Critic Reviews
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74
Metascore
Generally Favorable
positive
8(67%)
mixed
4(33%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 12 Critic Reviews
100
Compelling.
90
That balance of viewpoints--positive and negative, tragic and comic--is what makes Carrier such extraordinary viewing.
90
The 10 hours of PBS' immersive miniseries Carrier are frank and intimate, hard-hitting and heart-rending, rocking (with hit songs) and rolling (when the ship pitches so sharply, planes can't land).
88
Titled Carrier, this series from Mel Gibson's Icon Productions might be the most candid look at everyday life on board a U.S. warship in wartime that has ever been filmed.
80
The filmmakers deliver a fine balance of both elated big-gun worship and humiliated bathroom cleaning, melting-pot team-making and the cliquishness of ethnic groups.
80
What sets Carrier apart is the amount of time devoted to this single topic, a whopping 10 hours. I made it through the first three hours without losing interest, but I wonder how many viewers will gut it out for the duration.
80
With a careful mix of respect, curiosity and humor, the filmmakers offer a colorful and surprisingly nuanced tour of the day-to-day operations of the USS Nimitz during a six-month deployment in 2005, from California to Hong Kong, Guam, Bahrain and Perth, Australia.
80
With its scenic photography, slick editing and relentless pop-rock soundtrack, Carrier has the feel of a movie, or maybe the world's longest recruitment video. It's also an engrossing, rewarding and addictive study of personal endurance and sacrifice.
60
But even at 10 hours, Carrier feels cursory and incomplete. That's not to say that at most any given moment it's uninteresting--it's quite watchable--just that it doesn't add up to as much as it should.
60
Like the Navy, Carrier is perfect for some and probably isn't for everyone.
