Unbroken 2014

Wesley Morris, Grantland: All the movie's tension comes down to whether Zamperini can withstand Watanabe's abuse, which is probably when it's helpful to forget the title. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: More a series of similar events than a story, and lacks an underlying message except that torture hurts. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: One of the finest achievements of the 2014 film year. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: You find yourself happy that this film exists, but wishing it were better. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Jolie has made a grand, solid movie of the Zamperini story, but O'Connell is the part of Unbroken that was truly worth the wait. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A bit embalmed in its own nobility, it's an extraordinary story told in dutiful, unexceptional terms, the passionate commitment of all involved rarely achieving gut-level impact. Read more

Keith Uhlich, AV Club: Though Jolie is shooting for Christ-like passion and redemption, she only ends up slathering one man's very real, very morbid struggles in the usual reductive "greatest generation" sentiment. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It is a harrowing journey, and an inspirational one. But, as director, Jolie takes far too long to tell it, particularly in such a conventional manner. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: "Unbroken" stirs a moviegoer by default; it's an astounding story of human endurance that has been brought a little too safely to the screen. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: A straightforward and entirely commendable story about the triumph of the human spirit, etc. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: "Unbroken" makes for a grueling experience, which is not quite the same as a memorable one. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Zamperini's life story is genuinely inspirational, but the movie seems fashioned as a standard-issue profile in courage. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: If nothing else, it's certainly better than the last time a good-looking Hollywood star decided to direct a movie about WWII. But the less said about George Clooney's The Monuments Men, the better . Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: It's moving, admirable, and occasionally exhilarating. What it's missing is the one thing that could always be counted on with Jolie as a star: the spark of danger. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: This will be a tough film for some to take. But it also has strong appeal as an extraordinary survival story, and Laura Hillenbrand's first-rate book that inspired it has not been on the best-seller lists for four years for nothing. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Despite its many impressive elements, "Unbroken" plays incomplete and unbalanced. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: Jolie is more fixated on gore than grace. In making us feel every crushing blow - the better to burnish her reputation as a serious director - we're shortchanged on the beauty of Zamperini's story Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: Given its subject, it should have been great, but it turns out to be simply good. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: The bigger problem is that neither Jolie nor the script bothers to flesh Louis out as a fully formed person with faults and fears and regrets, which keeps the film from ever capturing you emotionally. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Well-crafted and compelling, but director Angelina Jolie's best contribution was casting the unknown Miyavi in a pivotal role. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: An interminable, redundant, unnecessary epic devoted to suffering, suffering, suffering. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Handsome, alert and intensely focused, little-known English actor Jack O'Connell is a fine choice as Louis. And Japanese pop star Takamasa "Miyavi" Ishihara shines as "The Bird,' Louis' sadistic captor and war criminal in training. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: This great, tough-skinned movie can stand with the muscular action dramas that are a crucial part of American movie canon. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: What the movie ends up in desperate need of is a sense of life made real and palpable through dreadful, transporting details, not a life embalmed in hagiographic awe. Read more

Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press: Jolie hasn't done a disservice to Zamperini's life, but it's hard to know what she was trying to tell. It's Zamperini's story in fact and circumstance, but somehow, he feels like an enigma. Read more

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer: Unbroken is a fitting title for this excruciating cinematic treatment of the flyboy's ordeal. It plays like an endless, unrelieved gauntlet of suffering, an onslaught untempered by grace or redemption. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There's a lot to like about the movie. Its presentation is straightforward, chronicling Zamperini's amazing tale without flinching. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: In a well-made, but one-note film. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: This passion project for Angelina Jolie shines with her abiding love for Louis Zamperini and his courage under fire. In honoring Louis' endurance, she does herself proud. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: "Unbroken" is a rousing old-fashioned yarn with numerous exciting set-pieces and an uncomplicated hero you root for all the way through. It's entertaining throughout and made with a high level of technical skill. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A good 45 minutes of the movie consists of showing Louis getting beaten up, then healing; getting beaten up, then healing, over and over. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: As a castaway story, a historical drama and a portrait of an Olympian turned soldier, "Unbroken" is a touching and important work. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: If you can take it, "Unbroken" will lift you like the classics of adventure cinema. Read more

Lenika Cruz, The Atlantic: Unbroken falls short of the epic war drama and sweeping testament-to-the-human-spirit it strives to be. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A beautifully shot, well-acted, and worthy-to-a-fault Second World War survivor story that only intermittently achieves the kind of emotional impact for which it aims. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: For Jolie, it's all about the suffering, without much meaning. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: The film boasts both sheen and efficiency without always delivering an equivalent emotional impact. It's easier to be awed or impressed by it than moved. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: Angelina Jolie's film as a director is a gorgeously shot and hardhitting old-school war drama - but still somehow fails to get under its subject's skin. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Though O'Connell's vulnerable lead performance is terrific, Unbroken's unrestrained hero worship undermines the story. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Jolie gets the dirty/ennobling job done. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The truest testament to the film's strength is the degree to which it all but achieves greatness. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: A tale of endurance, "Unbroken" takes endurance to sit through. Read more