Blu-rays, DVDs & more
eBay affliate link
Art of the Movies
Buy posters on MoviePoster.com
IMDb
Monster's Ball movie stills
Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: In [Berry's] remarkably animated performance, Thornton's deft laconic turn finds a fitting match. Read more
Jay Carr, Boston Globe: The best thing Marc Forster's direction does is take these characters through their experiences at a convincingly naturalistic respiratory rate... Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: The acting is so good in Monster's Ball, and the understated but intense mood so skillfully maintained, that we tend to overlook the story's contrivances. Read more
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: A profoundly hopeful and optimistic film about people's ability to bounce back from just about anything. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It's wonderful, mature writing, and beautifully acted. Read more
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Enigmatic, elliptical and mesmerizing, Monster's Ball invites myriad responses and interpretations. Read more
Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: A stunning achievement that features Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry in career-defining performances. Read more
Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: A serious movie made by seriously talented people, and I never quite came 'round to it. Read more
A.O. Scott, New York Times: This is one of those rare movies in which even people glimpsed only for a moment or two seem to have lives that ramify beyond the screen, as if the story were being witnessed rather than dramatized. Read more
Gene Seymour, Newsday: Has everything you could want in an American independent film. It's daring, sexy and redolent with regional atmosphere. All the actors work well above their heads. Many of you will probably hate it anyway. Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Though the film can initially seem off-putting, Monster's Ball slowly and quietly gets under your skin. Read more
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: As oddly comforting as it is unsettling, Monster's Ball honors novelist E.M. Forster's famed dictum: 'Only Connect.' Read more
Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: The script has a schematic feel and the emblematic character types typical of the work of young writers, particularly those who have something to say and aren't just trying to make a buck. Read more
Paul Tatara, CNN.com: Although director Marc Forster pulls decent performances from both Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry, coincidence-filled plotting, lame dialogue, and ham-fisted symbolism repeatedly undermine his best intentions. Read more
Steven Rosen, Denver Post: Monster's Ball shows that convincing acting and a detailed, developed sense of place can make a story not only believable but moving. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: All roads lead to acting-award nominations, but none lead to truth. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: If the tale is explicit in content, it's admirably restrained in the telling, and that tension makes the movie compelling to watch. Read more
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Read more
Manohla Dargis, L.A. Weekly: A maddening mess, but there's some real feeling in its madness. Read more
Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: An arty sleepwalk. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: A catalog of human misery that even the laceratingly honest, warts-and-all sweat of Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton can't save from contrived incredulity. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: A powerful and poignant motion picture not about racism and redemption, as one might initially suppose, but about one of the most urgent and universal of human needs -- that of finding solace for pain and loneliness. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie has the complexity of great fiction, and requires our empathy as we interpret the decisions that are made. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: It's less than half a fine movie. The great surprise is that its actors come through in the clutch. Read more
Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: Dark and beautifully directed. Read more
Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's not a polemic on the death penalty, race relations or family dynamics. It's a character study that really sticks with you. Read more
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Directed with great intelligence, sensitivity and restraint by Marc Forster. Read more
Robert Koehler, Variety: Burning with a quiet intensity, Monster's Ball is bolstered by a poetic, intelligent sensibility not seen in an American film since Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. Read more
Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Far too studied to generate much impact. Read more