Countdown to Zero
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: July 23, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Countdown to Zero makes old terrors radioactively new again. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJohn Anderson
As odd as it may sound, it's a remarkably beautiful movie. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Inspired in part by the success of "An Inconvenient Truth," the makers of Countdown to Zero are determined to mobilize public opinion to zero out the world's nuclear arsenal. We all should be rooting for their success, because failure would leave no one left to mourn our mistakes. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Like Charles Ferguson's excellent Iraq documentary "No End in Sight," "Countdown to Zero" has an agenda but has the cogent, reasoned rhetoric to support it. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Made-up horror movies have nothing on Countdown to Zero, a documentary about nuclear security that won't make you sleep better at night. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
Walker integrates stranger-on-the-street testimony to further her general vibe of ignorance, thus pinpointing the true target of an agitated doc--our own blithe apathy. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A terrifying and highly effective documentary. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The movie takes as its mantra and organizing principle President Kennedy's observation, during his 1961 speech to the United Nations, that "every man, woman, and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by madness." Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazinePam Grady
Some points are driven home over and over again and that repetition robs the doc of a bit of its power, but overall Countdown to Zero is effective and frightening. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
There are suggestions to help us sleep more easily, but the point is to wake us up. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
In the film's most frightening sequence, Countdown to Zero imagines what would happen if someone detonated a bomb in the heart of a major city, such as New York City's Times Square. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Illustrating the many ways nuclear weapons could kill you makes Countdown to Zero one of the most frightening documentaries you'll ever see, or endure. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Biancolli
This is a sobering piece of advocacy cinema.
75
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Alternately edifying and alarming film about nuclear proliferation. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
Convincingly argued and extremely polished, it has theatrical potential for auds whose reservoir of worry about humanity's future hasn't already run dry. Read full review
70
VarietyJohn Anderson
A politically urgent picture, it will also literally scare the breath out of what will certainly be a worldwide audience. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
Paying to see Countdown to Zero is like tipping a fortuneteller to predict the manner of your death. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Recounting the history of nukes, mankind's seeming inability to render them obsolete, and the many nightmare scenarios that are cropping up with almost daily frequency in this grim new age of terror-on-demand,Countdown to Zero is less a documentary in the traditional sense than a scathing piece of advocacy journalism. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The best medium in which to view Countdown to Zero is on The History Channel, not in a theater. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Although the movie intends to incite viewers to social action, it is just as likely to paralyze them with fear. Read full review
60
EmpireDavid HughesJun 20, 2011
Walker was Oscar nominated for Waste Land this year, and while this occasionally unfocused doc doesn't hit those heights, it's still a valuable and scary film that should be seen. Read full review
60
NPRMark Jenkins
Oddly, Countdown to Zero ends by suggesting that viewers get those nukes abolished by texting their disapproval to a phone number listed in the credits -- as if the governments of China or North Korea (or the United States, for that matter) are just waiting for a gentle rebuke from civic-minded documentary viewers. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Walker has something important to say with Countdown To Zero, but if this movie were standing on a doorstep with a petition, most reasonable people would sign it quickly and send it on its way, rather than inviting it in to chat. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
A mess of a movie – a sprawling PowerPoint argument that covers too much ground way too fast, dispensing Wikipedia-calibre essays on a variety of subjects, from a blurred bio of J. Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atom bomb, to an unsatisfying sidebar on A.Q. Khan, the world's first door-to-door nuke salesmen. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
An earnest, alarmist new docu-plea for nuclear disarmament, concludes with an orgy of such destruction. Mushroom clouds. Infernal white light. Obliterating energy blasts. It's all here, and mostly beyond the pale. Read full review
40
Village VoiceVadim Rizov
This is another well-intentioned but preaching-to-the-choir doc, and boring as well. Read full review
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