The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Boy Erased
Ant-Man and the Wasp
American Vandal
Log in with Facebook
OR
By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango.
Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password.
Critics Consensus: Powered by Clint Eastwood's sure-handed direction and a gripping central performance from Bradley Cooper, American Sniper delivers a tense, vivid tribute to its real-life subject.
Critic Consensus: Powered by Clint Eastwood's sure-handed direction and a gripping central performance from Bradley Cooper, American Sniper delivers a tense, vivid tribute to its real-life subject.
View All American Sniper News
All Critics (276) | Top Critics (48) | Fresh (198) | Rotten (78) | DVD (4)
American Sniper has a perspective that's recognizable from the classic Westerns Eastwood has long been associated with, both as an actor and a director. It's an existential critique of violent machismo that doubles as a celebration of violence.
Eastwood makes the moral stakes almost nonexistent.
Clint Eastwood's American Sniper is an often lazy and somewhat hazy propaganda film about American heroism and hell in the Iraq War.
Although Cooper succeeds in resembling and sounding like the real Kyle, this isn't some cheap impersonation trick. Cooper gives maybe the best performance of his career.
Director Clint Eastwood deftly shows the mental and physical toll of heroism in a way that will leave you gutted.
The 84-year-old's deep appreciation of the masculine -- its conflicts, its appeal, its evolving truths -- has added texture to our understanding of violence, warfare and more. At least as it is represented onscreen.
It's not often that a movie can spur a reaction from both the heart and the mind, and this film does just that.
Even when we remove discussion of the real Chris Kyle...we still have to contend with American Sniper's problematic approach to and depiction of recent real life events.
American Sniper has succeeded at what it set out to do: provoke hysterical reactions from right-wing American viewers and a feeling of crushing indifference from everybody else.
American Sniper is a tribute to every man and woman to have served in our United States military. Give them the respect they deserve.
Along with everything else it does, the movie portrays the enemy we are up against in the most unflinching terms, and it allows us to feel gratitude and respect for those who have undertaken the fight.
I expected much more from Eastwood, Cooper, and the rest of the cast and crew. [Full review in Spanish]
While there's a war story here (snd the pros and cons of war on either side of the aisle are addressed, nodded to) Eastwood focuses instead on the slow pervasive addiction of warfare, how nothing compares to the adrenaline rush and how subtly it begins to creep under one's skin. Cooper solidly portrays a dude who's got it all under control, until he realizes that he doesn't. Good film.
Super Reviewer
Though understandably accused of being jingoistic and racist - even if it makes a (dishonest, yes) distinction between Iraqi civilians and terrorists -, this is an extremely tense (and very well edited) war movie and a nuanced character study with Cooper in an intense performance.
Well-directed and at times inspiring, "American Sniper" is a strange blend of Jingoism and a criticism of the violence inflicted on the American side of the Iraqi war. Unfortunately, this lop-sided approach dulls the film's broader message about the effects of war on humanity. Great acting by Cooper and exciting action sequences make the film worth seeing even if the film is a bit overlong.
Succeeds largely on the strength of Bradley Cooper's great performance and less on the true life story that inspired it. Despite being a well told story, this is a theme we have seen plenty of times before on film. For me, it lessened the impact of it a little bit as I was reminded of better films like "The Hurt Locker", but all in all this is a story worth telling. The action is intense, well shot, and keeps you on the edge of your seat at times. It does get a little repetitive with him taking so many tours trying to find the same guy, but this is a small complaint. Otherwise, this is a film worth watching.
View All Quotes
200 Essential Movies
Chosen by RT staff!
200 Freshest Movies
The best-reviewed since 1998
30 Great Scenes
30 great scenes in Rotten movies
Best of Netflix
Movies and shows to binge now
More News & Features
View All