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Lions for Lambs
United Artists (MGM)


4.7

based on 36 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 72 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for some war violence and language

Starring Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Michael Pena, Derek Luke, and Andrew Garfield

The story begins after Arian and Ernest, two determined students at a West Coast university, follow the inspiration of their idealistic professor Dr. Malley and attempt to do something important with their lives. But when the two make the bold decision to join the battle in Afghanistan, Malley is both moved and distraught. Now, as Arian and Ernest fight for survival in the field, they become the string that binds together two disparate stories on opposite sides of America. In California, an anguished Dr. Malley attempts to reach a privileged but disaffected student who is the very opposite of Arian and Ernest. Meanwhile, in Washington DC, charismatic presidential hopeful Senator Jasper Irving is about to give a bombshell story to a probing TV journalist that may affect Arian and Ernest's fates. As arguments, memories, and bullets fly, the three stories are woven even more tightly together, revealing how each of these Americans has a profound impact on one another and the world. (United Artists)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Matthew Michael Carnahan
DIRECTED BY:	Robert Redford
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 8, 2008 Theatrical: November 9, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	88 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Empire Helen O'Hara

A smart, accessible, surprisingly balanced look at our dysfunctional world. Compelling stuff.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

Despite its flaws, which become more evident as time elapses, Lions for Lambs is worth seeing for no other reason that you’ve never seen anything like it before.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The tiny scale and armchair talkiness mark the movie as a bit of a folly, an act of idealistic hubris in today's commercial marketplace, yet that's its (minor) fascination too.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

This is responsive, engaged filmmaking, the kind of movie they say Americans don't make.

Newsweek David Ansen

Intelligent, deadly serious, made in a spirit of patriotism and protest, Redford's movie is more civics lesson than drama and doesn't pretend otherwise. It is what it is: a call to action.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

This is a weird movie hybrid, both a tasteful picture and an angry one.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

All the good intentions in the world and solid performances from three of the biggest and most respected movie stars of our time cannot disguise the fact that Lions for Lambs is resting on a talky, disjointed and not-very-well-thought-out script.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Though characters make some strong points, the film feels preachy and falls flat as entertainment.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

And unlike other recent dramas such as "Rendition," the film never feels like it's preaching. Instead, it just urges: Whatever you believe, do something.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

All true, but not new -- and not especially compelling.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There is a long stretch toward the beginning of the film when we're interested, under the delusion that it's going somewhere. When we begin to suspect it's going in circles, our interest flags, and at the end, while rousing music plays, I would have preferred the Peggy Lee version of "Is That All There Is?"

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Like many a Hollywood political drama, Lions for Lambs carries a full head of steam that is indistinguishable from a lot of hot air.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

The movie is awful--and also oddly touching, even adorable in its dogged sense of responsibility, its stubborn refusal of style.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

Politicians, the media, educators, military commanders and a docile public all come under fire in a well-made movie that offers no answers but raises many important questions.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The movie is compelling now but unlikely to survive its moment.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Lions for Lambs appears to have taken its inspiration from Al Gore's stolid "An Inconvenient Truth," using the stage lecture and Power Point presentation in lieu of dramatic momentum.

TV Guide Ken Fox

In the end, it all remains a dramatically inert set of talking points, and not even the high-caliber cast can make much more out of it.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

This is the sort of film where a character says “Here we are, having a high-minded debate ...” and you wonder if countless moviegoers will be rolling their eyes in unison.

Premiere Matt Mueller

Lambs feels five years too late.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

It tells us everything most of us know already, including the fact that politicians lie, journalists fail and youth flounders. Mostly it tells us that Mr. Redford feels really bad about the state of things. Welcome to the club.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Dull plod.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

One of those movies in which the principals talk a lot but don't say much.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Fortunately for Redford, Lions for Lambs is a less ham-handed effort than Sayles’ “Silver City,” but it’s a near thing.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

This tactic, and the film's valid but familiar arguments, might have been fleshed out with better results onstage.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The problem with Lions for Lambs isn't its political engagement but its cinematic disengagement. Robert Redford directs and stars in this ambitious talkathon, which would have been more effective as a radio play.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It does not feel good to report that a movie with Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise makes the eyelids droop. But that's what Lions for Lambs does.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Talky, didactic and essentially free of any real narrative, it views Iraq through the lens of Vietnam, which is fair enough, but ends up making the whole polemic seem like a condescending effort from aging baby boomers to get the younger generation to step up to the plate.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Redford and Carnahan would like us to ponder our role in their fate. And maybe we would, if the lecture weren't so dull and self-satisfied.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs is the clunkiest, windiest, and roughest of the lot. Most of it is dead on the screen. But its earnestness is so naked that it exerts a strange pull. You have to admire a director who works so diligently to help us rise above all the bad karma.

Variety Derek Elley

Amounts to a giant cry of "Americans, get engaged!" wrapped in a star-heavy discourse that uses a lot of words to say nothing new.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

It winces with liberal self-chastisement: Redford is surely smart enough to realize, as the professor turns his ire on those who merely chatter while Rome burns, that his movie is itself no better, or more morally effective, than high-concept Hollywood fiddling.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

But for all its passion and topical currency, the movie plays too often like a college colloquium. And it ends on an unsatisfying note, with each character's choice, whether fateful or fatal, hanging in a confounding limbo of indeterminacy.

New York Post Kyle Smith

I went to a wartime thriller, but then a Poli Sci 101 seminar broke out.

Slate Dana Stevens

Ought to have been called "Slugs for Snails," so leisurely does it creep toward its predictably bombastic conclusion.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

All talk and zero characterization, it doesn't even feel like a real movie.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

You could make a case for this as a feature-film version of the FCC's fairness doctrine, but it feels more like a blandness doctrine, a pulling and hauling of the tone-deaf script, which is credited to Matthew Michael Carnahan, to the point of perfect vacuousness.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.7 (out of 10) based on 72 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Andrew P.- gave it an8:
Although the message of this movie, to take action, isn't original, it is important enough that hearing it more than once is just fine in my opinion. So many of us still aren't doing enough to help fix things that we all realize are wrong, so it's clear to me that this type of film still has its place.

movie prophet gave it a7:
Interesting thought provoking flick. not absolutely Tom Cruise's best....awaiting valkyrie.

Jay H. gave it a6:
Unfortunate misfire, but still has some strong moments. Meryl Streep is magnificent as always, Tom Cruise stinks as always. The film lacks the power it intended. The script isn't believable, people don't really talk like that. It seems like it was written by people who didn't bother to research real people who are directly involved in the subject matter.

Jonathan gave it a1:
This was surely the worst movie I have seen in a very long time. Actually, it isn't a movie, it is a long winded political advertisement. Long highblown speeches and every cliche in the book. Pure bollocks.

Amsel J. gave it a3:
This movie is good for a laugh, especially for a non-American. regards from Spain (but I am not Spanish!)

De LaBlanc gave it a6:
Somewhat cerebral...at times dynamic...but with a must do ending

Chad S. gave it a5:
If N.W.A. co-founder Eazy-E was still alienating poor, black people in 2008, how would the Republican-come-lately address the Iraqi War? Prior to his untimely death, the gangsta rapper from Compton paid $2500 for a plate at the 1991 Republican Senators Inner Circle luncheon. This piece of gallows trivia occupied my mind as Ernest(Michael Pena) and Arian(Derek Luke) argue in the affirmitive for a millitary conscription revival during a political science seminar. Statistics back up their assertion that high school seniors are wasting taxpayer's money by going to college. If you're eighteen and can't locate Canada on a geographical map, the two Army volunteers assert that you should stop being a burden on the American public(by killing time at community college), and be of use to your country(and die). Arian is black; purposely so, since it's no accident that his homonymic name when spoken, denotes that his skin color should be white. That's Arian with an "i", which could be interpreted as a critique of black people who affiliate themselves with the Republican party. Arian argues that the poor and disadvantaged people(who hail from neighborhoods with subpar educational institutions) should do our fighting for us. To make the role-reversal complete, the students who argue against Ernest(as in "earnest"; "earnestly wrong-headed", an "earnestly wrong-headed Hispanic student") and Arian's designs on the impoverished class is predominantly white. "Lions for Lambs" may treat these two students as if they were heroes; as men of valor; men who fought bravely for Uncle Sam, but in actuality, they're punished for insidiously advancing of the conservative agenda. These two men are used to recruit their own kind into combat; the kind of people who don't live in houses with green lawns and white picket fences. The "i" in Arian's name refers to himself; as in "i" instead of "I". If only the rest of "Lions for Lambs" was this thought-provoking. You'll either be bored, or bored to tears, whenever the movie cuts back to Meryl Streep(she's a reporter) and Tom Cruise(he's a congressman), whose dialogue about the Bush administration's mishandling of the ongoing war has a tell-me-something-I-don't know monotony to it.

Lions for Lambs United Artists (MGM)

Lions for Lambs
United Artists (MGM)