This may be a great film, and an ingenious film, but only if you've the stomach for it.

| Aug 30, 2018

Any film that relies on one actor to carry the movie demands a lot of its leading man but James Franco applies a youthful exuberance that makes him so watchable it's all viewers could do not to blink.

| May 15, 2018

Franco... delivers a solid performance as the strapping climber who shows his vulnerability when he reflects back on his life--the mistakes he's made and the moments he may miss.

| Original Score: B | Sep 11, 2017

It's an incredible performance by Franco, walking the line between what once was enthusiasm but now is manic desperation.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 12, 2011

As a follow-up to Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours shows Danny Boyle at the top of his form -- it's not a story many filmmakers would want to tackle, and few would handle it as well.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 10, 2011

That director Danny Boyle makes us feel the shock of relief as Ralston finally pulls away from his stony prison signals just how immersive a piece of first-person story-telling this is.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 9, 2011

Boyle's film takes us back to the campfire for a story that is painful and powerful, as well as true.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2011

At its centre is a magnificent performance from James Franco...

| Jan 10, 2011

At the end, we stagger like Ralston from the dark into the light. We might have both our arms left, but our nerves are just as terrorised.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 10, 2011

Danny Boyle can't help but return, over and over again, to material that's heavy on physical pain, mental paranoia and personal treachery.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 6, 2011

In taking a Movie of the Week plotline and giving it a technical supercharge, Boyle has restated his case among the front rank of filmmakers.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 6, 2011

Franco acts his heart and soul out, as Ryan Reynolds did in Buried, a similar one-man agony opera in a confined space.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 6, 2011

A film that no sane movie exec would ever commission. Fortunately for us, though, there are no sane movie execs.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 4, 2011

A surprisingly fun, effervescent against-the-odds drama that offers an upbeat moral without the usual punishing survival-story clichs. Not for the faint-hearted, mind.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 3, 2011

Boyle is such a gifted filmmaker that, in his hands, 127 Hours is genuinely -- and unsentimentally -- inspirational.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 24, 2010

Directed and co-written by Danny Boyle in a style that travels from ecstatic to nerve-wracking and back, this is a film about perseverance, strength and the importance of always letting people know where you're going.

| Original Score: A- | Nov 19, 2010

Fair warning, oh squeamish ones: 127 Hours does not shy away from (nor does it stint on) Ralston's ultimate method of obtaining egress from his predicament. Which is exactly as it should be.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 19, 2010

[It] will blow you away -- for its audacity; for James Franco's performance; for the way that, by the end, it leaves you feeling connected to the strangers sitting next to you, and happier to be part of humankind.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 18, 2010

Shiver-making moments aside, in a important way 127 Hours suffers from the filmmaker's lack of nerve, a reluctance to let the audience taste Ralston's dread and the expectation of a slow, absurd death.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 12, 2010

In his impressive follow-up to Slumdog Millionaire, the Academy Award-winning director honors the lure of solitude while at the same time celebrating the beautiful necessity of other people.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 12, 2010