Name : David Rooney / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
An enjoyably off-kilter hybrid of The Blair Witch Project and Where the Wild Things Are.

Name : Owen Gleiberman / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
As the stoic titular slayer, Otto Jespersen is the one actor who holds you.

Name : Nigel Floyd / Alias : Time Out
Given that the cast improvised all the scenes live on set, the dialogue has a surprising ring of truth, and is shot through with an unexpected, often unsettling, humour.

Name : Eric Kohn / Alias : indieWIRE
Yes, Troll Hunter is derivative, but Ovredal seamlessly assembles his reference points with a steady ability to do them proud.

Name : Noel Murray / Alias : AV Club
Here's what's not so good in Troll Hunter: the actual troll hunting.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Andre Ovredal's enjoyably goofy scare-pic purports to offer real footage of real horror - in this case, a variety of forest and mountain trolls.

Name : Michael O'Sullivan / Alias : Washington Post
It can't seem to make up its mind about whether it wants to frighten us or make us laugh. It does a little bit of both, to be sure, but not nearly enough of either to make much of a lasting impression.

Name : V.A. Musetto / Alias : New York Post
You'll want to catch this clever movie before Hollywood ruins everything with a dumb remake.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
It's so steeped in troll and paranoia lore, it risks boring you with the details at times. But it also makes you more inclined to believe it, and the frights are real enough.

Name : Mike Hale / Alias : New York Times
One of the many pleasures of the Norwegian director Andre Ovredal's clever and engaging mock documentary "Trollhunter" is the way it plays with the idea of the supernatural rule book.

Name : Roger Ebert / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
They spend a great deal of time roaring, bleating, squealing and snorting at a very high volume, which is, after a point, too much of a muchness.

Name : Nick Pinkerton / Alias : Village Voice
As de-mythologizings go, Trollhunter has neither the wit, nor art, nor social insight to honor the legacy of George A. Romero's Martin.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
Like the folks who dreamed up lycanthropy, the Trollhunter writers either have an abundance of imagination or they've been smoking a controlled substance.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
A drily comic blend of irresistible ingredients that gets better as it goes along.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
This is what happens when the Norwegians try to make their own "Blair Witch Project": We get three-headed trolls that hate Vitamin D and references to "Deliverance."

Name : Jeannette Catsoulis / Alias : NPR
Genially simpleminded and more sweet than scary, Trollhunter never settles on a tone. Fairytale fantasy, supernatural comedy, serious horror? All are sampled, to the detriment of the whole.

Name : Michael Wilmington / Alias : Chicago Reader
The film is shot with handheld cameras in the standard mockumentary style, but the content is often hilarious, especially when the trolls show up.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Trollhunter" has a lot of down time as the crew treks to the fjords, but it's also got dryly subversive humor and, eventually, some impressive special effects.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
Once again, material for a great short film has been expanded to feature length at its peril and ours. Still, this is clever stuff and surprisingly engrossing on its own terms.

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
Enormously entertaining chiller.

Name : Peter Hartlaub / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Successful on multiple levels, with a brisk pace, excellent location work and a strong lead performance by Norwegian comedian Otto Jespersen.

Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out
The film takes off into a witty realm of nonplussed responses and folklore made roaringly real.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
With impressive technical credits, stunning fjord and forest locations and a winking ownership of its own absurdity, "Trollhunter" manages to be at once spooky, satirical and endearing.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Those fog-draped fjords provide a distractingly pretty backdrop to this tale of mysterious, massive creatures who roam the forest by night, searching for Christians on whom to munch.

Name : Robert Abele / Alias : Los Angeles Times
A monster movie with a love for mountainous, tree-lined Scandinavian scenery and an even greater love for setting memorably ugly, hulking and destructive mythological creatures against it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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