The Ninth Gate 1999

Critics score:
41 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: It drags, it clunks, it leaves you stuck between a guffaw and a groan. Read more

Steve Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Watching The Ninth Gate is like being force-marched through dank rooms piled high with musty books, led by drab tour guides who mutter the same pedantic points over and over. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Read more

Louis B. Parks, Houston Chronicle: On a scene-by-scene basis, it sometimes entertains, but never amounts to anything. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Early on I thought I could almost smell the sharp must of the leather bindings ... but that scent was just the aroma of middle-brow, art-house Euro-rot, a whiff of decay and hauteur. Read more

Globe and Mail: Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: About as scary as a sock-puppet re-enactment of The Blair Witch Project, and not nearly as funny. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I kept hoping Polanski would take the plot by the neck and shake life into it, but no. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: Amusing, ultra - deadpan entertainment. Read more

Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle: Polanski's sly sense of film-noir conventions pokes fun at the genre while at the same time honoring it. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Lisa Nesselson, Variety: Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's so disappointing for the director of Rosemary's Baby to have to stoop to something as desperate as pyrotechnics and nudity. Read more