Seabiscuit
Universal Pictures | Release Date: July 25, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
38
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Sublimely directed, scored, shot and performed, the picture misses greatness by a nose as a result of shortcomings in its script. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Watching this movie, you get the feeling that the Depression existed so that Seabiscuit could be memorialized. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Unabashedly hokey, but would you want it any other way? In an era of cynical junk (did anyone say “Bad Boys II”?), Ross restores the good name of crowd-pleasing. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
I found much of it as emotionally rigged as a crooked horse race. Read full review
50
SalonCharles Taylor
It's deluxe and handsome and has no soul. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie's races are thrilling because they must be thrilling; there's no way for the movie to miss on those, but writer-director Gary Ross and his cinematographer, John Schwartzman, get amazingly close to the action. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Seabiscuit revives the sweeping pleasures of movies that address and respect the mass audience, raising the common denominator instead of pandering to it. This crowd-pleaser rouses honest and engulfing cheers. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
The three (human) leads are perfection. Bridges' Howard is as breezily garrulous and glad-handing as Cooper's Smith is laconic and withdrawn. Maguire's Pollard has haunted eyes and orangey hair that makes him look like a human jack-o'-lantern, and establishes his own unique rhythm and less-is-more style. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
For all its pictorial splendor and carefully calculated drama, this film misses greatness by a country mile.
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The movie's secret weapons are its stellar cast, whose performances go a long way to ameliorating Ross's ham-fisted use of foreshadowing and symbols, and its brilliantly shot racing sequences -- they're heart-stoppingly suspenseful even when the outcome is a matter of record. Read full review
70
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
More than "Rocky" on a horse track. It's a moving story about people and how their lives intersect at just the right time. It's also a simple story about second chances. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Seabiscuit may be too airbrushed for its own good, but in the end nothing can stop this story from putting a lump in your throat. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Two-thirds of the way through, Seabiscuit awakes to its duties as a perfectly presentable race movie, rising to a crescendo of satisfying --- if somewhat gaga -- inspiration. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
This is grand, inspiring entertainment of a sort that Hollywood aspires to and rarely achieves. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Though the results are a matter of record, the uplift is nevertheless intoxicating, even enough to compensate for a film that routinely substitutes corny iconography for real imagination and vision. Read full review
63
PremiereAaron Hillis
For such a pedestrian exercise in Spielbergian sentiment, the somewhat stale Seabiscuit dunks into some gravy moments; the always dependable William H. Macy is three honks and six rattles of comic relief as the sound effects–happy, kooky radio reporter Tick Tock McGlaughlin, and the racing scenes themselves are spectacular. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Ross surrendered himself to the tale, lavishing time on the characters, getting the period details right and making the races look authentic. The result is a faithful, loving piece of work, and the love shows. Read full review
70
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Somehow we are never quite swept into the boisterous, democratic world of which Seabiscuit, in Ms. Hillenbrand's account, was the plucky, galloping embodiment. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
Fortunately, a movie that needs some levity gets a comic boost from William H. Macy as a fictional racing handicapper from the golden days of radio. As if training a horse, Macy cues us to laugh every time he's on screen. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Eventually, Seabiscuit settles into a nice rhythm, and, as it enters the stretch run, it exhibits all the necessary elements of a good sports movie. Like the horse it's named after, Seabiscuit has a lot of heart, and, in the end, that's what won me over. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Trembles with respect for Hillenbrand's book. It's hobbled by good intentions, grand plans for telling many stories at once, and a fear of the very audience whose intelligence and sophistication it claims to court. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
If Ross had merely told his story and re-created the media folk culture of the thirties, the movie might have been a classic. [4 August 2003, p. 84]
100
New York PostLou Lumenick
A thrilling, beautifully crafted, fact-based horse story that's not merely the summer's finest movie, but may well be the one to catch come Academy Awards time. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
More mystical than mysterious, Seabiscuit is a proudly cornball sentimental epic -- a reverential paean to a vanished America that's steeped in inspirational uplift and played for world-historical pathos. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverJean Oppenheimer
That the film is good rather than great proves a disappointment, but just finding a good film these days is rare, especially a big studio picture. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
This crowd-pleaser is a genuinely inspirational film, gorgeously filmed and wonderfully acted, echoing an uplifting sentiment that bears repeating: ''You don't throw a whole life away just because it's banged up a little.'' Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Aesop endowed animals with human traits to teach us lessons. Seabiscuit almost does the reverse. By means of Ross's adroit shooting and editing, we ourselves pound bravely along the track. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Schickel
Ross is a filmmaker with a taste for inherently sentimental tales…but the discipline not to play mawkishly to our sentiments. You will be moved by Seabiscuit--but not to tears. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Maybe the magic will work for those who loved the book, but I found this film stultifyingly self-important and, despite the regularity with which it cuts to the chase, weirdly static. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A grand ride. Sleek, beautiful and packed with emotion, not too flashy but full of heart, this is a movie worthy of its unlikely yet glorious subject: Depression-era America's best-loved racehorse and the two races that made him a legend. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
This rousing story of the comeback colt comes close to a modern-day Frank Capra film without the pandering or mawkishness. Yes, it's a bit hokey, but if you fight the movie's gait you'll miss the excitement of the race. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Although nowhere near the class of its equine hero, is quite a satisfying ride. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
The best thing about Seabiscuit is that it will make a lot of people hungry to read the book. They've seen the pretty pictures; now they'll want to enter the world. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Taking a cue from the horse in question, Ross’ film takes its time getting into the race, but once it gets going, the going gets good. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
It is not as exceptional a film as the reality deserves, but with a story this strong and races this expertly re-created, it squeezes out a victory by being as good a movie as it needs to be. On some days, that is enough. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
In the end, Seabiscuit gets right the things that matter. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Yes, it's that cheesy, but it's also surprisingly appealing. After all, the horse Seabiscuit really WAS that phenomenal. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It's not the most viscerally exhilarating racing saga or squishy animal movie ever made, but it's a terrific period piece. It's also a well-acted, engrossing and satisfying character drama that stands out like a diamond in this summer of sequels and comic-book violence. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Seabiscuit is a good enough movie, in the sense that it's a well-crafted assemblage of pathos and rousing moments, solidly acted and handsomely shot -- but it's far from champion material. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Respectable when it should be thrilling, honorable when it should be rough and ready. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
On first acquaintance, Seabiscuit seems to be about anything but horse racing: the disappearance of the American frontier after 1910, our love affair with automotive speed, the passing of a rural way of life, homelessness during the Depression. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Actors dominate with finely nuanced performances where every scene feels dramatically right. Read full review
80
EmpireAngie Errigo
William H. Macy is a scream as the composite radio announcer whose hyperbolic racetrack reports are not only hilarious, but illustrate the impact of radio in creating a mass culture and how it was instrumental in making sporting events a nationwide obsession. Read full review
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