Pompeii Reviews
February 21, 2014
Pompeii, the new historical-kitsch disaster movie, raises the question: Is there something about ancient classical settings that inspires actors to act badly?
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
February 21, 2014
A convoluted yet clichéd love story with some ill-executed gladiator antics and a barrage of bad CG.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
February 21, 2014
Pompeii is a big, glorious, cheesy mess.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
February 21, 2014
It's a spectacle all right - but mostly just of a lot of people, some of whom should know better, making an utter ash of themselves.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
February 21, 2014
The action scenes are choice, and once the clouds of ash and shooting fire and churning seas start up, "Pompeii" achieves a momentum that most sensationalist studio fare can't touch.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
February 20, 2014
Like its director's horror hybrids, Pompeii values self-determination over survival, which makes for better, brisker, less convoluted genre storytelling.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
February 20, 2014
Pompeii has as much to do with realism and history as the average gas station has with gourmet cuisine and fine dining. If you're hankering for something substantive, you'll leave hungry.
Original Score: 3/5
February 20, 2014
If there were a hint of a sense of play or humor in the filmmaking, beyond a briefly amusing moment of comeuppance for a foppish slaveowner, Pompeii might be a fun February diversion instead of a dull, eye-rolling slog.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/10
February 20, 2014
The special effects, especially in 3D, are impressive. But the movie is dragged down by its cheesy storyline.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
February 20, 2014
Pompeii is a Titanic wannabe with a romance between a rich girl and a poor boy set against a natural disaster.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
February 20, 2014
In "Pompeii," Mr. Anderson's latest 3-D extravaganza, and his first film without Ms. Jovovich since 2008, he seems to be without visual focus.
February 20, 2014
Harington transformed his body for the role, but here's the real disaster: His startlingly defined six-pack abs are the most memorable part of his character.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
February 20, 2014
Part sword-and-sandal spectacle, part disaster epic, "Pompeii" accomplishes its ambitious agenda to largely engrossing effect.
February 20, 2014
There's much to see here, but little to feel, and even less to remember.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.0/5
February 20, 2014
You wonder if Paul W.S. Anderson is a director who might feel disrespected.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
February 20, 2014
One of the most bloodless films to ever kill thousands of people in a fell swoop.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/5
February 20, 2014
The drama is deadly but the volcano's a blast, making Pompeii something less than the complete disaster you might expect.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
February 20, 2014
A campy guilty pleasure that serves up a "Gladiator'' knockoff as an appetizer to the impressively flame-filled main course.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
February 20, 2014
All elements of the ancient catastrophe are rendered with the most up-to-the-minute CG technology. So the special effects are first rate. The story they serve, not so much.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
February 20, 2014
Oh my sweet Jove it is boring.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/10