Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
Danny Collins is nothing to write home about, but it kept me entertained without too much guilt, and I didn't wince.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
There's a delayed-secret hitch in the narrative that hijacks the movie, for better or worse. You don't have to believe any of it to enjoy a lot of it, however.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
A familiar late-in-life redemption narrative, made surprisingly palatable by Pacino's winning comic bravado, a superb supporting cast, and currents of real feeling that cut through the expected bromides about the emptiness of fortune and fame.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
I can imagine a lot of good movies developing from this premise, but as fictionalized by screenwriter Dan Fogelman, it becomes yet another soggy tale of father-son healing.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Writer-director Dan Fogelman seems as torn as Danny is between his artistic impulses and his hard-wired attraction to bland, audience-friendly material.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
"Danny Collins," like its central character, has a good heart, and sometimes that's enough.

Name : Lisa Kennedy / Alias : Denver Post
What Fogelman doesn't quite achieve as screenwriter at the start of the film he makes up for in his directorial debut. He supports wonderfully the affable allure of his attuned cast.

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
The directorial debut of Dan Fogelman, writer of Crazy, Stupid, Love and Last Vegas, the movie combines the compulsive sub-plotting of the former with the retirement-age asides of the latter.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
Danny Collins is the cinematic equivalent of a well-sung easy rock tune, enjoyably light and bouncy, with some darker notes hidden within the chords.

Name : Liam Lacey / Alias : Globe and Mail
One of the things that partly excuses the movie's mush is that it's a kind of musical.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
Though occasionally contrived, in its more low-key, honest moments, Danny Collins rings out with emotional resonance.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
The movie becomes, perhaps inadvertently, a celebration of selling out.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
This uneven but ultimately sweet comedy-drama takes full advantage of Pacino's larger-than-life persona (think "Glengarry Glen Ross," "Donnie Brasco," "The Insider") and his ability to add in lovely grace notes.

Name : Stephen Holden / Alias : New York Times
[A] shameless piece of boomer bait, which peddles the highly questionable notion that it's never too late to get back to where you once belonged.

Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out
You think you know where this is going, but it's a pleasure to see Dan Fogelman slow down the flow for his two erstwhile Ricky Romas, kicking around life's harsh turns with tenderness.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
So shameless is this movie's urge to batter you into laughter and tears that you give in, exhausted and maybe even a little grateful.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Danny Collins has no intention of breaking new ground. But Pacino and a top cast make it mean something.

Name : Ella Taylor / Alias : NPR
Al Pacino as a jaded, aging rocker re-juiced by a road trip to settle accounts with himself and his long-lost family? By all means roll your eyes - the star has one brow goofily raised himself - but don't give up on Danny Collins.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The lesson of this likable little movie is that it's never too late to reclaim your integrity.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Legendary as Al Pacino's skills are, he wouldn't be the first actor I'd cast to play a 70ish pop star who still fills mid-sized arenas some 40 years after he last charted a hit single. Yet Al Pacino sells the heck out of his performance as Danny Collins.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
Before the action comes a cheerfully coy announcement: "The following is based on a kind of true story a little bit." In fact, the story is not only true, but proves to be a kind of swell idea for a fiction film.

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
A redemption story doesn't always need to show the blood. Danny Collins gets the point across without pretention. Its closing scene, alone, is worth the price of admission.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
There's a kind of modest American comedy that's so keenly done that you don't bother resisting. All the details feel exactly right for that particular story and those characters. It just works. Right away, you can tell that Danny Collins is working.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
You can guess where things are leading, but only to a point. Fogelman tosses in some mild surprises along the way, some more effective than others.

Name : John Anderson / Alias : Newsday
Pacino's exuberance rescues Dan Fogelman's directing debut from the schematic snares in Fogelman's script.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Like its hero, the movie is flawed, but hard to resist.

Name : Linda Barnard / Alias : Toronto Star
It's never dull to watch pros like Pacino, Bening, Plummer, Garner and Cannavale interact - this is dream casting - and the film makes the most of that, along with a pleasingly comprehensive Lennon soundtrack.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Comedy, pathos, and some schmaltzy couplets about the changing seasons follow forthwith.

Name : Joe McGovern / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
A cast of old pros (Christopher Plummer, Annette Bening, Bobby Cannavale, Jennifer Garner) and a touching final scene elevate the material just enough to redeem it.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
"Danny Collins'' is certainly watchable, but don't go expecting much in the way of surprises.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
There's a nice fluidity and freedom to writer-director Dan Fogelman's storytelling, so things never become predictable.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
How bad could a movie be that features talent as serious as Al Pacino, Annette Bening, Christopher Plummer, Bobby Cannavale and Jennifer Garner? This bad, alas.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
The top-notch cast makes this Bleecker Street release almost tolerable, but the spectacle of a dissolute hedonist suddenly acquiring a heart and a conscience late in life is shamelessly, and shamefully, contrived in its emotional trajectory.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : L.A. Weekly
A redemption movie in the skeptical key of Jerry Maguire with dozens of small, perfect moments