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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Sunshine
Fox Searchlight


6.7

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 107 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for violent content and language

Starring Chris Evans, Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Troy Garity, and Rose Byrne

The sun is dying. It is no longer providing the energy and the light that mankind needs to survive on Earth. The entire global community pools its resources to send a mission into space to deliver a bomb to reignite the part of the sun that is failing. Our story concerns the eight astronauts and scientists who lead this mission. On their journey towards the sun the crew stumble upon the ship that was sent on the same mission seven years previously, the Icarus I, drifting in space. From this point on things start to go very wrong. Its about how the crew react under the enormous pressure of their endeavor to save mankind. (Fox Searchlight)

GENRE(S):	Adventure \| Sci-fi \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Alex Garland
DIRECTED BY:	Danny Boyle
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 8, 2008 Theatrical: July 20, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	107 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK

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...

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

A bare outline of the plot reads like a space-adventure thriller with end-of-the-world stakes and a hint of celestial spirituality, and the haunted spaceship twist in the third act is pure B-movie madness.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

If their movie doesn't float your boat as a work of science-fiction, action, philosophy, heliocentrism, or staggering visual spectacle (although, it really should), then it certainly succeeds as a parable for cinematic ambition.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Sunshine is near-classic modern science fiction, hobbled only by a chaotic final reel and some casting missteps in the white-male department.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Another thinking-person's thriller from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, also co-pilots on "28 Days Later."

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

A first-rate, seemingly sweat-free entertainer, Mr. Boyle always sells the goods smoothly, along with the chills, the laughs and, somewhat less often, the tears. He’s wickedly good at making you jump and squirm in your seat, which he does often in Sunshine, but he tends to avoid tapping into deep wells of emotion.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Sunshine is its own creature, taking inspiration from classic science fiction films but insisting on a gritty reality that much improves on past space adventures.

Slate Dana Stevens

In moments--the early moments--Sunshine can feel like a new genre classic, albeit one heavily in debt to its predecessors.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Beam yourselves aboard Sunshine, set 50 years in the future. The voyage works, beautifully.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

The fact that Boyle and Garland have here created something close to an actual trip rather than the mere spectacle that most screen sci-fi contents itself with being nowadays is enough to recommend Sunshine.

TV Guide Ken Fox

What this spectacular-looking sci-fi thriller lacks in originality it makes up for in pure beauty: It just might be the most visually audacious and startlingly beautiful space opera since the original "Solaris."

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Despite the efforts of the cast (Byrne and Murphy are particularly good), you rarely feel a thing for any of them, but I don't think you're really supposed to, anyway. The characters in Sunshine tackle thorny ethical questions and debate the sanctity of life on their way to the sun, but the movie is really about the voyage, not the voyagers. Enjoy the sights.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

This sci-fi thriller -- which is alternately nail-biting, gorgeous and a little silly -- spends most of its time throwing mechanical and human errors at the most important space mission ever.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

As a pure cinematic experience, it's exhilaratingly, brutally beautiful.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Hard-core science fiction fans will likely greet Sunshine with a smile. Others may find this to be an odd motion picture, but there's enough going on that even those who are expecting something flashier should still be engaged.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Science-fiction fans will like it, and also brainiacs, and those who sometimes look at the sky and think, man, there's a lot going on up there, and we can't even define precisely what a soliton is.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

The most indelible moment I took away from Sunshine, in which a tiny figure in a golden space suit floats away from the ship into the gravitational pull of the sun, is one of ecstatic, appalling loneliness.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

They’ve taken "2001" and Tarkovsky’s "Solaris" and "Silent Running," mixed in stuff from save-the-earth pictures like "The Core" and "Deep Impact," and thrown in a cheesy climax out of "Alien."

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

For though it can't maintain its momentum all the way to the end, Sunshine until it stumbles is gratifyingly far from the usual space-opera stuff.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Sunshine does for sci-fi what "28 Days Later" . . . did for the zombie movie -- its tale about a manned space mission to the sun preys on our growing fear of obliteration as we confront global warming.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Too much of Sunshine is like a cross between a middling "Alien" movie and "Solaris" (the woozy Steven Soderbergh version).

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

The whole thing burns out well before the director reaches his final destination.

New York Post Kyle Smith

So what starts out as fascinating sci-fi becomes just fi, and winds up pulp fi.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

That last wrong turn completely undoes a picture that had been steering a very impressive course.

USA Today Claudia Puig

As the film ultimately deviates from its course, the entire undertaking suffers.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Sunshine can be seen as a story about science and religion, about the rational mind and the mad. But at a certain point, like a dying star about to pop into eternal nothingness, the movie can't be seen as anything - it just implodes.

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

Danny Boyle still creates an impressive world, visually rich and yet cold and claustrophobic.

Variety Derek Elley

Like a collapsing star, Sunshine initially burns brightly but finally implodes into a dramatic black hole.

Village Voice Nathan Lee

Ideas scintillate over the surface of Sunshine without ever quite igniting, but at least the movie sparkles. What it doesn't do is cohere. Action flick, sci-fi thriller, metaphysical adventure, incoherent allegory, ethical hypothesis, and horror film all at once, this mad multitasker has the agenda of a dozen movies. Problem is, we know which ones.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

It's one big miss.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

Problems arise in the film’s third act, however, with a profoundly implausible plot turn that sends the movie skidding into bogeyman horror. It cheapens the sentiment, and the film doesn’t recover.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

One of those unapologetically cerebral space-exploration sci-fi movies that's both boring and compelling at once.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The film is nonsense, and what counts is whether viewers will feel able to lay aside their logical complaints and bask in what remains: a trip in search of a tan.

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

The characters are so sketchily drawn that it's hard to keep them straight, let alone get worked up about their survival.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Directed by Danny Boyle, it lacks even a single moment of charm or interest.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 107 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Arthur C. gave it a1:
Pretty much garbage throughout, the science especially. The 3rd act confirms its stupidity.

Sam gave it a10:
Spoilers Why was the 'slahser flick' section 'shoehorned' in? Because the movie wouldn't have worked without it. We have Capa, a man who fears two things: the sun, and failure to deliver the payload. Then the oxygen garden is destroyed, leaving them with one option: go to the supposedly abandonned Icarus I. Since it becamse their only option, the possibilites on what happened over there are even more thought of and beyond terrifying. When they get there, nothing. They can't control the ship at all, but behold, we have Pinbacker, a man whose sole intentions are to protect what Capa fears and destroy what he needs to protect. Tell me, haters, how would you have ended it? Take away Pinbacker and you have no closure to what happened on Icarus I, which is a huge focus in the film. The movie could not have ended without Pinbacker. Without him, there is no final third. Without him, you take away one of the best things about what is possibly the best sci-fi film of the decade.

R H gave it a0:
You have got to be kidding! I can't believe this movie got such high scores! It is one of the worst sci-fi movies I've ever seen... a total jumble... little character development, and an implausible, incomprehensible story line. The sound quality was so poor I had a hard time hearing a lot of the dialogue Maybe if I saw it in a theater instead of on DVD it would be some better, but I doubt it.

Cory G gave it a10:
Absolutely amazing. With the perfect soundtrack to boot!

Matt A. gave it a7:
Overall a good movie. The Sci-Fi cinematography is second to none. A beautiful splendor for the eyes, which almost draws out an emotional connection in itself. THe story (while i admit is a bitch far fetched to the brink of unbelievability) is entertaining none the less, if you are into the whole 2001: A Space oddysee thing. I admit, this movie is not for everyone, and i have respect for those who didn't like it. For me, however, it was more than what i expected.

Matt t gave it an8:
Fantastic movie. Visually stunning, Great acting (for the most part, I wish they didn't cast the human torch in a movie full of fire). Suspenseful and emotional. I would have received a 10, but the turn to slasher horror movie in the last part seemed very out of place and improbable.

Scott S. gave it a7:
Stunning visuals and a great story make a captivating viewing I just felt slight let down but the ending.

Sunshine Fox Searchlight

Sunshine
Fox Searchlight