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GOD BLESS AMERICA (2012)Movie Reviews
Comedy about a divorced terminally ill man who teams up with a high-school student on a quest to kill the people they blame for ruining American culture. Cast:Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr, Melinda Page Hamilton, Mackenzie Brooke Smith, Rich McDonald, Maddie Hasson, Larry Miller, Travis Wester, Lauren Phillips, Aris Alvarado, Regan BurnsDirector:Bobcat GoldthwaitRelease Date:May 11, 2012DVD Release:July 3, 2012From:MagnoliaRating:RLength:1 hr 39 min
JULY 3, 2012
God Bless America (2012), Good (Not Great) Reviews Key Cities
God Bless America (2012) played in key cities to good not great reviews. • Ella Taylor wrote for NPR, "...there's an underlying sweetness and ethical urgency to Goldthwait's work... Frank is on a moral mission; like every knight he has a code of honor..." • And Owen Gleiberman wrote in Entertainment Weekly, "...like 'Falling Down' remade by MAD magazine." More Reviews Below...
God Bless America (2012) Positive Reviews (30 Reviews, reviews below)
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: MODERATE(cg) "...promises so much more than the film is finally able to deliver. Here is a film that begins with merciless comic savagery and descends into merely merciless savagery."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 773 words, 05/11/12
Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: MODERATE(cg) "...it's kind of a crock, a safety valve, as it were for someone who finally doesn't have the stones/integrity to opt out of the popular culture he so claims to despise."(See all of Glenn Kenny's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 636 words, 05/07/12
James Berardinelli, Reel Views: VERY GOOD(cg) "...funny but it is also at times uncomfortable. It takes the ugliest possible view of today's society, looking at 2012 America through dark-tinted, cracked lenses."(See all of James Berardinelli's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 848 words, 05/07/12
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (8 Reviews)
Stephen Holden, New York Times: MODERATE "Mr. Goldthwait's screenplay is essentially a comedy act fleshed out with a story he doesn't try to make convincing.... the film will make you laugh -- up to a point."(See all of Stephen Holden's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 647 words, 05/11/12
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: WEAK(cg) ":..darkly comic... starts out in such interesting fashion, it's hugely disappointing to see it devolve so lazily into a generic vigilante fantasy."(See all of Elizabeth Weitzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 308 words, 05/11/12
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...feels more like an assault weapon than a movie.... This funny, sick twist of social satire is certainly locked and loaded, even if its aim is sometimes off."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 656 words, 05/11/12
Sara Stewart, New York Post: MODERATE(cg) "There are so many monologues about obnoxious behavior that they begin to lose their luster... Goldthwait's complaints become increasingly trivial..."(See all of Sara Stewart's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 391 words, 05/11/12
Roger Moore, Chicago Tribune: WEAK(cg) "Goldthwait doesn't quite have his sermon worked out... shows that whatever his other gifts, satire is beyond the grasp of the old Bobcat."(See all of Roger Moore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 571 words, 05/11/12
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: MODERATE(cg) "...promises so much more than the film is finally able to deliver. Here is a film that begins with merciless comic savagery and descends into merely merciless savagery."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 773 words, 05/11/12
Karina Longworth, Village Voice: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "Joel Murray's Frank is unquestionably, as the writer/director puts it, 'a bad man. The squirm factor is, if the movie works for you, you identify with him.' "(See all of Karina Longworth's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 136 words, 04/11/12
Nick Pinkerton, LA Weekly: POOR "...adopts the scorched-earth moral certitude and guiltless body count of the 'angry white male' Reagan-era action movie while turning the jingoistic politics inside out."(See all of Nick Pinkerton's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 293 words, 05/10/12
Gary Thompson, Philadelphia Inquirer: MODERATE(cg) "You can sympathize with Goldthwaite's outrage here, even laugh at some of his jokes, and still wonder whether he's decrying the decline of our culture, or contributing to it."(See all of Gary Thompson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 398 words, 05/11/12
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...morally dubious... [but] Goldthwait's ranting dialogue is stingingly funny and Murray and Barr are so agreeable you may find yourself rooting for 'the bad guys.' "(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 220 words, 05/11/12
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: VERY GOOD(cg) "Goldthwait gets in some satisfying digs at reality television, right-wing media and our obsession with celebrity... But it's a little too obvious..."(See all of Bill Goodykoontz's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 577 words, 05/11/12
Stephen Whitty, New Jersey Star-Ledger: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...you'd have to be the Dalai Lama himself not to have - at least once - fantasized about making certain people disappear.... plays to that fantasy beautifully."(See all of Stephen Whitty's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 596 words, 05/11/12
Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: MODERATE(cg) "Joel Murray is brilliantly sympathetic. But in this 'Falling Down' of pop-cultural observation, Goldthwait forgets the thrill of the chase..."(See all of Amy Biancolli's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 329 words, 05/11/12
Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian: GOOD(cg) "...offers a few laughs and a moment or two of drama, but it's finally more of a conceit -- and a familiar one -- than a film."(See all of Shawn Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 256 words, 05/18/12
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (8 Reviews)
Karina Longworth, Village Voice: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "Joel Murray's Frank is unquestionably, as the writer/director puts it, 'a bad man. The squirm factor is, if the movie works for you, you identify with him.' "(See all of Karina Longworth's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 136 words, 04/11/12
Tom Meek, Boston Phoenix: VERY GOOD(cg) "Joel Murray and Tara Lynne Barr have fun with the tart dialogue, and despite the flimsy premise and the derivativeness, it might be Bobcat Goldthwait's best film to date."(See all of Tom Meek's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 164 words, 04/18/12
Nick Pinkerton, LA Weekly: POOR "...adopts the scorched-earth moral certitude and guiltless body count of the 'angry white male' Reagan-era action movie while turning the jingoistic politics inside out."(See all of Nick Pinkerton's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 293 words, 05/10/12
Scott Tobias, AV Club: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a merciless satire, holding our debased culture in front of a funhouse mirror. But it isn't a funhouse mirror; it's just a mirror."(See all of Scott Tobias's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,034 words, 05/10/12
Nick Schager, Slant: WEAK(cg) "By slamming tabloid-y degradation while dimly celebrating extreme responses to it, the film simply revels in kill-'em-all play fantasy free of any essential irony."(See all of Nick Schager's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 464 words, 05/07/12
MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher: POOR(cg) "I cannot get behind this tedious soapbox of a movie. Oh, I sympathize with its attitudes.... 'God Bless America' ends up having nothing to say except 'Wah!!' "(See all of MaryAnn Johanson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 320 words, 07/04/12
HIGHBROW PRESS (4 Reviews)
Stephen Holden, New York Times: MODERATE "Mr. Goldthwait's screenplay is essentially a comedy act fleshed out with a story he doesn't try to make convincing.... the film will make you laugh -- up to a point."(See all of Stephen Holden's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 647 words, 05/11/12
Ella Taylor, NPR: GOOD "...there's an underlying sweetness and ethical urgency to Goldthwait's work... Frank is on a moral mission; like every knight he has a code of honor..."(See all of Ella Taylor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 714 words, 05/10/12
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...feels more like an assault weapon than a movie.... This funny, sick twist of social satire is certainly locked and loaded, even if its aim is sometimes off."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 656 words, 05/11/12
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon: VERY GOOD "Goldthwaite's most coherent and most consistently hilarious film... grossly inflated, over-the-top satire, but on another, it possesses its own kind of moral subtlety."(See all of Andrew O'Hehir's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 544 words, 05/08/12
MOVIE INDUSTRY (4 Reviews)
Dennis Harvey, Daily Variety: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "Goldthwait's outrage is earnest... but too often the film degenerates into simply using Frank and Roxy to mouth laundry lists of what's cool and what's not."(See all of Dennis Harvey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 623 words, 09/15/11
John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: FAIR "The film is kept afloat mainly by sad-eyed Joel Murray, whose performance operates on a deeper, more thoughtful level than everything around him."(See all of John DeFore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 556 words, 09/10/11
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...feels more like an assault weapon than a movie.... This funny, sick twist of social satire is certainly locked and loaded, even if its aim is sometimes off."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 656 words, 05/11/12
Stephen Holden, New York Times: MODERATE "Mr. Goldthwait's screenplay is essentially a comedy act fleshed out with a story he doesn't try to make convincing.... the film will make you laugh -- up to a point."(See all of Stephen Holden's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 647 words, 05/11/12
18.3 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
God Bless America (2012)'s reviews are separated by an average 18.3 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
God Bless America (2012) (30 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:God Bless America (2012)'s reviews cover 42.7% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 14,845 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 495 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
God Bless America (2012) Coverage, Volume & Length (30 Reviews, reviews below)
Reviews Broke 11 Days Before Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
God Bless America (2012)'s reviews on average broke 11 days before opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is God Bless America (2012)'s opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
God Bless America (2012) (30 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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