5 Days of War
Anchor Bay Films | Release Date: August 19, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
31
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
6
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
65
NPRMark JenkinsAug 18, 2011
Neither innovative nor profound, but it is kinetic, visceral and sometimes moving. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyAug 25, 2011
5 Days of War feels low-budget in everything except its battle sequences. Read full review
50
VarietyJohn AndersonAug 18, 2011
Set during the brief, brutal 2008 flare-up between Russia and Georgia, the drama has some exhilarating moments, but they're dampened by concessions to conventionally bloviating music, overly theatrical dialogue and inadvertently comic slo-mo. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen HoldenAug 18, 2011
The movie is a continuous barrage of explosions, sneak attacks, chases, life-and-death face-offs, and amazing rescues that are as far-fetched as they are exhilarating. The cheap thrills are compounded by Mikko Alanne and David Battle's screenplay, a wallow in old-time Hollywood boilerplate, some of which you can't believe is being recycled yet again. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderBen SachsSep 1, 2011
It almost goes without saying that Harlin is the wrong man to direct a docudrama about the Russia-Georgian conflict of 2008, which displaced tens of thousands of people and left hundreds of others dead. Lacking political insight or sympathy for real people (as opposed to action-movie types), Harlin can offer little more than tasteless spectacle. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMark HolcombAug 17, 2011
Taking the vantage point of civilians rather than combatants allows 5 Days of War to show the toll of the terror and of the relentless, exhausting pursuit of war with unexpected force. Had it rejected the genre's romantic trappings and false heroics more consistently, the movie might've been worth the ride. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfAug 16, 2011
The hard fact, though, is that Harlin's instincts - always toward the massive and slo-mo - make him a fairly dunderheaded political analyst. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 31, 2011
None of the action is coherent; shots and shells are fired, people and killed or not, explosions rend the air, SUVs spin aloft (the same one more than once, I think), and there is no sense of strategy. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickAug 19, 2011
Should appeal more to those who like to watch stuff blow up than understand exactly why the carnage is transpiring. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeAug 25, 2011
Fails both as historical re-enactment and as action-flick thrill ride. Read full review
25
Washington PostJohn DeForeAug 18, 2011
A tired old quote about truth being the first casualty of war is a strange way to start 5 Days of War, an overwrought drama that, whatever its good intentions, could hardly be said to aim for objectivity in its account of the 2008 conflict between Russia and Georgia. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenSep 8, 2011
Most unforgivable, however, is the film's coda in which real Georgian victims pose for the camera with pictures of their loved ones lost in the five days of war. Using real people to impart the emotions that the entire film was unable to evince is simply cheap exploitation. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyAug 15, 2011
Renny Harlin seems now incapable of taking a movie even as far as a few frames. Read full review
0
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 19, 2011
Harlin even makes poor Kilmer go running about. Just like that image, "5 Days" is embarrassingly clumsy. Read full review
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