Nobel Son

MPAA Rating:

for some violent gruesome images, language and sexuality.

Moral Rating:

_____

E-mail this page to a friend

Moviemaking Quality:

Primary Audience:

Adults

Genre:

Comedy, Drama

Length:

1 hr. 42 min.

Year of Release:

2008

USA Release:

December 5, 2008 (750 theaters)
DVD: March 10, 2009

Relevant Issues

REWARDS IN HEAVEN—What does the Bible say about the poor? Answer

Thieves in the Bible: Theft, Robbery, The two thieves

Featuring:	Alan Rickman, Bryan Greenberg, Shawn Hatosy, Mary Steenburgen, Bill Pullman, Eliza Dushku, Danny DeVito, Ted Danson, Ernie Hudson, Tracey Walter, Lindy Booth, Kevin West, Kirk Baily, Dawn Balkin, Greg Collins, Reid Collums, Lucy DeVito, Tiffany Downey, Bennett Dunn, Mark Famiglietti, Mary Pat Gleason, Brendon Graham, Joyce Guy, Larry Hankin, Juliette Jeffers, Matthew Kimbrough, Hal B. Klein, Joe Koons, Valerie Long, Wayne Lopez, Danika Osterman, Dean Rader-Duval, Johanna Torell, Matt Winston, Avis Wrentmore
Director:	Randall Miller
Producer:	Art Klein, Randall Miller, Michael Ravine, Jody Savin, Ron Savin, Tom Soulanille, Terry Spazek, Henry Suarez
Distributor:	Freestyle Releasing

“Keep your eyes on the prize”

Producer’s Synopsis: “Barkley Michaelson is in a deep life rut. He's struggling to finish his PhD thesis when his father, the learned Eli Michaelson, wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Barkley and his mother, Sarah, a renowned forensic psychiatrist, now have the ill-fortune of living with a man-eating monster whose philandering ways have gotten less and less discrete. As if Barkley's world is not bad enough, on the eve of his father receiving the Nobel, Barkley is kidnapped and the requested ransom is the $2,000,000 in Nobel prize money. Needless to say, Eli refuses to pay it and so starts a venomous tale of familial dysfunction, lust, betrayal and ultimately revenge.

In the words of Michel De Montaigne, the 16th century philosopher: ‘There is more barbarity in eating a man alive than in eating him dead.’”

Volunteer reviewer needed for this movie—Request this assignment

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

Movie Critics

…[2 stars] …The first 20 or so minutes of ‘Nobel Son’ are borderline unwatchable… truth to tell, it’s hard to argue that the rest of the movie offers adequate payback for any movie goer who refuses to bail out early.…
—Joe Leydon, Houston Chronicle

…‘Nobel Son’ dialogue so stilted, it's about five feet over everybody's head… the film is pokey and unoriginal…
—Chris Hewitt, St. Paul Pioneer Press

…If the formula were manic edits plus techno beats plus severed appendages plus plot twists, ‘Nobel Son’ would win the medal.… ‘Nobel Son’ is more of a mechanical feat than an edible treat.
—Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

[1 star]…a ludicrous kidnapping plot… The dialogue clunks along like a car with a flat tire while the plot zooms back and forth in time and the soundtrack blasts electronic music…
—Kyle Smith, New York Post