Unbroken doesn't penetrate the surface of emotions, remaining a slightly detached, albeit respectful, representation of a potentially touching and inspiring true story.

| Aug 5, 2019

... so painfully generic that one could probably copy the review of any derivative WWII film and paste it right here.

| Original Score: C | Sep 1, 2017

Unbroken falls short of the epic war drama and sweeping testament-to-the-human-spirit it strives to be.

| Jan 21, 2016

It is a handsome film, bleak and dark and elegantly filmed told with a mixture of intensity and something like restraint, even distance.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 16, 2015

Despite some fine performances and well-staged sequences, Zamperini's story becomes strangely dull, thanks to the length and repetitiveness of many sequences. Jolie has talent, no doubt about that, and may one day make a really outstanding film.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 14, 2015

The film is simply concerned with what its subject survived, as depicted in brutal, repetitive detail.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 5, 2015

"Unbroken" is a rousing old-fashioned yarn with numerous exciting set-pieces and an uncomplicated hero you root for all the way through. It's entertaining throughout and made with a high level of technical skill.

| Jan 4, 2015

It turns out to be a rousing, full blooded war movie but one which also sometimes feels derivative and a little heavy handed.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 2, 2015

The material is indisputably dramatic but it hasn't been shaped or shot with any dynamism

| Jan 2, 2015

A straightforward and entirely commendable story about the triumph of the human spirit, etc.

| Jan 2, 2015

Unbroken is a fairly flawless product: epic in scope and imagery, and faultless in all matters of technique. Yet Jolie privileges reliable indicators of quality over idiosyncratic impulses toward creativity.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 2, 2015

"Unbroken" effectively portrays Zamperini's trials and pays proper tribute to his life, but falls short by failing to provide the vicarious experience of witnessing its hero's redemption.

| Original Score: 2.1/2 | Dec 29, 2014

Given its subject, it should have been great, but it turns out to be simply good.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 29, 2014

Jolie's movie is only interested in the gruelling POW endurances that were arguably the least interesting part of this inspirational life story.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 28, 2014

"Unbroken" stirs a moviegoer by default; it's an astounding story of human endurance that has been brought a little too safely to the screen.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 26, 2014

It is a harrowing journey, and an inspirational one. But, as director, Jolie takes far too long to tell it, particularly in such a conventional manner.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 25, 2014

A tale of endurance, "Unbroken" takes endurance to sit through.

| Dec 25, 2014

Unbroken is a fitting title for this excruciating cinematic treatment of the flyboy's ordeal. It plays like an endless, unrelieved gauntlet of suffering, an onslaught untempered by grace or redemption.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 25, 2014

If you can take it, "Unbroken" will lift you like the classics of adventure cinema.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 24, 2014

What the movie ends up in desperate need of is a sense of life made real and palpable through dreadful, transporting details, not a life embalmed in hagiographic awe.

| Dec 24, 2014