Idlewild
Universal Pictures | Release Date: August 25, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
13
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Idlewild is a romp, a ticket to rowdy good times. Read full review
90
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Idlewild has just about everything a popular entertainment can offer. It also has a soul, and that comes free with the price of a ticket. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneSid Smith
Aiding Barber is the terrific work of choreographer Hinton Battle, delivering a ferocious, contemporary update of swing and bridging the gap between quick-take MTV flash and the longer needs of cinematic dancing--a hybrid that works better here than in the frenetic, overrated "Chicago." Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
The result is a passionate, enthralling film that isn't afraid to take chances - even if it sometimes should be. Read full review
70
VarietyJohn Anderson
Achieves magic--something sorely missing from so many movies these days--and does so via a philosophy of respect, but not reverence, for what's come before it; it never recycles, it just reimagines. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Idlewild has a sober, loving respect for history and the old South, and thereby grants itself a measure of distinction. Read full review
70
Washington PostTeresa Wiltz
For all its shortcomings, Idlewild also has something that few films can pull off: Moments of such pure cinematic fabulousness, breathtaking dance sequences and idiosyncratic 3-D animation flourishes that we are more than willing to forgive it for all its sins. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Director Bryan Barber (known for his music videos) and his cast display so much gusto that it's hard to keep up your resistance--I wound up finding this more enjoyable than the Oscar-bestrewn "Chicago." Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Despite the best efforts of Barber the director, he never quite overcomes the shortcomings of Barber the writer. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The music by Outkast is great, and the rowdy, randy en masse dance sequences are riveting. The story, however, is rather thin and lacks focus. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Barber's screenplay is mired in cliches that got old in 1935. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
A mess, but an energetic, convivial mess. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Idle it is not. Wild it is most assuredly. Set in Prohibition-era Georgia, Idlewild boasts yesterday's style, today's music, and the Harlem Renaissance's romanticism. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Artistic originality is not so common a commodity that you can afford to get too fussy about the details. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Idlewild is diverting enough to suggest all the unexplored avenues in movie musicals. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly Richards
Anyone unfamiliar with or underwhelmed by the music of OutKast will find little in this thin piece of cinematic storytelling. Fans happy to luxuriate in its artistic indulgence, however, will be swept up in the weird, random, fantastic OutKastness of it all. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
This oddball mix of "The Cotton Club" and "Six Feet Under" is a big, beautiful mess. But it offers the not-uninstructive spectacle of talented people stumbling over large and unwieldy ambitions. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
An entertaining mess. It blends together musical styles and dances, historical periods with howling anachronisms, coy, almost childish gimmicks with R-rated sex and violence. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesAnn Powers
Patton and Benjamin can both hold the screen and are great in their musical sequences, but sorry, they aren't actors -- Terrence Howard, as the villain Trumpy, blows them into dust when he's on camera -- and their limited expressiveness detracts from the film's hallucinatory edge. The plot fails them too, as it takes turns we've seen in a dozen melodramas. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyErnest Hardy
The film only rarely harnesses the power of the anachronistic, funk-driven, beat-heavy rap music that swells its soundtrack. Even the intricately choreographed crowd dance scenes, filled with frenzied movement, are more often stillborn than stimulating. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Idlewild boasts too much personality around the edges--especially in Terrence Howard and Macy Gray's scene-stealing turns--and not enough at its center. It's a vehicle for OutKast's music and personality in which the music and lead roles feel like afterthoughts. Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
Idlewild has moments of sticky sentimentality and stretches of dull exposition, but you've got to give it this: It's unpredictable. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
The soundtrack is a genre-hopping joy, and each musical number is cleverly staged and creatively choreographed. The problem is the noble mess of a movie that takes up so much space in between. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
It's basically a series of music videos - a few quite good - strung together over two long hours and loosely connected by a weak story line loaded with anachronisms. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleNeva Chonin
If Idlewild had something beyond OutKast's songwriting, it would make a swell musical. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The camerawork is steady, the editing patient, the choreography playful. It's a zippy and inspired piece of moviemaking. But there's one problem. It's playing under the closing credits. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
The joint doesn't jump in the musical Idlewild; it just twitches and stumbles. As much a missed opportunity as a terrible tease. Read full review
38
PremiereAaron Hillis
A thin sprinkling of exuberance and a couple of choice cameos, that's about all this underwritten and overly choreographed spectacle has to tease us with. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
There are moments in Idlewild that resonate with the painful "if only" of missed opportunity, and more than a few that just make you scratch your head. It's like some wildly overlong music video, minus the sexy thump 'n' grind. It's all blow, no pop. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
Shakespeare has been quoted many, many times over the past 400 or so years, but never to such empty purpose as in the inchoate, self-indulgent musical drama Idlewild, a star vehicle for the wildly popular hip-hop duo OutKast.
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
The most ridiculous period film since rappers took on the Old West in "Posse." Read full review
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