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Hidalgo (2004)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Reviews Counted: 158
Fresh: 74 | Rotten: 84

The scenery looks great, but this overstuffed horse story contains too much cheese.

Average Rating: 5.5/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 20

The scenery looks great, but this overstuffed horse story contains too much cheese.

audience

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 119,076

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Movie Info

Actor Viggo Mortensen made his first starring appearance in a film after his breakthrough performance in the Lord of the Rings trilogy with this period adventure. Frank T. Hopkins (Mortensen) is a U.S. Cavalry officer who earned a reputation as one of the fastest and most daring riders in the West; however, after taking part in the bloody massacre at Wounded Knee, Hopkins becomes disenchanted with the Cavalry, and once his hitch is up, he takes a job as a rider with a seedy touring Wild West

PG-13, 2 hr. 15 min.

Action & Adventure

Directed By: Joe Johnston

Written By: John Fusco

In Theaters: Mar 5, 2004 Wide

On DVD: Aug 3, 2004

Box Office:$67.2M

Buena Vista Pictures

An adventure that never met a cliche it couldn't saddle, mount and ride for a butt-numbing two hours and sixteen minutes.

April 9, 2004 Comment

Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

Top Critic

An exciting, colorful and very appealing movie.

March 18, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Observer

| Comment

Rex Reed

New York Observer

Top Critic

It's a manqu� of a rousing adventure tale and not the real thing. You're constantly aware of the gulf between how the movie wants to excite you and the halfhearted execution.

March 16, 2004 Full Review Source: Salon.com

| Comment

Charles Taylor

Salon.com

Top Critic

Popcorn for us and oats for the horses, delivered by the tall drink of water that is Mortensen.

March 11, 2004 Full Review Source: Denver Post

| Comment

Michael Booth

Denver Post

Top Critic

A hybrid of both traditional and revisionist contradictions.

March 9, 2004 Full Review Source: Village Voice

| Comment

Benjamin Strong

Village Voice

Top Critic

... filled with cliches.

March 8, 2004 Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper

| Comment (1)

Richard Roeper

Ebert & Roeper

Top Critic

Formulaic, overly simple, too violent for tweens.

December 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

| Comment

Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

In the same spirit as the Indiana Jones films, with more action besides horse racing than I could have imagined.

March 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis

| Comment

James Plath

Movie Metropolis

The event around which the movie revolves is a desert mirage, since there is no record of any such race ever being staged. Nonetheless, those able to ignore this outrageous historical distortion might enjoy this triumph of an underdog aganst the odds.

April 25, 2007 Full Review Source: Princeton Town Topics

| Comment

Kam Williams

Princeton Town Topics

Even if the story were true, the film's events have been fictionalized beyond belief.

September 25, 2006 Comment

Russ Breimeier

Christianity Today Source: Christianity Today

[It's] so careful about being inoffensive that it never has the guts to suggest much of anything except 'Be Nice to Others and Especially to Horses.'

December 31, 2004 Comment

Jeffrey Overstreet

Looking Closer

Will Hidalgo survive the brutal desert to demand more creative control over his next film?

September 16, 2004 Comment

Mark Collette

Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas)

Fitfully entertaining hokum as long as it isn't taken too seriously… Remarkably, Disney doesn't whitewash the more politically incorrect elements of Hopkins' tale.

September 1, 2004 Full Review Source: Decent Films Guide

| Comment

Steven D. Greydanus

Decent Films Guide

For a movie touted as an action-adventure film, Hidalgo is an epic yawner.

August 4, 2004 Comment

Sarah Chauncey

Reel.com

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Hidalgo

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This is a period piece centering around a rugged western hero who decides to prove himself by being the first westerner to enter into a gruelling desert horse race in the Middle East, hoping ot prove that his American horse Hidalgo is just as good if not better than any of the Arabian horses he's up against. The film

January 11, 2012

Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

Hidalgo is a terrific action adventure following the legend of Frank T. Hopkins and his Mustang horse, Hidalgo. The film is about a race known as the Ocean of fire a long distance race across the Arabian desert. Hidalgo is a fairly entertaining adventure and is a film that deserves a lot more credit than it deserves.

April 26, 2011

Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

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