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127 Hours (2010)

tomatometer

93

Average Rating: 8.3/10
Reviews Counted: 213
Fresh: 199 | Rotten: 14

As gut-wrenching as it is inspirational, 127 Hours unites one of Danny Boyle's most beautifully exuberant directorial efforts with a terrific performance from James Franco.

92

Average Rating: 8.6/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 35 | Rotten: 3

As gut-wrenching as it is inspirational, 127 Hours unites one of Danny Boyle's most beautifully exuberant directorial efforts with a terrific performance from James Franco.

audience

84

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 81,106

My Rating

Movie Info

James Franco stars in director Danny Boyle's inspiring survival drama based on the incredible true story of Aron Ralston, who became trapped alone in a Utah canyon for days after slipping on a loose rock, and resorted to extraordinary measures in order to make it out of his dire predicament alive. An experienced hiker and climber, Ralston (Franco) is very much in his element when he parks his truck by a mountain near Moab, UT, hops on his bike, and peddles to the middle of nowhere. Later, when

R,

Drama

Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy

Mar 1, 2011

$18.3M

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All Critics (214) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (199) | Rotten (14) | DVD (10)

It's an incredible performance by Franco, walking the line between what once was enthusiasm but now is manic desperation.

August 12, 2011 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic
Arizona Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

At the end, we stagger like Ralston from the dark into the light. We might have both our arms left, but our nerves are just as terrorised.

January 10, 2011 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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Boyle is such a gifted filmmaker that, in his hands, 127 Hours is genuinely -- and unsentimentally -- inspirational.

November 24, 2010 Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Boyle has always been an exceptionally stylish director, and, despite its limited setting, 127 Hours is a marvel of visual eye candy.

November 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Miami Herald
Miami Herald
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Directed and co-written by Danny Boyle in a style that travels from ecstatic to nerve-wracking and back, this is a film about perseverance, strength and the importance of always letting people know where you're going.

November 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Detroit News
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The nightmare becomes a tribute to Ralston's bravery -- without casting him as a hero. He just got tired of waiting to die and decided to live.

November 18, 2010 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

You can know how this misdaventure came out and still be moved by this mystical/moving and miraculous film.

January 27, 2013 Full Review Source: Movie Nation
Movie Nation

127 Hours is an inspiring dramatic thriller with creative direction by Danny Boyle and a commanding performance from James Franco.

October 5, 2012 Full Review Source: ScreenRant
ScreenRant

127 Hours asks a big question of its audience: could you do what Aron Ralston does when it came down to it?

September 28, 2012 Full Review Source: TheShiznit.co.uk
TheShiznit.co.uk

It's chilling, claustrophobic, even nerve-racking, but it's also one of the most fascinating films of the year.

September 22, 2012 Full Review Source: Examiner.com
Examiner.com

With all due respect to Franco's strong performance, the director, Danny Boyle hijacked the story for a chance to show off his visual style.

July 12, 2012 Full Review Source: Cinemania | Comment (1)

Boyle solves the problem of shooting a film in a single location

April 15, 2012 Full Review Source: Movie Habit
Movie Habit

... Essentially Franco in a one-man show, and his charm and enthusiasm instantly win us over.

November 5, 2011 Full Review Source: Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)
Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)

For a movie about a man falling into a canyon crack, there's much to think about here, not the least of which is how far any one of us would go, under similar circumstances, to survive.

September 9, 2011 Full Review Source: American Profile
American Profile

Danny Boyle is hit-or-miss for me. Thankfully, this was a hit.

August 15, 2011 Full Review Source: Cinema Sight
Cinema Sight

You'll feel like you're clenching everything in your body as this movie builds towards its inevitable climax, but this is a masterful work...

June 15, 2011 Full Review Source: The Standard

A lot of movies about climbing ‒ Touching the Void, North Face ‒ are about men who get into trouble by pushing their luck. This one takes as its main theme the sin of hubris.

May 5, 2011 Full Review Source: CinemaDope
CinemaDope

This is an honest-to-goodness, feel-good triumphant scene -- albeit one that's disorienting and exhausting, somewhat as it must have been in real life.

April 16, 2011 Full Review Source: Florida Times-Union
Florida Times-Union

It's haunting and moving and -- if you're squeamish -- only involves major arm-cut-offing for like 60 seconds of screen time.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Movies.com
Movies.com

Driven by James Franco's charisma and Danny Boyle's bizarrely antiquated, but refreshingly sharp sense of style, 127 Hours is as exciting as a film about a guy stuck to a rock could possibly be.

March 23, 2011 Full Review Source: IGN DVD
IGN DVD

...immaculate in its technical aspects, not just in the way the camera hunts down interesting images but in its pitch perfect casting and ... sound design. This is the sort of movie you admire more for its virtuosity than [its]story

March 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A tour de force for Franco, certainly, but also for Boyle, who takes something you'd think impossible to film and somehow makes a compelling story out of it.

March 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

Danny Boyle makes you experience the ordeal in vivid, intimate details. You feel everything from the visceral agony to the utter triumph. It's brilliant movie-making

March 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Triple J
Triple J

Una atrapante e increíble historia real de supervivencia, narrada por el director Danny Boyle con irregular imaginación y dinamismo. Se sostiene sobre todo gracias a la excelente actuación de James Franco.

February 23, 2011 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total
Uruguay Total

A estratégia visual tumultuada, embora torne a narrativa mais dinâmica, eventualmente acaba também diluindo sua força.

February 19, 2011 Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena
Cinema em Cena

Audience Reviews for 127 Hours

How exciting can you make a movie where someone's stuck between a rock and a rock for 90 minutes (or 127 hours, as it happened in 2002) and everyone heard about how the case ended? If you're Danny Boyle, you have a lot of ideas. Starting out like a Gatorade or hiking commercial, the film soon after gets very reduced and has to rely entirely on James Franco in his strongest performance to date. While Boyle still adds a few fun camera and stoy-telling gimmicks to spice up the endless time Aron is stuck, the film works thanks to Franco's outstanding acting. The last 10 minutes, with Sigur Ros' "Festival" playing, are absolutely brilliant and leave you deeply touched. A great example of what human beings are capable of and why stories about the will to live always beat "stones fall, everyone dies" endings. Impressing both from the background story and the acting point of view.
September 21, 2010
ironclad1609

Super Reviewer

Mixed review: in dramatizing Aron Ralston's (James Franco's) unconventional escape method - I'll spoil it, because it's based on a true story and I think everyone already knows: he cuts off his own arm - Danny Boyle gives us another of his truly horrific, (i.e., not fantasic but rather based in reality), iconic scenes to go with his baby on the ceiling (Trainspotting) and his boy-falling-in-latrine (Slumdog Millionaire). The music, sound, effects and editing that make the climax so terrifying and so gruesome to watch are carried off rather well, and in the weeks since seeing it, I've come to wonder if I underwent a minor trauma watching it, as whenever something gets very stressful, for some reason this scene comes back to me in all its intensity.

And yet, the film fell victim to the same fate as Into the Wild: I didn't care much about the protagonist. The last ten minutes of the movie, if that, tell us how he learned and grew from the experience, but to be frank, I'd rather they weren't there. Closing the film where the action ended, as opposed to after the happy Where-Are-They-Now and Moral Of The Story bits, would make it an outstanding piece; were the growth Boyle strives to show in the end better hinted at as the film went on, were the depth's of Ralston's guilt and desire to survive probed a little farther, I think we'd cheer for him. As it was, it was kind of like Hot Tub Time Machine, in that I was mostly waiting for the part where he loses his arm.
September 10, 2012
danperry17

Super Reviewer

    1. Aron Ralston: Hello. This time the rat doesn't scuttle off. Yeah, what am I doing here? Good question. In all of the places in all of the world. Huh. Did all the routes, all the big descents. Not good enough. Not hard enough, right? Right. Got what I wanted. Got what I asked for. Everyone else is out there. And I'm in here. Dying. Real cool.
    – Submitted by Jean R (2 months ago)
    1. Aron Ralston: Good morning everyone! It is seven o clock here in canyon land USA! And this morning, on the boulder, we have a very special guest, self-proclaimed, American superhero, Aron Ralston! Let's here it for Aron! Hi, oh it's so great to be here! Hey can I say hi to my mom and dad? Mom and dad! Mustn't forget mom and dad, right Aron? Yeah, hey mom, I'm sorry I didn't answer the phone the other day. If I had, I would have told you where I was going, and, well I probably wouldn't be here right now. That's for sure! But like I always say, your supreme selfishness is our gain! Thank you Aron! Anyone else you wanna say hi to? Well there's Brian at work. Brian- Hi Aron! Hey, probably won't be making it in to work today! Ha ha ha, get a load of this guy! Oh wait, hang on, we have a call coming in from another Aron, in Looser Canyon, Utah. Aron asks... Am I right in thinking even if Brian from work notifies the police they'll put a 24 hour hold on it, before they file a missing persons report. Which means, you won't be declared missing, until mid-day Wednesday at the earliest? Uh, yeah! You're right on the money there Aron! Which means, I'll probably be dead by then! Aron from Looser Canyon, Utah! How do you know so much?! Well I'll tell you why I know so much, I volunteer for the rescue service. Huh!!! You see, I'm some kind of, well a big fucking hard hero. And I can do anything on my own, you see? I do see! Now is it true, that despite, or maybe because you're a big fucking hard hero, you didn't tell anyone where you were going? Uh, yes that is correct. Anyone? No. Oops!
    – Submitted by Jesus H (11 months ago)
    1. Aron Ralston: I'm in pretty deep doodoo here.
    – Submitted by William L (11 months ago)
    1. Aron Ralston: Good morning everyone! It is seven o clock here in canyon land USA! And this morning, on the boulder, we have a very special guest, self-proclaimed, American superhero, Aron Ralston! Let's here it for Aron! Hi, oh it's so great to be here! Hey can I say hi to my mom and dad? Mom and dad! Mustn't forget mom and dad, right Aron? Yeah, hey mom, I'm sorry I didn't answer the phone the other day. If I had, I would have told you where I was going, and, well I probably wouldn't be here right now. That's for sure! But like I always say, your supreme selfishness is our gain! Thank you Aron! Anyone else you wanna say hi to? Well there's Brian at work. Brian- Hi Aron! Hey, probably won't be making it in to work today! Ha ha ha, get a load of this guy! Oh wait, hang on, we have a call coming in from another Aron, in Looser Canyon, Utah. Aron asks... Am I right in thinking even if Brian from work notifies the police they'll put a 24 hour hold on it, before they file a missing persons report. Which means, you won't be declared missing, until mid-day Wednesday at the earliest? Uh, yeah! You're right on the money there Aron! Which means, I'll probably be dead by then! Aron from Looser Canyon, Utah! How do you know so much?! Well I'll tell you why I know so much, I volunteer for the rescue service. Huh!!! You see, I'm some kind of, well a big fucking hard hero. And I can do anything on my own, you see? I do see! Now is it true, that despite, or maybe because you're a big fucking hard hero, you didn't tell anyone where you were going? Uh, yes that is correct. Anyone? No. Oops!
    – Submitted by Hunter E (12 months ago)
    1. Aron Ralston: I'm only a psychopath on weekdays.
    – Submitted by Jackson M (12 months ago)
    1. Aron Ralston: Scooby-doo...
    – Submitted by Zach W (13 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • 127 heures (FR)
  • 127 Horas (ES)
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