10,000 BC

It plays better than it reviews — the watch lands harder than the write-ups suggest.

• “Emmerich has no time for poetry or magic, even when the director and his digital wizards (here doing wildly variable work) are trying to dazzle. He’s a taskmaster and a field marshall, not a visionary. But I enjoyed 10,000 B.C. more and more, and more than just about anything Emmerich’s done before.”

  Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune · 75

• “As one might expect, there are campy moments and far too much reliance on God-like interventions in the affairs of early man. Less expected is that 10,000 BC works just fine as an action Western with handsome actors in striking costumes and a few CG predators, which are giddy fun.”

  Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter · 70

• “10,000 BC is as crazy as it wants to be, plundering the past and other movies with that peculiar Hollywood combination of the earnest and the preposterous that can result in the guiltiest of guilty pleasures.”

  Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times · 70

• “Too dumb to take seriously, but just silly enough to be sort of fun.”

  Ken Fox, TV Guide Magazine · 63

• “The mammoths aren’t all that is wild and woolly in this innocent, old-fashioned, amusingly self-important, entertainingly mad, rip-snorting throwback to vintage Saturday matinee fare, with all the swell set piece thrills state-of-the-art technology can throw at it.”

  Angie Errigo, Empire · 60