Cool It
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: November 12, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York PostKyle SmithDec 14, 2010
Cool It -- complete with its own slide show and witty graphics -- amounts to a devastating rebuttal to Gore-ism. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderAndrea GronvallDec 14, 2010
Thanks to her fearless, charismatic star, Ondi Timoner has directed one of the more hopeful movies of the year. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 14, 2010
By bringing in a diverse group of big thinkers to take part in a very animated, sometimes agitated, discussion, the filmmaker has succeeded in bringing what could have been a very dry mountain of data, theories and experimental research to vibrant life. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 14, 2010
It will mightily preach to the choirs of concerned citizens, and be ignored by anyone else. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie PunterDec 14, 2010
Jam-packed but never disorienting, Cool It will definitely get your head spinning. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisDec 14, 2010
Cool It finally blossoms into an engrossing, brain-tickling picture as many of Al Gore's meticulously graphed assertions are systematically - and persuasively - refuted. Read full review
70
MovielineMichelle OrangeDec 14, 2010
Timoner attempts - with talking heads, travelogues, and a little alarmist flair of her own - to articulate Lomborg's central idea that not doing enough good might be the same as doing harm. Read full review
70
NPRMark JenkinsDec 14, 2010
To devotees of Al Gore's prophecy of a soon-to-be-parboiled Earth, "Skeptical Environmentalist" author Bjorn Lomborg is the devil. So what does an ecologically incorrect demon look like? Like an aging Danish surfer dude, it turns out. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovDec 14, 2010
And while the blond, youthful, and entirely sane-seeming Lomborg was initially pilloried for his calm, rational views by the global environmental movement, his ideas and solutions arrive as a refreshing tonic in the face of global warming's more vocal fearmongers. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumDec 14, 2010
The telegenic Lomborg is the on-camera "star" of the show, while his angry critics growl on cue. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniDec 14, 2010
It is at its best when examining alternative sources of energy and how their development has consistently been thwarted by the energy industry. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanDec 14, 2010
Some of it sounds, quite frankly, nuts. And a few of Lomborg's enemies have said as much. But throwing tons of money at the problem with little result? That also sounds kind of crazy. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisDec 14, 2010
Cool It arrives having been labeled the anti-"An Inconvenient Truth." It is. But not in the philistinistic way you'd expect. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 14, 2010
Lomborg has clearly been stung by the suggestion that he's a front man for know-nothingism, and Cool It is an agreeable and partly successful attempt to repair his image. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearDec 14, 2010
To Cool It's credit and its detriment, the movie establishes that Lomborg quickly made enemies, without spelling out exactly why he's so loathed besides refusing to toe the Green Party line. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaDec 14, 2010
The movie is never boring, but there may be some information overload for laymen in the audience. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineTim CogshellDec 14, 2010
Cool It resonates, and gives one pause not just to consider the merits of the global warming question, but to consider the merits of all that we've decided to do about it, impending doom notwithstanding. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 14, 2010
While Lomborg is an engaging though sometimes smug subject, director Ondi Timoner allows a coterie of scientists to spend too much time puncturing Gore than propping up Lomborg - who comes off as charismatic and engaged but, ultimately, merely a contrarian. Read full review
50
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreDec 14, 2010
But as useful as it is to chew on ideas that don't hew to climate change dogma, Cool It leaves big questions about Lomborg unanswered. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliDec 14, 2010
Narrated by Lomborg, the movie uses lecture excerpts, clips of terrified schoolchildren and interviews with (mostly) like-minded scientists to get his points across. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweDec 14, 2010
Despite some interesting ideas, Cool It's conventional camerawork and unexceptional editing don't contribute much additional value to a package that's unlikely to alter Lomborg's outsider status. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasDec 14, 2010
Here's a man who's doing to environmental science what the Atkins Diet did to weight loss, and Timoner isn't looking for anyone to call his conclusions into question? Nonsense. Read full review
30
Village VoiceNicolas RapoldDec 14, 2010
The nitty-gritty science of global warming is tough enough to evaluate without the sort of hard-sell Ondi Timoner pushes on behalf of her subject, Bjørn Lomborg. Read full review
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