| 100 |
San Francisco Chronicle
G. Allen Johnson
An astonishing documentary.
|
| 100 |
Baltimore Sun
The movie pays tribute to sexual equality and to each gender's agility and strength of character.
|
| 100 |
The New Yorker
A perfect family movie, a perfect date movie, and one of the most eye-ravishing documentaries ever made.
|
| 91 |
Portland Oregonian
The film that results from Jacquet's application is gorgeous and even inspiring, a tale of loyalty hard-tested and hard-earned, a sumptuous travelogue, and a reminder that some of the critters with whom we share the planet are, in ways, as complex in their feelings as any human being.
|
| 90 |
Slate
Remarkable.
|
| 90 |
Newsweek
Jacquet's movie is as visually ravishing as "Winged Migration," and more gripping.
|
| 90 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
The glacially beautiful new documentary March Of The Penguins confirms that no computer-animated or hand-drawn penguin could ever match the curious majesty of the genuine article.
|
| 90 |
LA Weekly
Thrilling documentary.
|
| 90 |
Los Angeles Times
As uplifting as anything you will find in theaters.
|
| 90 |
Salon.com
There's more drama, and more heartbreak, in March of the Penguins than in most movies that are actually scripted to tug at our feelings.
|
| 89 |
Austin Chronicle
Jacquet's penguins are as absorbing and incredible as any man-made phantasmagoria you'll find in the multiplex this summer, and it's all real.
|
| 88 |
Charlotte Observer
The best action movie of the month contains chase scenes, fights, a love story, exotic locations - well, one exotic locale, snow-blasted Antarctica - and a battle for survival against long odds amid brutal conditions.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Sun-Times
It's poignant to watch the chicks in their youth, fed by their parents, playing with their chums, the sun climbing higher every day, little suspecting what they're in for.
|
| 88 |
New York Post
A remarkable, eye-popping nature documentary.
|
| 88 |
USA Today
A cinematic experience that is dazzlingly different from anything currently in theaters, March of the Penguins captivates with its straightforward but powerful story of dogged determination, survival against harsh odds and sacrifice.
|
| 83 |
Entertainment Weekly
Luc Jacquet's exquisitely shot eye-of-God study of a year in the lives of these distinctive birds is a nature film built with a feel for the epic and a love of operatic narrative.
|
| 80 |
The New York Times
This sentimental but riveting film has no qualms about playing on our emotions.
|
| 80 |
Wall Street Journal
Watch them march to the very extremes of extremis, though, and it's easy to feel awe.
|
| 80 |
The Hollywood Reporter
A nature documentary that captures the ferocity and heroism of nature.
|
| 80 |
Film Threat
Jeremy Mathews
The film goes beyond a nature movie with excellent photography and the determination of the animals it documents.
|
| 80 |
Dallas Observer
Astonishing if imperfect nature documentary.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
A delightful, wholesome experience for the family.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
It doesn't take a screenwriter, for example, to point out the uncanny fact that, when two parent penguins perform a neck-curving pas de deux above their tiny chick, they resemble nothing so much as a perfect heart.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Tribune
Mostly it's an incredible tale of ritual and perseverance.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
Concise and intriguing.
|
| 75 |
Rolling Stone
Michael Moore might want to look into this before more animal docs steal his thunder.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The director's tenacity has resulted in a breathtaking as well as heartbreaking adventure of life and death.
|
| 75 |
Boston Globe
Touching and brisk.
|
| 75 |
Premiere
If anything, it's the degree to which the animals differ from us that makes March of the Penguins so fascinating.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
When it comes to cute, this baby is off the charts.
|
| 70 |
Variety
Sometimes harrowing, sometimes hokey, sometimes heartwarming nature documentary.
|
| 70 |
Chicago Reader
Some of the eggs fail to hatch and some of the chicks die, and the parents' cries are painful to hear, though what they're really crying for is the future of their species.
|
| 70 |
Time
It's a gentle film about somewhat alien beings, who entertain us by creating instead of destroying.
|
| 63 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Parents of young children should be warned: Here's a family-values film that won't be much fun for the whole family.
|
| 63 |
ReelViews
Does what all good National Geographic documentaries do: it informs and entertains while providing interesting wildlife footage. Unfortunately, it's not cinematic.
|
| 60 |
Empire
Helen O'Hara
It's a missed opportunity to make a great documentary, but still decent family entertainment, with awe-inspiring Antarctic scenery and some very cute stars.
|
| 60 |
TV Guide
The penguins' matter-of-fact victory over some of the Earth's most punishing conditions is astonishing enough without the epic airs.
|
| 50 |
Village Voice
The Central Park Zoo is cheaper, you can walk away from the penguins after 10 minutes, and it has snow monkeys and beer.
|
| 50 |
Christian Science Monitor
As a zoological spectacle the movie is riveting. But the narration tries to make us think of these adorable animals as if they saw the world in human terms.
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