| 91 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
It's a low-key, subtly inspirational drama that builds its charm slowly but surely.
|
| 88 |
TV Guide
Rarely do movies portray the elderly with such admiration and respect.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
Fast, funny, big-hearted.
|
| 83 |
Christian Science Monitor
This film would be better if it wasn't so slick. Still, parts of it are enjoyably shaggy, and Hopkins is very endearing.
|
| 83 |
Baltimore Sun
Both handmade and souped-up, it beautifully renders two types of camaraderie: the bonds among eccentrics and the fellowship of speed.
|
| 80 |
Empire
Miles Fiedler
A wonderfully uplifting and charming biopic that's sure to win over all but the most mean-spirited. And the motorbike races really rocket, too.
|
| 75 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
It's giving nothing away to say that Munro makes it to Bonneville, and breaks the record - which apparently still stands - on his two-wheel contraption.
|
| 75 |
Portland Oregonian
All the hammy acting and meandering storytelling in the world can't drown the essential appeal of the story.
|
| 75 |
Premiere
Jessica Letkemann
A sweet, watchable little film.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
The World's Fastest Indian might be the world's worst title for a charming, slice-of-life biopic.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
Whether he'll achieve his goal of setting the world land-speed record for motorcycles is never in doubt, of course, but getting to a film's climactic scene has rarely been more fun.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Hopkins' larger-than-life performance as the crusty and crafty Burt rivets your attention for two solid hours in this most entertaining labor of love.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
This is one of Anthony Hopkins' most endearing, least showy performances.
|
| 75 |
ReelViews
Does what it sets out to do: educates about a mostly unknown historical figure (without doctoring the facts too much), entertains, and uplifts.
|
| 70 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Hopkins' performance flat-out works.
|
| 70 |
Variety
Sometimes shticky biopic overcomes its cornball conventionality to become a genial entertainment, thanks to Anthony Hopkins' exceptionally engaging performance.
|
| 70 |
Village Voice
The result is a film as tenacious, peculiar, and likable as Burt Munro himself.
|
| 70 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Hopkins delivers such a warm, winning performance that it's hard not to be won over by his loopy charm and monomaniacal passion. The film is about a man whose need for speed takes on an existential and spiritual dimension, but it's precisely its rambling, meandering, unhurried affability that makes it such a low-key pleasure.
|
| 70 |
The New York Times
This is a film that wears a smile button on its sleeve along with its happy heart. It believes that most people are absolutely wonderful, and it is well enough made so that a dusting of that dogged optimism is bound to rub off on you.
|
| 70 |
Los Angeles Times
Based on the real-life exploits of Munro, it's a boilerplate fish-out-of-water/road trip/underdog sports movie -- but it's a heck of a ride with Hopkins leading the way.
|
| 70 |
LA Weekly
A warm, spacious road movie with a stirring sense of the wide-open landscapes of the American West.
|
| 70 |
Wall Street Journal
Roger Donaldson's film is endearing in its own right as a celebration of a strong-willed eccentric, and memorable as a showcase for a brilliant actor in a benign mode.
|
| 70 |
Chicago Reader
Joshua Katzman
This compelling fact-based story is his (Roger Donaldson) best effort in years.
|
| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
All one needs to know about Burt Munro, the real-life New Zealand codger and Indian motorcycle enthusiast who in 1967 set a land speed record that still stands today, comes midway through this unabashedly sentimental wall of schmaltz.
|
| 67 |
Entertainment Weekly
The cockeyed devotion with which writer-director Roger Donaldson dramatizes the story of New Zealand motorcycle legend Burt Munro and his classic 1920 bike in The World's Fastest Indian is in direct proportion to the cockeyed devotion with which Munro himself pursued his lifetime goal of setting a land-speed record at Bonneville Flats, Utah.
|
| 63 |
Charlotte Observer
I recommend it to anyone who needs proof that people past 60 have dreams, skills and/or sex lives.
|
| 63 |
Boston Globe
The film is at its best in Utah, both because in David Gribble's exhilarating cinematography we finally get to feel the full power and intoxication of the sport.
|
| 63 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The World's Fastest Indian may be the world's slowest movie.
|
| 50 |
USA Today
Slogs pokily along and never quite picks up speed.
|
| 50 |
Washington Post
As the movie's tag line has it, it's based on a hell of a story. Too bad they didn't just tell it.
|
| 50 |
Rolling Stone
Even a nice chianti couldn't help you wash down this lump of tear-jerking twaddle.
|
| 50 |
Dallas Observer
The World's Fastest Indian is not likely to be regarded as some kind of masterpiece--far from it--but Hopkins once more keeps our ears open and our eyes fixed on the screen.
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