Blind Side

Film Threat Elias Savada

This may be Bullock's best performance. Ever.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

What makes The Blind Side a Thanksgiving treat is director Hancock's subtle touch and admirable refusal to yield to sports movie clichés, something he did previously with "The Rookie" and "Remember the Titans."

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

One of the reasons it's so effective is because it's based on a real-life, odds-defying story: that of mountainous Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Michael Oher (played by Quinton Aaron).

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Without restraint or subtlety, but with a lot of heart and energy, this movie tells a real-life tall tale.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Best performance, minute for minute, comes from Adriane Lenox, whose cameo as Michael's drug-addled mother is the film's standout.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Grounded in the direct, disarming truth of their experience, the movie has a straightforward lack of cheap sentiment that saves it from being either too maudlin or saccharine-sweet.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

In a head-to-head comparison, one would be hard-pressed not to declare that "Precious" is the better film - it makes fewer compromises and doesn't shy from showing the true ugliness only hinted at in this movie, but The Blind Side is more accessible. It's easier to digest. In the end, both films tell stories of triumph over adversity - a category of drama that uplifts while offering a dollop of social commentary.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Bullock is an irrepressible hoot in writer-director John Lee Hancock's otherwise thoroughly conventional take on Michael Lewis' fact-based book "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game."

Variety Joe Leydon

Uplifting and entertaining feel-good, fact-based sports drama.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The story is inspiring and involves sports, but to call it an inspirational sports story would be wrong; its real center is Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock in a fine performance), the strong-willed woman whose love and generosity helped turn a mute, hopeless boy with no social or academic skills into a functioning young man with a promising future.

Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey

Wisely, Hancock has given the film as much humor as heart.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

It’s not an altogether convincing portrait, but it is an entertaining, even moving one, and the forcefulness of Bullock's presence goes a long way in pulling the film back from the brink of cuddliness.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Bullock’s levelheaded acting frequently saves the movie from emotional garishness.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

An engaging if transparent tearjerker of the first water.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

Michael as a character is defined almost solely by his helplessness and gratitude. He's as lovable as a lost puppy, but a more perceptive movie than The Blind Side would have let us see him from another angle.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Has strong performances and stirring football scenes.

Slate Dana Stevens

For all The Blind Side's flaws, it's impossible not to get caught up in Michael Oher's life.

NPR Bob Mondello

Unlike the tale told in "Precious", however, The Blind Side's story is contrived, storybook sweet, credulity-straining and ... um, true.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Never dull, but it's rarely more than gently entertaining.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

A football story that deserves a penalty flag every other play for piling on the sentiment.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Veers perilously close to the concept of poverty tourism.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A feel-good movie that never stops feeling good. The film is based on a true story (it was adapted from a nonfiction best-seller by Michael Lewis), but you never feel that Hancock has honestly captured what's true about it.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The film, not unsurprisingly for a holiday- (and football-) season release from a major Hollywood studio, plays this story straight down the middle, shedding nuance and complication in favor of maximum uplift.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

It's fair to say that Bullock's appealing portrait of a strong-willed Tennessee belle ranks among the best work of her career. It's just too bad the movie around her comes up short.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

A facile, feel-good fable that substitutes cliché for reality at nearly every turn.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Sports movies have a long, troubled history of well-meaning white paternalism, with poor black athletes finding success through white charity. But The Blind Side, based on Michael Lewis’ non-fiction book, finds a new low.

Time Out New York David Fear

It’s just blinkered middle-class pandering at its most shameless.

Village Voice Melissa Anderson

Blind Side the movie peddles the most insidious kind of racism, one in which whiteys are virtuous saviors, coming to the rescue of African-Americans who become superfluous in narratives that are supposed to be about them.