Snowpiercer 2013

Christy Lemire, ChristyLemire.com: It's so hard to describe how amazing Snowpiercer is without giving away everything that makes it amazing. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: It's a downbeat spectacle. But very good, unforgettably bizarre, original filmmaking and adventurously explored ideas can leave you feeling high, especially when you don't know quite how it's been pulled off. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Don't miss it - this is enormously fun visionary filmmaking, with a witty script and a great international cast. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: If you love movies, you can't afford to miss it. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: The train, and the picture, barrel along to an apocalyptic climax that will leave you shaken and chilled. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: An enormously ambitious, visually stunning and richly satisfying futuristic epic from the gifted Korean genre director Bong Joon-ho. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: Though shocking violence and black humor run through the length of the movie, what comes through most strongly is its pessimistic political conscience; were the movie less earnest, it might seem Verhoeven-esque. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Although there is plenty to think about here, it's best not to overthink it. Just hang on and enjoy the ride. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: There's a righteous savagery to this movie that's almost but not quite obscured by the lushness of its imagined world. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: As with The Host, the political satire is teased out gradually as the story progresses and never intrudes on one's enjoyment of the movie's richly imagined world. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: This is brilliant, bizarre, fearless filmmaking. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: In different hands, Snowpiercer might have been just another generic action movie. Yet with South Korean director Bong Joon-ho at the helm, it's instead something more off-kilter and more disturbingly satisfying. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Snowpiercer sucks you into its strange, brave new world so completely, it leaves you with the all-too-rare sensation that you've just witnessed something you've never seen before...and need to see again. Read more

James Rocchi, Film.com: If the film has one element that never flags or falters, it's Evans. Read more

Clarence Tsui, Hollywood Reporter: Snowpiercer is still an intellectually and artistically superior vehicle to many of the end-of-days futuristic action thrillers out there. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: In "Snowpiercer," Bong's first English-language film, nothing gets lost in translation. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: In the thick of summer, while Hollywood is busy cranking out cookie-cutter superhero movies and giant robot sequels, along comes Snowpiercer to show everyone how it's done. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: The most bracing and liberating thing about Joon-ho Bong's Snowpiercer is not just its lyrical forward motion, but the exuberance with which the film revels in its plot predicament. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: A rococo exercise in mayhem, boldfaced allegory and ramped-up chaos. It's a summer movie with a social conscience. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Violent, often absurd, but full of brilliant surprises. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: For the longest time "Snowpiercer" rushes forward, like the bullet train itself - sleek and swift and unstoppable. And it takes us along for the ride. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: This is exactly the sort of ambitious, audacious, and uncompromising filmmaking that deserves to be seen. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The nihilism would be cooler if it felt like more was at stake. But if you settle in, it's one wild ride. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Planetary destruction and human extinction happen a half-dozen times every summer. It's rarely this refreshing, though. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: A formidable, if perversely overlong epic, Snowpiercer is a dystopian moral parable about survivors of a second ice age that wipes out virtually all humanity. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Snowpiercer is everything Transformers: Age of Extinction wishes it could be: a slambam sci-fi thriller with a brain, a heart and an artful sense of purpose. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: The best action film of 2014, and probably the best film, period. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's a film that, in its own peculiar way, forces viewers to question their values and ask themselves how much they're willing to sacrifice for a functioning society, and how much is too much. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: [It] seems to have been sent back to us from some distant alternate future where grandiose summer action movies can also be lovingly crafted, thematically ambitious works of art. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Snowpiercer" is a full-throttle science fiction adventure and a resonant modern myth. Read more

Bruce Ingram, Chicago Sun-Times: The future is miserably dystopian as usual in this apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, but at least it's thoughtful, stylishly crafted, high-speed misery that keeps on hurtling relentlessly forward -- even though there's nowhere to go. Read more

John Semley, Globe and Mail: This is powerful stuff, and all the more so for its straightforwardness. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: You couldn't ask for a better metaphor for hell on Earth than what Bong Joon-ho has wrought with Snowpiercer: constant forward momentum while getting absolutely nowhere, suffering all the while. Read more

Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: "Snowpiercer" warms the heart, but doesn't penetrate it. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Sprung from a 1982 French graphic novel and bearing its era's trickle-down tensions, Snowpiercer is a headlong rush into conceptual lunacy-but you'll love it anyway. Read more

Jim Slotek, Toronto Sun: It's a wicked, violent parable, and one of the only movies of the summer worth talking about after the credits roll. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Snowpiercer is a rare hybrid that perfectly blends the dazzle of a futuristic action thriller with the intellectual substance of an art film. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Even as dystopian dramas go, the picture is arid and lusterless in its more serious moments and unpleasantly kitschy when it tries to soar over the top. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Now, at last, comes a fun dystopian sci-fi epic - a splattery shambles with a fat dose of social satire and barely a lick of sense. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Subtlety may not be the film's strong suit, but it creates a richly imagined world, as glitteringly arresting as it is savagely merciless. Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: Once Mr. Bong sets his monorail in motion the movie assumes an irresistible momentum, accelerated by nonstop mayhem, gallows humor and an immersive visual style that possesses a heady sense of the steam-punk Apocalypse. Read more