Lions for Lambs
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: November 9, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
21
Negative:
4
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
50
The Hollywood ReporterRay 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. Read full review
50
Village VoiceElla Taylor
The movie is awful--and also oddly touching, even adorable in its dogged sense of responsibility, its stubborn refusal of style. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael 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. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter 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. Read full review
50
PremiereMatt Mueller
Lambs feels five years too late. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla 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. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen 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. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The movie is compelling now but unlikely to survive its moment. Read full review
50
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. Read full review
50
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Fortunately for Redford, Lions for Lambs is a less ham-handed effort than Sayles’ “Silver City,” but it’s a near thing. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
This tactic, and the film's valid but familiar arguments, might have been fleshed out with better results onstage. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael 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. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley 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. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Dull plod. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
One of those movies in which the principals talk a lot but don't say much. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianMarc 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. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)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. Read full review
40
VarietyDerek 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. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony 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. Read full review
40
Washington PostAnn 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. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesCarina 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. Read full review
More From This Movie

47 Critic Reviews

5.0 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 82 The Northman
2 81 Everything Everywhere All at Once
3 78 X
4 72 7 Days
5 72 Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL