Critic Reviews

• Dennis Harvey, Variety

  Gripping.

• Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

  A gorgeous looking film filled with the sort of footage one can only get with patience and persistence.

• Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader

  Many of the sequences are intense, like those in which the lioness refines its hunting strategies in unfamiliar territory. But they're undercut by Jeremy Irons's sonorous narration.

• Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

  Wrenching and wondrous, Dereck and Beverly Joubert's documentary The Last Lions is not a tale for the faint-hearted.

• Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times

  No matter how you feel about real-life drama being shaped and enhanced in the editing room, this is wildlife storytelling at its formidable finest.

• Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle

  It's all very melodramatic, but the Jouberts accompany this story with incredible visuals, with an exceptional level of access.

• Jay Antani, Cinema Writer

  an extraordinary achievement

• Robert W. Butler, Kansas City Star

  There's some heartbreaking stuff here but also moments of triumph. Not to mention visuals that will leave audiences breathless.

• Justin Strout, Orlando Weekly

  It's uplifting, but also raw and brutal.

• Rob Thomas, Capital Times (Madison, WI)

  Especially if older kids are already fascinated with wild animals, they'll be mesmerized, and will probably successfully badger you to donate to the cause via text message on the way out of the theater.

• Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media

  Visually stunning nature docu has some upsetting scenes.

• Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle

  This nature documentary about the vanishing lions of Africa is not your children's Lion King.

• Jackie Loohauis, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

  This is National Geographic writ raw for effect, and "The Last Lions" suffers for it.

• Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  While "The Last Lions" lacks the visceral excitement of some other survival dramas, it has anthropomorphic heart to spare.

• Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press

  If something can be done to save these last lions, this sort of honest appraisal is exactly the first step we need.

• Alison Gang, San Diego Union-Tribune

  Quite possibly the most emotionally wrenching, stunningly beautiful film I've yet to encounter - fiction or otherwise.

• Zak Jason, Boston Phoenix

  The Last Lions turns Duba Island into a theater of survival, love, and adaptation.

• Jesse Cataldo, Slant Magazine

  So much is contained in the film, from real technical virtuosity to heart-wrenching moments of pathos, that it's a shame it seems satisfied to be so ordinary in other aspects.

Read all 18 critic reviews