Based on Mamet's experience as a freighter on the Great Lakes while a grad English lit student, Mantegna's screen version is so dramatically inert and artistically shapeless resulting in an uninvolving memory film.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 28, 2006

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 8, 2005

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 8, 2002

This plotless film is filled with a zillion little nostalgia stories that are both pointless and irritating, but some stories can also be devilishly charming.

| Original Score: C | Oct 10, 2002

Mamet's fixation on language is ... more effective onstage than onscreen, where the technical and visual requirements distract from the sounds of the words -- the heart of Mamet's work.

| Sep 23, 2002

Mamet knows people so well that you can forgive his lack of actual story once in awhile.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 1, 2002

For the most part a lot of fun, with some fine performances from a mature cast.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 5, 2002

Watching it, you come to understand what it is that Mamet has been true to all these years.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 7, 2002

As drama, it's not much; as a meditation on language and storytelling, it's a treat.

| Jan 4, 2002

Viewers learn that these salty guys have salty imaginations and that Mamet's a master at capturing their thoughts in discursive detail.

Full Review | Jan 4, 2002

Joe Mantegna... brings just the right tone of easy gab and tossed-off tales to this actor's showcase.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 4, 2002

'Yeah. It's alright.' 'Good enough for me.'

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 30, 2001

If you're an admirer of [Mamet's] work, or if you're willing to be as patiently observant as Dale, you will find much that is fascinating and illuminating.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 7, 2001

A first-rate movie made from one of David Mamet's lesser plays.

| Dec 7, 2001

Where Mantegna succeeds is in providing a forum for some great acting.

Full Review | Dec 6, 2001

An enjoyable trifle.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 28, 2001

A top-notch troupe of actors deliver the propulsive dialogue of David Mamet.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 11, 2001

Lakeboat requires its audiences to embrace it as lovingly as Mamet and Mantegna embrace its men, but it's a lot to ask.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 28, 2001

The magic is in the words, and there's always laughter, anger and sadness to be found in David Mamet's poetry of inarticulateness.

Full Review | Sep 28, 2001