Pompeii

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Pompeii

PG-13

2014

1h 45m

Adventure

Action

History

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

27%

Tomatometer

167 Reviews

34%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

In 79 A.D., Pompeii, a bustling port city, stands in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. Milo (Kit Harington), a former slave, is a gladiator who has caught the eye of Cassia (Emily Browning), a wealthy merchant's daughter. However, their difference in social status is not the only obstacle to their love; Cassia has been promised to Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland), a corrupt Roman senator. When the eruption of Mount Vesuvius rains lava and ash down on the city, Milo races to save her before it's too late.

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Critics Consensus

This big-budget sword-and-sandal adventure lacks the energy and storytelling heft to amount to more than a guilty pleasure.

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Kate Muir

The Times (UK)

06/02/2015

2/5

Pompeii 3D is a swords-and-sandals disaster epic that contains all the B-movie tropes you might hope for... The only element missing is a decent script.

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Chris Stuckmann

ChrisStuckmann.com

04/23/2015

D-

Hammy performances, poor editing, straight-to-DVD special effects, and bland direction.

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Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

metro.co.uk

05/13/2014

3/5

It's entertainingly silly stuff with an 'oh, no - they wouldn't?' finale of the ooziest toasted cheese.

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Joshua Polanski

Midwest Film Journal

Mar 3

One of the greatest cinematic achievements of the 21st century.

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Iván Kazi

EscribiendoCine

12/07/2022

5/10

A disaster movie with romantic appeal, with tragedy, like Titanic (1997), but more Balkan and action-oriented. Oh. And there's a gladiators sub-plot... [Full review in Spanish]

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Keith Garlington

Keith & the Movies

08/24/2022

2/5

Its blunders are aplenty and it’s impossible to take anything the film does seriously.

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ryan b

Jan 2

It is basically a rip off of Gladiator, not as well done either. Done have a little charm but honestly it is almost a complete Gladiator wanna-be movie. Acting is bland as well but still worth a watch.

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jimmy s

@Jimmy710 Dec 10

I love the movie they created a story line out of nothing it wasn't titanic disaster story line but at least I have a better understanding of the Pompeii disaster and the people that perish so it did what is supposed to do entertain me so bravo for the entertainment 👏.

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Pedro Henrique C

@Pedro2005 Jul 2

Pompeii might even be a cool movie to watch in the last few minutes, However, the story has no soul or heart at all, just another film about ancient Rome with fighting and politics in the middle of all this confusion.

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Ben P

Jun 11

Anything that happens in Paul W.S. Anderson's Pompeii is a foregone conclusion: the volcano will erupt, the pyroclastic flows will come, and everyone will turn to dust. Like all movies based on true events, it must reckon with the fact that the ending has already been spoiled. In the case of Pompeii, the city, that’s an ending which has been spoiled and kept on display for nearly 2,000 years. You can visit tomorrow and see the mummified corpses in stasis, frozen in time and preserved for all to see. That’s what we think of when we hear "Pompeii"—not the people, not the city, but the explosion and the aftermath. The moment. What Anderson understands better than anyone is this museum can make a hell of a tourist attraction. Full review on my Substack: https://benpatten.substack.com/

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Danny R

Mar 7

A hour and 40 mins, and no story was told, the lack of emotional connection to the characters is just the tip of the iceberg with how bad this film is, not to mention (minus a few actors) the litter of awful actors Kit Harington being the worst of the lot.

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C

01/05/2025

Bad script, storyline, and video game CGI. The movie should have been about the horrific and devastating volcanic eruption, not a Roman soap opera. Was it really necessary to add a sunami to this terrible event? Kiefer Sutherland only interesting character, but there was no one to root for. I wanted this film to be better. But it was not.

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Paul W.S. Anderson

Director

Kit Harington

Milo

Carrie-Anne Moss

Aurelia

Emily Browning

Cassia

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

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Synopsis

In 79 A.D., Pompeii, a bustling port city, stands in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. Milo (Kit Harington), a former slave, is a gladiator who has caught the eye of Cassia (Emily Browning), a wealthy merchant's daughter. However, their difference in social status is not the only obstacle to their love; Cassia has been promised to Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland), a corrupt Roman senator. When the eruption of Mount Vesuvius rains lava and ash down on the city, Milo races to save her before it's too late.

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Producer: Jeremy Bolt, Paul W.S. Anderson, Robert Kulzer, Don Carmody
Screenwriter: Janet Scott Batchler, Lee Batchler, Michael Robert Johnson
Distributor: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Production Co: Constantin Film, Impact Pictures
Rating: PG-13 (Disaster-Related Action|Brief Sexual Content|Intense Battle Sequences)
Genre: Adventure, Action, History, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 21, 2014, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): May 13, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $23.2M
Runtime: 1h 45m
Sound Mix: Datasat, SDDS, Dolby Digital

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