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91
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Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Does more than capture the excitement of marching bands; it gets their clockwork beauty as well.
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80
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Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Every holiday season needs a pleasant surprise, and this year it's Drumline. This entertaining and enthusiastically told tale shrewdly energizes its way-familiar plot line by setting it amid one of the greatest and least-known spectacles in American sports.
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80
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Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Shakes, rattles and rolls the house, building to a climax that makes you almost forget you're in a movie theater and not a football stadium at halftime.
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75
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Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Entertaining for what it does, and admirable for what it doesn't do. It gets us involved in band politics and strategy, gives us a lot of entertaining halftime music, and provides a portrait of a gifted young man who slowly learns to discipline himself and think of others. That's what it does. What it doesn't do is recycle all the tired old cliches.
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75
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San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel
These aren't the marching band songs of your father's or mother's generation but a musical expression that is modern and exciting to watch.
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75
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Boston Globe Wesley Morris
A bonanza of pop uplift. It wraps the up-from-nothing drama of ''Flashdance'' in the sassy, interracial pep rallying of ''Bring It On'' and the military romance of ''An Officer and a Gentleman.''
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70
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The New York Times Dana Stevens
If all this does not quite add up to a coherent movie, it does produce a bouncy, boisterous and charming one, which becomes downright thrilling when it shows the bands in action.
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63
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USA Today Mike Clark
If it's conventional, it's also competent. Thanks to director Charles Stone III (of the famed "Whassuup?!" Budweiser spots), the clichés at least have a good beat.
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63
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Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
The marching bands' duels are as fun as the cheerleader wars in "Bring It On."
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63
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New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Bogged down by a lazy script and underwhelming performances. Fortunately, there's no hiding his jubilant passion for ritual and symmetry, which makes each perfectly choreographed band scene a genuine thrill to watch.
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