Eddie the Eagle

A movie that gives you wings. A blend of a boilerplate autobiographical tale of a journey towards a dream and the most sincere, unconcealed love and admiration for the title character and the sport itself, presented in a comedy of life, the kind that the crowded film competition doesn’t produce every year. It's an unpretentious story, but its formal art, valuably distant from dull idealization and its beautiful happy ending caress the soul more than most. Jackman is cool, Egerton is awesome. 85% (21/04/2016)

Sure, some of the characters are incredibly clichéd, even though well-acted - this applies, for example, to Hugh Jackman's character, who has such charisma that he still manages to captivate you. However, the film is filled with such positive energy that you don't care about any flaws because you absorb that energy too, and you'll be pleasantly uplifted, touched, and glad that you've seen the film. (30/05/2016)

A silly family story about a moron following his dream. It's hard to see what this is actually doing in A-list filmmaking, because you're not going to get a more clichéd story this year. Hugh Jackman's character is utterly predictable and, more importantly, severely boring and uninteresting. Taron Egerton plays someone that is supposed to be endearing and we are supposed to sympathise with him, but it doesn't happen. The attempt to recreate the non-confrontational attitude and lightweight drama of Cool Runnings is eye-rolling and annoying, because this patchwork has neither charm nor a interesting story. The only thing that saves it from a total collapse are a few good moments and a really novel ski jumping theme. (11/06/2016)

So even ski jumping has its own "Rudy". The funny and determined Eddie Egerton and his moustache will grow on you from his first childhood attempts to win an Olympic medal. The first priority here is fun, the filmmakers correctly understood that trying to push the dramatic envelope with a storyline where the protagonist breaks funny records all the time would not be the happiest way to go. Thanks to this, the film has a drive that doesn't lose even towards the end. Featuring a central musical motif from the early Zimmer days when Eddie entertained the world at the Olympics, it will entertain you just as well today. (28/03/2016)

A heart-warmer and feelgood movie. Eddie is one stubborn mule who wins over the viewer. Egerton is marvelous, somewhere on the edge between reality and a nice version for the masses, and Jackman’s role is fits him like a glove. The jump with the cigarette was brilliant. Precise direction and a screenplay that sticks to reality, 80’s synth music, great atmosphere and Garmisch-Partenkirchen... I wondered at the jumping ramps as a kid. (01/05/2016)