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COUNTDOWN TO ZEROMovie Reviews
Documentary about the history of the atomic bomb, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the hypothetical events that could lead to the detonation of a nuclear device. Cast:Graham Allison, James Baker III, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez Musharraf, Tony Blair, Jimmy Carter, Valerie Plame WilsonDirector:Lucy WalkerRelease Date:July 23, 2010DVD Release:November 23, 2010From:MagnoliaRating:PGLength:1 hr 31 min
NOVEMBER 23, 2010
Countdown to Zero, Very Good Reviews (Doc) Key Cities
Countdown to Zero played in key cities to very good reviews. • Moira Macdonald wrote in the Seattle Times, "...smart, swift and scary as hell... The film ends on a note of hope that's welcome but almost jarring, considering the alarming footage that came before." • And Michael Phillips wrote in the Chicago Tribune, "...imparts a sinking feeling that morphs into a call to action." More Reviews Below...
Countdown to Zero Positive Reviews (34 Reviews, reviews below)
Mary Corliss, Time: VERY GOOD "...efficiently and vigorously enumerates the dangers of nuclear proliferation... a stirring and scary reminder of the nuclear sword hanging over our collective neck."(See all of Mary Corliss's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 776 words, 08/02/10
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: VERY GOOD(cg) "What's truly scary about the here and now of nuclear weapons is Walker's examination of the terrorist and rogue nation threat."(See all of Christy Lemire's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 619 words, 07/22/10
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...makes old terrors radioactively new again. Lucy Walker has her finger on the ultimate hot-button topic, and she doesn't let go."(See all of Owen Gleiberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 142 words, 07/23/10
James Berardinelli, Reel Views: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...superficial, but provides a decent overview for the uninitiated while not adding much to the databank for those with an understanding of the situation."(See all of James Berardinelli's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 963 words, 07/29/10
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (11 Reviews)
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: EXCELLENT "...scarily convincing argument that the end, if not quite nigh, is at least foreseeable... urges us to wake up and smell the highly enriched uranium."(See all of Jeannette Catsoulis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 337 words, 07/23/10
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: VERY GOOD "...scares us good and proper... devotes most of its time to detailing the major ways that nuclear weapons might come to be used."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 708 words, 07/30/10
Kyle Smith, New York Post: VERY GOOD(cg) "...one of the most frightening documentaries you'll ever see, or endure... Lucy Walker doesn't uncover anything new, but she puts together an impressively urgent document."(See all of Kyle Smith's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 266 words, 07/23/10
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...imparts a sinking feeling that morphs into a call to action.... has an agenda but has the cogent, reasoned rhetoric to support it."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 508 words, 07/30/10
Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "...impressively researched... Director Lucy Walker, whose earlier documentaries observed Amish teens and blind mountaineers, does a thorough job of scaring us."(See all of Bill Stamets's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 743 words, 07/30/10
Vadim Rizov, Village Voice/LA Weekly: WEAK "...the same old archival test footage we've seen before and interviews the big names... another well-intentioned but preaching-to-the-choir doc, and boring as well."(See all of Vadim Rizov's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 209 words, 07/20/10
Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "After 85 minutes of fear-mongering... Walker switches gears to put a smiley face on the problem in the last five minutes, offering helpful suggestions for individual activism."(See all of Norman Wilner's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 253 words, 07/29/10
KEY CITIES (11 Reviews)
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: VERY GOOD(cg) "...may have a political agenda, but by the film's moving conclusion, that agenda seems not only supremely logical and refreshingly bipartisan but actually within reach."(See all of Ann Hornaday's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 518 words, 07/23/10
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...well-researched, anxiety-provoking... populated with such eloquent talking heads as former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and former CIA agent Valerie Plame..."(See all of Carrie Rickey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 328 words, 07/30/10
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: VERY GOOD(cg) "...handsomely produced... What haunts you are the profiles of greedy traffickers who profited from selling doomsday technology."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 478 words, 07/30/10
Robert W. Butler, Arizona Republic: EXCELLENT(cg) "...a blood-curdling look at the world's nuclear arsenal that suggests atomic Armageddon remains every bit as likely as it was during the height of the Cold War."(See all of Robert W. Butler's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 425 words, 09/10/10
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: MODERATE(cg) "World destruction is no laughing matter, and yet this movie's treatment of it is sometimes amusingly desperate.... it deploys its own kind of pornography."(See all of Wesley Morris's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 543 words, 07/30/10
Clint O'Connor, Cleveland Plain-Dealer: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...a smart, sharply made documentary. For the topic that we may try to block out of our minds it is suitably sobering, and completely horrifying."(See all of Clint O'Connor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 439 words, 08/06/10
Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a sobering piece of advocacy cinema, a plainspoken call to disarm and reduce the likelihood of an accident or concerted attack."(See all of Amy Biancolli's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 532 words, 07/30/10
Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "...smart, swift and scary as hell... The film ends on a note of hope that's welcome but almost jarring, considering the alarming footage that came before."(See all of Moira Macdonald's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 295 words, 07/30/10
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: VERY GOOD(cg) "...frightening... imagines what would happen if someone detonated a bomb in the heart of a major city.... takes that old Cold War chill and updates it to the present day."(See all of Rene Rodriguez's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 414 words, 08/06/10
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (7 Reviews)
Vadim Rizov, Village Voice/LA Weekly: WEAK "...the same old archival test footage we've seen before and interviews the big names... another well-intentioned but preaching-to-the-choir doc, and boring as well."(See all of Vadim Rizov's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 209 words, 07/20/10
Gerald Peary, Boston Phoenix: MODERATE(cg) "...lectures us in a hundred ways, many of them tiresomely repetitive, that our sweet world is on the cusp of destruction because of nuclear weaponry everywhere."(See all of Gerald Peary's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 173 words, 07/29/10
Noel Murray, AV Club: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...slickly shot and assembled, with all the requisite animations, recreations, file footage, and ominous pulsing music that make agit-prop docs go these days."(See all of Noel Murray's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 417 words, 07/22/10
Andrew Schenker, Slant: WEAK(cg) "...clear-sighted, easy-to-follow... the current state of the world's nuclear situation and the cinematic equivalent of those Homeland Security color-coded threat levels."(See all of Andrew Schenker's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 952 words, 07/19/10
Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "After 85 minutes of fear-mongering... Walker switches gears to put a smiley face on the problem in the last five minutes, offering helpful suggestions for individual activism."(See all of Norman Wilner's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 253 words, 07/29/10
Curt Holman, Atlanta Creative Loafing: EXCELLENT(cg) "...an impassioned pitch for zero-tolerance nuclear nonproliferation... leaves audiences hoping that the survival instinct can cross international borders and party lines."(See all of Curt Holman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 641 words, 07/30/10
HIGHBROW PRESS (3 Reviews)
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: EXCELLENT "...scarily convincing argument that the end, if not quite nigh, is at least foreseeable... urges us to wake up and smell the highly enriched uranium."(See all of Jeannette Catsoulis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 337 words, 07/23/10
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: VERY GOOD "...scares us good and proper... devotes most of its time to detailing the major ways that nuclear weapons might come to be used."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 708 words, 07/30/10
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon: EXCELLENT "...highly effective... built on the social-activism model pioneered by 'An Inconvenient Truth'... provides roughly two-thirds gloom and doom to about one-third hope."(See all of Andrew O'Hehir's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 3,256 words, 07/22/10
MOVIE INDUSTRY (5 Reviews)
John Anderson, Daily Variety: EXCELLENT "...highly creative... Bouyed by Peter Golub's score and several sturdy rock numbers... the film is built around terrific archival footage from dozens of sources."(See all of John Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 827 words, 01/25/10
John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: EXCELLENT "Convincingly argued and extremely polished... never lets us forget the specifics of a hypothetical nuclear detonation.... makes the cause seem as urgent as ever."(See all of John DeFore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 423 words, 01/31/10
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: VERY GOOD "...scares us good and proper... devotes most of its time to detailing the major ways that nuclear weapons might come to be used."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 708 words, 07/30/10
Michael T. Dennis, Cinema 24/7: EXCELLENT(cg) "...examines the dangers posed by rogue state and terrorist organizations, aiming to enter into what once was the exclusive domain of the superpowers."(See all of Michael T. Dennis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,012 words, 03/28/10
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: EXCELLENT "...scarily convincing argument that the end, if not quite nigh, is at least foreseeable... urges us to wake up and smell the highly enriched uranium."(See all of Jeannette Catsoulis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 337 words, 07/23/10
18.3 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Countdown to Zero's reviews are separated by an average 18.3 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.
Countdown to Zero (34 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Countdown to Zero's reviews cover 47.3% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 19,636 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 578 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Countdown to Zero Coverage, Volume & Length (34 Reviews, reviews below)
Reviews Broke 21.5 Hours After Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Countdown to Zero's reviews on average broke 21.5 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 Countdown to Zero's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Countdown to Zero (34 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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