Stone of Destiny (2008)

Critic Reviews

• Peter Howell, Toronto Star

  Writer/director Charles Martin Smith brings energy and wit to this British-Canadian co-production.

• Leslie Felperin, Variety

  This unabashedly sentimental and outright anti-English pic is stodgy as a cheap haggis with nationalistic sentimentality.

• James Adams, Globe and Mail

  Smith, who also wrote the screenplay, is all brisk efficiency over the course of the movie's fat-free 96 minutes.

• David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews

  ...unapologetically old-fashioned...

• Jim Slotek, Jam! Movies

  Braveheart it isn't, but it is fun.

• Derek Adams, Time Out

  Written and directed by an American, the film nevertheless feels closer to the 'British' spirit of the old Ealing comedies, something emphasised by its old-fashioned ambience and its charming evocation of the period.

• Neil Smith, Film4

  A woeful slice of sentimental whimsy that makes Braveheart look like a documentary.

• Cosmo Landesman, Sunday Times (UK)

  As a film, it's a touch too Hollywood, and full of too much patriotic Braveheart guff, but, on the whole, the American director and writer, Charles Martin Smith, has created an amiable and watchable heist movie.

• Cath Clarke, Guardian [UK]

  Writer/director Charles Martin Smith is American, which wouldn't matter if this didn't feel so much like a wee-dram-and-bagpipes invitation to a mythical Scotland of yesteryear.

• Elliott Noble, Sky Movies

  Those whose national football and cricket teams are led by an Italian and a South African respectively have little room to talk, but surely Scotland has enough homegrown filmmaking talent to stick it to we sassenachs without relying on the Yanks?

• , Total Film

  It's hard to conceive a more clichéd depiction of Scotland than the one Charles Martin Smith fashions in this corny Celtic caper.

• Mark Adams, Daily Mirror [UK]

  This modest Scottish caper film is based on real events but it is all a bit too limp to really engage, despite impressive performances from Cox and Mara.

• Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

  Based on a true story, this rousing caper adventure can't help but keep audiences engaged. It's an efficiently made, if not particularly inventive, old-style romp that works away at your cynicism until you find a lump in your throat.

• Victor Olliver, Teletext

  Scottish nationalists are not likely to be wowed by this tiresome retelling of the "theft" of the Stone of Destiny (or Scone) from Westminster Abbey in 1950.

• Allan Hunter, Screen International

  An old-fashioned, unashamed heartwarmer more likely to prove a crowd- pleaser than a critical favourite.

Read all 15 critic reviews