The Corporation
Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: June 4, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It’s coolheaded and incisive, a thorough and informative study of corporations, their origins and their place in the modern world. Read full review
100
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Over the course of almost two and a half fascinating hours, they make a cogent, compelling, powerful argument, and they also make a terrific movie. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Riveting cinematic essay. Read full review
90
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Cogent, scary and, at times, sickening. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The Corporation has better manners and a longer fuse than ''Fahrenheit 9/11.'' But the acerbic, sardonically illuminating Canadian documentary shares with its American cousin a certain bleak leftist glee in pursuit of its cause. Read full review
80
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Powerful, infuriating, and ultimately sobering. Make an effort to see it. Read full review
80
VarietyDennis Harvey
A surprisingly cogent, entertaining, even rabble-rousing indictment of perhaps the most influential institutional model for our era. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
The Corporation takes great and successful pains to be as visually diverse and clever as it is intellectually provocative. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Smart, informative and lively polemic. Read full review
80
EmpireDan Jolin
What it covers is so fundamentally relevant, and its polemic so persuasively structured, it’s worth braving the runtime even if it could easily have been more concise. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
Too short to tell the whole story. It is, however, a fast-paced, highly enjoyable and provocative introduction. Read full review
75
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Delivers its provocative message in the measured tones of a college professor -- yet there's no danger of falling asleep in this lecture. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
An informative, amusing and unnerving overview of the history and consequences of corporations. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's good stuff: a non-fiction film on weighty issues that also manages to entertain. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
One of the film's cleverest devices is a "Personality Diagnostic Checklist" that equates corporate "serial behaviors" - exploitation, deception, greed, lack of empathy and guilt - with the antisocial makeup of a certifiable psychopath. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
At its most effective, the movie is a chastening, sobering, and thorough work of film journalism, however shortsighted. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
An impassioned polemic, filled with information sure to break up any dinner-table conversation. Its fault is that of the dinner guest who tells you something fascinating, and then tells you again, and then a third time. At 145 minutes, it overstays its welcome. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
Takes one side, but it tries to offer hope that change can happen. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
A leisurely, never boring, grimly amusing, and not entirely hopeless disquisition on the contemporary world's "dominant institution." Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Bakan's arguments are buttressed by entertaining clips culled from commercials, industrial films and, appropriately, monster movies. Read full review
70
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The Corporation is a dense, complicated and thought-provoking film, but it simplifies its title character. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
The filmmakers are pretty nimble at filling the screen with snappy graphics and canny editing to keep you alert and amused. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
It's a powerful polemic in its own right, despite some maddeningly glib generalizations, a documentary that functions as a 2½-hour provocation in the ongoing debate about corporate conduct and governance.
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
With an over two-hour running time, these side issues come across as unnecessary weight and threaten to turn off the very viewers the filmmakers worked so hard and so ably to win over in the first place. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Without a unifying authorial voice to tie it together, the film often feels shapeless and rambling, brought together by little more than free-ranging contempt for capitalism's excesses. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterRichard James Havis
The film will still prove a tonic to those holding left-of-center views. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
As a clear, exhaustive and highly intelligent discussion of one of the most pressing issues of our time, it's a success. As a work of documentary, however, it's flawed by its failure to limit its scope (or at least pare down its material), by its strangely stylized narration and by its lack of a story. Read full review
30
Washington PostStephen Hunter
This is another unhelpful screed, uncontaminated by sense or perspective, that preaches loudly to the choir. Read full review
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