Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
Given the film's Disney stamp, you can see the feel-good coming a mile away, though the plot's never fleshed out enough to really distinguish it within the underdog-team genre.

Name : Kenneth Turan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
A canny combination of elements unites with an unlikely true story to make this more effective than you might be expecting.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
If they gave Oscars for overcoming mechanical plotting and perfunctory dialogue, Mr. Costner would be this year's shoo-in.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
Caro keeps the material picturesque, respectful, and respectable-without crossing the line into real inspiration.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
Better than you might think, thanks to strong work from Costner and a cast of fresh faces.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
At this point the inspirational coach drama has become as ritualistic as the Catholic mass, but it's also developed an admirable social agenda of breaking down racial divisions, which is exemplified by this heartwarming Disney release.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
Kevin Costner's signature knack for sports movies does little to buoy a stilted culture-clash dynamic.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Here's a movie that should be disposable at best, and racially condescending at worst, and yet it sticks with you. It comes by its emotions honestly and wins you over.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
You've seen feel-good football and baseball movies, plus great underdog stories of boxing, basketball, soccer and cycling. So what's left?

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
The movie can risk being patronizing, at times. And boy, is it manipulative. But all art is manipulative, in some way. And maybe being manipulated to have a little hope isn't such a bad thing after all.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
[Costner] could have sailed through this film but he gives his role an ingrained orneriness and melancholy that lifts the entire enterprise.

Name : James Rocchi / Alias : TheWrap
A feel-good movie that earns all those good feelings, "McFarland, USA" might be running on a predetermined track, but the heart it shows along the journey is what makes it a winner.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Yes, "McFarland USA" has the obligatory coda where we found out how everything played out for the coach and the key members of that 1987 team. You should stick around for that.

Name : Andrew Lapin / Alias : NPR
Yes, there's a formula. Yes, it's corny. But running is about the journey, not the destination, and Disney sports movies don't know how to quit until everyone has crossed the finish line. Bless them for it.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
"McFarland, USA" invokes an old sports movie trope: the inspiring coach and his noble, suffering team. But the good intentions can't help it sprint past cliche.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
[It] aims to be rousing rather than revelatory, and it mostly succeeds.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
Caro's direction, Costner's performance and the winning cast, along with the shining of a sliver of light on the plight of field workers, however thin that sliver may be, combine to make "McFarland" a much better movie than it has any right to be.

Name : Linda Barnard / Alias : Toronto Star
Based on the true story of a fledgling high school cross country team from an economically depressed Latino community, McFarland neatly delivers an uncomplicated, heartwarming message.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
Yes, it's a bit corny and convenient at times, but there's an admiration here for hard work, ambition and battling adversity that overrides cynicism. "McFarland, USA" is a good film about good people; nothing wrong with that.

Name : Lisa Kennedy / Alias : Denver Post
It took a village of fine performers to depict this close-knit town. And the list is too long to give a shoutout to everyone.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
McFarland USA has a distinction in that it's the rare sports movie directed by a woman. Caro's perspective is invaluable to the film's trajectory.

Name : David Ehrlich / Alias : Time Out
The latest in a long line of condescendingly inspirational sports movies about a catalog Caucasian who learns that people of other races are also capable of being decent.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
You fall for the kids playing the runners because Caro lets their souls come through in the bus rides and the race sequences and the shameless scenes of cabbage picking.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
A less talented and more shameless director might've turned it into cornmeal mush, but Niki Caro ("Whale Rider") has delivered unto the Disney corporation a Kevin Costner sports movie that works.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
Where the picture excels is as a straightforward sports drama, and Caro delivers the satisfactions of the genre with unfussy verve.

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
It's all a bit much.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
"McFarland, USA" could have been a sentimental film, but it's not, because Caro and the screenwriters bothered to know what that they were talking about.

Name : Stephen Farber / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
While the beats of the story are often stock, the picture benefits from sensitive direction by New Zealander Niki Caro and from a most appealing performance by Kevin Costner.

Name : John Hartl / Alias : Seattle Times
Based on the lives of several cross-country runners whose success story began in 1987, the script is crowded with scenes that ring true and rarely stray into conventional exposition.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
The premise may sound obvious and potentially forced, but it comes off as authentic.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Inspiration is for sale in here. And though more than a spoonful of sugar is slathered over the fact-based script, the movie delivers as promised on the thrill of the race and the lump in the throat.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
There are good things to say about the inspirational Disney sports film McFarland, USA, starting with its up-from-the-scrap-heap story, which happens to be true.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
The film's well made, well acted, and sometimes beautiful.

Name : Inkoo Kang / Alias : TheWrap
A fairly ambitious picture tailor-made for that slice of the Christian audience accustomed to the tropes and beats of prestige cable dramas.

Name : Jim Slotek / Alias : Toronto Sun
It's nice to finally see the Messiah portrayed by somebody who'd probably get extra attention at a U.S. airport by Homeland Security.

Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out
It's not often that faith-based films, competing in the same marketplace that rewards action, embrace the deeper, more difficult idea of meeting hate with love, but Risen tries.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
A low-IQ affair that supposes that the Gospels will sound more convincing if seen through the eyes of a skeptic. Instead, it seeks to improve the New Testament by putting a layer of Naugahyde upholstery on it.

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
The film ends up falling into a loop of abortive climaxes, set against an indistinguishable beige-gray backdrop of limestone, before the inevitable cheap-looking flash of CGI light in a scraggly field.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
Whether or not it triggers a craze for divinely inspired detective stories, "Risen" makes a decent case for itself as the "Columbo" of the genre: It's amiable, creaky and not remotely predicated on the element of surprise.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
It's not especially challenging. But it is several steps up from some faith-based fare, and it will doubtless appeal to its target audience.

Name : Tirdad Derakhshani / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
While it descends too often into the melodramatic, it's a solid, smart picture and a welcome addition to the genre.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
It's intended primarily for an audience of Christian believers, but genuine drama precedes the preaching.

Name : Christian Holub / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Risen is more entertaining than Bible-adjacent stories are usually allowed to be.

Name : Michael Nordine / Alias : Village Voice
Despite not doing much more than preach to the choir, Risen is still more nuanced than the lion's share of recent faith-based dramas.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : MTV
It's pointed about how we treat today's zealots, as when Clavius likens the pain of crucification to "sucking air through a wet cloth" - a description of waterboarding.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
For a film that could have easily become bogged down in Sunday School reverence, or culture-war opportunism, Risen presents an intriguing, oblique approach to a Bible movie.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
Fiennes is superb, portraying a man slowly transformed by events that shake his beliefs about the world and his place in it to their core.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Whatever your religious affiliation, you will come away thinking that if all this did actually happen, it probably happened something like this.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
"Risen" was never meant as anything but a tool for the converted. Talk about preaching to the choir.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Fiennes sticks with the brooding, stoic performance, even when Clavius is undergoing some major changes. It's not his best work.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
What a good surprise it was to watch a biblical feature less preachy, less stuffy and more entertaining than most. "Risen" is an original crime-fiction take on a story as old as stories get.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : New York Daily News
Reynolds' gets many things right: the blasted look of the desert, the dusty provincial look of a far-flung Roman outpost. And the story he tells is both serious and modest.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
Viewers already well-versed in the greatest story ever told might find their interest piqued by the filmmakers' unconventional take. It's unlikely, however, that "Risen" will preach to anyone outside the choir.

Name : Peter Keough / Alias : Boston Globe
We know how it turns out, but seeing from the point of view of someone who doesn't know and doesn't believe adds more cogency.

Name : Jeannette Catsoulis / Alias : New York Times
If you drink every time you're reminded of Monty Python's 1979 Judean jaunt, "Life of Brian," you might just make it through to the end.

Name : Kate Taylor / Alias : Globe and Mail
The film features a lush historical setting and some satisfying action scenes, but the dialogue is often laughable, a mix of the pseudo-archaic with oddly contemporary lingo.

Name : Katie Walsh / Alias : Los Angeles Times
"Risen" is a fascinating cultural artifact, but as a film, it's destined for no glory greater than as an appropriate cable rerun on Easter.