The Beach

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment | Release Date: February 11, 2000

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

43	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Wesley Morris

An edgy, hypnotic entertainment that's like a Club Med production of "Lord of the Flies."

Mick LaSalle

It's a movie to feel. Even when the thinking isn't all there, the emotions are, all the way to the film's poignant last seconds. Read full review

Jonathan Foreman

Cinematographer Darius Khonji does a superb job of conveying both the sensual beauty (there's a spectacular moonlight-on-the-water sex scene with Leo and the lovely Ledoyen), and the darkness of Richard's paradise lost.

William Arnold

It doesn't really come off, but it's an admirably ambitious, and mostly very engaging, coming-of-age adventure that apes the spirit of Joseph Conrad. Read full review

Steven Rea

Whether he's smacking into an iceberg or flopping topless onto a sandy beach, DiCaprio is still maddeningly lightweight.

Rene Rodriguez

Always a joy to look at -- and even if the story isn't half as profound as the filmmakers think it is. Read full review

Lawrence Toppman

DiCaprio is up to all but the heaviest emotional lifting; when he enters a maniacal phase, you wish for Martin Sheen, who did the "back to the jungle" thing better in "Apocalypse Now." Read full review

Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf

The theme (social breakdown in isolation) is strong, but the plot meanders, and the motivations are decidedly hazy, so its popularity probably stems from its seamless blending of naive wonder and soul-mining horror. Read full review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

As a book, The Beach offers the option of diving deep. As a movie, it sticks too close to the shoreline. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

Tries to take us from heaven to hell but winds up leaving us in limbo: exasperated and dumfounded.

Roger Ebert

A seriously confused film that makes three or four passes at being a better one and doesn't complete any of them. Read full review

Peter Travers

Colorful and exciting, as far as it goes. But Boyle and Hodge pull back on their usual wit and grit.

Kenneth Turan

As (DiCaprio's) character heads for The Beach's predictable heart of darkness denouement, only die-hard fans will have the heart to tag along. Read full review

Todd McCarthy

Visually resplendent but dramatically uneven. Read full review

John Patterson

An intermittently gripping, good-looking movie. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh

Boyle's movie jettisons much of the telling detail; it has the shambling rhythm of a shaggy dog story and so simplifies the characters' ethical dilemmas that it's hard to care what they do. Read full review

Shawn Levy

It's not that The Beach is a stinker, exactly. It's that nothing in it -- and that includes the gifted DiCaprio -- ever feels other than perfunctory.

Ann Hornaday

Terrific looking in the extreme, The Beach is the movie equivalent of vacation reading: no more demanding -- and no less satisfying -- than a sandy paperback left on a damp towel.

David Sterritt

The story is less original than its setting - it knocks off everything from "Lord of the Flies" to "The Blair Witch Project" -and its unromantic moods may make DiCaprio's countless "Titanic" fans want to swim in the opposite direction. Read full review

Jack Mathews

There's only so much meaningful interplay you can get out of a beachful of slackers and some tanning oil. Read full review

TNT RoughCutChristopher Brandon

The titular beach really is stunning. But the second hour is an incomprehensible mess that's too dark for Leo's Teen People fanbase and too convenient for the arthouse crowd.