11th Hour, The

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Considerably less slick than "An Inconvenient Truth," and no less urgent.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The one film to see on this most crucial subject.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The word bears repeating, so everyone from Andrew Weil to Stephen Hawking to Mikhail Gorbachev is here to speak the still-inconvenient truth. The filmmaking, however, is far more relentless than in that Oscar-winning Al Gore slide show.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Thankfully for audiences, 11th Hour is not without hope. The filmmakers save the most exhilarating portion for last when they ask what's being done about the problems.

LA Weekly Judith Lewis

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.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

An unnerving, surprisingly affecting documentary about our environmental calamity, is such essential viewing.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

As The 11th Hour's message of Profound Importance warrants a four-star rating, the film itself does not.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

An impassioned ecology-themed documentary that ultimately is more rewarding for informational than cinematic reasons.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Arguably a more important movie, which more clearly lays out what must be done to save the world, and how we can begin.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

It isn’t much of a movie (unless your aesthetic was formed in high-school science class), but it will be hugely informative to aliens who land on this planet in a thousand years and wonder why there’s no welcoming committee.

Variety Justin Chang

Presents the viewer with reams of depressing data, loads of hand-wringing about the woeful state of humanity and, finally, some altogether fascinating ideas about how to go about solving the climate crisis.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Though the filmmaking isn't everything it might have been (the opening montage is especially clumsy), their argument is compelling, absorbing, and urgent.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

While it's a well-constructed doc, full of relevant information and geared toward those people who still might be fence-sitters on the subject, there's something missing from The 11th Hour's lengthy procession of talking heads: a sense of maddened outrage.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

This activist documentary -- alternately impassioned, despairing, edifying, and hectoring about all the ways humans are screwing up the earth in a death rattle of hubris -- shouts, People, do something! In contrast, "An Inconvenient Truth" feels positively hushed.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

As much a call to action as a documentary, it's a compelling and sobering lesson in the devastating effect of human industry on the planet. But a lesson nonetheless.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

If you get through the first hour without slitting your throat, the cautiously optimistic last third offers some intriguing options.

USA Today Scott Bowles

The 11th Hour is a bit like "An Inconvenient Truth" at Woodstock: a little spacey, a little preoccupied with self-love and prone to the occasional freakout.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Perhaps the most sobering statistic in The 11th Hour: Some 50,000 species a year are disappearing. Someday, it might be humans.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Like any good religious sermon, it follows its scary vision of hell with a possibility of last-minute redemption.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

In the end, your reaction to "Hour" may depend on your feelings about humanity's collective common sense.

Washington Post Nelson Pressley

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.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

If it gets people thinking about which light bulbs they buy and their current gas mileage and such, then it's good to have it in the world. It is, however, a panicky blur as documentaries go.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Stripped of texture, even the sharpest comments come off as bromides.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Well-intentioned but overblown environmental agitprop.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Feels more like a lecture you've already heard than a galvanizing call to action.

San Francisco Chronicle Joe Garofoli

There's some serious food for thought here.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This movie, for all its noble intentions, is a bore.

Empire Helen O'Hara

Too scattershot to land any effective punches.

Village Voice Mike D'Angelo

A cautionary eco-doc so earnest and moth-eaten it should properly be seen on filmstrip during fourth-period social studies.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

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.