Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

xx 12th & Delaware
xx 180° South
90 45365
56 8: The Mormon Proposition
xx Accidents Happen
62 After the Cup: The Sons of Sakhnin United
36 After.Life
56 Agora
82 Ajami
78 Anton Chekhov's The Duel
xx Badmaash Company
xx Barking Water
76 Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
62 Behind the Burly Q
62 Best Worst Movie
31 Black Waters of Echo's Pond, The
35 Boogie Woogie
64 Breath Made Visible: Anna Halprin
24 Burzynski
xx Ca$h
59 Cartel, The
68 Casino Jack and the United States of Money
xx Cheech & Chong's Hey Watch This
48 Chloe
66 City Island
51 City of Your Final Destination, The
55 Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
xx Convention
83 Crazy Heart
51 Creation
xx Cremaster Cycle, The
74 Cropsey
74 Cyrus
73 Daddy Longlegs
80 Dogtooth
50 Don McKay
66 Double Take
67 Eclipse, The
xx Entre Nos
85 Exit Through the Gift Shop
75 Father of My Children, The
30 Finding Bliss
52 Formosa Betrayed
60 Fresh
53 Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema
43 George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead
68 Ghost Bird
77 Ghost Writer, The
68 Girl on the Train, The
xx Gone with the Pope
40 Good Heart, The
69 Good, The Bad, The Weird, The
45 Greatest, The
76 Greenberg
59 Handsome Harry
24 Happiness Runs
73 Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suess
54 Harry Brown
80 Have You Heard From Johannesburg?: Apartheid and the Club of the West
57 Here and There
xx Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger
51 Holy Rollers
32 Human Centipede (First Sequence), The
82 I Am Love
33 In My Sleep
61 Infidel, The
67 It Came From Kuchar
80 Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
56 John Rabe
55 Joneses, The
55 Juche Idea, The
65 Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D
55 Killer Inside Me, The
53 Killing Kasztner
44 Kimjongilia
xx Kings of the Evening
62 Kites: The Remix
47 La Mission
63 Lbs.
xx Le amiche
58 Leaves of Grass
69 Let It Rain
41 Lightkeepers, The
76 Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders
37 Living Wake, The
66 Looking for Eric
63 Lottery, The
83 Mademoiselle Chambon
xx Malice in Wonderland
46 Mercy
78 Messenger, The
47 Metropia
62 Micmacs
75 Mid-August Lunch
54 Misfortunates, The
75 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
79 Mother
64 Mother and Child
35 Multiple Sarcasms
xx My Girlfriend's Boyfriend
50 My Name is Khan
54 Nature of Existence, The
73 Night and Day
xx Nightfall
71 No One Knows About Persian Cats
59 Nobody’s Perfect
71 Oath, The
xx Ocean of Pearls
64 Ondine
59 OSS 117: Lost in Rio
xx Other Guys, The
37 Paper Man
42 Perfect Game, The
47 Perrier's Bounty
50 Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies
78 Please Give
31 Pornography: A Thriller
41 Princess Kaiulani
74 Prodigal Sons
90 Prophet, A
xx Raajneeti
67 Raavan
73 Racing Dreams
xx Ramchand Pakistani
xx Red Birds
63 Reel Injun
79 Restrepo
xx Road, Movie
45 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead
65 Runaways, The
xx Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
81 Secret in Their Eyes, The
81 Secret of Kells, The
73 See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary
57 Severe Clear
60 Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
52 Shine of Rainbows, A
77 Single Man, A
69 Solitary Man
47 South of the Border
75 Square, The
75 Stonewall Uprising
53 Tales from the Script
74 Terribly Happy
78 Teza
75 That Evening Sun
49 Thorn in the Heart, The
60 TiMER
52 Touching Home
33 Trash Humpers
59 Trotsky, The
56 Two in the Wave
85 Vincere
xx Visionaries
54 Wah Do Dem
70 Warlords, The
55 When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors
68 Whiz Kids
52 Who Do You Love
65 Wild Grass
88 Winter's Bone
68 Women Without Men
xx World on a Wire

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Spirit, The

EMAILPRINTLionsgate

Spirit, The reviews
30
4.5 User Score:

Generally unfavorable reviews

Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 72 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Action  |  Drama

Written by: Frank Miller
Will Eisner

Directed by: Frank Miller

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 25, 2008
DVD: April 14, 2009

Running Time: 103 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of stylized violence and action, some sexual content and brief nudity

Starring Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson, Paz Vega, and Jaime King

The Spirit is the story of Denny Colt, a murdered cop who is mysteriously reborn as the masked crime fighter called the Spirit. Determined to keep his beloved Central City safe, the Spirit pursues Central City’s villains from the shadows and seeks to remove to the worst of them all: the psychotic megalomaniac known as the Octopus. Yet as busy as his ongoing mission keeps him, the dashing crusader always manages to make time for beautiful women, though he never quite knows if they want to seduce, love or kill him. But there is one lady who will never betray him, and to whom he will always be true: Central City, the proud old metropolis where he was born – twice. (Lionsgate)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

63

USA Today Claudia Puig

The Spirit is uneven, but its campy adventure provides some amusing, escapist fun.

Read Full Review >
63

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Should make comic modern-day fanboys happy, what with its dark undertones, its beat-it-to-a-pulp action and its sly winks at comic greats past and present. Everyone else, including fans of Will Eisner's original Spirit, may find themselves wondering what all the fuss is about.

Read Full Review >
58

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The result is a great-looking movie with an awkward balance of pulp noir and campy self-awareness.

Read Full Review >
50

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

What a shame that The Spirit isn't nearly as good as it looks.

Read Full Review >
50

ReelViews James Berardinelli

There are good things to be said about The Spirit, but not enough of them to outweigh the bad.

Read Full Review >
50

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

As the vamps, Eva Mendes and Scarlett Johansson might be posing for a fashion spread with just one note to play -- gorgeous high-bitch mockery.

Read Full Review >
40

Los Angeles Times Sam Adams

Miller's flat, humorless yarn is set in Central City, a vacant metropolis whose only residents seem to be cops and crooks.

Read Full Review >
40

The New York Times A.O. Scott

What is most striking about The Spirit is how little pleasure it affords, in spite of its efforts to by sly, sexy, heartfelt and clever all at once.

Read Full Review >
40

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Miller seems to have brought neither his brains nor his heart (both of which we know he's got) to this project. The style is willing. But the spirit is weak.

Read Full Review >
38

New York Post Kyle Smith

With its starkly contrasted visuals (fierce blacks, Clorox whites, a dash of unholy crimson), The Spirit may resemble a comic book more than any live-action film yet made, but it makes "Max Payne" look like a gleaming jewel of storytelling by comparison.

Read Full Review >
38

Premiere Jordan Burchette

Not charming, but not cynical, The Spirit is wholly unrecommendable, but made with greater care than many movies that are.

Read Full Review >
38

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The movie's cleverest idea is to give the Octopus identical clone henchmen with names like Phobos, Logos, and Huevos, all played by Louis Lombardi with a marvelous fat-boy idiot grin.

Read Full Review >
38

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Maybe if there was something going with the dialogue - snappy Chandlerisms, say, or even just sentences that made sense - the fussy digital artifice of The Spirit wouldn't seem so, well, dispiriting.

Read Full Review >
30

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

The fanboys will find room in their heart to forgive the desecration. Everyone else won't care at all.

Read Full Review >
30

Variety Justin Chang

Plunges into a watery grave early on and spends roughly the next 100 minutes gasping for air.

Read Full Review >
30

Washington Post Carina Chocana

Doesn't just play like a cheap "Batman" knockoff, it plays like a cheap "Batman" knockoff that knows it's a cheap "Batman" knockoff -- and wants to be sure everybody knows it knows.

Read Full Review >
30

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Ultimately, it's a long, incoherent mess of a film, enlivened only by the sure knowledge that the great Will Eisner's original is available to one and all at your nearest comic-book shop.

Read Full Review >
25

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The Spirit is mannered to the point of madness. There is not a trace of human emotion in it. To call the characters cardboard is to insult a useful packing material.

Read Full Review >
25

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Only Sarah Paulson, as the Spirit's doctor and sometime lover, seems to be in there playing the scenes as if she were a human being in a comic book superhero scenario, as opposed to a comic book character stuck in a cruddy movie.

Read Full Review >
25

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

The Spirit feels like the follow-up to "Batman & Robin" no one wanted.

Read Full Review >
20

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Miller clearly wanted to make an impression, and that he does. Maybe it's better to be remembered for one of the worst movies of the year than forgotten for a mediocre one.

Read Full Review >
20

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

It is truly a mess.

Read Full Review >
16

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

The movie is a septic tank of vapid noir posturing, bad narration, bizarre pacing, cartoonishly hot femme fatales and ineptly staged slapstick.

Read Full Review >
0

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Throwing your $10.25 down a storm drain is a better idea; at least that way you won't feel the added self-loathing of wasting more than an hour and a half of your life watching Eva Mendes in the worst acting job of her career.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 4.5 (out of 10) based on 72 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Nick R. gave it a10:
I absolutely loved this movie. As a fan of the comics and Frank miller, I found this movie Sexy, Cool and Fun.

Dre H gave it a10:
Loved the Noir Style, Loved the cinematography But could of been better.

Kendo J gave it an8:
Great movie! It's not Sin City or 300 but it's still a 'fun' movie with all the cinematographic brilliance we've come to expect from Frank Miller's movies. 1 part Cheese, 3 parts Awesome.

Tanner J gave it a2:
The Spirit is a mess. Granted sometimes it is an entertaining mess. It's not funny, exciting, well acted(especially the lead guy) and the story is nonexistent.

Keenan S gave it an8:
I honestly don't think The Spirit was as bad as a lot of people said it was. I actually enjoyed it for what it was. It was stylish and actually funny. Sure the dialogue is campy and dumb, but this was a really fun film to watch.

Phillip H. gave it a9:
This was an excellent film, but I feel it was very misunderstood. First of all, its a comedy. It parodies a number of comic books and their film adaptations. If you just realise that it is intentionally ridiculous and don't get strung up on the cheesy plot, you'll see that this film is a masterpiece.

Alex H gave it a0:
I just want to ask Frank Miller one question... "What were you thinking?!"

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: Fantasy Baseball | iPad | Video Game Reviews | Cell Phones | NFL Draft

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use (UPDATED)