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Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 18 Ratings

  • Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio
  • Summary: The 11th Hour is the last moment when change is possible. The film explores how we’ve arrived at this moment -- how we live, how we impact the earth’s ecosystems, and what we can do to change our course. Featuring ongoing dialogues of experts from all over the world, including former Soviet iet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, former head of the CIA R. James Woolsey and sustainable design experts William McDonough and Bruce Mau in addition to over 50 leading scientists, thinkers and leaders who discuss the most important issues that face our planet and people. (Warner Independent Pictures) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 30
  2. Negative: 1 out of 30
  1. Considerably less slick than "An Inconvenient Truth," and no less urgent.
  2. Reviewed by: Judith Lewis
    80
    Ultimately a triumph of redemptive ideas that DiCaprio ­-- God bless his celebrity -- may finally succeed in transporting from the environmental fringe to the mainstream moviegoing audience.
  3. Reviewed by: Nelson Pressley
    60
    The picture almost beats its theme to death -- the first hour is enough -- but the imaginative designers dreaming up a cleaner future end this Cassandra cry on an upbeat note.
  4. 25
    The 11th Hour is slick and passionate, but neither persuasive nor helpful; it's a headache of a film directed like an Errol Morris project, but with half the substance. It's clearly preaching to the choir, but even they may find it off-key.

See all 30 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 12
  2. Negative: 5 out of 12
  1. ChrisB.
    10
    I am giving this film a perfect score based purely on the depth and insight of the message. I am surprised by some of the negative reviews of this film and I can only guess that some people were unaware that it was a documentary. If you enjoyed An Inconvenient Truth even the smallest bit, then this is a must see. Expand
  2. PaulF.
    8
    I just finished watching the 11 Hour last night and my impressions were that the wide host of interviewees not only appropriate touched on all the necessary points but that they were amazingly articulate and interesting as well. The Documentary also has some fantastic but often horrific images. These really hit home what those being interviewed had to say. After a while it got a little doom and gloom and I was wondering when they were going to get to the solutions providing a glimmer of hope. Not only did they do this but they gave more time to it than many documentaries on the subject which all to often only lightly touch upon the subject in the last few minutes. That is my biggest problem with the Inconvenient Truth. The 11th Hour also has a whole bonus section entirely devoted to solutions which I thought incredibly wise and will probably have a much greater effect because of it. Though I am thankful Dicaprio produced this timely film unfortunately I think he was the weakest link in it. I felt either a different narrator or none at all would have been best. Overall still it is a must see in my book and I am thankful we have yet another wonderful environmental documentary out there. Expand
  3. JayH.
    6
    I don't doubt their is a serious environmental problem, but I think this documentary paints an overly grim and exaggerated view. It is informative though, and visually it is excellently done. I remember in the 1970's there was a panic caused about overpopulation, and their doomsday prediction never occurred. Expand
  4. Perhaps I am writing with too much hindsight (the 11th Hour was released four years ago after all), but after finally seeing the film, I found it's message oddly dated. The talking heads clearly know their stuff (though I do object to the fact that they are overwhelmingly composed of American "experts" with a book to sell), but it seems like the film takes far too long to make its point. Two thirds of the film (nearly an hour) is taken up with re-stating what the vast majority of people who chose to watch the film presumably already know. When a number of solutions to the woes of climate change are finally presented, it is informative and interesting, but it should not take so long to get to the main point of your argument. And I accept that Leonardo DiCaprio is a dedicated and passionate environmental campaigner, but why get him to film cringe-inducing links between each section of the film? Yes DiCaprio's financial and promotional backing of the project must have been a great help to get The 11th Hour's message out there, but is it really necessary to him Leo staring wistfully off into the sunset whenever the debate runs out of steam. We get it Leo - you care! Now stop looking guilty on our behalf and let us listen to the experts again! Perhaps my view of the film would be different had I seen it sooner, before I heard all of the arguments being presented through different channels. As it is, The 11th Hour does eventually get round to raising some interesting points, and presenting viable political, economic and scientific solutions to humanity's collective damage to Planet Earth, but a lot of it is filler, and the rest is stale and preachy. The Planet diserves far more than just Leonardo DiCaprio's ernest intentions. Expand

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