Lone Survivor
Universal Pictures | Release Date: December 27, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
12
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Total FilmKevin HarleyJan 29, 2014
The direction pummels and the cast impress, yet Berg’s war movie promises more than it delivers. Memories of Battleship are sunk, but that Oscar buzz may be a bit premature. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonAshley ClarkJan 28, 2014
Neither an anti-war tract nor a jingoistic rallying cry, the brutal but humane Lone Survivor instead registers as a howl of despair for so many young men and women lost in war. Read full review
60
EmpireJames DyerJan 27, 2014
A severe portrait of fortitude under extreme pressure, somewhat marred by blinkered politics. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJan 10, 2014
While Lone Survivor is presented as a piece of hero-focused entertainment, it is a suitably sobering one in the end, and a film that is bound to stick to the ribs of audiences longer than, say, your average Superman movie. Read full review
60
TimeRichard CorlissDec 25, 2013
You may salute Lone Survivor for its desperate intensity; but the film remains pinned down by its military and political dilemma: between gung-ho and F—, no. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 9, 2014
Lone Survivor, from start to finish, is a tale of disaster, of bad luck and bad communication, perhaps even faulty planning, though that's hard to say. So the movie loses the common touch of average folk trying to get by, while also losing some of the pleasure of watching a crack unit at work. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSteven BooneDec 25, 2013
Lone Survivor burns with the fever of a passion project. Writer-director Peter Berg's gratitude to United States servicemen for all their sacrifice comes through viscerally, from first frame to last. Read full review
50
IndieWireEric KohnDec 23, 2013
Lone Survivor is a grotesque action movie at times impressively directed by Peter Berg that combines the brute masculinity with the ugliness of the battlefield and viscerally unsettling shock value. But it's less a depiction of courage than a brutish magnification of anger and pain, both of which it conveys a lot better than the high ground that it reaches for. Read full review
50
The DissolveNoel MurrayDec 23, 2013
The simplicity of Lone Survivor eventually becomes a handicap, because after a certain point, the film becomes just one long battle sequence, lacking narrative ebb and flow. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithDec 19, 2013
There hasn’t been this bizarre mixture of hooah and death since John Wayne hung up his combat boots. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJan 13, 2014
Crudely written, rife with clichés, and leaves out anything that would transform a piece of propaganda into a work of art akin to Samuel Fuller’s "The Steel Helmet," Brian DePalma’s "Casualties of War," or Steven Spielberg’s "Saving Private Ryan." Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanDec 28, 2013
Peter Berg’s ultra-bloody battle film “Lone Survivor” is ultimately more grueling than satisfying. It’s more carnage than cinema. Read full review
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