Draft Day
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: April 11, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
12
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
HitfixDrew McWeenyApr 18, 2014
The film earns some big laughs, but it never sacrifices character for a punchline. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 11, 2014
Draft Day is "Moneyball" Lite. And if that sounds like a slight, it's not intended as one. Read full review
75
The PlaylistDrew TaylorApr 11, 2014
Draft Day isn’t a movie that is going to change lives or shift paradigms, but it is entertaining, and assembled with care and attention to detail. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 10, 2014
Costner, who has never been the most emotive of actors, is perfect for this role. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 10, 2014
A sentimental, predictable, sometimes implausible but thoroughly entertaining, old-fashioned piece. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 10, 2014
Entertaining and suspenseful, the movie shows the politicking and strategies that go into this annual ritual, and Costner is at his beleaguered best.
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 10, 2014
Draft Day isn’t quite a comedy, but it’s got a similar kind of flow that makes it as easily consumable as lite beer. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Lisa RosmanApr 11, 2014
Reitman may have his drawbacks but no one has ever accused his films of lacking heart. With sports movies especially, ya gotta have heart. Read full review
70
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekApr 10, 2014
This isn't so much a movie about sports as it is a riff on politics in the broad sense of the word, and the ways in which smart, insightful people play along to get along -- and then change the game for the better by following their gut. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyApr 10, 2014
In his most effective full star turn in perhaps a decade, Kevin Costner dominates as the greenhorn general manager of the beleaguered Cleveland Browns. Read full review
70
VarietyScott FoundasApr 10, 2014
Draft Day affords the simple but uncommon pleasure of watching intelligent characters who are passionate about what they do trying to do the best that they can. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallApr 17, 2014
The final 20 minutes at the Radio City Music Hall extravaganza are fairly tense, in highly improbable ways designed to rouse send-off cheers. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc MohanApr 10, 2014
As a hypothetical, all-access documentary about the kookiest day in draft history, it's oddly satisfying, maybe because watching the actual, bloated spectacle (scheduled this year for May 8) is so often underwhelming. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 11, 2014
With his sleepy, So-Cal inflections, Costner is an actor who summons urgency and drama with, well, I'm not sure exactly how he does what he does. He's the least dynamic of stars, but still, he is one. Read full review
63
USA TodayScott BowlesApr 10, 2014
Draft's reverence for the gridiron, its heroes and the cities that worship them (particularly Cleveland) will make the movie a first-round pick of diehards. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 10, 2014
Draft Day feels like a play, and I don't mean a football play. It feels like a play-play at its sporadic best, in the same way J.C. Chandor's 2011 "Margin Call" felt that way. Read full review
61
Film.comJordan HoffmanApr 9, 2014
While Draft Day is a very agreeable and predictable movie, it is also very timely. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranApr 10, 2014
This is an earnest and way-contrived endeavor that manages, due largely to Costner's efforts, to be genially diverting in a gee-whiz kind of way. Read full review
60
The DissolveMatt SingerApr 10, 2014
The biggest problem with Draft Day is that even as it shows Sonny sticking to his guns, its absurd, saccharine third act suggests Reitman didn’t stick to his, and allowed his latest celebration of free-spirited mavericks to get co-opted by the very kind of system they were created to criticize. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyApr 9, 2014
It’s the first, and probably last, sports comedy to take its visual cues from Ang Lee’s "Hulk." Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid DenbyApr 16, 2014
This literal-minded movie sells old pieties and washes away fear so thoroughly that it creates a new kind of fantasy, in which all's right with a very troubled world. [21 April 2014, p.110]
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoApr 11, 2014
All of these interesting performers can't save a dull script. To work, Draft Day needs the kind of witty dialogue and snappy energy that Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin brought to “Moneyball” but the screenwriters mistake constant activity for actual screenwriting. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Dave McGinnApr 10, 2014
There’s plenty of shimmying here, maybe too much, and lots of spin moves, but it’s missing on-the-field results. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephanie MerryApr 10, 2014
This isn’t a sports movie so much as a procedural about backroom dealings, double-crosses and high-stakes trades. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 10, 2014
I don’t really buy Draft Day — it’s a shallow and evasive movie, built more around corporate wish fulfillment than around reality — but I have to say that it sells itself beautifully. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreApr 10, 2014
Costner and Garner are good and Langella properly menacing, but Leary has lost his fastball and seems to be holding something back in his quarrel scenes with Costner. Costner has to carry the film, which he does. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 11, 2014
The problem is, Draft Day doesn't really capture that sense of urgency until late in the film. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 10, 2014
Costner works hard, and it shows. That's even more true of Leary. Garner's stuck in a thankless role. Only Langella seems to be having unencumbered fun. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesApr 9, 2014
The promising-sounding football movie would turn out to be a movie about men talking on phones. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneApr 11, 2014
The cruelly obvious third act congeals the film as a wet-eyed monument to the Kevin Costner character's particular brand of American manliness, one that values gut instinct, it's implied, over cold and ruthless calculations. Read full review
38
Boston GlobePeter KeoughApr 10, 2014
It’s a big deal for the NFL and ESPN, no doubt, and Draft Day serves as 110 minutes of product placement for both. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithApr 10, 2014
Draft Day is lumbering and predictable, and its hero general manager is so dumb it should have been called “Dummyball.” Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanApr 10, 2014
Haven’t Cleveland fans suffered enough? Not only have they never won a Super Bowl, but now the Browns serve as the center of Ivan Reitman’s painfully creaky sports drama. Read full review
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