51
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenDirector Donald Wrye handles this chestnut with restraint, scoring points about media madness and the fear of success without getting messagy. [05 Feb 1979, p.79]
- 70Washington PostJudith MartinWashington PostJudith MartinIt's simply a good film that children should enjoy and parents feel it worthwhile for them to see. It has a sentimental story, but that's better than the usual dumb good-guys-bad-guys stories; it's corny, but that's better than the cheap smartsyness of most youth films. [02 Feb 1979, p.19]
- 63The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottMiss Johnson may not be an actress, but her lack of emotional resources and her bland ingenuousness conspire to give the manipulative, sentimental, unconvincing conceit of Ice Castles a naive force that occasionally approaches the simple pleasures of Rocky. [29 Jan 1979]
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertHas it come to this? Do we need the additional emotional jolts of blindness, paralysis and amputation in order to accept a story about young love and kids succeeding by luck and pluck? People who are handicapped must find that these movies range from the depressing to the contemptible.
- 50Time OutTime OutYou'd have to be blind to miss the moral.
- 50TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineIce Castles collapses under the weight of sentimental overkill.
- 40The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinIt's too bad that Mr. Wrye's bungling renders the story sob-proof, because injured-athlete sagas are usually so hard to resist.
- 40Washington PostGary ArnoldWashington PostGary ArnoldIce Castles has been shamelessly, and none too slickly, engineered to empty the tear ducts of customers primed to blubber at the sight of a Pavlovian cliche. [03 Feb 1979, p.D7]