Swallows and Amazons Reviews
August 22, 2018
The pace is slow initially, but stick with it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
July 6, 2018
The Enid Blyton-esque, picture-book-pretty vibe of the production is irresistible throughout.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
December 29, 2017
Parental supervision is little more than a wry nod of approval in this natural light-drenched adventure that comes complete with three old-fashioned cheers for the grumpy housekeeper who nonetheless makes them a cake before they set off.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
October 19, 2017
I'll leave the new version to an audience who are either coming to Ransome for the first time or found him a bit dull... Because I'll have to concede, albeit through gritted teeth, that they might like this all-action, espionage-soaked adaptation.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
July 14, 2017
Celebrating childhood innocence and the power of imagination, this old-fashioned charmer might ultimately appeal more to nostalgic adults than kids in the social-media age.
July 13, 2017
As clunky as the movie can feel, there's a winning toughness to its unsentimental view of childhood and its nostalgia for a pre-digital age.
January 25, 2017
This is the sort of nostalgic, dreamlike family film parents and grandparents will find -- perhaps more so than their offspring -- perfectly pleasant viewing.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
December 18, 2016
This new version of Arthur Ransome's 1930 kindling and pemmican epic is perfectly pretty.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
August 27, 2016
Swallows and Amazons still evokes a golden, prelapsarian age when kids were free range and mucking about in boats was the acme of excitement.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
August 25, 2016
It is all shocking, and absolutely splendid. The music turns your heart to mush and the performances are flawless, including a cameo from Harry Enfield as the farmer.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
August 25, 2016
Where the film really takes wing is when the Swallows and Amazons are trying to steal each other's boats, making expeditions by moonlight or are planning just what they're going to eat after dropping their provisions in the lake.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
August 22, 2016
Philippa Lowthorpe's feature debut is pretty, CGI-free and slightly tame, but sweet and nostalgic fun.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
August 21, 2016
If I can persuade my kids to sit still for five minutes and watch a film that doesn't include a superhero or a bloody YouTuber, they will be as delighted and entranced as I was. Pip pip!
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
August 21, 2016
In an age in which the teen heroes and heroines of YA adaptations are routinely given ridiculously proficient combat skills, there's something nice about watching kids mucking about and learning basic wilderness skills.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
August 21, 2016
An engaging if sometimes pedestrian adaptation of the Arthur Ransome children's novel.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
August 21, 2016
It's wholesome and sweet enough but a bit dull.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
August 21, 2016
Despite an incongruous action sequence on the roof of a puttering steam train and a beefed-up espionage plot, the thrills here are reassuringly low-key.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
August 19, 2016
Swallows and Amazons is an old-fashioned treat, if not exactly ground-breaking cinema.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
August 18, 2016
Arthur Ransome's well-loved tale of children running wild in the Lake District is given a modern tweak to satisfy young audiences more used to the special effect-heavy world of Harry Potter.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
August 18, 2016
There's an undeniable charm here that, allied with the picturesque locations, results in a nostalgic throwback to a gentler age.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5