Movie Review for Sunshine

Summary: Fifty years from now, the sun is dying, and mankind is dying with it. Our last hope: a spaceship and a crew of eight men and women. They carry a device which will breathe new life into the star. But deep into their voyage, out of radio contact with Earth, their mission is starting to unravel. There is an accident, a fatal mistake, and a distress beacon from a spaceship that disappeared seven years earlier. Soon the crew is fighting not only for their lives, but their sanity.

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Jurgen Fauth of About.com (7/0)
            So what if Kubrick already said it all? Set the controls for the heart of the sun anyway.

By John Wirt of Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) (7/0)
            While Sunshine echoes some previous films, especially 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien, Danny Boyl...

By Tim Brayton of Antagony & Ecstasy (7/0)
            One of the most inventive and fascinating science-fiction films in decades.

By Brian Webster of Apollo Guide (7/0)
            The characters aren't much like real astronauts, but this is a price worth paying to shed light o...

By Lori Hoffman of Atlantic City Weekly (7/0)
            Sunshine ...borrows liberally from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien, with accents of Outland, Sola...

By Marrit Ingman of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
            Problems arise in the film’s third act...and the film doesn't recover.

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun (7/0)
            Steven Soderbergh had his emotionally constipated Solaris, and now Boyle has this long night's jo...

By Ian Nathan of BBC (7/0)
            The idea is to send you out perplexed, but chattering over possible solutions, but the salty auth...

By Wesley Morris of Boston Globe (7/0)
            ...there are gorgeous physical touches...

By Annlee Ellingson of Boxoffice Magazine (7/0)
            Sunshine achieves a level of plausibility that, while still taking some poetic license, allows th...

By Bryant Frazer of Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus (7/0)
            The film's gravest narrative misstep is a latter-reel development that moves it specifically, and...

By Fred Topel of Can Magazine (7/0)
            A fictional Apollo 13

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Rob Thomas of Capital Times (Madison, WI) (7/0)
            You just want to shake the filmmakers by the shoulders and yell, "You have a damaged spaceship lo...

By Jon Fortgang of Channel 4 Film (7/0)
            A blazingly intense sci-fi thriller and a blinding visual experience.

By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
            ...strongest when it focuses on the sheer enormity of the mission and its consequences.

By Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            The film works even if you don't buy certain aspects of the story.

By Steven D. Greydanus of Christianity Today (7/0)
            Boyle gives us sci-fi razzle-dazzle and some undeniably powerful images, but as effective as it i...

By Jules Brenner of Cinema Signals (7/0)
            While the scope is inter-planetary, it always gets down to the behavioral clashes among human (...

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Jeff Otto of cinemaobsession.com (7/0)
            Intense and enthralling...director Danny Boyle has crafted a different breed of summer thriller t...

By Nick Schager of Cinematical (7/0)
            A gorgeously crafted intergalactic saga sorely lacking in originality or profundity.

By Cole Smithey of ColeSmithey.com (7/0)
            In a bold attempt to create a fresh update on the ever-flagging sci-fi movie genre, director Dann...

By Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid (7/0)
            In essence, Boyle chooses not to embrace the sci-fi genre; he tries to rise above it as if it wer...

By Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net (6/1)
            Danny Boyle doesn't reinvent or break new ground, but he's created a beautiful and haunting film ...

By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (7/0)
            Awesome CGI, cliched human drama.

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Chris Vognar of Dallas Morning News (7/0)
            For Mr. Boyle, a Swiss Army knife of a filmmaker, there's always something new.

By Alex Markerson of E! Online (7/0)
            The initially engrossing story is betrayed by an unexpectedly hollow third act...

By Brian Orndorf of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            It's a baffling bouillabaisse of moods and fears, but it's a persuasive creation, most confident ...

By Erik Childress of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            While its first two acts earn their advancement through the course of time, its final 25 minutes ...

By Peter Sobczynski of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            However, the rest of the film is so strong and so sure that I still feel somewhat comfortable in ...

By Emanuel Levy of EmanuelLevy.Com (7/0)
            Though well-produced and dealing with unexplored idea, this blend of sci-fi and horror feels more...

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Olly Richards of Empire Magazine (7/0)
            Aside from a last-act blip when everything goes a little bit “what the hell?”, this is a knuckle-...

By Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            ...the pieces come together in this brooding odyssey with a bang.

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            More compelling and engrossing than any sci-fi film of the last few years.

By Eugene Novikov of Film Blather (7/0)
            A movie that Carl Sagan would have liked.

By Lewis Beale of Film Journal International (7/0)
            What starts out as a fairly worthy attempt to make a 2001 or Solaris for the new millennium winds...

By Rich Cline of Film Threat (7/0)
            The narrative is, like all of Garland's work, a series of contrived plot points leading to an ins...

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Joel Meares of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            From the moment the film announces itself with an astonishing shot of sun, space, and ship, Sunsh...

By Edward Havens of FilmJerk.com (7/0)
            "Sunshine" is 90% a great film, a believable and intriguing meditation on life, the human spirit ...

By Victoria Alexander of FilmsInReview.com (7/0)
            Fascinating thought-provoking religious-psychological sci-fi thriller.

By Rob Vaux of Flipside Movie Emporium (7/0)
            Though it takes its principal cues from an earlier tradition, it panders to no one in terms of it...

By Eric Lurio of Greenwich Village Gazette (7/0)
            At once one of the best and worst films of the year.

By Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews (7/0)
            There is nothing new under the sun, but at least the talented Boyle still brings the heat.

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Peter Bradshaw of Guardian [UK] (7/0)
            Stunning sequences and gobsmacking Nasa-graphic visuals which are destined to be shown on giant I...

By Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            An extraordinary film, operating simultaneously at visceral, psychological and spiritual levels a...

By Bruce Westbrook of Houston Chronicle (7/0)
            On sci-fi's crowded table Boyle serves a fresh feast for our eyes, minds and hearts.

By Steve Rhodes of Internet Reviews (7/0)
            A sci-fi snoozer that will remind one of another such pretentious dud, Solaris, Steven Soderbergh...

By Liz Braun of Jam! Movies (7/0)
            While the film has far more emotional life than the genre usually offers, it doesn't lack for act...

By Andrea Chase of Killer Movie Reviews (7/0)
            operates on the level of pure entertainment even as it asks the big questions about the meaning o...

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Ella Taylor of L.A. Weekly (7/0)
            ...the most ravishingly atmospheric movie I’ve seen all year. This is not primarily a look-at-my-...

By Bob Strauss of Los Angeles Daily News (7/0)
            By the time it reaches its confusing, strobe-lit and confoundingly cut climax, Sunshine has turne...

By Kenneth Turan of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            Brightness has never seemed as menacing as it does in Sunshine, the nail-bitingly tense science-f...

By Mark Dujsik of Mark Reviews Movies (7/0)
            The whole of Sunshine does not live up to the enthralling, provocative final act, but it is scien...

By Pete Hammond of Maxim (7/0)
            If you go in expecting another 'Aliens' you're likely to feel burned. This modestly produced tale...

By Matt Pais of Metromix.com (7/0)
            Bears the mark of all really good sci-fi flicks: After you see it, the world just doesn't look th...

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Duane Dudek of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
            It is a great-looking but dramatically flat bit of star lore docked at the inner shores of the ga...

By Gabriel Shanks of Mixed Reviews (7/0)
            Like the films it grandly and unabashedly pays homage to, Sunshine is serious science fiction for...

By Kevin N. Laforest of Montreal Film Journal (7/0)
            Goes from 2001-style contemplative science-fiction to more action-driven sci-fi as perfected by J...

By Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (7/0)
            The blend of humanity -- frailty, ego, idealism, guilt and the capacity for self-sacrifice -- is ...

By Kurt Loder of MTV (7/0)
            The picture brings a new visual dimension to the sci-fi genre.

By Anton Bitel of musicOMH.com (7/0)
            Sunshine is canny enough to avoid being reducible to the sum of its parts, and finds a perfect ba...

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Luke Y. Thompson of New Times (7/0)
            Lots of advance reviews have complained that the film falls apart at the end, which I don't buy a...

By Elizabeth Weitzman of New York Daily News (7/0)
            We don't know if we're watching a thriller or a sci-fi parable, a utopian dream or a deeply cynic...

By David Edelstein of New York Magazine (7/0)
            The first hour and change is gangbusters, the last part unnerving enough to get by.

By Kyle Smith of New York Post (7/0)
            ...employs visual effects that are literally dazzling, as in retina-boiling...

By Armond White of New York Press (7/0)
            As with 28 Days Later, [director Danny] Boyle makes Sunshine almost literally unwatchable.

By Manohla Dargis of New York Times (7/0)
            ...spooky and spookily beautiful...

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Manohla Dargis of New York Times (7/0)
            As the ship moves closer to the Sun, and people and things begin to fall apart, Mr. Doyle and his...

By Anthony Lane of New Yorker (7/0)
            The film is nonsense, and what counts is whether viewers will feel able to lay aside their logica...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            A sci-fi fiasco that wants to be the new 2001 but instead manages to be as silly as Armageddon an...

By Tasha Robinson of Onion AV Club (7/0)
            As a pure cinematic experience, it's exhilaratingly, brutally beautiful.

By Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel (7/0)
            Sunshine comes with the promise of 2001: A Space Odyssey, as imagined by Danny Boyle. Even as Arm...

By Cole Haddon of Orlando Weekly (7/0)
            Director Danny Boyle avoids the clichés and instead embraces the sort of psychological drama and ...

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Weekly (7/0)
            an odyssey of stupidity with one bad decision piling on another.

By Steven Rea of Philadelphia Inquirer (7/0)
            At a certain point, like a dying star about to pop into eternal nothingness, the movie can't be s...

By Sean Burns of Philadelphia Weekly (7/0)
            After a mesmerizing first hour, the film implodes so quickly our sputtering sun can barely keep p...

By Bill Gibron of PopMatters (7/0)
            (W)hat Boyle and Garland accomplish here is nothing short of a miracle.They manage to allude to p...

By Cynthia Fuchs of PopMatters (7/0)
            Imagining the universe through one man's eyes, the movie uses Murphy's brilliant blue eyes and se...

By Rob Humanick of Projection Booth (7/0)
            Call it sci-fi yoga and enjoy it as an appetizer to Solaris.

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Linda Cook of Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) (7/0)
            "Sunshine" is a sight for sore eyes.

By James Sanford of rec.arts.movies.reviews (7/0)
            Boyle has always been exceptionally good at creating suspense... and he succeeds again here, inco...

By David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews (7/0)
            ...a mesmerizing and thoroughly captivating piece of work.

By Timothy Knight of Reel.com (7/0)
            Sunshine is also an atypically humorless entry from Boyle, who's never made a film this oddly dev...

By Robin Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            Sunshine will appeal to the many science fiction fans out there and offers a believably wrought t...

By Jeffrey Chen of ReelTalk Movie Reviews (7/0)
            It retains a power it rightfully earned, not faltering enough to fully squander it.

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/0)
            The first two-thirds of Sunshine offers a gripping adventure yarn in the man-versus-nature ca...

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (7/0)
            The spaceship sequences are done entirely with computer-generated images, but the contrast betwee...

By Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            ...lacks even a single moment of charm or interest.

By Eric Melin of Scene-Stealers.com (7/0)
            Sunshine does not achieve the unity of theme or abstract totality of 2001 (which remains the gold...

By James O'Ehley of Sci-Fi Movie Page (7/0)
            If you were expecting Danny Boyle to do for sci-fi what he did for the zombie flick with 28 Days ...

By John Hartl of Seattle Times (7/0)
            Cluttered storytelling undermines Sunshine.

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Jeremiah Kipp of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            Despite all that talent on display, Sunshine is a philosophical blank slate.

By Dana Stevens of Slate (7/0)
            The experience of watching Sunshine is one of nearly relentless tension, a sticky-palmed dread th...

By Johnny Vaughan of Sun Online (7/0)
            Brilliantly mixes eye-popping effects and edge-of-your-seat action to make this sci-fi scorcher t...

By Andrew Wright of The Stranger (Seattle, WA) (7/0)
            The term "visionary" gets batted around a lot when it comes to the sci-fi genre, but in its final...

By Dustin Putman of TheMovieBoy.com (7/0)
            A moody, classy, skin-deep sci-fi piece—"Sunshine" gets enough right to please genre buffs.

By Ben Walters of Time Out (7/0)
            It’s in the relationship between the crew and the sun that ‘Sunshine’ really shines.

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Wendy Ide of Times [UK] (7/0)
            The only thing more dazzling than the angry star throbbing at the centre of our dying solar syste...

By Tony Medley of tonymedley.com (7/0)
            ...hard to understand what's going on and who's who, but it is directed with such style by Danny ...

By Bruce Demara of Toronto Star (7/0)
            Sunshine -- despite a title so at odds with the film's tone -- is engrossing, believable and inte...

By Jonathan Dean of Total Film (7/0)
            Sci-fi spectacle meets intimate drama. Murphy leads a strong ensemble cast as Boyle nails yet ano...

By Ken Fox of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
            But what this spectacular-looking sci-fi thriller lacks in originality it makes up for in pure be...

By Brian Tallerico of UGO (7/0)
            While the final result isn't entirely cloud-free, there's still enough silver lining to make this...

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Urban Cinefile Critics of Urban Cinefile (7/0)
            A wonderfully visual sci-fi thriller, taut with tension and spectacular special effects. My only ...

By Claudia Puig of USA Today (7/0)
            ...draws us in, even if it ultimately flames out in the final act.

By Derek Elley of Variety (7/0)
            Like a collapsing star, Sunshine initially burns brightly but finally implodes into a dramatic bl...

By Joanne Kaufman of Wall Street Journal (7/0)
            Who cares? The characters are so sketchily drawn that it's hard to keep them straight, let alone ...

By Desson Thomson of Washington Post (7/0)
            Beam yourselves aboard Sunshine, set 50 years in the future. The voyage works, beautifully.

By Daniel M. Kimmel of Worcester Telegram & Gazette (7/0)
            ...science fiction for people who like to think as well as experience a sense of wonder.

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Susan Granger of www.susangranger.com (6/1)
            Stunning, gripping and adventurous, giving new meaning to The Big Bang.

By John Beifuss of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            The brilliant production design and convincing special effects (which eschew the CGI slickness of...

By Staci Layne Wilson of About.com (6/1) No reference
            Reminiscent of scary/spacey dramas like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, and Alien, this flick doe...

By David Germain of Associated Press (6/1) No reference
            The early intensity of Sunshine wanes in the third act. The film becomes a ferocious jumble, and ...

By Joshua Katzman of Chicago Reader (6/1) No reference
            Boyle's spiritual and metaphysical musings intertwine neatly with his pop sensibility, imbuing th...

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (6/1) No reference
            Around the hour mark, the movie takes a turn for the worse. Not to give too much away, but it pre...

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Scott Weinberg of FEARnet (3/4) No reference
            Boyle and company start out with a smoothly claustrophobic space adventure, take a dark right tur...

By Jonathan Romney of Independent (3/4) No reference
            Sunshine is dazzling, but not quite a blinder - your eyeballs may be singed, but don't expect any...

By Rene Rodriguez of Miami Herald (6/1) No reference
            There's a near-tactile pleasure to the special effects in Sunshine that is uncommon in this era o...

By Colin Covert of Minneapolis Star Tribune (6/1) No reference
            Sunshine quickly fades from near-brilliance to dim potboiler.

By Nell Minow of Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies (6/1) No reference
            This is a meticulously constructed story that presents its characters with a series of exponentia...

By Jan Stuart of Newsday (6/1) No reference
            Every frame wows with exquisite arrangements of light and color; each of the characters' choices ...

                         Reviews of Sunshine
By Mike Ward of Richmond.com (6/1) No reference
            Sooner or later, the plot has to voyage into the unknown. And while leaps of faith are technicall...

By Mary F. Pols of Contra Costa Times (6/1) Not Reachable
            ...there's also something old-fashioned about Sunshine's sensibility. Maybe it's because it seems...

Movie Distributors
20th Century Fox International
Fox Searchlight Pictures

Production Companies
Major Studio Partners
Dune Entertainment
Ingenious Media
U.K. Film Council
DNA Films

Movie Studios
Fox Searchlight Pictures