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All the King's Men

Play trailer Poster for All the King's Men PG-13 2006 2h 8m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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12% Tomatometer 156 Reviews 40% Popcornmeter 50,000+ Ratings
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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All the King's Men

All the King's Men

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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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Critics Reviews

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William Thomas Empire Magazine 12/30/2006
3/5
It's beautifully shot, acted and designed, but there's little cohesion in the story. Go to Full Review
Trevor Johnston Time Out 10/30/2006
What should have been an incisive study of the American political scene turns out a lumbering celluloid white elephant. Go to Full Review
Peter Bradshaw Guardian 10/28/2006
1/5
A Louisiana swamp of overacting and muddled plotlines sinks this cumbersome new version of Robert Penn Warren's political thriller. Go to Full Review
David Walsh World Socialist Web Site 02/14/2021
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. Go to Full Review
Mike Massie Gone With The Twins 11/15/2020
3/10
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. Go to Full Review
David Lamble Bay Area Reporter 05/12/2020
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. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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thiago s @Thiagostone Oct 29 Filme fraco, o roteiro é fraco, as cenas são fracas, a história é fraca, o elenco é fraco, e ninguém ajudou a melhorar o filme, os personagens são fracos, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores e relevantes, para fazer o filme ser bom. See more Blu B Sep 12 Why a remake was needed I have no idea...literally no idea. And the results are exactly what you'd expect if not a bit worse. The editing is terrible and the pacing is horrifically bad. I paid attention fully maybe slightly over an hour and I swear it felt like 2 hours. I just checked the out completely the rest of the way in order to make it through. It is such a freakin slog to make it through this. It felt like I had watched Return of the King directors cut. It's completely incoherent the longer it goes. How on earth do you do that when you have a classic that showed you how to do it? It starts out about the Govenor running, than stuff just happens with political drama and trying to tie in his family issues which is so jumpy. Than it becomes about Law's character and his love affair with Winslet which I have no freakin idea why and than Ruffalo shows up and they die and I have no idea what just happened, why I should care, or why I wasted 5 hours watching this even though it was only 2. The music is boring, generic, and forgettable. Everything else is subpar. Here's the weird thing, everyone is trying here like giving Oscar level effort. But what weighs this down like a cement block is the dialouge. Good God the dialouge is so subpar, meandering, and just never clear what the heck the point is. It takes this film 10 seconds of circling the wagons just to say Hi. Like how do you do that when you have the novel AND the classic film to go off of? The direction is great in scenes with tons of production value, great lighting, and some scenes look so gorgous. And it just get weighs down so much by the dialouge and incoherent narrative. It just gets very boring to look at because this is a very dark and black film once it just doesn't make sense. If the direction and production value wasn't as solid as it is, this would be one of the worst slogs I've ever sat through. Skip this. Has no reason to exist, baffling dialouge choices, and complete waste of an All Star Cast. See more Aug 17 Surprised by the poor reviews. I thought the movie was great. I always like LA movies b/c it's a histori and singular part of America that doesn't get much setting in movies. The cast is A+, the acting as good as you'd expect, and the story was really good. I think they had Penn do too many speeches and didn't develop his characters rise to stardom enough and that's the disconnect people were experiencing. Still a great movie and worth a spot in your collection. See more Glen M Apr 14 it was a long actionless movie full of stars but weak on plot? The story was long and drawn out and was about as interesting as watching paint dry? See more Jerry E @engelbach Dec 8 Completely misconceived. The acting is one-dimensionally histrionic. None of the actors has clue about their character or how to read lines with a sense of truth. Sean Penn is particularly inept and self-indulgent. The 1949 film was a believable masterpiece, and infinitely superior. See more Lars P 04/20/2024 The topic should be interesting, the film is not. Penn as Stark also does not grab me. See more Read all reviews
All the King's Men

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Movie Info

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
Producer
Mike Medavoy, Steven Zaillian, Arnold Messer, Ken Lemberger
Screenwriter
Steven Zaillian
Distributor
Sony Pictures
Production Co
Columbia Pictures Corporation, VIP, Phoenix Pictures, AKM Productions
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
Runtime
2h 8m
Sound Mix
Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)
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