Stop-Loss
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: March 28, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
13
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Stop-Loss is a human story first and foremost, and Peirce and her stellar young cast ensure that the message never gets in the way of the storytelling. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Even when the script slips into sentiment, Peirce sticks with her troubled, questing soldiers, and through this raw and riveting movie, they stick with us. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
It's a richly textured, psychologically acute film that takes an unblinking look at the tattered life of the returning soldier, and it's boosted by two powerful performances from Phillippe and the increasingly impressive Tatum, a former underwear model who has somehow turned into a fine actor. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Stop-Loss carries the emotional force and propulsive drama of the quintessential soldier's story. Read full review
83
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
There's little time for nuance in Stop-Loss, and it doesn't deny any of the film's power to wish Peirce would occasionally slow things down enough to let her audience ponder what they're seeing. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Clearly, Peirce's motives are pure. She's not using the "stop-loss" issue as a wedge to make the government or the administration look bad. She's using it to dramatize an injustice and to advocate on behalf of the soldiers. Read full review
70
Washington PostJohn Anderson
It's a remarkably entertaining movie, thanks in part to a first-rate cast and a director who knows you can't make a point without calling everyone to attention. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Stop-Loss is a film that does it right. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
It’s ironic that Stop-Loss loses its momentum when the characters go on the road. Yet Rasuk--the star of "Raising Victor Vargas"--gives a stunning performance. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Stop-Loss is not a great movie, but it’s forceful, effective, and alive, with the raw, mixed-up emotions produced by an endless war. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Schickel
A relentlessly grim film. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A painfully polite Iraq war drama pitched at the MTV generation. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
While there are good things about it, Stop-Loss is nothing spectacular. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Phillippe does a dark, searing turn with a character that could have easily been little more than Taps-era hubris, and Gordon-Levitt, as one of King's more fragmented former charges, is riveting and convincingly small-town Texas. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Pierce never pulls these pieces together satisfyingly, and the result is a botched effort to put a human face on a genuinely alarming situation. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
What we're left with is outrage in a vacuum. It's impossible to separate out the stop-loss tactic from the misadventures of the war itself, and that's what this film, to its discredit, accomplishes. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneJessica Reaves
While Stop-Loss doesn’t pack anything like the emotional wallop of her previous film, the movies do share Peirce’s clear-eyed refusal to answer difficult questions with simplistic answers. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Someone watching Stop-Loss with younger eyes might feel the heat of the main soldier's dilemma more than I did, but I couldn't help thinking director Kimberly Peirce was presenting us with abstract ideas in the forms of half-realized characters. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
It's an uneven experience, with some evocative moments and others that don't resonate as much as they should. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Despite several attempts, we're still waiting for the drama that convincingly captures the experienc of soldiers who've fought in Iraq. Stop-Loss" isn't that film, but at the very least its efforts are honorable. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
A young cast and hotheaded melodramatic streak make it broadly accessible, perhaps enough so to help the film scrape past boxoffice challenges faced by other Iraq-centered features. Read full review
60
Village VoiceScott Foundas
In the end, Stop-Loss's evening-news topicality proves both an asset and a liability--an irresolvable structural conundrum. Simply put, the film so effectively reconstitutes those Vietnam-homecoming touchstones that we can anticipate its every move well before it makes them. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Ms. Peirce’s movie, which she wrote with Mark Richard, is not only an earnest, issue-driven narrative, but also a feverish entertainment, a passionate, at times overwrought melodrama gaudy with violent actions and emotions. Read full review
60
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Stop-Loss is a bit uneven. Mixed messages abound. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'Hara
Strong performances from the young cast make a compelling case that the US govt is failing its soldiers, but the film’s a little too much of a blunt instrument. Read full review
50
VarietyJoe Leydon
A wildly uneven drama, by turns sincere and synthetic. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
With the release of Stop-Loss, a precedent of sorts has definitely been set. If we've yet to see a brilliant Iraq movie, the wait is over for a bad one – this is it. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
Swamped by clichés, continuity problems, stock characters and very good intentions. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Heavy metal, alt-pop, southern rock, orchestral swells, wailing Middle Eastern tunes all vie for our attention, but none of this noise drowns out the sound of good intentions twisting themselves into an impotent knot. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Though its intentions are noble, it's hampered by a stock romantic subplot (Phillipe falls for his friend's squeeze, Abbie Cornish), a familiar structure (since The Best Years of Our Lives soldiers invariably come home in threes), and a lack of symmetry (some of Gordon-Levitt's story seems to have wound up on the cutting-room floor). Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
An earnest and well-meaning but disappointing failure. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
After a strong start, Stop-Loss becomes driven by a series of contrivances before falling prey to bad melodrama and even a little cheesiness. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
A filmmaker's personal connection to the material doesn't necessarily mean that the resulting picture will be any good, and Stop-Loss is so dramatically tedious that it feels remote instead of resonant. Read full review
38
PremiereAaron Hillis
What little anti-war critique Peirce presents -- and she has it in her, which makes it all the more dubious -- gets trampled over by jingoistic Rambo porn. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle Smith
As phony as a re-enactment with finger pup pets. Read full review
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