Has anyone puked?!

I liked it but I was never really thrilled with it. I have to say, I don't think the marketing for this was not very good. The trailers made JGL's accent sound wonky but in the film it's pretty convincing, he's excellent in the film. I saw it in LieMAX and I think I would've been fine seeing this in 2D.

I left the theater with a smile on my face. But that was only because of the actual walk, which is filmed masterfully, and it makes for a rather awe-inspiring climax. Yet what comes before it is quite frustrating. Its biggest flaw is the narration, which is the most blatant case of hand-holding I've seen in a film in years. It's as if the filmmakers were convinced that the story is so complex that it was necessary to explain the story step by step. I felt like I was on a kids ride at the amusement park. Secondly, the excuse for the switch from French to English is so sloppy and lazy and repetitive, I kept rolling my eyes ("I need to practice my English because I'm going to New York" Ugh.) The introduction of the accomplices is so perfunctory and all of them are so underdeveloped that any conflict that arises between them in the third act feels like an afterthought. Also, the stoner character as comic relief is ridiculously stereotypical and completely unfunny.
That said, it is a rather handsomely mounted film, and the walk is indeed spectacular. Joseph Gordon Levitt does a good job playing the main character, and his accent is fine, but I do wish he would have toned it down a bit. The Walks ends up being a mess, but an entertaining mess (I guess). C+ for now.

Almost every review of Robert Zemeckis' The Walk pivots on a similar blend of adoration and modest frustration, and I can only concur with the choir: the film, a dramatization of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit's 1974 traversing of a steel cable strung betwixt the then-newly-constructed towers of the World Trade Center, is an astonishing and ecstatic cinematic experience. The set piece to which the entire story builds is absolute visual poetry, an exciting, hypnotic, and perfectly vertigo-inducing feat of showmanship and spectacle leaving the viewer elevated and grateful to be alive in the time of 3-D and advanced computer-generated imagery.

The rest of the film is almost always gorgeous, in fact, overflowing with moments in which any number of well-executed F/X (fast and slow motion, a thousand-yard simulated depth of field) converge to visualize how Philippe's daredevil imagination is translated into a physical space via engineering, labor, and practice. And though he is never 100-percent convincing as this most French of Frenchmen (he is even a mime!), the whimsical performance delivered by a charismatic, muscular, and spry Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also firmly among the film's assets. He has fun and is to fun to watch as a result. A few other members of the ensemble cast also leave an respectable impression despite their relatively thinly conceived parts. They include the venerable Ben Kingsley as a reluctant circus mentor and the winsome Charlotte Le Bon as Philippe's girlfriend, who is nicely never forced to play the predictable role of safety-minded scold.

The rub: an often downright forceful tendency to explain, underline, underline again, and otherwise hold the audience's hand despite the relative simplicity of the content. (At heart, it is an Ocean's Eleven-style caper yarn in which the quote-unquote crime is an artistic stunt rather than a heist or an assassination.) Case in point: near the end of his 1,350-foot performance, Gordon-Levitt's Phillipe introduces himself to the wide-eyed and frightened policemen waiting to arrest him. His actual dialogue overlaps with voice-over explaining in retrospect what he said, as if in the same voice is competing to say the same sentence. The honesty of the moment is obliterated. In fact, momentum is disrupted throughout by insistent cuts to the character atop the Statue of Liberty (subtle), addressing the audience directly with an almost corny enthusiasm. It is as if Zemeckis made a wonderful type of contemporary silent film, one enthralled with fluidity of motion and enormity of scale...and then partly lost his nerve along the way, compromising the purity of his clearly heartfelt artistry (his "coup," to use one of Phillipe's favorite words) by resorting to a veritable thunderstorm of unproductive expository noise. It is a shame, though this is still a worthy, even great movie on many levels.

B+

I liked this for the most part, and the actual 20-30 minutes of the walk and what leads up to it are absolutely spectacular. It felt very self-aggrandizing to me, though, which I found a bit off-putting. Also, the first act needed a lot of polishing. B-

Even though The Walk marks just his second live action feature since Cast Away in 2000, The Walk feels very much like the animated films that Robert Zemeckis completed between 2004 and 2009: technologically remarkable, even if at the expense of the stories that each of the films told. Even though the film was shot with flesh-and-blood actors, The Walk is so remarkable in its composition and its visual effects that it feels like an animated film, which is an extraordinarily strong testament to Zemeckis's prowess as a visual director; he's so technologically adept behind the camera that the final product doesn't feel confined to the limitations of live action despite the presence of real performers. Nevertheless, I did feel compelled throughout the majority of the film's running time, and the investment that I felt in the first 90 minutes or thereabouts contributes to the effectiveness of the 17-minute setpiece to which the title refers. As seen in IMAX 3D, the walk of the title is truly a grand cinematic experience; while I did not experience the nausea that some viewers have reported, I watched with gasps in my breath despite knowing how the situation would result in advance. As such, Zemeckis's expert sleight-of-hand as a force behind the camera eclipses any shortcomings that the film itself might have, and it ultimately stands as evidence to the ingenuity of the human spirit, especially considering the tragic context that the structure at its center would come to assume in 2001.

B+

And, yes, if you can see it in IMAX 3D, definitely do so. While this film is not by any means perfect, it does demand to be seen on the biggest available screen.

At its worst, The Walk is maybe the corniest movie you'll see all year. There's a device where JGL as "The Man on Wire" narrates the story from atop the Statue of Liberty. Yes it's as corny as it sounds. However to the film's credit, this device is used to send the film out on a lovely note.

At its best, it might be the most exhilarating movie you'll see all year. I know the true story, I've seen the documentary, and yet I was still frozen. Frozen (and with a pit in my stomach) at the spectacle of the visual effects and the skill of the filmmaking. I would guess 95% of what we see during the walk are visual effects and they are astounding. The film just couldn't have worked without them.

I had the extremely good fortune to be in the area of my local IMAX (a real one) and caught the last showing before Crimson Peak takes its place. The Walk must be seen in IMAX. If it's still playing in your area, go. It's absolutely worth it.

**** (A-)

Is this still worth seeing in regular non IMAX 2D?

I was about to see it in Imax 3D when something came up and I had to leave

I had a complete blast watching this. Might firmly be in my Top 3 for the year so far. I just fell in love with the heist feel the film gave and the film goes by in a breeze. The 3D is impressive though I wish I had the time to see it when it was still in IMAX. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Charlotte Le Bon (certified babe) also had great chemistry.

It won't be the same, but any theater would be better than a small screen. Not unless you have a projection screen and a 3D player.

I absolutely loved this and it is truly baffling that it did as badly as it did. Absolutely captivating, entertaining and heartfelt mainstream entertainment. I thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt was great and the special effects were lifelike and stunning. The last half hour is incredibly intense. I also adored the ending - it was beautiful and almost made me cry. A

The first act of this movie was pretty excruciating. The whole self narration and the guy just being a total douche was definitely off-putting, but thankfully it got better. Seeing all those characters come together and interact was kind of fun and the walk itself was well done, especially from a technical aspect.

Might be the best of the year for me.

Just so well told and so well shot.

A

This was good for the most part, but it felt very long in parts, and the buildup takes too long. Charlotte Le Bon is hot, doe.

B-

I normally really like JGL, but this was not a good part for him. That accent was repug. He speaks french very well, English with a french accent not so much.

There's still enough to like. There are many gorgeous shots, both real and CG. And I dug how they structured most of it like a heist movie. The planning parts were always fun. It's just hard to invest in a movie if you aren't invested in the characters. Is there a shortage on French actors?

The Walk

I enjoyed this. I did not watch Man on Wire so I don't know if it's all true (I suspect it is and have no reason to doubt it), but it was a fun lead up to the titular event, then came the nerve-racking, sweaty palms time, which was drawn out longer than I had bargained for - it was intense. Very well shot and the sound was impressive. It needed to be to put the audience on the wire with him.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was actually fantastic. Was the French accent perfect? No. Was it even consistent? No. But I don't think it even matters. He did his best and it was enough to portray him as a Frenchman. So glad to see Ben Schwartz. Love that guy in anything! Charlotte Le Bon is such a perfect French beauty, but I wish she had more to do instead of just hold the hand of the leading man. Good cast, apart from Ben Kingsley. He wasn't bad per se, but his French accent annoyed me a lot. He was more like the Rene Artois's of French impersonators than anything close to a realistic or credible accent. He basically just sounded English with very few French imperfections thrown in. But they both learned a lot of French, so that is commendable.

I liked the back story very much, though it doesn't really set Petit up as anything other than a braindead, one-note fool. I'd have loved it if he had a tough decision to overcome (the girl or the walk, for example). And I did not like the final shot of the Twin Towers. I really don't think this film should have been used to slyly force a connection to the 9/11 attacks or to the memory of the buildings. The way they faded out with the light still shining at the points where the planes hit. Coincidence? I don't think so. I'd have preferred if it ended with a salute to Petit, not the buildings. But anyway, I enjoyed The Walk. It's the sort of film I'd have seen with my gran and we would have debated it for hours afterwards (because she would have known the true story).

B

I thought it was complete shit and having Gordon-Levitt explaining absolutely everything to the audience was the most annoying thing in movies last year. Not even "the walk" could save this trainwreck.