The Polar Express

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Critics' Reviews

100
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Roger Ebert
A movie for more than one season; it will become a perennial, shared by the generations. It has a haunting, magical quality because it has imagined its world freshly and played true to it,Read Full Review »
90
Washington Post: Jennifer Frey
Every detail of the beloved children's classic is meticulously reconstructed in the film, with visuals that can only be described as wondrous.Read Full Review »
90
Washington Post: Desson Thomson
A truly satisfying holiday picture, the kind everyone can enjoy.Read Full Review »
88
ReelViews: James Berardinelli
Cinematic magic.Read Full Review »
70
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Kenneth Turan
It's hard not to wish this film were more of a piece and less like loud music at the wrong party.Read Full Review »
70
Time: Richard Schickel
Tom Hanks doesn't turn Polar Express into much of a thrill ride. For that you need 3-D goggles.Read Full Review »
63
Philadelphia Inquirer: Steven Rea
Visually, taking its cues (mostly) from Van Allsburg's Hopperesque art, The Polar Express is eye-popping. Storywise, however, it can be eyelid-drooping.Read Full Review »
63
USA Today: Claudia Puig
Simple and evocative, yet teeming with intriguing visual effects.Read Full Review »
58
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Lisa Schwarzbaum
The screenplay, by Zemeckis and William Broyles Jr., plumps Van Allsburg's simple fable about the purity of childhood faith in what can't be seen with all sorts of wholly invented characters, complications, and declarations.Read Full Review »
50
Village Voice: Ed Park
When it comes to the "humans," the atmosphere collapses. Unnervingly smooth, mouths moving in strange, even frightening formations, the Polar people are the least convincing things on-screen, glaring impostors amid the otherwise painstakingly rendered scenery.Read Full Review »
See all The Polar Express reviews at metacritic.com »