Michael Collins 1996

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Played with great magnetism and triumphant bluster by Liam Neeson, the film's Michael Collins easily lives up to his nickname. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Jordan always had 6-foot-4 Liam Neeson in mind to play the man they called "the Big Fellow," and it's more than size that makes Neeson fit the part of a leader known for his "cloudburst temperament." Read more

Entertainment Weekly: Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: While Michael Collins does distort elements of history, most of the changes and compressions are dramatically effective. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Collins, who died at 31, was arguably the key figure in the struggles that led to the separation of Ireland and Britain. He was also, on the basis of this film, a man able to use violence without becoming intoxicated by it. Read more

Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle: Handsome, but curiously cold, considering the emotional heat of Anglo-Irish matters. Fortunately, Liam Neeson commands almost every frame. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: There are pain and honor in [Neeson's] performance, and they constantly rise up to redeem a film that is less probing, less thoughtful than its director's claims and aspirations for it. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: This is Jordan's most ambitious and satisfying movie -- a thriller with a real sense of scale, pace, menace and moral import. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Intelligent, enormously accomplished and seriously problematic, Neil Jordan's ambitious account of the activities of arguably the central figure in Ireland's painful, bloody fight for independence from the British Empire has a great deal to offer... Read more