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Critics Consensus: 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.
Critic Consensus: 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.
All Critics (92) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (59) | Rotten (33)
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.
The 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.
"This Is Us" is packed with nonstop energy and cheeky good fun, courtesy of its likable young leads.
The film is just plain fun to watch and the music is poppy and quite lovely at times.
Unabashedly an upbeat, snazzily shot infomercial that accentuates and overdoes the positives of this well-scrubbed quintet, Us still manages to capture the lads' refreshing ability to remain basically who they were while coping with life-altering changes.
It smells less like teen spirit than money, yet it bottles the carefree zest of pure pop so irresistably even non-Directioners will find themselves happily bip-bip-bopping along.
I feel as if I learned very little from One Direction: This is Us, a movie that is more of a consumer product or an event than an actual feature film.
It's hard not to get caught up in the band's infectious enthusiasm for life and drive to make hay while the sun shines.
Though definitely not worth the blood-curling screams of girly adulation comprising much of this musical pop bio, the sing-songy This is Us passes as entertainment purely on the merits of its, well, Direction. Of course, the movie wasn't necessarily produced for the kind of booze-addled curmudgeonly film critic in his late '30s whose next concert is Merle Haggard. The moviegoers who're not Boy Band enthusiasts and fanclub card-holders, however, must keep this in mind: One Direction's musical travelogue follows in the small footsteps of such recent teen pop concert films as The Jonas Brothers Concert Experience, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, and Katy Perry: Part of Me, inflated cinematic experiences with the quality and entertainment value of a VH1 Special minus 3D technology. Still, as one broadcaster notes, "Not even the Beatles achieved such trans-Atlantic success so soon in their careers." Thanks to a 90-minute running time, a few welcome codas and zippy visuals, the 'why' behind this statement gets hammered home whether you want to hear it or not. 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.
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