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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Thirteen Days
New Line Cinema
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for brief strong language
Starring
Kevin Costner,
Bruce Greenwood,
Steven Culp,
and
Henry Strozier
A dramatization of what took place in the White House as John F. Kennedy (Greenwood) learns the news that Cuba has missiles. The film is seen through the eyes of the Chief of Staff (Costner).
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
David Self
Ernest R. May & Philip D. Zelikow (book The Kennedy Tapes - Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Roger Donaldson
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: July 10, 2001
Video: July 10, 2001
Theatrical: December 25, 2000
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
145 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...
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Fascinating in its depiction of presidential leadership in action.
100
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
A terrifically engrossing war film in which not a single shot is fired, a movie about shaping events rather than being shaped by them.
91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
A mesmerizingly suspenseful drama.
91
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
A big, square, rousing political thriller docudrama.
88
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
An excellent movie about a real-life nail-biter, forcefully acted, true to its period and directed with clarity.
83
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
One of the most exciting American movies about recent political history since, ironically, Oliver Stone's "JFK."
80
Newsweek
David Ansen
Keeps you hanging on every twist and turn of its wilder-than-fiction plot.
75
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
It turns the nerve-fraying Cuban missile crisis into a big pop myth with the grip of a vise.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Desmond Ryan
A deeply involving and disturbing movie.
75
USA Today
Mike Clark
Once this 2 1/4-hour slow-starter finally finds its rhythm, we're reminded of how gripping policy give-and-take around a long rectangular table can be.
75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Greenwood, whose range has carried him from the lonely widower of "The Sweet Hereafter" to the creepy husband of "Double Jeopardy," gives a star-making performance.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
I call the movie a thriller, even though the outcome is known, because it plays like one: We may know that the world doesn't end, but the players in this drama don't, and it is easy to identify with them.
75
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Plays like a very good TV movie. Short on visual flair and starpower, Thirteen Days is not the definitive story of the Cuban missile crisis, but it's an engrossing historical lesson nonetheless.
75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Even though the actors are good, their characters stay stock.
75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
The subject is so gripping that you almost forgive the filmmakers for skewing their material in order to keep Costner's pretty face at the center of everything that happens.
70
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Thoroughly gripping.
70
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Dealing with all these crises and decisions gives Thirteen Days a surprising amount of tension and watchability for a story whose outcome we already know.
70
TNT RoughCut
Andy Klein
Greenwood gives a nuanced performance that may be the film's best work, but at times his surface dissimilarities to JFK are jarring.
70
LA Weekly
F. X. Feeney
A refreshing breakaway from both idolatry and cynicism.
70
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
I much prefer the whacked-out, Dr. Strangelove-ish brand of political-apocalypse film to all this straitlaced you-are-there dramaturgy, which seems a throwback to the early sixties not only in time but in spirit. But what Thirteen Days sets out to do it does admirably.
70
Time
Richard Schickel
The players don't particularly look like their historical models, but they make us feel their life-threatening pain and puzzlement.
67
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
A suspenseful breath of fresh air following on the heels of one of the dumbest Hollywood summers in recent memory.
65
Mr. Showbiz
Michael Atkinson
Assiduous, temperate, and a lot more honest about government and politicians than any other Hollywood film of the last few decades, Thirteen Days is nevertheless too little, too late.
60
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
A tense and engrossing political thriller.
60
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Reasonably intelligent, well-crafted and dramatically understated.
60
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Like President Kennedy, director Donaldson (who made "No Way Out," another pretty good Washington-seat-of-power thriller) has found a perfect balance of often-opposing forces: between recorded history and the demands of plain old entertainment.
60
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Kevin Costner is suitably flinty in 13 Days, a competent, by-the-numbers recreation of the events surrounding the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
60
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
This thriller is a lot better than you might expect--especially for a Kevin Costner vehicle.
50
Dallas Observer
Andy Klein
The efficiency of his (Donaldson) direction renders the movie somewhat characterless, like a top-rank made-for-TV production.
30
Film.com
Robert Horton
This overdone project dissipates its energy in strange ways (sudden shifts to black-and-white, as though hailing the spirit of Oliver Stone and that other Costner JFK movie), and makes you wish its makers had shown the same restraint the government did during the crisis.
30
Salon.com
Michael Sragow
A thoroughly bland and mediocre movie about the Cuban missile crisis.
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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