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90
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The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
A handsome and fully imagined work of cautionary futuristic fiction.
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88
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Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
This is one of the smartest and most provocative of science fiction films, a thriller with ideas.
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88
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ReelViews James Berardinelli
The average thriller, even if it's set in a faraway or futuristic world, tends to offer visceral, ephemeral excitement, and not much else. However, while Gattaca has the energy and tautness to compare with the best of those, its thought-provoking script and thematic richness elevate it to the next level.
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75
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Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Andrew Niccol wrote and directed this intelligent and suspenseful science-fiction drama featuring strong performances by Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Alan Arkin, and Gore Vidal.
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75
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San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego
Gattaca is a welcome throwback to the days of good, low-tech sci-fi, stressing character and atmosphere over computer-generated effects and juvenile thrills.
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67
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Entertainment Weekly Ty Burr
Sets, music, and imagery are rigorously controlled and undeniably stunning, but after a while flaws creep into the plot's double helix.
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60
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Washington Post Desson Thomson
Although the movie has its moments -- particularly when our hero finds himself surrounded by a gimlet-eyed circle of futuristic detectives -- it's never really successful.
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50
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San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Clearly, an effort was made to create a serious, thoughtful movie.
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50
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Washington Post Rita Kempley
Gattaca may be all done up in new-fangled notions, but underneath all the guff about designer babies, it rests on a notion that was a staple of the original "Star Trek" series.
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40
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Los Angeles Times
Niccol's script, which has the earnest simplicity of a freshman philosophy paper, is merely naked exploitation, a sci-fi snow job that projects a contemporary ethical question--would a perfect human be human?--into a solemn future where the worst-case scenario unfolds as conventional Hollywood melodrama.
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