Dear Reader: Update, Movie Review Intelligence will discontinue
publishing this website at the end of May (more...)
Search a Movie:
AMELIAMovie Reviews
Biographical drama about the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who vanished in the Pacific Ocean while attempting to fly around the world in 1937. Cast:Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Virginia Madsen, Ewan McGregor, Mia WasikowskaDirector:Mira NairRelease Date:October 23, 2009DVD Release:February 2, 2010From:Fox SearchlightRating:PGLength:1 hr. 51 min.
Amelia played to weak reviews. • Tom Maurstad wrote in the Dallas Morning News, "Take your pick of aviation-themed quips – 'Amelia' sputters and stalls, 'Amelia' runs out of runway, never takes off, never leaves the ground. Any will do." • And Clint O'Connor wrote in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, "...the filmmakers tried to make both love story and adventure saga and ended up shortchanging both." More Reviews Below...
Mary Pols, Time: FAIR "We learn a lot about where Earhart went and what she wore... But the woman herself remains tantalizingly out of our grasp... Part of that problem lies with Swank."(See all of Mary Pols's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,030 words, 10/23/09
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...a frustratingly old-school, Hollywood-style, inspirational biopic about Amelia Earhart that doesn't trust a viewer's independent assessment of the famous woman..."(See all of Lisa Schwarzbaum's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 703 words, 10/23/09
David Germain, Associated Press: MODERATE(cg) "Lovely aerial images, lush landscapes and rich sets and costumes are the film's lone strengths. In almost every other regard, 'Amelia' veers off course."(See all of David Germain's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 628 words, 10/22/09
Claudia Puig, USA Today: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Though it is fun watching Swank relish her highflying adventure, it's too bad that a film about a daring and audacious woman taking on staggering challenges plays it so safe."(See all of Claudia Puig's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 507 words, 10/23/09
get our iPhone app... or get our mobile web app...
movie review intelligence
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (11 Reviews)
Manohla Dargis, New York Times: WEAK "The actors don't make a persuasive fit... It's hard to imagine anyone, other than satirists, doing anything with the puerile, sometimes risible dialogue."(See all of Manohla Dargis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,068 words, 10/23/09
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: POOR(cg) "...embalmed drama is a ghost from the '80s, a decade that regularly produced surprise-free, caramelized biopics.... 'Amelia' is missing practically everything."(See all of Joe Neumaier's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 422 words, 10/23/09
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "...tells this story with sound performances and impeccable period detail.... a perfectly sound biopic, well directed and acted, about an admirable woman."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 827 words, 10/22/09
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: WEAK "...disappointing... director Mira Nair is so tentative with Amelia Earhart's legend that all the reverence and tiptoeing around grounds a film that should have soared."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 870 words, 10/23/09
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: MODERATE(cg) "...a hackneyed script and Mira Nair's unfocused direction never allow Hilary Swank's performance as legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart to soar."(See all of Lou Lumenick's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 500 words, 10/23/09
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: MODERATE(cg) "...distressingly ordinary... Played by an aptly cast and game Hilary Swank, Earhart becomes a checklist of Historical Legend accomplishments."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 466 words, 10/23/09
Rafer Guzman, New York Newsday: VERY GOOD(cg) "Earhart is understated, a taciturn Midwesterner who somehow intoxicates the men around her... It's a quiet, subtle role that sometimes gets lost in the cinematic clouds."(See all of Rafer Guzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 328 words, 10/23/09
David Edelstein, New York Magazine: POOR "...it's all so glancing and superficial that the movie doesn't seem to have a present tense. It goes by like coming attractions.... a treasury of bad biopic dialogue."(See all of David Edelstein's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 256 words, 10/26/09
Susan G. Cole, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "...no amount of cheesy strings swelling up in the score every time a place takes off - stunningly clichéd - can convince us that anything about this story matters."(See all of Susan G. Cole's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 191 words, 10/29/09
KEY CITIES (16 Reviews)
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: WEAK(cg) "Director Mira Nair even resorts to that hoariest of film tricks: the spinning-newspaper-headline montage, as a kind of expository shorthand."(See all of Michael O'Sullivan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 727 words, 10/23/09
Mick LaSalle, Houston Chronicle/San Francisco Chronicle: MODERATE(cg) "...every so often we get a hint of the movie they wanted to make... One about the thrill of early aviation and the promise of a young century."(See all of Mick LaSalle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 802 words, 10/23/09
Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: WEAK(cg) "Take your pick of aviation-themed quips - 'Amelia' sputters and stalls, 'Amelia' runs out of runway, never takes off, never leaves the ground. Any will do."(See all of Tom Maurstad's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 577 words, 10/23/09
Robert W. Butler, Arizona Republic: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...plays it awfully safe. Under Mira Nair's direction, 'Amelia' is respectable and respectful, with a solid performance by two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank."(See all of Robert W. Butler's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 537 words, 10/23/09
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: VERY GOOD(cg) "Though this traditional story about a defiantly nontraditional woman doesn't always soar, it fits Hilary Swank, its producer/star, like a jumpsuit."(See all of Carrie Rickey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 645 words, 10/23/09
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...may actually be best for mother-daughter movie dates: You get an interestingly problematic role model, a little food for thought, a few good slacks, and a nice big cry."(See all of Ty Burr's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 836 words, 10/23/09
Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian: POOR(cg) "Better luck trying to find out what truly happened to the real Earhart than trying to diagnose all that's wrong with this hapless film."(See all of Shawn Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 599 words, 10/23/09
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...too conventionally constructed to attain the heights of Scorsese's 'The Aviator'... the cinematography and Depression-era props are splendid. Swank, of course, is too."(See all of Joe Williams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 803 words, 10/23/09
Steve Persall, St. Petersburg Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Nair attempts to camouflage a wispy script with an oddly out-of-place structure, jumping from one Earhart milestone to the next then back to sometime earlier."(See all of Steve Persall's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 580 words, 10/23/09
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...doggedly earnest in that vaguely annoying Oscar-hopeful way, with stunning cinematography of the expansive views from the seat of Earhart's Electra..."(See all of Connie Ogle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 528 words, 10/23/09
Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix: POOR(cg) "Mira Nair's ('Salaam, Bombay!') worst picture.... a bankrupt script, inept editing, and a ludicrous flashback structure... a disaster of 'Ed Wood' proportions."(See all of Peter Keough's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 605 words, 10/23/09
Susan G. Cole, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "...no amount of cheesy strings swelling up in the score every time a place takes off - stunningly clichéd - can convince us that anything about this story matters."(See all of Susan G. Cole's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 191 words, 10/29/09
HIGHBROW PRESS (5 Reviews)
Manohla Dargis, New York Times: WEAK "The actors don't make a persuasive fit... It's hard to imagine anyone, other than satirists, doing anything with the puerile, sometimes risible dialogue."(See all of Manohla Dargis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,068 words, 10/23/09
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: POOR "...presents a protofeminist with a frozen smile spouting free-as-a-bird slogans from a bird-brained script.... The whole movie is a failure to communicate."(See all of Joe Morgenstern's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 700 words, 10/23/09
David Edelstein, NPR Fresh Air: POOR "...it's hard to forgive the makers of the biopic 'Amelia' for getting her spirit dead wrong. The facts are all here, but the movie is a blueprint -- it never breathes..."(See all of David Edelstein's reviews...)(Listen to the full review...) 333 seconds, 10/23/09
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: WEAK "...disappointing... director Mira Nair is so tentative with Amelia Earhart's legend that all the reverence and tiptoeing around grounds a film that should have soared."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 870 words, 10/23/09
MOVIE INDUSTRY (5 Reviews)
Justin Chang, Daily Variety: WEAK "...what rankles most about 'Amelia' is the timidity and lack of imagination with which Nair approaches one of America's most exceptional and intriguing celebrity life stories."(See all of Justin Chang's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,005 words, 10/19/09
Ray Bennett, Hollywood Reporter: EXCELLENT "Swank's depiction of Earhart is of a high order. It ranks with recent real-life portrayals of Ray Charles by Jamie Foxx and Truman Capote by Philip Seymour Hoffman..."(See all of Ray Bennett's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 607 words, 10/19/09
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: WEAK "...disappointing... director Mira Nair is so tentative with Amelia Earhart's legend that all the reverence and tiptoeing around grounds a film that should have soared."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 870 words, 10/23/09
Manohla Dargis, New York Times: WEAK "The actors don't make a persuasive fit... It's hard to imagine anyone, other than satirists, doing anything with the puerile, sometimes risible dialogue."(See all of Manohla Dargis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,068 words, 10/23/09
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: POOR "...presents a protofeminist with a frozen smile spouting free-as-a-bird slogans from a bird-brained script.... The whole movie is a failure to communicate."(See all of Joe Morgenstern's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 700 words, 10/23/09
19.5 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Amelia's reviews are separated by an average 19.5 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Amelia (42 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Amelia's reviews cover 88.3% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 24,909 words involume (average is 20,172 words). Length:The film's reviews average 593 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Reviews Broke 4.3 Hours After Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Amelia's reviews on average broke 4.3 hours after opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Amelia's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Mobile Web App version 1.2 shows a list of all current movies and review information. You can click through to the cast, director, synopsis, release date and rating on page two, plus individual reviews on page three. The information is updated on a live/real-time basis. You can also search our database of films. Designed for when you're on the move and want the latest info, this app will work on any mobile web browser. From your mobile device -- only from a mobile device -- open our Mobile Web App here...
