Pretentious, tedious claptrap, by far Kubrick's worst

Rating: 2/10 (19 July 1999)

I'm astonished to see the critical praise given to this deathly boring film, which I believe would be getting far fewer laurels if pompous film critics were not told who directed it. (And, to be fair, I actually do some film reviews for a major metropolitan newspaper.) Apparently because this was directed by the legendary Kubrick, we're all supposed to love it. Hey, 2001, Dr. Strangelove, Clockwork Orange were all classics--but this is just a bad, poorly scripted, (mostly) poorly acted waste. I've seen it twice (out of necessity), and it just gets worse. See Stephen Hunter's review in Wash. Post.; it's dead-on.