Hugo

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: November 23, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireKim NewmanNov 27, 2011
This is a great director's greatest love story. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 23, 2011
Instead of sticking with the familiar, Scorsese has followed his impulses into something that feels entirely new but is still distinctively his. He has made a potential holiday classic, an exciting, comic and sentimental melodrama that will satisfy children and adults alike and reward repeat viewings for many years to come. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyNov 23, 2011
As well as an engaging fable about a homeless orphan living in a train station, Scorsese's film is a richly illustrated lesson in cinema history and the best argument for 3-D since James Cameron's "Avatar." Read full review
100
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 23, 2011
This kind of cinematic delight is a rarity, a warm and masterfully crafted reminder of why we love to go to the movies in the first place. Read full review
100
TimeRichard CorlissNov 23, 2011
Bursting with earned emotion, Hugo is a mechanism that comes to life at the turn of a key in the shape of a heart. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 22, 2011
An exhilarating tale of magic, machines, memories, and dreams, Martin Scorsese pulls off the neatest trick of all. He marshals the marvels of modern movie technology - up to and including the dreaded 3-D - to create a love letter to the earliest of movies and, by extension, to every movie from then to now. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertNov 22, 2011
The way Hugo deals with Melies is enchanting in itself, but the film's first half is devoted to the escapades of its young hero. In the way the film uses CGI and other techniques to create the train station and the city, the movie is breathtaking. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNov 22, 2011
All the actors are wonderful, including Sacha Baron Cohen as a villainous Inspector. Read full review
100
The New YorkerDavid DenbyNov 21, 2011
Hugo is superbly playful. Read full review
100
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondNov 21, 2011
Magical and imaginative, this eye-popping masterpiece from director Martin Scorsese will transport audiences to a place they won't believe. Read full review
100
VarietyPeter DebrugeNov 18, 2011
In attempting to make his first film for all ages, Martin Scorsese has fashioned one for the ages. Simultaneously classical and modern, populist but also unapologetically personal, Hugo flagrantly defies the mind-numbing quality of most contempo kidpics. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyNov 17, 2011
A fabulous and passionate love letter to the cinema and its preservation framed by the strenuous adventures of two orphans in 1930s Paris. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn LevyNov 23, 2011
The performances are universally good, the 3-D is utterly gorgeous, and the nutshell history of the early days of movies is inspiring. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumNov 22, 2011
Hugo both ticks and flies by, a marvel meant to be pulled from the cabinet and enjoyed again and again. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasNov 22, 2011
It's a complex fusion of film history and personal history, filled with dazzling embellishments and unabashed sentiment about the glories of cinema. Read full review
90
MovielineStephanie ZacharekNov 23, 2011
Hugo states, in its adamant, straightforward poetry, that old things do matter. Read full review
90
NPRAndrew LapinNov 23, 2011
There is much to observe, for Hugo (the film) is a marvel of spectacle, a sensory feast steeped in cinematic lore that proves pure joy is attainable in three dimensions. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 22, 2011
Waves of melancholy wash over the story and keep the treacle at bay, as do the spasms of broad comedy, much of it nimbly executed by Mr. Baron Cohen. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 22, 2011
What Scorsese has really made is a beautifully crafted love letter to movies, the passion of his life. What sounded like an odd pairing winds up being a perfect fit. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 29, 2011
Although a nip and a tuck here and there might improve Hugo's overall pace, there is no denying that this love letter to the movies is something to cherish. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 25, 2011
With Hugo, Martin Scorsese has accomplished what few in Hollywood are willing to try: make a movie for adults that arrives without sex, violence, or profanity and earns a PG-rating. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsNov 22, 2011
For cinematic sojourners, Hugo is a trip to the moon. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 21, 2011
Overall, however, the manner in which the film blends the tale of an imperiled boy and the history of cinema makes for an ambitious and fanciful ride. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 21, 2011
Scorsese builds Hugo in the Méliès manner, creating a complete, ravishing Parisian world on a soundstage in England and reveling in the sheer transporting joy of it. Hugo will take your breath away. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 23, 2011
Hugo is a mixed bag but one well worth rummaging through. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 23, 2011
Hugo is Scorsese's most personal film, from the standpoint of both an artist and a grandfather. He is as interested in Melies' posterity as in making a movie that his descendants can see before they're adults. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesNov 23, 2011
Scorsese transforms this innocent tale into an ardent love letter to the cinema and a moving plea for film preservation. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezNov 23, 2011
As much of a personal Scorsese picture as "Raging Bull" or "Taxi Driver." In some ways, this could be his most heartfelt movie. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 23, 2011
What about the kids and families who have no connection to Méliès, little familiarity with Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton? Will Hugo keep them in their seats? I'm not sure. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 22, 2011
Strangely, Scorsese's very passion for the subject matter turns out to be both a blessing and a curse for Hugo. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 22, 2011
Rich and stimulating even when it wanders. Read full review
75
Slant MagazinePhil ColdironNov 22, 2011
Scorsese's affection for cinema is, of course, no surprise, and Hugo doesn't shy away from stumping for the cause of his Film Foundation; which isn't to say it's a vanity project, at least not any more than any film with a budget in the nine figures is. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreNov 21, 2011
A stunning exercise in 3D and a delightful celebration of Scorsese's lifelong love of the movies, something he, like Hugo, developed on childhood. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 28, 2011
For all the wizardry on display, Hugo often feels like a film about magic instead of a magical film. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensNov 23, 2011
Somehow, for me, this earnest, pretty movie never came to life on screen; it remained a curio in a cabinet, to be admired through a pane of glass. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranNov 22, 2011
The director's visually thrilling Hugo has real moments of 3-D magic. Sadly, they aren't quite enough to make this adaptation of Brian Selznick's celebrated novel, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," a wholly satisfying experience. Read full review
60
Village VoiceKarina LongworthNov 22, 2011
Perfunctorily mounted as a children's adventure, Hugo is weirdly staid in its pacing, and the screenplay, by Scorsese's "Aviator" collaborator John Logan, is full of groaners. The movie is far more successful as a barely veiled issue flick. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichNov 22, 2011
You still can't help admiring the project's ambition; an odd combo of "Babe: Pig in the City" and Godard's "Histoire(s) du cinéma," Hugo is the strangest bird to grace the multiplex in a while. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 28, 2011
Visually Hugo is a marvel, but dramatically it's a clockwork lemon. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithNov 23, 2011
Young Hugo (Asa Butterfield), a boy who literally lives inside the clocks he manages in a grand Paris train station in the 1930s, embodies one problem that bedeviled even Dickens: He's boringly nice. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 22, 2011
The result is a movie that's kinetic yet slow, whose joys are architectural more than spiritual. Read full review
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