Like most sports movies, 42 is easy to like, but hard to love. (filmcrave.com)
This deliberately scattergun approach helps Gillespie avoid the straitjacket of chronology that is so stifling in most sports movies. (independent.co.uk)
And it has one quality most sports movies don't: It doesn't stop at the triumphant freeze - frame of an underdog who's finally on top. (charlotteobserver.com)