Many graphic battle scenes, not for all teens.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 28, 2010

The main irony, of course, lies in the film's title, which suggests that the absurdly flag-waving activist should be taken at face value despite the ample evidence that defending his country is the last thing on his mind.

| Dec 2, 2002

Emmerich's battle scenes may look authentic to anyone who has ever stared hard at a history book, but in every other way the film is long, empty and bogus.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 18, 2002

Its convictions may be half-baked, but it has the courage of them.

| Original Score: B- | May 8, 2002

Make no mistake about it: The Patriot is a cartoon, even if it does have real people playing the parts.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 22, 2002

A grand yarn with a sense of the weight of history and an awareness that the winners are often those who have lost the most.

Full Review | Aug 9, 2001

Deserves a salute as the first Hollywood epic about the American Revolution to successfully blend ferocity and feeling.

Full Review | May 10, 2001

It boldly asks what you'd be willing to sacrifice to gain that freedom. And what more could you ask from a Fourth of July movie?

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

It has everything you want in an epic.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

The Patriot is a huge, bloody, 2-hour-and-40-minute battle epic, lavishly appointed and beautifully shot.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Gibson has proven he can do this kind of stuff with his eyes closed and he is rounded out by a fine supporting cast.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Yet for its real virtues, The Patriot is never completely satisfying.

| Jan 1, 2000

As long as it stays on the battlefield, The Patriot is a brutishly compelling broad-canvas entertainment.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 1, 2000

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 1, 2000

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 1, 2000

What makes The Patriot exhausting, despite its handful of blood-boiling sequences, is the way it numbingly resembles other movies.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

So the result -- in spite of the puffy white shirts, mussed ponytails, 13-starred American flags and nameless slaves -- feels more like 1996.

| Jan 1, 2000

Reflects our wish to redeem ourselves through sacrifice. But that entails more than briefly nodding to our flaws, magnifying what we like best about our past, and waving it around, hoping the euphoria will resolve any contradictions.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jan 1, 2000