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BIG MIRACLEMovie Reviews
Drama comedy about a small-town reporter and his ex-girlfriend, a Greenpeace volunteer, who go to great lengths to save a family of whales trapped in the Arctic circle. Cast:John Krasinski, Drew Barrymore, Ted Danson, Dermot Mulroney, Kristen BellDirector:Ken KwapisRelease Date:February 3, 2012DVD Release:June 19, 2012From:UniversalRating:PGLength:2 hr. 3 min.
Big Miracle played to good not great reviews. • Roger Moore wrote in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "...a slight film of simple, obvious charms.... Yeah, there are plenty of Hollywood touches. But it's amazing how much of this story is true." • And Stephanie Zacharek wrote for Movieline, "...harmless and big-hearted, and it's also handsomely shot (by the reliable John Bailey). But it could use a lot more bite." More Reviews Below...
Big Miracle Positive Reviews (39 Reviews, reviews below)
Alynda Wheat, People: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "I was entranced... captures the spirit of the world uniting in concern over the aquatic giants, even though it nearly drowns with too many characters and plot twists."(See all of Alynda Wheat's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 162 words, 02/02/12
Mary Pols, Time: GOOD "...has the cheesy set up of a predictable rescue story... But the movie has enough of a sense of irony to cut through some of that cheesiness."(See all of Mary Pols's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 899 words, 02/03/12
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...cheesy and knows it's cheesy... has the added benefit of being based on a true story.... large and unwieldy -- but it also has its moments of splendor."(See all of Christy Lemire's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 583 words, 02/02/12
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...harmless enough, but what's annoying about it is its aura of fake activism.... At times, the movie is like a cheesy rabble-rouser made in the '80s."(See all of Owen Gleiberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 345 words, 02/10/12
Claudia Puig, USA Today: MODERATE(cg) "...given the abundance of one-dimensional human portrayals, it becomes apparent that a documentary on the subject might have been more powerful."(See all of Claudia Puig's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 443 words, 02/03/12
Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: VERY GOOD(cg) "...brings unusual nuance to a hoary heartstring-tugging saga... If you think it's absolutely not your kind of thing, you might be surprised."(See all of Glenn Kenny's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 508 words, 02/02/12
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Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...wins you over.... John Krasinksi's rubbery features and Drew Barrymore's earnest, elementary acting style are assets."(See all of Joe Neumaier's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 392 words, 02/03/12
Michael Phillips, Los Angeles Times/Chicago Tribune: VERY GOOD "Much of 'Big Miracle' feels calculated, but Ken Kwapis, his writers and the ensemble achieve a considerable amount within the calculation."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 597 words, 02/03/12
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: VERY GOOD(cg) "...exciting, charming and often quite funny... inspired by the real-life 1988 rescue of three gray whales trapped in ice near Alaska's northernmost point."(See all of Lou Lumenick's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 670 words, 02/03/12
Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine: FAIR "...the film bulldozes any genuine nuance or insight or even emotion in exchange for ready-made plot points and by-the-numbers catharsis."(See all of Bilge Ebiri's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 772 words, 02/06/12
Nell Minow, Chicago Sun-Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "Standouts include: John Krasinski... Kathy Baker... Dermot Mulroney... and John Pingayeck, in his first movie role..."(See all of Nell Minow's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 599 words, 02/03/12
Melissa Anderson, Village Voice/LA Weekly: FAIR "While rooting for the marine mammals, your heart will also go out to the cast, stuck even more pitiably in syrupy manufactured crises."(See all of Melissa Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 442 words, 02/01/12
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "A movie so feel-good it cites providence in its title... It's like an old Disney family comedy by way of a 1980s news story."(See all of Peter Howell's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 581 words, 02/03/12
Liam Lacey, Toronto Globe & Mail: VERY GOOD(cg) "Better and more acerbic than its title would suggest... it's a screwball comedy, with a possible debt to Preston Sturges's 1942 film, 'The Miracle of Morgan Creek'..."(See all of Liam Lacey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 615 words, 02/03/12
Phil Brown, Toronto Now: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...goofy performances help make the drab story compelling... This could have easily been 'Free Willy On Ice,' and avoiding that fate alone makes it a modest success."(See all of Phil Brown's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 186 words, 02/02/12
KEY CITIES (10 Reviews)
Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "As the minutes tick down, the sentimentality picks up. But chalk that up to the enigmatic creatures... Whales just have a way of bringing people together."(See all of Stephanie Merry's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 560 words, 02/03/12
Barbara Vancheri, Philadelphia Inquirer: VERY GOOD(cg) " 'Big Miracle,' slapped with a blandly generic title, is far from a miraculous movie but proves more educational and entertaining than you might imagine."(See all of Barbara Vancheri's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 585 words, 02/03/12
Roger Moore, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a slight film of simple, obvious charms.... Yeah, there are plenty of Hollywood touches. But it's amazing how much of this story is true."(See all of Roger Moore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 431 words, 02/03/12
Janice Page, Boston Globe: VERY GOOD(cg) "It needs only to entertain. And that it does thoroughly, leaving us both charmed and enriched without feeling very preached at. Praise be."(See all of Janice Page's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 822 words, 02/03/12
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: VERY GOOD(cg) "...not the most sophisticated adventure film, but compared with most family movies, it's practically something out of Noel Coward."(See all of Mick LaSalle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 585 words, 02/03/12
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: VERY GOOD(cg) "With such a large and likable cast, the whales are a relatively small part of the movie. But the wonder is that their fate can make a cold-hearted audience blubber."(See all of Joe Williams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 330 words, 02/03/12
Steve Persall, Tampa Bay Times: MODERATE(cg) "...isn't about saving whales as much as people using their predicament to further personal aims.... isn't an entirely bad movie but a wholly misguided one."(See all of Steve Persall's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 485 words, 02/02/12
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: VERY GOOD(cg) "This isn't exactly 'Marley & Me,' but I still was blinking back tears in one scene, and the actors embody their stick-figure characters just enough to make you care..."(See all of Rene Rodriguez's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 594 words, 02/03/12
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (9 Reviews)
Melissa Anderson, Village Voice/LA Weekly: FAIR "While rooting for the marine mammals, your heart will also go out to the cast, stuck even more pitiably in syrupy manufactured crises."(See all of Melissa Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 442 words, 02/01/12
Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Ken Kwapis's take on a true story from 1988 about an effort to save gray whales trapped in the Arctic ice.... Surprisingly, the film offers genuine complexity."(See all of Peter Keough's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 151 words, 02/02/12
Nathan Rabin, AV Club: VERY GOOD(cg) "...might look like a hopelessly bland, Animal Planet-ready family film... but under its crowd-pleasing exterior lies an undercurrent of bracing cynicism."(See all of Nathan Rabin's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 382 words, 02/02/12
R. Kurt Osenlund, Slant: POOR(cg) "...primarily an exercise in how not to translate real life to film. Any goodwill it boasts is terminally suppressed, buried beneath a layer of bullshit as thick as blubber."(See all of R. Kurt Osenlund's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 696 words, 02/02/12
Phil Brown, Toronto Now: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...goofy performances help make the drab story compelling... This could have easily been 'Free Willy On Ice,' and avoiding that fate alone makes it a modest success."(See all of Phil Brown's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 186 words, 02/02/12
Ella Taylor, NPR: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...settles for an amiable communitarianism... when the excitement is over, everyone goes back to being very much the compromised souls they were before."(See all of Ella Taylor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 675 words, 02/02/12
Michael Phillips, Los Angeles Times: VERY GOOD "Much of 'Big Miracle' feels calculated, but Ken Kwapis, his writers and the ensemble achieve a considerable amount within the calculation."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 597 words, 02/03/12
MOVIE INDUSTRY (5 Reviews)
Justin Chang, Daily Variety: GOOD "A Reagan-era whale of a tale fictionalized in broad, simplistic but modestly engaging strokes... won't make auds blubber but does well enough by its subject."(See all of Justin Chang's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 762 words, 02/01/12
Michael Phillips, Los Angeles Times: VERY GOOD "Much of 'Big Miracle' feels calculated, but Ken Kwapis, his writers and the ensemble achieve a considerable amount within the calculation."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 597 words, 02/03/12
Emanuel Levy, Cinema 24/7: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...quite enjoyable for what it is, a sort of 'David vs. Goliath' tale that involves mobilizing the support of a whole community and then battling rival superpowers."(See all of Emanuel Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 491 words, 02/01/12
15.4 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Big Miracle's reviews are separated by an average 15.4 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.
Big Miracle (39 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Big Miracle's reviews cover 74.0% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 20,389 words involume (average is 20,172 words). Length:The film's reviews average 523 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Big Miracle Coverage, Volume & Length (39 Reviews, reviews below)
Reviews Broke 4.7 Hours After Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Big Miracle's reviews on average broke 4.7 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 Big Miracle's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Big Miracle (39 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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