Name : Stephen Farber / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
No movie with such a limp ending can be fully satisfying, and the beginning also falters. But the long middle section is a rousing good show.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
"Exodus" is an exercise in visual trickery that reaches for nothing beyond the obvious.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
"Exodus" turns out to be part of a time-honored tradition: the old-fashioned, super-spectacular Hollywood bomb.

Name : Chris Vognar / Alias : Dallas Morning News
Admirably cogent, even colloquial, Exodus plows through its stages efficiently, methodically and without much Old Testament passion.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Exodus: Gods and Kings is as uneven as Ridley Scott's career; at times, it seems to be a journey through the director's greatest strengths and weaknesses. The good news is that his strengths eventually win out .

Name : Linda Barnard / Alias : Toronto Star
Director Ridley Scott ticks the visual "epic" box with Exodus: Gods and Kings, but leaves emotion in the dust by trading spectacle for a compelling story.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
For all of the care and imagination that have been lavished on the production. the film's impact is best expressed by frequent aerial shots that are visually impressive and emotionally remote.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Richard Roeper.com
'Exodus: Gods and Kings' is spectacular.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
It's understandable that people were angry about the whitewashing of Egypt. But no aspiring actor of color should think of this as an opportunity missed so much as a bullet dodged.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
You'll leave humming the plagues.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
We have no idea. What's the point of a Moses movie without a message from the mountaintop? Scott has broken the second commandment of a Bible movie: Have something to say and someone majestic to say it.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
Its grandiose set pieces feel empty and imitative (Scott pulled off this kind of thing much more successfully in "Gladiator"), and the whole picture feels glitzy and hollow at the core.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : L.A. Weekly
Ridley Scott can't decide if making rivers run with blood is heroic or horrific - you sense he'd rather make Gladiator II: Attack of the Frogs.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
The screenplay (credited to four screenwriters) is a mess, the pacing is uneven, the acting is inconsistent, and the experience as a whole is a letdown.

Name : Christopher Orr / Alias : The Atlantic
This is the first portrayal of God I've ever encountered who looked like he could use a good spanking.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
Bland, overly long and otherwise forgettable.

Name : Jake Coyle / Alias : Associated Press
For an epic, there are, at best, only two clearly seen characters in Exodus.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
The result feels less like a straightforward retread of the biblical narrative than an amped-up commentary on it: This "Exodus" comes at you in a heady and violent onrush of incident .

Name : Mark Jenkins / Alias : NPR
Crowd-wowing CGI spectacle and the inevitable if inconsequential 3-D effects make Exodus look like pure product, without any defining vision.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
"Exodus: Gods and Kings" does a fair job of giving us what might be called The Second-Greatest Story Ever Told. What it never convinces us of is why.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
A mish-mash - part half-committed melodrama, part half-thought-out political provocation.

Name : Liam Lacey / Alias : Globe and Mail
While the pale skin tones (bronzer is selectively applied) and haphazard mix of American and British accents is distracting, it barely scratches the surface of Exodus's ungainly artificiality.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
The movie works well as big-budget spectacle despite a ho-hum script.

Name : Cary Darling / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
An even better special effect would have been having a main cast that actually reflects the Mediterranean/North African desert environment.There are darker-skinned actors on the screen, though they just happen to be all slaves, servants and soldiers.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
This is spectacular entertainment, practically a theme park ride, that could have used more spirituality and soul.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
"Exodus" is ludicrous only by accident, which isn't much fun and is the surest sign of what we might call a New Testament sensibility at work. But the movie isn't successfully serious, either.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
Momentous conversations periodically grind any retelling of the Moses story to a halt, but Scott keeps his head down, plows through and then gets out of the way while visual effects supervisor Peter Chiang and his slave army take it on home.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
An utterly clueless, relentlessly grim and rambling action epic guaranteed to displease devout Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, amuse atheists - and generally bore everyone.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
After a strong opening and a sagging middle, "Exodus: Gods and Kings" regains its stride and surpasses itself in the last third, when the God of Abraham unleashes a series of calamities on Egypt and the royal household.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : RogerEbert.com
A numbing and soulless spectacle of 3-D, computer-generated imagery run amok, Ridley Scott's "Exodus: Gods and Kings" presents an enduring tale by pummeling us over the head with it.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Computer-generated imaging has advanced spectacularly over the decades, but moviegoers, and gamers, have been there every step of the way. Miracles aren't as impressive as they used to be.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Scott departs from Scripture enough to raise hackles. For example, this Moses sees God in the person of an insolent schoolboy (Isaac Andrews).

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Before you're able to get too distracted by Exodus' flaws, Scott reaches back into his bag of pixie dust and whips up another grand illusion.

Name : Randy Myers / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
What this 3-D extravaganza gets spectacularly right is in putting the epic back into the biblical epic.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
This eye-rollingly bad movie is silly, sluggish and miscast.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
"Exodus: Gods and Kings" has drawn fire for casting White actors in the major roles, but don't get too bogged down in that. Really, that's hardly the only reason to not like it.

Name : Kenneth Turan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Scott is nothing if not a master orchestrator of chaos, and, both intentionally and otherwise, "Exodus: Gods and Kings" offers plenty of that.

Name : David Ehrlich / Alias : Time Out New York
The ultimate takeaway is that if you can't finance a $140 million epic about ancient Egypt with racially appropriate actors, maybe you shouldn't make a $140 million epic about ancient Egypt.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
Moses is imagined as if Scott met him on an awkward first date.

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
At least DeMille knew how to put on a show; the best this offers are a few bursts of Old Testament camp .

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
As an actor, Rock doesn't create much of a spark with Dawson, and as a director, he tends to let scenes go on too long.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
"Top Five" is a funny movie, but Rock has his sights set higher than lowbrow, and for the most part, he succeeds.

Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out New York
On the surface, a lost-artist comedy in the vein of Woody Allen's Stardust Memories, but more deeply, a referendum on the dead-end choices Rock himself might be feeling.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
The sweetest surprise in this raunchy comic ride is how artfully Rock lets down his guard. His confident, prowling wit as a stand-up has finally found its way to the screen, enhanced by a bracing vulnerability.

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
Top Five finds Rock in an elevated form, at 49. Things change, sometimes for the better.

Name : Anna Silman / Alias : Salon.com
Rock still hasn't figured out exactly what he wants you to think of him, but the way the film reflects that uncertainty may be the most interesting thing about it.

Name : Calvin Wilson / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
With "Top Five," Rock has finally made the transition to true movie stardom.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
Welcome back, Chris Rock.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
What lingers hours later aren't just the laughs but the people.

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
A disorganized, dawdling mess of a movie that is rarely anything less than charming.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
The movie, which alternates between hilariously vulgar gags and some electric improvs and riffs by Rock and his cast of all-stars, has the crackle and pop of a live performance - it energizes you.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
The mess never coheres, but it sends off you on a high anyway.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
In "Top Five," you sense Rock trying to load all these disparate talents onto a conventional romantic-comedy structure. It's a close call, but it holds.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
Raunchy in extremis, often funny and at times touching, "Top Five" is Chris Rock's sincere attempt to craft a film career largely detached from his stand-up clowning.

Name : Tony Hicks / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
You'll likely leave the theater smiling. And when's the last time you cold say that about a Chris Rock movie?

Name : Betsy Sharkey / Alias : Los Angeles Times
To the writing, Rock brings the discipline of his stand-up. Even with some improvisation, there is not one throwaway line in this fat-free script.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Rock's fast-talking rhythms are all over this movie, and they lift it up; it's like dropping in on a party full of funny people, and leaving before the evening fades.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
An innovative take on familiar material, Top Five is an exquisitely paced, rich, idiosyncratic, satirical, yet deeply moving free-form comedy about a Hollywood star who is shadowed for one day by a New York Times reporter.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
"Top Five" has the bright, high-gloss feel of the most delicious wish-fulfillment fantasies, but it derives its spiky, propulsive energy from the adamantly forthright figure at its center.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
It can be hard for a movie to dwell on the problems of the rich and famous without seeming a touch self-serving, but Rock always keeps things in perspective.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
It can be delightful, intelligent, crude, clumsy and culturally tone-deaf, depending on which scene is rolling by. One minute it's a major letdown, the next minute a joy to watch.

Name : James Rocchi / Alias : TheWrap
"Top Five" may be Chris Rock's biggest and boldest film as a director and writer, but a sharper, smarter, realer script would have made it far more than just a lazy, lightweight laughfest.

Name : Richard Brody / Alias : New Yorker
Chris Rock wrote, directed, and stars in this genial, splendidly constructed, occasionally hilarious comic drama with a reflexive twist.

Name : Manohla Dargis / Alias : New York Times
A romantic comedy that's also an extended riff on art, identity, authenticity and what it means to be a black entertainer .

Name : Lisa Kennedy / Alias : Denver Post
Like Rock's best stand-up shows, Top Five mixes the sweet with the salty, the naughty with the remarkably kind. It celebrates the darkly hilarious with the light of whip-smart observations.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
For an ostensibly soul-deep movie like this to work, we need more than smirks and scowls.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
Mr. Rock has made a pyrotechnic pinwheel of a personal comedy, and he's had the wisdom to share it with a strong co-star. While he sends sparks flying every which way, Rosario Dawson keeps the story grounded in calm intelligence and classic romance.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
You come away from it with the thrilling sensation that you're seeing an artist you thought you knew reinvent himself.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
Top Five is Rock's most accomplished work yet, a truly personal story whose comedic riffs on love, race, sex, and celebrity are carefully woven into a credible romantic plot.

Name : Linda Holmes / Alias : NPR
It's fun to watch Chris Rock; it's just fun. And there are parts of this film where it's fun to watch him in exactly the ways he wants it to be.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
Rock is on a roll again.

Name : Chris Vognar / Alias : Dallas Morning News
The movie marks the first time Rock's stand-up persona - cutting, vulnerable, afraid of no sacred cows - has survived intact on the way to the multiplex. That alone is reason for fans to celebrate.

Name : Jordan Mintzer / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
The writing is strong enough that when the humor gives way to drama in the second half, there's enough at stake to keep us interested, although Rock still has plenty of jokes in store for the finale.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
It's a slap-happy movie and often scurrilously funny - the sound of a gifted comic mind finally finding its onscreen voice.

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
Rock has said that he wanted to make a movie that captures the energy of his stand-up. Top Five fits the bill.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
Rock's ambitious passion project - he wrote, directed and stars in it - is a bawdy, uninhibited yet thoughtful social satire about fame vs. artistic fulfillment.

Name : Stephanie Zacharek / Alias : Village Voice
Top Five is a reminder that as often as comedy fails us, sometimes it's our best hope for resuscitation. Seeing it at the end of a crap week, I suddenly felt I could breathe again.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Richard Roeper.com
A seriously funny, semi-autobiographical film that might be the most accomplished work Chris Rock has ever done for the big screen.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
[Rock is] still not all the way there in "Top Five," his third effort as writer-director-star. But the movie has so many laughs it hardly matters.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
Just when it seemed like Chris Rock had already done plenty for the culture, along comes his latest work as a writer and director, "Top Five." And it's one of the most vibrant, sly romantic comedies this year.

Name : David Haglund / Alias : Slate
Extremely enjoyable .