A rousing tale of sacrifice, ingenuity and heroism.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 16, 2016

The Coast Guard gets its big-screen opportunity with The Finest Hours. Its great effects work well to accompany some solid performances.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 2, 2016

This is a by-the-book disaster-rescue saga with elevated moments of drama. The ocean scenes leave you feeling a little bit seasick, but in awe of the bravery of these men.

| Jun 21, 2016

This is old-fashioned, corny filmmaking, with all of the emotional beats and crescendos you would expect.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 13, 2016

The incident on which Craig Gillespie's film is based may have marked the titular finest hour for the historical personages depicted, but everyone involved in this production will make more thrilling pictures than this one.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 23, 2016

It's as ruggedly constructed and guilelessly entertaining as its leading man, Chris Pine.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 18, 2016

This unpretentious drama knows its way.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 18, 2016

A strong cast and impressive action sequences can't find subtleties or surprises to enliven a rote period disaster movie. It hits the right points, but mechanically.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 18, 2016

Affleck enlivens it with an unexpected, film-elevating performance that's almost like a pastiche of On The Waterfront-era Marlon Brando - all mumbles, smouldering stares, private smiles, and attention-grabbing fiddles.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 18, 2016

Finest Hours is action and adventure on a grand scale.

| Feb 16, 2016

I expected nothing special and wound up being thoroughly exhilarated.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 4, 2016

Too few of Hollywood's recent offerings can boast such a simple throughline and know when to wrap it up.

| Feb 1, 2016

A remarkable tale, confusingly told. Impressive storm sequences and a very good Pine almost save the day.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 29, 2016

The stuff onboard the Pendleton is the only part of the movie that remains compelling throughout - and it only accounts for a third of the running time.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 29, 2016

Maybe it's just the History Channel junkie in me, but I would much rather be seeing a documentary about this mission than a trumped-up drama featuring brand-name actors and CGI squalls.

| Original Score: C+ | Jan 29, 2016

It feels like a parody of a prestige film, like one of the fake Oscar trailers in "Tropic Thunder."

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 29, 2016

A straight-up Boys' Own adventure yarn, set sincerely and squarely in early '50s New England but gussied up with plenty of 21st-century StormWave CGI.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 29, 2016

An old-fashioned tale of heroism in the face of insurmountable odds, "The Finest Hours" is never less than aggressively hokey and manipulatively sentimental - and, in the end, better off for it.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 29, 2016

The 3-D conversion is so murky that there are long stretches where it is almost impossible to discern what is going on up on the screen.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 29, 2016

This disaster flick manages to stay afloat largely thanks to the yeoman efforts of Casey Affleck.

| Original Score: 2.5 | Jan 29, 2016