The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years
Abramorama | Release Date: September 16, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Seattle TimesPaul de BarrosSep 14, 2016
A thoroughly delightful, crisply edited film. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireSep 15, 2016
In focusing on the years when the band became the first ever to mount several world-spanning tours, it offers two things at once: a history of the Beatles during the years of their initial success; and a tribute to the group’s powers as a live act. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 15, 2016
It’s a long, jangling, melodious soak, rich with backstage incident and wall-to-wall hits. Read full review
83
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerSep 13, 2016
Eight Days a Week will be of most value to die-hard and casual fans of the band alike, but it’s also a reasonably effective primer on them for anyone who might not yet be initiated. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSep 15, 2016
The substance is enchanting. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonDave CalhounSep 13, 2016
The absence of George and John is felt keenly, but Paul and Ringo are a pleasure to listen to as ageing raconteurs. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie MerrySep 15, 2016
There are no huge revelations here — certainly nothing that would shock superfans. The movie offers a taste of the go-go-go pace of touring the world, which led to exhaustion and frustration, but mostly focuses on the happier times. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 15, 2016
The documentary rightly keeps coming back to the music and the band's delight in making it. Good move. It truly is a joy forever. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonSep 15, 2016
An engaging, absorbing portrait of a moment in time when the Beatles were at their zenith. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubAlex McCownSep 14, 2016
It’s a testament to the buoyancy of the film that such exhausted, well-trod material can still feel fresh. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesMark CaroSep 13, 2016
What’s missing is musical or cultural context for the Beatles’ explosion. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneSep 19, 2016
As “Eight Days a Week” springs from color to black-and-white, and as frenzied action is intercut with stills, we get a delicious sense of doubleness. The Beatles now belong to an honored past, stuck there like an obelisk, and yet here they are, alive—busting out all over, time and time again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Read full review
70
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerSep 15, 2016
The way to watch is to ignore the image burnishing and just feel the moment. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 15, 2016
The music is so strong, and such a demonstration of how potent the group was in action, that it alone makes the film worth seeing. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 15, 2016
Maybe there are no more stones unturned when it comes to the Beatles. Maybe The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years is not especially revelatory or earth-shaking. But the band was. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganAug 16, 2016
By focusing on the touring footage, Howard’s picture distinguishes itself by allowing us to remember them as they started out while emphasising their skill as musicians (there’s an interesting comparison with Schubert and Mozart) and the endearing closeness of their unit. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeAug 16, 2016
Predictably full of great performing footage and incorporating new interviews with the too-few surviving witnesses, the doc may hold few revelations for baby boomers and their kids, who've had ample opportunities to revisit the material. But it will make a fine entry point for younger auds who grew up with the songs but never had Beatlemania shoved down their throats. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenSep 7, 2016
For modern-day connoisseurs of the Beatles, this film will yield few revelations, though it offers a delightful stroll down memory lane and understanding of how the four young men functioned as a unit. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottSep 22, 2016
The result is the kind of movie that can be counted on to put a smile on the face of even the casual Beatles fan. In other words: a good laugh. Read full review
60
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonSep 15, 2016
Ron Howard's documentary often plays as an advertorial gunning for maximum intergenerational appeal. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 12, 2016
Its conclusions rarely make your head spin, but it meticulously shows its working out. (If it was an exam paper, it’d be impossible to dock it any marks.) Read full review
60
VarietyGuy LodgeAug 16, 2016
It comes as little surprise that Howard, a nimble and proficient storyteller in non-fiction and fiction like, hasn’t a natural documentarian’s drive for information: This diverting, brightly assembled boomer nostalgia trip won’t open the eyes of any existing Fab Four fans, however much it pleases their ears. Read full review
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