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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 : 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 : 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 : 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 : 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 : Linda Barnard / Alias : Toronto Star
A mixed bag of clever twists on familiar storybook myths, engaging performances and forgettable songs.

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
What is celebrated is the art of storytelling and the bedazzling attraction of a killer cast, uninhibited acting, giddy escapism, attractive visuals and an extroverted score.

Name : Stephen Holden / Alias : New York Times
"Into the Woods," the splendid Disney screen adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical, infuses new vitality into the tired marketing concept of entertainment for "children of all ages."

Name : Karen D'Souza / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
This movie always seems to distance itself from that existential truth that was at the core of Sondheim's original.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
The Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine 1987 musical Into the Woods has been transferred to the screen by director Rob Marshall with most of its complexities and light-dark tonalities intact.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
Even if this Into The Woods lacks the exhilaration of the best movie musicals, it does capture the show's emotional intimacy - no small task in a field that favors razzle dazzle.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
With archness and irony, "Into the Woods" goes deeper into the fairy stories, allowing us to see familiar archetypes in new and not so flattering ways.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
The first two-thirds of the film, which are like the Brothers Grimm's Greatest Hits on laughing gas, have a fizzy, fairy-dust energy.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Into the Woods" is a paean to the primal magic of storytelling.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
With the exception of Meryl Streep (as the Witch) and James Corden (as the Baker), the cast is bland, and the bombastic orchestrations tend to steamroll the nuances of Sondheim's score.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Yes, the sets and costumes elicit swoons, but it's the peerless Sondheim score, however truncated, that makes this Woods a prime destination.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Richard Roeper.com
Rumbles on for too long and has some dry patches here and there-but just when we're growing fidgety, we get another rousing musical number or another dark plot twist, and we're back in business.

Name : Betsy Sharkey / Alias : Los Angeles Times
What makes "Into the Woods" so entertaining is the cleverness of the tale itself and the way specific characters match the talents of its storytellers.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
If so much as one tween viewer adds Sondheim to his or her iPod playlist alongside the likes of "Let it Go," all will have been worthwhile.

Name : Elizabeth Weitzman / Alias : New York Daily News
The life lessons are delivered with insight and heart, the rightfully beloved music is well handled and the cast is so enthusiastic that we can excuse some rough patches.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
Rob Marshall - who previously shepherded a glossy if slightly diluted version of "Chicago" to the screen - does a decent job transferring the material.

Name : Cath Clarke / Alias : Time Out
If you go down to the woods today. you'll find A-listers dressed like 'Game of Thrones' extras belting out showtunes.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
Some of the musical's superfans will feel shortchanged by the movie no matter what, but you have to give credit where it's due. The adaptation is pretty faithful to the original - for better and worse.

Name : Preston Jones / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
The sly send-up of fantasy tropes and healthy doses of humor help Into the Woods feel very much like the books and films it gently satirizes, even as it stands on its own as a solid entry into the musical-fantasy genre.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
The cast is top-notch, the story is satisfyingly dark, the performances are fun and, of course, the songs are terrific.

Name : David Rooney / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
This twisty fairy-tale mash-up shows an appreciation for the virtues of old-fashioned storytelling, along with a welcome dash of subversive wit.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
For years, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim's 1987 fairy tale mashup, written with librettist James Lapine, has hacked its way through the thicket of Hollywood development. And the movie now before us? Here's a relief: It's good.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
"Into the Woods'' thankfully retains most of its wit and bite, and showcases two of the year's very best female performances, from Streep and Blunt.

Name : Dana Stevens / Alias : Slate
Instead of being a rueful meditation on the inevitable disappointments of adulthood, the last act plays out as a generic dystopian bummer.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
The movie is a watchable, tuneful contraption.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Corden is a wonderfully funny, self-effacing bloke - I'm thrilled at the prospect of seeing him nightly, hosting his own show after Colbert. Maybe he'll have Emily Blunt as a guest. It's her movie.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Does it work as a movie? Thanks to a few cast members, the answer is - yes, and for the most part quite nicely.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Into the Woods" could have taken a well-worn path toward stagey sentiments, but those who worried that Hollywood might drain the enchantment from the Enchanted Forest can live happily after.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
Marshall's film captures enough of the emotions that course through this sneaky fairy tale about childish things like love, sex, grief, insecurity, abandonment, and forbearance.

Name : Nancy Churnin / Alias : Dallas Morning News
As with Chicago, Marshall makes bold choices, but they pay off. His cast may glitter with film stars, but they work as an ensemble and keep their stories emotionally true against a terrifically rich orchestral accompaniment.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
I left disenchanted and irritated by so many missed opportunities.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
The stage musical delightfully reminded audiences that while happy endings are possible, you should always be careful about what you've wished for. Now comes the movie version, and it's a singing and dancing manifestation of both of those ideas.

Name : Christine Dolen / Alias : Miami Herald
For anyone who can appreciate the darker side of fairy-tales told in a musical with depth and nuance, Into the Woods is a journey worth taking.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
A jolly mash-up of symbol-laden, signature once-upon-a-time tales about lust, envy, greed, and misguided pursuits of happiness.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
Director Rob Marshall simply cuts from one tale to the next, isolating his actors. There's little sense that the fairytale space is a shared one - it's just a bunch of noisy incident transpiring in unrelated treestands.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A capable cast and some very fine songs, but parents should take note of the dark themes. This Disney movie ain't kid stuff.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
With its ominous gnarled trees and enchanted look, Into the Woods is a place worth exploring.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
Into the Woods left me out in the cold.

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
It's hard not to get swept up in the grand production of it all.