75
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Does what it sets out to do: educates about a mostly unknown historical figure (without doctoring the facts too much), entertains, and uplifts.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
88
Rarely do movies portray the elderly with such admiration and respect.
70
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Crust
Based on the real-life exploits of Munro, it's a boilerplate fish-out-of-water/road trip/underdog sports movie -- but it's a heck of a ride with Hopkins leading the way.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
Hopkins' performance flat-out works.
67
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
The cockeyed devotion with which writer-director Roger Donaldson dramatizes the story of New Zealand motorcycle legend Burt Munro and his classic 1920 bike in The World's Fastest Indian is in direct proportion to the cockeyed devotion with which Munro himself pursued his lifetime goal of setting a land-speed record at Bonneville Flats, Utah.
75
Hopkins' larger-than-life performance as the crusty and crafty Burt rivets your attention for two solid hours in this most entertaining labor of love.
70
The result is a film as tenacious, peculiar, and likable as Burt Munro himself.
70
Hopkins delivers such a warm, winning performance that it's hard not to be won over by his loopy charm and monomaniacal passion. The film is about a man whose need for speed takes on an existential and spiritual dimension, but it's precisely its rambling, meandering, unhurried affability that makes it such a low-key pleasure.
70
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
This is a film that wears a smile button on its sleeve along with its happy heart. It believes that most people are absolutely wonderful, and it is well enough made so that a dusting of that dogged optimism is bound to rub off on you.
70
Sometimes shticky biopic overcomes its cornball conventionality to become a genial entertainment, thanks to Anthony Hopkins' exceptionally engaging performance.