The Big Year
Fox 2000 Pictures | Release Date: October 14, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
14
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 16, 2011
Frankel's movie is as refreshing as a walk in the woods and surprising as a chance encounter with the best that nature can offer. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 12, 2011
The Big Year is getting the enthusiastic support of the Audubon Society, and has an innocence and charm that will make it appealing for families, especially those who have had enough whales and dolphins for the year. Read full review
70
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondOct 19, 2011
The Big Year turns out to be one of the smartest and funniest films this year. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 13, 2011
If you're in the mood for some feathery fluff of the happy-sappy-and-not-wholly-unpleasant sort and need a break from snark, there is The Big Year. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 13, 2011
Like birding itself, The Big Year rewards patience. It respects both the integrity and the eccentricity of the avian obsession, and it communicates something of the fascinating abundance and weirdness of the animals themselves. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 13, 2011
The Big Year is better when it is examining the obsession of the birders, and Martin, Black and Wilson are enjoyable in toned-down mode. Read full review
70
MovielineAlison WillmoreOct 13, 2011
Genial and mild, The Big Year doesn't give in to the temptation to juice up its story with outsized caricatures or inflated dramas. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 13, 2011
The uniformly winning cast, led by Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, and the ultra-accessible touch provided by director David Frankel provide for a constant steam of gentle mirth, if not huge laughs. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanOct 12, 2011
The more I sat through it, the more it won me over in its very benign high-concept way. It's like "City Slickers" remade for the Discovery Channel. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 13, 2011
Inspired by Mark Obmascik's book, the tale focuses on universal themes of pursuing a dream and tapping into an adventurous spirit. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 13, 2011
If anything, The Big Year plays like Ron Howard's "Parenthood'' with birds instead of children. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyOct 13, 2011
With ambitions greater than comedy and results that fall short of character study, The Big Year is neither fish nor fowl. Read full review
63
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreOct 12, 2011
What this film from the director of "The Devil Wears Prada" does manage is a gentle amiability. Read full review
60
Time OutA.A. DowdOct 14, 2011
The School of Rock funnyman flies highest; passion, be it for rare birds or the Yardbirds, is a plumage he wears wonderfully. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 14, 2011
This one could have flown over the cuckoo's nest, or smacked into a glass pane, but instead lands in the middle of the road where quirky and popular meet. Read full review
60
TimeMary PolsOct 13, 2011
Black fans may hardly recognize him, because for once he plays a person instead of a walking comedy mask atop a Buddha belly. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 14, 2011
Even though none of these guys is ready to kick the bucket, The Big Year has an unmistakable affinity with "The Bucket List." Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 14, 2011
The Big Year puts the focus on people who aren't inherently interesting - or funny. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickOct 14, 2011
Yet despite the efforts of an excellent cast headed by three top comedy names -- Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and Jack Black -- and tons of beautiful scenery (mostly British Columbia and the Canadian Yukon), this movie stubbornly refuses to take flight, or generate more than a few chuckles. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyOct 13, 2011
The result is an offence-free, mild entertainment in which everyone from cast to scriptwriter seems to be winging it. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliOct 13, 2011
Those who should go near The Big Year, if not flock to it, are fans of avians, mild PG comedy and gorgeously shot travel footage dotted with humans. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 13, 2011
Somehow, the comic chemistry never seems to ignite in The Big Year. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 13, 2011
This is a gentle, diffident concoction. But it has barely enough pulse to power a hummingbird. Read full review
50
VarietyBrian LowryOct 13, 2011
Director David Frankel's picture delivers sweet and (more rarely) amusing moments, but this odd duck never completely gets off the ground. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedOct 11, 2011
I wish all the agony in The Big Year was leading up to something fascinating in the end, but the most inviting thing in the movie was the exit door. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsOct 12, 2011
In The Big Year co-stars Owen Wilson and Jack Black appear on the verge of succumbing to the same terminal blandness that's gripped Martin for so long. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesOct 19, 2011
The Big Year's biggest disappointment is its inadequacy in elucidating the passion of the birder. What ardency, and what an exceptional, impenetrable world they move in. I for one wanted a better look at it. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineBill WeberOct 13, 2011
Director David Frankel can't lend the inflated sitcom dilemmas of the characters any life, and most mysteriously screenwriter Howard Franklin, whose work in the '90s frequently had appealing quirk and flavor, gets the dubious credit for adapting a 1998 nonfiction book about these hobbyists' pursuit of pink-footed geese and Northern Shovelers. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 13, 2011
Why does The Big Year's trailer intentionally hide what the film is really about? Here's why: Because bird-watching - or birding, as practitioners prefer to call it - makes for a stupefyingly boring movie. Read full review
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