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127 Hours (2010)

tomatometer

93

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Reviews Counted: 208
Fresh: 194 | 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.

91

Average Rating: 8.6/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 31 | 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: 80,690

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, 1 hr. 33 min.

Drama

Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy

Mar 1, 2011

$18.3M

Fox Searchlight

Cast

All Critics (209) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (198) | 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 | Comment
Arizona Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's a tribute to Boyle's filmic flair and the humanity he wears on his sleeve that we can recall how Ralston's 127 hour saga ends and still be stunned, moved and thrilled by the finale.

November 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
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 | Comment
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 | Comment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Shiver-making moments aside, in a important way 127 Hours suffers from the filmmaker's lack of nerve, a reluctance to let the audience taste Ralston's dread and the expectation of a slow, absurd death.

November 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comments (9)
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

In his impressive follow-up to Slumdog Millionaire, the Academy Award-winning director honors the lure of solitude while at the same time celebrating the beautiful necessity of other people.

November 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

... 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) | Comment
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 | Comment

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

August 15, 2011 Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | Comment
Oscar Guy

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 | Comment

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 | Comment

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 | Comment
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 | Comment
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 | Comment
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 | Comment
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 | Comment
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 | Comment
Triple j

Who Wants to Be a Slumdog Mountaineer?

February 26, 2011 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

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 | Comment
Uruguay Total
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for 127 Hours

Disappointment is a good way to describe my feelings on this film. I've probably watched too many better Boyle movies and loved Clémence Poésy too much in In Bruges to enjoy one where both their respective performances here are largely curtailed by cheesy, melodramatic flashback scenes. The film is

February 8, 2012
djdemersseman

Super Reviewer

The best film of 2010, anchored entirely by an outstanding turn from James Franco, who is without question one of this generation's most promising young actors. The stylistic and trippy inserts director Danny Boyle includes enhance this film and make it much more involving (the amputation scene, in particular). A.R.

November 5, 2010
Dan Schultz

Super Reviewer

    1. Aron Ralston: [silently repeats] Oops.
    – Submitted by J. P (2 months ago)
    1. Aron Ralston: Guaranteed best time you can have with your clothes on.
    – Submitted by Colby B (3 months ago)
    1. Aron Ralston: This rock... this rock has been waiting for me my entire life. Ever since the day I was born.
    – Submitted by Teja A (4 months ago)
    1. Aron Ralston: Can one of you run? Can one of you run ahead?
    – Submitted by Sara B (5 months ago)
    1. Aron Ralston: Lesson: don't buy the cheap, made-in-China multi-tool.
    – Submitted by Hanna K (5 months ago)

Latest News for 127 Hours

May 9, 2011:
Michael Fassbender Falls Under Danny Boyle's Trance
Michael Fassbender is in talks to lead the cast of Danny Boyle's upcoming "edgy thriller," "Trance."

May 4, 2011:
Danny Boyle Is in a Trance
Danny Boyle is lining up his next film, an art heist thriller titled "Trance."

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Foreign Titles

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