Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
Carolina settings, star-crossed lovers, elements of tragedy: Sparks' formula works. Get out your handkerchiefs, and rest assured that there will be uplift at the end.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Everything in the movie is suffused by a vision of life that is resoundingly and evidently false, but as this vision is not repulsive, but is intended to reassure, the lies don't produce anger or frustration. No, they bring on the laughs.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
The real love story is between Eastwood and David Tattersall's camera, which spends so much time leering over the actor's cheekbones, abs and other attributes that you begin to wonder if someone's going to call Human Resources.

Name : Liam Lacey / Alias : Globe and Mail
Eventful, polished, and knuckle-bitingly dull, the 10th film adapted from a novel by Nicholas Sparks, combines fate, bull riding and some powerful Hollywood bloodlines among its young cast.

Name : Connie Ogle / Alias : Miami Herald
Merely adding an older generation of lovers to a love story does not make your romance one for the ages.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
As a romance, a drama, or even a sports movie, The Longest Ride never reaches a satisfying destination.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
"The Longest Ride" treats us to a twist that's so ridiculous I think we're almost supposed to laugh. It's not quite on the "Are you KIDDING ME!?" level of awfulness as the big reveal in "Safe Haven," but it's close. It's close.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
The Longest Ride is sentimental, forced and silly, but it's sure to hit the bull's-eye with its intended audience.

Name : Betsy Sharkey / Alias : Los Angeles Times
The two-plus hours is mostly marked by an emptiness born of scene after scene designed to blatantly manipulate emotions rather than trigger them.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
The young Eastwood is better than you might expect, though it's Chaplin who shines in this Nicholas Sparks romance.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
This is spoon-fed entertainment, but it tastes pretty good.

Name : Peter Keough / Alias : Boston Globe
It tries to bridge the gap between pop culture and cultural elitism, between high art and the common commodity that everyone else buys tickets to see. A worthy goal, but it results in a movie that has none of the virtues of either.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
Conforms to a timeworn, and shopworn, Sparks formula of troubled protagonists receiving wisdom, or inspiration, or both, from unexpected sources.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
The Longest Ride has as much bull as the 10 previous Sparks adaptations. This is one of the few you can ride for longer than eight seconds.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
People don't go to Sparks movies for subtlety; they go to warm their hearts by bearing witness to true love. Of course, that requires a story that rings true. In "The Longest Ride," authenticity is in short supply.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
Fairly tedious, despite the charm and sincerity of the actors.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
Appealing performances by a trio of second- and third-generation Hollywood kids keep this three-hankie twaddle more bearable than it deserves, but "Ride" will surely go the longest with audiences for whom this is not their first Sparks rodeo.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
It runs a long 128 minutes. You have to wade through not just puddles of tears, but also piles of BS.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
Qualifies as one of the best Sparks films by virtue of not including any love-ghosts or destructive misinformation about how Alzheimer's works.

Name : Barbara VanDenburgh / Alias : Arizona Republic
It's exactly what you'd expect, except executed with more-than-typical competence with the help of a few excellent actors and some gorgeously photographed rodeo scenes that capture the drama and thrill of bull riding.

Name : Sandy Cohen / Alias : Associated Press
The film is likely to satisfy Sparks fans. And it brings something new to the romance genre: bull riding.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Look, it's easy to laugh at this stuff - that's part of the game, in fact. To buy into these movies, you have to buy into the silliness. But The Longest Ride, for all its ridiculousness, comes by its emotions honestly.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
The movie has nowhere to go and spends more than two hours getting there.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Just as the basic plot points are hard to swallow, even the most rudimentary aspects of the characters' interactions feel forced, artificial and unspontaneous.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : L.A. Weekly
It's easy to tease a Nicholas Sparks movie. It's harder to admit that he's good at his niche - and has a string of 10 films, nearly all profitable, to prove it

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
Can the ailing Ira help the young lovers work things out in his limited time left on earth - or even afterward? Let's just say Sparks works up to an ending that's as shamelessly preposterous as it is predictable.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
Though Tillman doesn't quite elevate the maudlin material into serious drama, the result is uncommonly sensitive.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
If this is your particular poison, it won't kill you. But anyone averse to Sparks' sappy touch may get sick from all the bull.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : ChristyLemire.com
The Longest Ride is pretty darn tolerable - and sometimes even enjoyable - not just for fans but also for regular people who are, you know, cynical.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
Even when Eastwood and Robertson, pleasant enough company, threaten to float off the screen, "The Longest Ride" glides along and delivers its reheated comfort food by the ton.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
Fluffy as new-fallen snow, but Egerton is terrific as the unlikely Olympian and Jackman makes a fictitious character seem almost real.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : New York Daily News
Hugh Jackman doesn't play Wolverine in "Eddie the Eagle," which is too bad. The film deserves to be slashed to bits.

Name : Gary Goldstein / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Prepare to be amused, moved and inspired.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Designed for audiences who will throw their weight behind the film's schmaltz and sentimentality. Anyone unwilling to commit to the movie's shamelessness will feel like they've hit the ground headfirst.

Name : Liz Braun / Alias : Toronto Sun
This tale of the quixotic British athlete who became the darling of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games is a tad sugary sweet, but thanks to the performances of Hugh Jackman and Taron Egerton, the end result is a family film that's highly entertaining.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
The infectious "Eddie the Eagle" succeeds by mining both aspects of Edwards's story with an equally deft touch.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
A delightfully feel-good though hopelessly fluffy affair directed by Dexter Fletcher that slaloms around complete hokum thanks to a pair of winning performances.

Name : Tirdad Derakhshani / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
A triumphant, feel-good, laugh-out-loud, sports biopic.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
It does make you feel good, but it turns out that the film's story is 90 percent fiction.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
By the end, even though you know what's going to happen, you might feel like cheering. He's an unlikely eagle, but just for a moment, he flies.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
While it is stretching the truth to call "Eddie the Eagle" a good film, it is without question a nice one.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
A bland underdog fable whose comedy never makes it off the bunny slopes.

Name : Leah Pickett / Alias : Chicago Reader
This inspirational heart-warmer from director Dexter Fletcher is the cinematic equivalent of a hug.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
Though it aims for heroism, Edwards' story doesn't have a dramatic enough arc to be truly inspirational. It's not about winning, it's an ode to participation, which isn't enough for it to get off the ground.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
The real Eddie was neither this big a klutz nor this inexperienced. But when the camera follows Egerton's Eddie waaay up and down those heart-stopping jumps, it's hard not to cheer him on regardless.

Name : Neil Genzlinger / Alias : New York Times
Although Mr. Edwards's last-place finishes in Calgary made him something of a sensation, a symbol of do-it-yourself persistence, this film doesn't seem to trust the inherent likability of his story.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
The people responsible for "Eddie the Eagle" might have made a better movie about Samuel F.B. Morse, since they're devoted to telegraphing every plot point and potential surprise.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
It's a movie as warm and fuzzy as a comfortable blanket, and as safe as the milk Edwards prefers to anything stronger. Not as exciting, perhaps, but it gets the job done well enough.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
"Eddie the Eagle" leaves viewers buoyed by satisfactions unique to classic come-from-behind stories. Even when it's as ungainly and cravenly audience-pleasing as its protagonist, it soars.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Director Dexter Fletcher paints Eddie's story in broad, bold strokes, never missing an opportunity to milk a suspenseful dramatic turn or go for the relatively easy laugh - but it's a style well-suited to this wonderfully ridiculous story.

Name : Andrew Barker / Alias : Variety
If director Dexter Fletcher's loose adaptation of Edwards' story often seems content to mimic "Cool Runnings" beat for beat, at least it picks a bar it can safely clear.

Name : Katie Rife / Alias : AV Club
Like its protagonist, the film-produced by Kick-Ass and Kingsman: The Secret Service director Matthew Vaughn, of all people-is cheerful and unpretentious. But unlike Eddie, it's not terribly original.

Name : Kate Taylor / Alias : Globe and Mail
It is a rare biopic of any kind, let alone a sports bio, that merely celebrates participation. It's that novelty that makes this simple comedy shine.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Eddie the Eagle tries to have it both ways with its main subject, simultaneously ridiculing and ennobling him. And, amazingly, it mostly works.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : RogerEbert.com
It's a shame that a movie about a man with zero athletic ability, who had the fearlessness to attempt a perilous 90-meter ski jump for the first time ever in front of a rapt Olympic audience, takes no chances.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
Taron Egerton reproduces Eddie's offbeat charm, turning him into an Asperger's afflicted champion of the undertrodden.

Name : Joe McGovern / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
A massive vat of hot cocoa with a mountain of whipped cream on top-sweet and warm and made with a mission to satisfy everyone who takes a sip.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Director Dexter Fletcher shoves inspiration down your throat until you gag or give in.

Name : Tom Huddleston / Alias : Time Out
The film never admits it, but almost everything here has been invented for the screen. That leaves a bad taste: Edwards is still very much alive, and his story is bizarre enough without embellishment.