here we find the same story, but the characters have some more deepness. Cast is a very good one, although the conclussion is not so political to become more a human study.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Truly dreadful, and a complete waste of a decent cast. Don't bother.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/11/23

Full Review

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Steven Zaillian

Director

Sean Penn

Willie Stark

Jude Law

Jack Burden

Kate Winslet

Anne Stanton

James Gandolfini

Tiny Duffy

Mark Ruffalo

Adam Stanton

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William Thomas

Empire Magazine

It's beautifully shot, acted and designed, but there's little cohesion in the story.

Rated: 3/5

Dec 30, 2006

Full Review

Trevor Johnston

Time Out

What should have been an incisive study of the American political scene turns out a lumbering celluloid white elephant.

Oct 30, 2006

Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

A Louisiana swamp of overacting and muddled plotlines sinks this cumbersome new version of Robert Penn Warren's political thriller.

Rated: 1/5

Oct 28, 2006

Full Review

David Walsh

World Socialist Web Site

The writer-director has taken a drama about the rise of a radical-populist ... and planted it in the soil of the early 1950s. There isn't an obvious problem with this, except that it makes no sense whatsoever.

Feb 14, 2021

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

Occasionally, the dialogue exudes intelligence, but it's delivered with a perpetual drabness and spiritlessness by a cast that seems genuinely bored in their involvement.

Rated: 3/10

Nov 15, 2020

Full Review

David Lamble

Bay Area Reporter

All the King's Men makes me fear not for the Republic, but for the future of political movies. I can imagine a similarly misguided stab at bringing Harvey Milk to the screen.

May 12, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

Charismatic Southern politician Willie Stark's (Sean Penn) idealism and good intentions give way to corruption after he becomes governor of Louisiana. Unfortunately for Stark, his right-hand man (Jude Law) retains the same good moral fibre he had when the men both entered the political arena.

Director: Steven Zaillian
Executive Producer: Andreas Schmid, James Carville, Todd Phillips, David Thwaites, Andreas Grosch, Michael Hausman
Screenwriter: Steven Zaillian
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Production Co: AKM Productions, Phoenix Pictures, VIP, Columbia Pictures Corporation
Rating: PG-13 (Partial Nudity|Intense Sequence of Violence|Sexual Content)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 22, 2006, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 1, 2011
Box Office (Gross USA): $7.2M
Sound Mix: Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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