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Lions for Lambs
United Artists (MGM)


4.9

based on 36 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 74 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for some war violence and language

Starring Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Michael Pena, Derek Luke, and Andrew Garfield

The story begins after Arian and Ernest, two determined students at a West Coast university, follow the inspiration of their idealistic professor Dr. Malley and attempt to do something important with their lives. But when the two make the bold decision to join the battle in Afghanistan, Malley is both moved and distraught. Now, as Arian and Ernest fight for survival in the field, they become the string that binds together two disparate stories on opposite sides of America. In California, an anguished Dr. Malley attempts to reach a privileged but disaffected student who is the very opposite of Arian and Ernest. Meanwhile, in Washington DC, charismatic presidential hopeful Senator Jasper Irving is about to give a bombshell story to a probing TV journalist that may affect Arian and Ernest's fates. As arguments, memories, and bullets fly, the three stories are woven even more tightly together, revealing how each of these Americans has a profound impact on one another and the world. (United Artists)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Matthew Michael Carnahan
DIRECTED BY:	Robert Redford
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 8, 2008 Theatrical: November 9, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	88 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Empire Helen O'Hara

A smart, accessible, surprisingly balanced look at our dysfunctional world. Compelling stuff.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

Despite its flaws, which become more evident as time elapses, Lions for Lambs is worth seeing for no other reason that you’ve never seen anything like it before.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The tiny scale and armchair talkiness mark the movie as a bit of a folly, an act of idealistic hubris in today's commercial marketplace, yet that's its (minor) fascination too.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

This is responsive, engaged filmmaking, the kind of movie they say Americans don't make.

Newsweek David Ansen

Intelligent, deadly serious, made in a spirit of patriotism and protest, Redford's movie is more civics lesson than drama and doesn't pretend otherwise. It is what it is: a call to action.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

This is a weird movie hybrid, both a tasteful picture and an angry one.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

All the good intentions in the world and solid performances from three of the biggest and most respected movie stars of our time cannot disguise the fact that Lions for Lambs is resting on a talky, disjointed and not-very-well-thought-out script.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Though characters make some strong points, the film feels preachy and falls flat as entertainment.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

And unlike other recent dramas such as "Rendition," the film never feels like it's preaching. Instead, it just urges: Whatever you believe, do something.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

All true, but not new -- and not especially compelling.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There is a long stretch toward the beginning of the film when we're interested, under the delusion that it's going somewhere. When we begin to suspect it's going in circles, our interest flags, and at the end, while rousing music plays, I would have preferred the Peggy Lee version of "Is That All There Is?"

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Like many a Hollywood political drama, Lions for Lambs carries a full head of steam that is indistinguishable from a lot of hot air.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

The movie is awful--and also oddly touching, even adorable in its dogged sense of responsibility, its stubborn refusal of style.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

Politicians, the media, educators, military commanders and a docile public all come under fire in a well-made movie that offers no answers but raises many important questions.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The movie is compelling now but unlikely to survive its moment.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Lions for Lambs appears to have taken its inspiration from Al Gore's stolid "An Inconvenient Truth," using the stage lecture and Power Point presentation in lieu of dramatic momentum.

TV Guide Ken Fox

In the end, it all remains a dramatically inert set of talking points, and not even the high-caliber cast can make much more out of it.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

This is the sort of film where a character says “Here we are, having a high-minded debate ...” and you wonder if countless moviegoers will be rolling their eyes in unison.

Premiere Matt Mueller

Lambs feels five years too late.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

It tells us everything most of us know already, including the fact that politicians lie, journalists fail and youth flounders. Mostly it tells us that Mr. Redford feels really bad about the state of things. Welcome to the club.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Dull plod.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

One of those movies in which the principals talk a lot but don't say much.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Fortunately for Redford, Lions for Lambs is a less ham-handed effort than Sayles’ “Silver City,” but it’s a near thing.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

This tactic, and the film's valid but familiar arguments, might have been fleshed out with better results onstage.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The problem with Lions for Lambs isn't its political engagement but its cinematic disengagement. Robert Redford directs and stars in this ambitious talkathon, which would have been more effective as a radio play.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It does not feel good to report that a movie with Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise makes the eyelids droop. But that's what Lions for Lambs does.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Talky, didactic and essentially free of any real narrative, it views Iraq through the lens of Vietnam, which is fair enough, but ends up making the whole polemic seem like a condescending effort from aging baby boomers to get the younger generation to step up to the plate.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Redford and Carnahan would like us to ponder our role in their fate. And maybe we would, if the lecture weren't so dull and self-satisfied.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs is the clunkiest, windiest, and roughest of the lot. Most of it is dead on the screen. But its earnestness is so naked that it exerts a strange pull. You have to admire a director who works so diligently to help us rise above all the bad karma.

Variety Derek Elley

Amounts to a giant cry of "Americans, get engaged!" wrapped in a star-heavy discourse that uses a lot of words to say nothing new.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

It winces with liberal self-chastisement: Redford is surely smart enough to realize, as the professor turns his ire on those who merely chatter while Rome burns, that his movie is itself no better, or more morally effective, than high-concept Hollywood fiddling.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

But for all its passion and topical currency, the movie plays too often like a college colloquium. And it ends on an unsatisfying note, with each character's choice, whether fateful or fatal, hanging in a confounding limbo of indeterminacy.

New York Post Kyle Smith

I went to a wartime thriller, but then a Poli Sci 101 seminar broke out.

Slate Dana Stevens

Ought to have been called "Slugs for Snails," so leisurely does it creep toward its predictably bombastic conclusion.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

All talk and zero characterization, it doesn't even feel like a real movie.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

You could make a case for this as a feature-film version of the FCC's fairness doctrine, but it feels more like a blandness doctrine, a pulling and hauling of the tone-deaf script, which is credited to Matthew Michael Carnahan, to the point of perfect vacuousness.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.9 (out of 10) based on 74 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Paul gave it a10:
A truly intelligent film, will have you thinking long after the film has finished.

Bill H. gave it a10:
Much better than the reviews I had seen, I don't think it's for everyone, though, which is particularly funny in an ironic way after having seen the movie.

Chris R. gave it a7:
I'm surprised by how many people think that this movie is bad. You have to realize that except for the flashback all of the events were supposed to be happening in the time of the actual movie length, jumping between storylines. These stories are supposed to be happening at the same time. The "politically savvy" like to say this movie is contrived and the politically apathetic like to say this movie was a lecture. I think it was a good bit of politics movie put together in a fairly captivating dramatic fashion. Not the best political movie I've ever seen but worth at least a single viewing.

Abubrad gave it an8:
This movie accomplished just what it set out to accomplish despite all the criticism from mindless critics who just want to be entertained. I showed it to my 18-year old who is as apathetic as they come and like his peers look to be entertained by movies. He was riveted to it and his response at the end? - "It was thought-provoking".

Rich R. gave it a0:
Are you kidding me? Seeing Meryl Streep struggling, and I mean STRUGGLING to act like she is taking Tom Cruise seriously is most painful. She is one of our greatest actors; he is one of the worst. Why are they in the same movie??? And Robert Redford? Poor guy looks like an old woman. This is pure bilge.

Linda W. gave it an8:
This is an analysis of life's decisions and how they affect you forever. And in a political format, makes you realize what apathy = just not caring one way or another - can do to our society. Well played, directed and written. I thought it was a breath of fresh air in the movie industry, without trying to put mud on either political party. Truly thought-provoking.

Andrew P. gave it an8:
Although the message of this movie, to take action, isn't original, it is important enough that hearing it more than once is just fine in my opinion. So many of us still aren't doing enough to help fix things that we all realize are wrong, so it's clear to me that this type of film still has its place.

Lions for Lambs United Artists (MGM)

Lions for Lambs
United Artists (MGM)