The Passion of the Christ
Newmarket Films | Release Date: February 25, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
20
Negative:
9
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Gibson mounts a convincing crucifixion, but his victim is the audience. The Passion of the Christ aims its metallic cat-o'-nine-tails at the viewers' nerves. Read full review
30
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
While it fails to shed significant new light on its subject, Gibson's film and the all-Jesus-all-the-time attention from the media it's attracted do tell us something somewhat disconcerting about the state of American culture: That the way to make a religion based on love and forgiveness relevant today is to turn it into violent entertainment. Read full review
30
The New YorkerDavid Denby
By embracing the Roman pageant so openly, using all the emotional resources of cinema, Gibson has cancelled out the redemptive and transfiguring power of art. [1 March 2004, p. 84]
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The visual big top is the scourging and the crucifixion -- again and again, Gibson returns to the blood-letting. Again and again, we're exposed to the clinical repetition of a single act, until an alleged act of passion comes to seem boring and passionless. Is that not a definition of pornography? Read full review
25
PremiereGlenn Kenny
From my perspective, the film's anti-Semitism is implicit rather than programmatic, and, in the film's current form, a little sneaky. Read full review
25
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is the most virulently anti-Semitic movie made since the German propaganda films of World War II. It is sickening. Read full review
20
SlateDavid Edelstein
This is a two-hour-and-six-minute snuff movie -- The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre -- that thinks it's an act of faith. Read full review
20
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Gibson makes sure that no blow remains unfelt, and his approach can't help but stir the body, but he never touches the soul. Read full review
10
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
If I were a Christian, I'd be appalled to have this primitive and pornographic bloodbath presume to speak for me. Read full review
More From This Movie

47 Critic Reviews

6.8 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 63 Normal
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL