Chasing Mavericks
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: October 26, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
18
Negative:
4
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 24, 2012
Chasing Mavericks is made with more care and intelligence than many another film starting with its template might have been. It's better than most movies targeted at teens. And the cinematography of the big Mavericks scene by Oliver Euclid and Bill Pope is so frightening that you sort of understand why Frosty stays on the shore, watching Jay with binoculars. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenOct 25, 2012
Chasing Mavericks manages to sufficiently overcome the obstacles with admittedly affecting results. Read full review
70
TimeMary PolsOct 25, 2012
Chasing Mavericks may treat its characters with a little too much reverence, but it gives its titular subject its awe-inspiring due. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 26, 2012
If your inner amphibian craves a wave, you have the right kind of brain to appreciate the elemental story and scenic backdrops. But advanced mammals might smell something fishy. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 26, 2012
The reason to see Chasing Mavericks is the same reason why people flock to shore locations when a hurricane approaches: the waves. This is less effective as a bio-pic of Jay Moriarty than it is as a big screen National Geographic Special. Read full review
60
Total FilmKen McIntyreJul 5, 2013
By the time it’s over, you’ll either be heading for the beach or vowing never to go in the water again. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 27, 2012
The film wants to be inspiring, when it might have been cosmic-a far greater ambition. Tossing boats and dreamers, the huge waves perform beautifully. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellOct 25, 2012
The surfing scenes are gorgeous and overwhelming. But the rest of the film... Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 26, 2012
There's lots of extraneous plotting -- which, however fact based, is handled in such a pre-fab manner that it feels phony. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyDarren FranichOct 26, 2012
In attempting to honor their subject, the filmmakers also sap the life out of a potentially thrilling story. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickOct 25, 2012
The surfing sequences are some of the best I've ever seen in a film, and the re-creation of Jay's climactic battle to ride El Nino-driven waves is real white-knuckle stuff...But neither Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential") nor the fellow veteran director who replaced him when Hanson took ill, Michael Apted ("Gorillas in the Mist"), can do much with the hokey sequences on land. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Michael PosnerOct 25, 2012
I don't know if you have to be a surfer to fully appreciate Chasing Mavericks, but it certainly wouldn't hurt. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 25, 2012
So at the very least, audiences will come away from Chasing Mavericks with a deeper understanding of surfing and an appreciation for surfers. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 25, 2012
When the movie works, its buoyancy can be infectious and persuasive. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangOct 25, 2012
The outstanding big-wave footage proves more credible than the overfamiliar dramatics in Chasing Mavericks. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 25, 2012
Ultimately the story of Jay Moriarity, who died tragically in a diving accident at 22, is a moving one, and he deserved a better tribute than this film. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 25, 2012
The footage itself, particularly of the surf, is spectacular, with veteran cinematographer Bill Pope handling the camerawork. But the drama is soggy, overreaching for the heartfelt and overdoing the inspirational. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisOct 25, 2012
Come for the surfing. Stay for the sainthood. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 24, 2012
If you've seen the 2006 Nick Nolte vehicle "Peaceful Warrior," then you've pretty much already seen this. Capturing the essence of surfing – or any sport, for that matter – is more often than not a fool's errand. A more fitting tribute to Moriarty's legacy? Go buy a board and hit the deep blue yourself. Read full review
40
The GuardianHenry BarnesJul 5, 2013
The script's a drowner, the acting's awash. Again and again Butler returns to the sea. He just about survives the buffeting. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 27, 2012
It's a perfect fortune cookie of a movie, full of bland life lessons for everybody; would that there were some drama or style in it somewhere along the way. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghOct 25, 2012
A greeting card set in motion, Chasing Mavericks cheeses up the story of real-life surfing phenom Jay Moriarity so thickly you could spread it on a cracker.
40
Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonOct 25, 2012
In 1994, 16-year-old surfer Jay Moriarity braved the biggest waves ever seen off the coast of Northern California. His biopic, Chasing Mavericks, gets that fact right but changes everything else about his life in order to bowl audiences over in a saccharine tsunami. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsOct 24, 2012
It doesn't help that the characters have so little to them. Weston plays Moriarty as such an unfailingly good, temptation-free kid that he only needs a halo floating above his pre-Raphaelite curls to complete the picture. Read full review
25
The PlaylistDrew TaylorOct 27, 2012
It's hard to tell who is to blame for the movie's abrasive anonymousness – Curtis or Apted – but it hardly matters. In either directors' hands, Chasing Mavericks would have been a wipe-out. It's totally bogus. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChris CabinOct 25, 2012
The filmmakers' kinship to Moriarity is obvious, and it makes for a tone of unflinching hope and optimism, though it leaves little room for grit or nuance. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 25, 2012
As it turns out, the only truly interesting element about this clichéd surfer flick is that it was made by celebrated directors Michael Apted and Curtis Hanson. Read full review
More From This Movie

45 Critic Reviews

6.2 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL