Metacritic Movie Ratings
42 Reviews

A sample of reviews from critics across the country.

• 83

  out of 100

  Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman

  Helgeland works in what I think of as a conservative — or maybe it's just really, really basic — neoclassical Hollywood style, spelling everything out, letting the story unfold in a plainspoken and deliberate fashion, with a big, wide, open pictorial camera eye. It's like the latter-day Clint Eastwood style, applied to material that's as traditional as can be.

  Read full review

• 63

  out of 100

  USA TodayClaudia Puig

  It takes a particularly ham-fisted filmmaker to transform a fascinating and historically significant story into something as formulaic as 42.

  Read full review

• 50

  out of 100

  The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthy

  Pretty when it should be gritty and grandiosely noble instead of just telling it like it was, 42 needlessly trumps up but still can't entirely spoil one of the great American 20th century true-life stories, the breaking of major league baseball's color line by Jackie Robinson.

  Read full review

• 40

  out of 100

  Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern

  What's been carefully filtered out of the film as a whole is the tumult and passion of Robinson's life.

  Read full review

See all 42 movie reviews at Metacritic.com