Blu-rays, DVDs & more
eBay affliate link
Art of the Movies
Buy posters on MoviePoster.com
IMDb
Emperor movie stills
Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Stephen Holden, New York Times: Mr. Jones's performance is the only spark within this otherwise dull, well-mannered exercise. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: Call it old-fashioned filmmaking, but you learn a lot and come away feeling an impact all too rare in movies today. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: The subject is intrinsically compelling, yet the central story is padded with an uninvolving love story that functions mostly as obvious symbolism about compassion for the enemy. Read more
Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: Offers a labored treatise on the Japanese national character, with endless speeches about honor, devotion, loyalty, and the people's reverence for their emperor as a human deity. Read more
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: [Fox is] so deadly serious, you long for a little fun. And that's what Jones supplies. Read more
Mark Feeney, Boston Globe: It's a rich and significant subject for scholars, but not exactly filmic. Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This fascinating historical tale is badly crowded by a bland love story, told mainly in flashbacks. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Shot in New Zealand, the picture's images of a devastated postwar Tokyo are often impressive, blending old-fashioned production design and effects work with digital flourishes. But Fox's role, central though it may be, never comes to life. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A rather thin dramatic experience. Read more
David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: When it stops preaching, the film is on surer footing, even if for a drama in which peace hangs in the balance, the stakes never seem very high. Read more
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Regrettably, "Emperor" does not match MacArthur's vigor, or mine his legacy. Instead, the movie is Fellers' tale and dryly told. Read more
Rafer Guzman, Newsday: This potentially interesting dilemma becomes thoroughly dull in the hands of director Peter Webber, who stages endless conversations about political fine points without giving us much to look at. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Just a dull procedural, with the bland Matthew Fox driving around in a jeep and asking questions and not having them answered. Read more
Joel Arnold, NPR: Despite the promising setup, the filmmakers' execution muddles what's inherently dramatic material. Read more
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: A methodical but dull fact-based drama set just after World War II. Read more
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Director Webber and the screenwriters, David Klass and Vera Blasi ... largely [waste] Jones and some very nice period details. Read more
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The epigrams fly, but the movie never really takes off. Read more
Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: The cliches are relatively few and spaced apart, and the tearjerking and profound moments are authentic and well-earned. Read more
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The effort to put a personal face on the major issue of occupation is as timely as Iraq and Afghanistan, but the execution is clumsy and cliche-ridden. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: In the end, probably the best way to watch "Emperor" is to pretend that the Supreme Command of Allied Forces in Japan after World War II was Tommy Lee Jones. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Emperor" starts slowly and peters out from there. Read more
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Satisfied to serve popcorn in place of red meat, this potboiler about love and war is merely fair. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A stodgy movie that mixes dubious history with a cliched, Madame Butterfly romance story, set in the period immediately following Japan's surrender in 1945. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Emperor falls prey to the temptations endemic to historical docudrama: the desire to pack a miniseries' worth of events into one feature-length film, with romance tossed in for added appeal. Read more
Trevor Johnston, Time Out: It's all done with care and authentic Japanese locations ... But there's scant drama. Read more
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Director Peter Webber, who once mined social unease from the painterly Girl with a Pearl Earring, is out of his depth; this is a movie in desperate need of a no-nonsense Howard Hawks. Read more
Nick Schager, Village Voice: Given its true-life basis, the story is already devoid of suspense regarding Hirohito's ultimate fate, and Fellers's inquiry is made more sluggish by dramatically inert conversations ... Read more
Mark Jenkins, Washington Post: Wrapping a history lesson in a romantic melodrama can make for a lively movie, but only if the love story is juicier than the educational narrative. Read more