(Photo by Columbia/ courtesy Everett Collection)
All Michael Apted Movies Ranked by Tomatometer
Michael Apted was best known for directing the Up series, documentary films that tracked the personal lives of 14 British people across six decades, from childhood into retirement age. Apted took over directorial duties after the first installment, 1964’s 7 Up, and released a new installment every seven years without fail, up to 2019’s 63 Up. Roger Ebert called the project “an inspired, even noble, use of the film medium.”
Beyond the social intimacy of his documentaries, Apted navigated the studio corridors respectably, specializing in dramas and thrillers. Coal Miner’s Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist, Enigma, and Amazing Grace represent some of the best of this work, and Apted even entered blockbuster territory with the James Bond entry The World is Not Enough and took a crack at Narnia with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
And now we look Michael Apted’s movies ranked by Tomatometer. —Alex Vo
#24
Adjusted Score: 100985%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Robert Redford narrates this documentary about the Pine Ridge Shootout on an Oglala Sioux reservation in South Dakota. On June...
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#23
Adjusted Score: 100380%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#22
Adjusted Score: 100438%
Critics Consensus: Director Michael Apted continues to utilize cinema as a window into the lives of everyday people, and in the reflection of this documentary we can glimpse our own aging humanity.
Synopsis: Continuing a project he began in 1964, filmmaker Michael Apted revisits his original subjects and sees how their lives are...
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#21
Adjusted Score: 100135%
Critics Consensus: 63 Up continues a groundbreaking documentary series with another gently eye-opening look at the human experience.
Synopsis: An exploration of the lives of British children from different socioeconomic backgrounds who are revisited every seven years to discuss...
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Starring:
#20
Adjusted Score: 98758%
Critics Consensus: The latest installment in this remarkable series, 49 Up is a satisfying continuation of Michael Apted's singular sociological and cinematic experiment.
Synopsis: Twelve people, documented every seven years since they were each 7 years old, discuss how their lives have changed since...
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#19
Adjusted Score: 94699%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#18
Adjusted Score: 51448%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This documentary profiles seven world-class scientists who discuss their careers, obsessions and inspirations. Among them, physicist Michio Kaku explains his...
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#17
Adjusted Score: 90451%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Michael Apted's saga continues with the lives of people he first profiled in "Seven Up!" in 1964....
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#16
Adjusted Score: 91084%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: When a series of murders stuns a small Native American reservation, the FBI sends in agent Ray Levoi (Val Kilmer)...
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#15
Adjusted Score: 91348%
Critics Consensus: Like a classic traditional country song, Coal Miner's Daughter draws on time-tested formula -- and undeniable talent -- to tell a solidly affecting story.
Synopsis: Raised in rural Kentucky poverty and married at the age of 13, Loretta Lynn (Sissy Spacek) begins writing and singing...
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#14
Adjusted Score: 84910%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This film is an adaptation of wildlife expert Dian Fossey's autobiography. Midwesterner Fossey (Sigourney Weaver) leaves the United States for...
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#13
Adjusted Score: 78599%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Liberal activist lawyer Jedediah (Gene Hackman) alienated daughter Maggie (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) years ago when she discovered his many affairs....
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#12
Adjusted Score: 80155%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Soviet detective Arkady Renko (William Hurt) uncovers a vast network of deceit and intrigue when he investigates a triple murder...
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#11
Adjusted Score: 73220%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Chicago reporter Ernie Souchak (John Belushi) is beaten up by double-dealing police officers after he writes about an unethical city...
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#10
Adjusted Score: 74379%
Critics Consensus: The well-crafted, twist-filled Enigma is a thinking person's spy thriller.
Synopsis: In March 1943 the code breakers at Bletchley Park, Britain's top secret Station X, are facing their worst nightmare: Nazi...
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#9
Adjusted Score: 67683%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A fictitious account of crime writer Agatha Christie's unexplained 11-day disappearance in 1926. Facing the breakdown of her marriage to...
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#8
Adjusted Score: 72681%
Critics Consensus: Amazing Grace is your quintessential historical biopic: stately, noble, and with plenty of electrifying performances.
Synopsis: In 18th-century England, House of Commons member William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) and his close friend and a future prime minister,...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 57713%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Dr. Guy Luthan (Hugh Grant) treats a homeless man with strange symptoms, but then the patient disappears out from under...
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#6
Adjusted Score: 58922%
Critics Consensus: Despite a committed performance by Jodie Foster, Nell opts for ponderous melodrama instead of engaging with the ethical dilemmas of socializing its titular wild child.
Synopsis: Cut off from the modern world, Nell (Jodie Foster) is a wild child, who has lived her entire life with...
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#5
Adjusted Score: 58517%
Critics Consensus: Plagued by mediocre writing, uneven acting, and a fairly by-the-numbers plot, The World Is Not Enough is partially saved by some entertaining and truly Bond-worthy action sequences.
Synopsis: Bond (Pierce Brosnan) must race to defuse an international power struggle with the world's oil supply hanging in the balance....
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#4
Adjusted Score: 55508%
Critics Consensus: Its leisurely, businesslike pace won't win the franchise many new fans, but Voyage of the Dawn Treader restores some of the Narnia franchise's lost luster with strong performances and impressive special effects.
Synopsis: Lucy and Edmund Pevensie return to Narnia with their cousin Eustace where they meet up with Prince Caspian for a...
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#3
Adjusted Score: 36434%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A teen (Christopher Collet) protects his divorced mother (Teri Garr) from her boyfriend (Peter Weller), a drug dealer in a...
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#2
Adjusted Score: 28359%
Critics Consensus: Unlocked strands an all-star cast in a spy thriller whose embrace of old-school formula might be refreshing if it weren't bogged down in genre clichés and a predictable plot.
Synopsis: After failing to apprehend the terrorist behind a Paris attack that claimed dozens of lives, CIA agent Alice Racine is...
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#1
Adjusted Score: 25894%
Critics Consensus: Enough exploits the serious issue of spousal abuse to make an illogical, unintelligent thriller.
Synopsis: Working-class waitress Slim (Jennifer Lopez) finds her life transformed when she marries wealthy contractor Mitch (Billy Campbell). She settles into...
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98%
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