The End of the Line 2009

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: This movie wants to cover every base without thinking very deeply about them. So while a lot of ground is covered in 80 brisk minutes, the information presented is only abstractly useful. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The End of the Line is an apocalyptic documentary that is as beautiful as it is damning. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: This passionate ecological documentary, The End of the Line, spells out the problem in clear, urgent, prosaic terms. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Except for lush underwater shots, the movie is dry and preachy. And it would not have hurt to give the other side a chance to respond. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: The End of the Line, an eco-mentary that warns against overfishing, baits its hook with alarmist rhetoric and aversion therapy. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The End of the Line documents what threatens to become an irreversible decline in aquatic populations within 40 years. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: With commendable clarity, it lays out the data. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Another day, another film about environmental collapse. Read more

Jason Anderson, Toronto Star: It's hard not to feel that the vital information in The End of the Line may have been more effectively relayed by Clover's original book or by a movie whose methods were less pedantic and pedestrian. Read more

Nicolas Rapold, Time Out: Through graph-wielding scientists, picturesque seascapes and Ted Danson's voiceover, director Rupert Murray lays out the facts about the ongoing decimation of world fishing stocks, which could mean the end of tuna as we know it. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: The poignant facts and figures are offered by a host of likeable marine scientists, local fishermen and activists. Read more

Aaron Hillis, Village Voice: The End of the Line is a free-form splash of jaw-dropping graphs, impressively accredited talking heads, and sumptuously shot portraits of natural beauty and decay, overdramatically scored to symphonic and other intense musical attacks. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: If the tone is occasionally off-putting, the message -- at least, the facts about the fish -- is harder to shrug off. Read more