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Avg. Critic Score: 37 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 Iffy for 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 63
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    Directing Annapolis is Justin Lin, whose previous feature was the irresponsible high-school comedy thriller "Better Luck Tomorrow." This second movie is more his speed. Read full review

  • 58
    Entertainment Weekly |

    Compellingly reserved and inscrutable at the start, Franco starts to lose us by the second hour, when his character's still not showing up for roll call on time, and isn't charismatic enough to bring us over to his side. Read full review

  • 50
    The Hollywood Reporter | Frank Scheck

    Packing in enough cliches for a dozen movies, this drama about a sensitive young man trying to achieve his dreams via the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis will best be enjoyed by the generation unfamiliar with "An Officer and a Gentlemen," "Top Gun" and any preceding boxing movies. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    A formulaic, predictable and yet reasonably likable picture. Read full review

  • 50
    Variety | Brian Lowry

    James Franco and Tyrese Gibson scowl and strut and should make the hearts of teenage girls all atwitter, and that's about the only audience that won't see most of the punches telegraphed well in advance. Read full review

  • 50
    USA Today | Mike Clark

    A hopeless if harmless boxing picture whose principals just happen to wear uniforms outside the ring, Annapolis is set in a U.S. Naval Academy where no one ever seems to attend class. Read full review

  • 40
    Los Angeles Times |

    Franco is a refreshingly offbeat screen presence and in lighter moments boasts an appealing smile. He may be someone to watch, but too bad there's little room for emotional spontaneity - acting, in other words - in a rote Hollywood drill such as this. Read full review

  • 38
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    It is the anti-Sundance film, an exhausted wheeze of bankrupt cliches and cardboard characters, the kind of film that has no visible reason for existing, except that everybody got paid. Read full review

  • 30
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    The only impressive thing about it is the monotony and thoroughness with which it replicates cliches from older, better movies and hammers them into pop alloy to an up-with-me beat beat beat of its musical score. Read full review

  • 30
    The New York Times | Stephen Holden

    Annapolis has enough material for an exciting trailer. But that's all the movie really is: a trailer tricked out with protracted boxing sequences and an undernourished romantic subplot that culminates in a single tepid kiss. Read full review

View more reviews for Annapolis on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 13+ Naval cadet becomes a man in unoriginal drama.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this film includes several hectic, noisy boxing scenes, with the camera taking alternate points of view for punchers and punchees. The fast cuts and framing make these images potentially disturbing for younger viewers. Some of the training rituals for the Annapolis cadets are brutal (falling in mud and falling off obstacles in slow motion, sweating and groaning). An officer has a cadet get into a body bag and be zipped up, to show other cadets their responsibility to their charges. Depressed cadet jumps out a window. Characters drink alcohol in a bar, a romantic couple exchanges gazes and kisses in pretty lighting. One prostitution reference.
  • Families can talk about the relationship between Jake and his working class father, Bill. How does the son's aspiration first threaten Dad, then make him proud? How does the movie use traditional means to define "masculinity" -- boxing, physical tests, dominance over other men? How does the film's diverse cast suggest that different individuals might work together?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Growing up is good, but whining, arguing, and resisting authority are not so good.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Boxing scenes are fast and hard-hitting; other scenes show physical tests and some fighting among cadets. A suicide attempt.
  • sex false0 Sex: Brief kissing, some girls dance seductively at a bar. Reference to a prostitute.
  • language false3 Language: Mild cursing ("hell") and some crude language.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Beer-drinking in bar scenes, one scene with smoking.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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