Express, The

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Rob Brown (Stop-Loss) gives a graceful, understated performance as Ernie Davis.

Film Threat Stina Chyn

Even if you already knew the facts, you won’' be able to help but reflect in awe at how much progress in the fight against discrimination has been made on a societal level.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

While Ernie's on-field accomplishments were extraordinary, it was the environment in which he struggled to achieve them that makes him the worthy subject of a motion picture.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Involving and inspiring in the way a good movie about sports almost always is.

USA Today Mike Clark

Despite appealing performances and kinetic football scenes, the storytelling is mostly conventional.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Deserves plenty of credit for exploring racial issues story in more realistic terms.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

If a movie of this kind didn't traffic in overstatement, it wouldn't be doing its job, which is to provide a strong dose of simple, rousing emotion.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The Express finesses a cinematic hat trick: It's entertaining, deeply moving and genuinely important.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Thanks to a rock-solid performance by Dennis Quaid, nice historical touches and energetic direction by Gary Fleder, the tried-and-true formula is given a welcome shot of adrenaline.

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling

Has Dennis Quaid really never played a college football coach before? With his handsome, craggy face and likable intensity, he was born for the job, and he's the main attraction in The Express.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

Though The Express may stretch the limits of probability, holding up Davis as an athletic superman incapable of losing, it's also that rare sports film that isn't afraid to dabble in personal and social ambiguity.

New York Post Kyle Smith

A decent football movie, just about good enough to be the 40th best episode of "Friday Night Lights" . . . which has aired 39 episodes.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Many inspirational sports movies provide only junk food for thought; this one contains some authentic reflections of sport in the civil rights era.

TV Guide Perry Seibert

Davis led an unquestionably inspirational life, but The Express, however heartfelt, is uninspired.

Empire William Thomas

While never as trailblazing as its subject, The Express is a worthy addition to the lengthy canon of sports biopics

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Sports biodramas generally take one of two tacks: gauzily sentimental or scrappy tale of struggle. The Express runs the thin line between the two and, to its benefit, more often than not hits the first mark.

Variety John Anderson

Crowdpleasing and oh-so-predictable.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's a fine moral and an admirable statement, but it's the portrait of an icon rather than the story of the person thrust into that position.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Maybe the real Ernie Davis really was this perfect, but the movie plays as if the filmmakers didn't want to offend his family.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

This movie is especially egregious since it bundles the civil rights era, garden-variety bigotry, and the achievements of Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Any one of these narrative components might have made for a worthy picture. But that would have taken a more imaginative writer than Charles Leavitt and a more sensitive director than Gary Fleder.

Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen

If one will pardon the obvious analogy, The Express ends up feeling like a fumble at the goal line, coming across as simple-minded and melodramatic.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Too often The Express sidelines its own main character in favor of the lemon-sucking, jaw-jutting glower patented by Quaid.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

The Express eventually reaches its triumph-of-the-human-spirit climax, but it yanks too hard on the heart strings during the long journey there.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Long on inspiration, short on specifics.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The Express may prove valuable to movie historians since it's a compendium of virtually every sports movie cliché ever contrived.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

Like all formulaic biopics, The Express sacrifices the details for the Big Picture--hagiography without the humanity.