77
Metascore
23 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonThe A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonFilmed in long, quiet takes across gorgeous, all-but-empty landscapes, Mountain Patrol feels more like Gus Van Sant's "Gerry" than like the cops-and-robbers thriller its plotline suggests.
- 80VarietyVarietyExquisite to behold and with a stimulating storyline that mixes guns with ecological consciousness, picture is a considerable change of pace for director Lu Chuan.
- 80L.A. WeeklyChuck WilsonL.A. WeeklyChuck WilsonMountain Patrol: Kekexili is sometimes slow going, yet it builds in power as nature begins to take its toll on the patrol, and its cumulative effects are haunting.
- 80The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisFilms about environmental catastrophes tend to wax preachy, putting pedagogy and scolding above art. This one, for all its sorrow and the throb of righteous anger it provokes (only about 50,000 antelopes remain), is more than anything a work of creative imagination.
- 80Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranThese kinds of merciless conditions lead to a culture that is stoic about life and death and a story that will surprise you by its willingness to embrace that unsentimental natural world.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliKekexili is about how human beings, when passionate about something, can put everything, including their lives, at risk for a cause.
- 75PremierePremiereThe result is a film that's almost unremittingly bleak, but also consistently compelling.
- 75New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoThe stunning adventure Mountain Patrol: Kekexili is like a John Ford western set, not in the master's beloved Monument Valley, but in remotest China.
- 70Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonFor all of its well-schooled orthodoxy and visual splendor, Kekexili remains somewhat off-kilter--the characters' passionate wartime camaraderie and doomed sense of martyrdom aren't quite reflected in the facts of volunteer service and devotion to a balanced ecosystem.
- 70Film ThreatFilm ThreatUltimately a complex meditation on this moral conundrum, a raw tale of survival against impossible odds, and a dashing adventure yarn all in one.