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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Peter Debruge, Miami Herald: Obsessed with authenticity, the movie simply isn't 'Hollywood' enough. What could have been a valuable history lesson for everyone is just more fodder for military buffs. Read more
Michael Esposito, Chicago Tribune: The action is brilliant, the combat sharp and rattling, and the film follows the historical record more closely than most Hollywood films. Read more
John Hartl, Seattle Times: Dahl's approach may be somewhat pedestrian, but he tells his story clearly and with few unnecessary detours. Read more
Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle: The story line is telegraphed from word one and the meticulous unfolding plot plods ahead inexorably without the slightest bit of suspense. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Director John Dahl has fashioned a worthy tribute to the soldiers who carried out this seemingly impossible raid. Read more
Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Although the story of The Great Raid may have never been told on film, it's like every other POW movie, in this case made about 45 years too late. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Amounts to a noble failure. Read more
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: Divided three ways among the rangers, the prisoners and the resistance fighters in Manila, the movie feels unfocused, schematic and overpopulated. Read more
Scott Brown, Entertainment Weekly: A WWII movie so parched, so Reader's Digest expository, so utterly expressionless, it confuses taciturn Greatest Generation nobility with paralysis. Read more
Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: It has dreams of sugarplum Oscars dancing in its head, and never stops mistaking spectacle for the truly spectacular. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Dahl gets it half-right, and completely wrong. In studio fashion, he adds a composite character and a love story, which the story really doesn't require. In indie tradition, he refuses to cast any stars -- which the picture desperately needs. Read more
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Not a great movie, but it certainly does justice to the great historical event it dramatizes. Read more
Stephen Holden, New York Times: A tedious World War II epic that slogs across the screen like a forced march in quicksand. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A great story filled with real heroics deserves better than this. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Unfortunately, although John Dahl's film may have the length one normally expects from a war film with an ambitious trajectory, it lacks focus and the pacing is uneven. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Here is a war movie that understands how wars are actually fought. Read more
Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The mission of the film is to inspire. Mission accomplished. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The picture's broad outline may be fact, but everything inside gets painted in a deep shade of bogus. Read more
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Feels less like a rousing action adventure than a military-sponsored lesson in invincible patriotic payback. Read more
Mike Clark, USA Today: Just about any golden age Hollywood hack could have made a zestier drama about one of the greatest rescue missions in U.S. military history. Read more
Robert Koehler, Variety: This overlong march will bore all but the most nobly patriotic of auds. Read more
Mark Holcomb, Village Voice: Ultimately scotched by History Channel-worthy nostalgia. Read more
Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Acting like a big-screen epic but coming across more like a cable TV extravaganza. Read more
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: While one might have wished for a better movie, and a few smarter decisions regarding the screenplay, generally it's a riveting, even inspirational account of an American feat of arms about which few know but about which many more should. Read more