The Runaways (2010)

All Critics (179) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (123) | Rotten (57) | DVD (9)

The result is an entertaining mess: lively and stylish, but frustratingly inconsequential.

September 8, 2010 Full Review

Tom Huddleston

Time Out

Top Critic

The Runaways is cool, but the Runaways were just so much cooler.

July 6, 2010 Full Review

Glenn Gamboa

Newsday

Top Critic

Aside from following the clichéd (if real) storyline, The Runaways is plagued by something of a split personality, thanks to its two young stars.

April 9, 2010 Full Review | Comment (1)

Tom Long

Detroit News

Top Critic

Excess is abundant in photographer and music-video director Floria Sigismondi's energetic debut.

April 9, 2010 Full Review

Lisa Kennedy

Denver Post

Top Critic

There's a flinty integrity in this movie's look at the rock grind, and Stewart and Fanning are intensely watchable.

April 9, 2010 Full Review

Peter Rainer

Christian Science Monitor

Top Critic

While Jett and Currie emerge as blurry, half-formed characters, Shannon's Fowley brings the contradictions the Runaways embodied into sharp, biting focus.

April 9, 2010 Full Review

Ann Hornaday

Washington Post

Top Critic

Fanning makes Currie's fame- and pharmaceutical-fueled transformation/liberation at once exhilarating and terrifying.

April 8, 2012 Full Review

Michael Dequina

TheMovieReport.com

... A typical story of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, but it's told with style and energy that keep it from bogging down amid the clichés.

November 5, 2011 Full Review

Greg Maki

Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)

[It chooses] to merely nod at the more complicated, strange and exciting aspects of the band's story and spend most of its time touching on the usual stuff

April 4, 2011 Full Review

Dave White

Movies.com

In age-appropriate casting, Fanning doesn't put a platform boot wrong in her portrayal of a valley girl rock chick (circa. 1975) growing up way too fast, with neither the inclination nor the wherewithal to slow down.

March 30, 2011 Full Review

Fiona Williams

sbs.com.au

The film might be intended as a cautionary tale, but that tends to get lost amid the lurid thrills and tacked-on happy ending.

March 9, 2011 Full Review

Mark Pfeiffer

Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema

Aside from Stewart transforming herself into Jett, once the band is formed, there is little about the film that captures the atmosphere of the time period.

January 31, 2011 Full Review

Matt Kelemen

Las Vegas CityLife

Director Floria Sigismondi brings the tale of this real-life pop-punk band to the screen with the traits of a vapid, glossy promo video. And it works! A shame about the length then.

October 21, 2010 Full Review | Comment (1)

Simon Miraudo

Quickflix

It's not so much a shock to the system as a series of practised strokes, yet -- for moments at a time -- it makes you squirm happily in your seat.

September 15, 2010 Full Review

Charlotte O'Sullivan

This is London

It's miles too long and doesn't know when to shut up, but The Runaways is too much fun to really do any damage to the world.

September 14, 2010 Full Review

Charlie Lyne

Ultra Culture

Sigismondi's dramatised account of the band has echoes of Almost Famous as it captures a tangy flavour of the hunger for fame and the bittersweet reality of success in the Seventies rock scene.

September 13, 2010 Full Review

Allan Hunter

Daily Express

The Runaways se mora preporučiti, iako prije svega svima onima koji su prije toga bili prisiljeni gledati Sumrak, odnosno iz terapeutskih razloga.

September 12, 2010 Full Review

Dragan Antulov

rec.arts.movies.reviews

For the most part it works, thanks to painstaking recreations of hazy disco-era dive bars, faded roller rinks and seedy motels, plus a ballsy performance by Kristen Stewart.

September 10, 2010 Full Review

Jane Crowther

Total Film

Given that the band were more about attitude than music, there's not a lot of substance here.

September 10, 2010 Full Review

Anthony Quinn

Independent

Fanning captures Currie's surly "Cherry Bomb" style effectively, particularly when dolled up in the notorious white basque that Currie is remembered for; Stewart is even better as the furiously smouldering Jett.

September 10, 2010 Full Review

Marc Lee

Daily Telegraph

There's a wham, bam, thank you, man, quality to this music biopic that makes it a pleasurable rock rush that's easy on the eye, even if it fails to do much more than skate the surface of the band of its title.

September 10, 2010 Full Review

Amber Wilkinson

Eye for Film

Maybe The Runaways is Linson's way of showing that he can make a success of this subject, and I think he has done, with a film which shows how brutal and sexist rock'n'roll is.

September 9, 2010 Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian [UK]

• 1. Joan Jett: I'M THE FUCKING WILD ONE!
  – Submitted by Prissy E (4 months ago)
• 1. Cherie Currie: I think I just need a break... From the band.
  2. Joan Jett: If you haven't noticed, Cherie, we're in the middle of cutting a record.
  3. Cherie Currie: I just gotta spend time with my family, you know?
  4. Joan Jett: Who? Youre mom is in Indonesia? Your drunk dad? Are we not your fucked up family now?
  5. Cherie Currie: I can't do this anymore. I need my life back.
  6. Joan Jett: This is my life.
  – Submitted by Lucas M (18 months ago)
• 1. Tammy: My brother said guys don't like tough girls. They want girls to be... soft.
  2. Joan Jett: Of course he'd say that, he's a pussy.
  – Submitted by Dejah S (21 months ago)
• 1. Joan Jett: Good fucking job. No, really, good fucking job!
  2. Kim Fowley: Anarchy, mayhem!
  3. Joan Jett: [throws two bottles at window]
  4. Kim Fowley: Rock and roll, baby! Come on, Joanie.
  5. Joan Jett: Fuck you! Fuck you! [bangs on window]. Fuck you!
  – Submitted by Dejah S (22 months ago)
• 1. Kim Fowley: I like your style. A little Bowie, a little Bardot, and a look on your face that says I could kick the shit out of a truck driver.
  – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)
• 1. Cherie Currie: Hey, Derek, did Marie tell you she's not wearing any underwear?
  – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)

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