One Direction: This Is Us (2013)
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 83
Fresh: 53 | Rotten: 30
It's mostly for the converted, but One Direction: This Is Us will be fun for fans -- and it offers just enough slickly edited concert footage to entertain the casual viewer.
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 22
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 9
It's mostly for the converted, but One Direction: This Is Us will be fun for fans -- and it offers just enough slickly edited concert footage to entertain the casual viewer.
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Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 19,283
Movie Info
ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US is a captivating and intimate all-access look at life on the road for the global music phenomenon. Weaved with stunning live concert footage, this inspiring feature film tells the remarkable story of Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis' meteoric rise to fame, from their humble hometown beginnings and competing on the X-Factor, to conquering the world and performing at London's famed O2 Arena. Hear it from the boys themselves and see through their own eyes what it's
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One Direction: This Is Us Trailer & Photos
All Critics (83) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (30)
This Is Us does what it needs to do for its target audience. But anyone looking for actual substance or insight will be disappointed and maybe even a little bored with its repetitive nature.
Top CriticThe fact is that they are as criminally cute as a basketful of puppies. This Is Us manages to frame that boyish appeal astutely ...
It might not make you a fan of One Direction, but it will certainly make you understand the group, which is the job of any good documentary.
The film is a successful witness to the great charm possessed by all five members of One Direction.
"One Direction: This Is Us" leaves the larger questions it points toward teasingly unexplored, making the film little more than a harmless keepsake.
With a group so evidently versed in the visuals of rock history, it's a shame that a filmmaker wasn't hired who would pay homage to classic pop films instead of offering a satisfactory paid promotional.
What's super-odd about this film is its director, Morgan Spurlock. Best-known as an activist documentarian...it's a bit of a shock to see his controversy-magnet name attached to something so tame, formulaic and corporate.
Background graphics burst past the stage and into the foreground - a flashy, amusingly distracting gimmick that feels true to the band it accompanies.
This Is Us is like a balloon - it's shiny and kinda fun for about 10 minutes, but ultimately it's full of nothing.
One Direction: This Is Us feels like a 90 minute advertisement that has been created to further promote the One Direction brand.
Perhaps the nicest surprise of the doco is that, despite emerging from the manufactured pop machine, these boys feel refreshingly grounded and they're not taking their success for granted.
An inoffensive but shallow cash-in on a temporary phenomenon.
Fans will eat this stuff up with a spoon, while any stray nonfans will likely spend the movie gauging the bubblegum tunes and matching faces to names. (By the end, I could finally tell bandmates Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson apart.)
Like their music, the film proves to be inoffensively genial, if surface-deep.
One Direction: This Is Us... doesn't bother with bummers, even small ones. Fame, according to this movie, is a journey to the center of radness.
Spurlock, who revolutionized activist documentary filmmaking with Super Size Me, has set the genre back with this cinema equivalent of a glossy teen magazine cover.
Spurlock makes inventive use of 3-D technology. The picture is trippy in places, making it more pleasant to sit through the forgettable songs than it otherwise would be. But Beatles comparisons? Please. One Direction is less a band than a business plan.
A documentary about "One Direction" that is aimed solely at their fans. For anyone else the entertainment lags.
It's a superficial publicity piece. But it's enjoyable even if you're not a pre-pubescent girl.
(Spurlock) has occupied both sides of manufacturing, first as the engine of expose, and now as a wide-eyed, willing participant.
This is the rock revolution reduced to the level of the Eurovision Song Contest.
A glossy, promotional concept that's overly enhanced by unnecessary amplification.
While this documentary may be as carefully constructed as the band, no amount of stage management can stop genuine emotions seeping through, and you're likely to find your cynicism crumbling in the face of the lads' sheer energy and down-to-earth charm.
a great spool of carefully spun cotton candy designed to delight its target audience. And it will.
This is an empty film that provides no insight into its pop singer subjects, but the bubble-gum band got the kind of film they deserved.
Audience Reviews for One Direction: This Is Us
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| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| STFU PEOPLE | 6 days ago | 235 |
| It's official: Rotten Tomatoes has the worst reviewers in the existence of mankind | 13 days ago | 74 |
| The sad part | 34 days ago | 54 |
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| I smell a flop | 19 days ago | 19 |
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Latest News on One Direction: This Is Us
August 29, 2013:
Critics Consensus: One Direction: This Is Us is Lightweight But EntertainingThis week at the movies, we've got a popular boy band (the concert documentary One Direction: This...
November 13, 2012:
Morgan Spurlock Directing 3D Concert FilmHe'll turn his Oscar-nominated lens on British boy band One Direction.
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This PG-rated concert film and documentary chronicles the meteoric rise to fame of pop band One Direction, from their humble hometown beginnings to performing at London's famed O2 Arena.
Morgan Spurlock, the whipsmart documentarian behind Super Size Me, imbues the behind-the-scenes story of these latter-day New Kids on the Block with visual tics such as animated lyrics and tender telling family moments allowed to run rather than cut short to respect a music video watcher's attention span. He keeps this piece of caramel popcorn from completely becoming No Direction.
Bottom line: A Hard Day's Blight.