What strikes you most about this film is just how much pleasure a sure-footed, confident director can deliver by keeping everything simple.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 16, 2019

It is probably enjoyable and rousing enough, and does feature a lovely performance by Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela.

| Aug 30, 2018

Invictus is Eastwood in full Stanley Kramer/Richard Attenborough mode, playing down to the Americans who love cheesy triumphant-sports movies but who generally know little about South Africa and care even less.

Full Review | Jul 10, 2018

Morgan Freeman's portrayal of Nelson Mandela creates a superb moment in time on the movie screen.

| Jan 16, 2018

| Original Score: B- | Feb 18, 2012

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

A noble and compassionate work that in its later scenes manages successfully to invest our emotions in the triumph of an important - if overlong! - sporting victory.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 5, 2010

Invictus may be a rather cheesy way into the story of South Africa, but in the end you're glad it's there for a new generation to whom the words "Free Nelson Mandela" are history.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 5, 2010

A monolithic sporting saga that seems content to pose on the podium, lulled by the belief that its subject matter provides inspiration enough.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 5, 2010

Invictus is undone by its own overindulgence, turning a unifying moment of celebration and clarity into an underwhelming piece of cinematic cliché.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 5, 2010

Like Cry Freedom without the laughs. Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela in a pious, bromidic, wet-all-over film that slops from triumph to set-piece triumph.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Feb 5, 2010

The problem is not one of factual accuracy; it is one of dramatic credibility, stymied all the way through by the remorseless sanctification of its subject.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Feb 5, 2010

It's a stirring watch but it's telling that the performances, not the film itself, have captured the Academy's attention.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 5, 2010

In films like this, nobody is ever in two minds about anything. Nobody is ever out of character. And that is a deficiency in the screenwriting that pays too little heed to the source material.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 5, 2010

It's still a great film though - expertly mixing a political biopic and an underdog sports movie together, which under a less sure hand could have turned out like The Mighty Ducks coached by George W.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 5, 2010

You're likely to leave Invictus with a few nagging questions

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 5, 2010

Eastwood hits all the right notes in exactly the right order, but it's his least personal film for a while.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 5, 2010

With Invictus, Eastwood gets his message across in much the same way as the South African special forces -- he beats us over the head with it.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 30, 2010

Perhaps the greatest testament to Eastwood's directorial skill is that such an unattractive, brutish game could serve as an uplifting symbol of communal harmony and renewed national spirit.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 21, 2010