Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

qhapp1 Wow, that was absolutely terrible. My neighbor lent it to me to watch and told me it was great, but she's clueless when it comes to horses, obviously. I loved how at the beginning of the movie, the pregnant mare is just standing outside. In the rain; a thunderstorm actually. Like anyone with a mare even remotely close to foaling would leave her outside. How stupid. And then she just died for no apparent reason. It sounds terrible, but I totally cracked up.And then I never really got the point of the sister/boyfriend subplot. It was really dumb and predictable.Next point of stupidity: The girl was riding the two-year-old horse at a dead gallop over terrible-looking terrain at night. By the time that horse is 7 or 8, his knees will be so ruined that he won't be capable of cantering with a rider on his back!And the horse was different in almost every scene. He'd change from flea-bitten gray to dapple gray; he'd change from a Quarter Horse to a Thoroughbred; his face markings would change from a blaze to a snip; it was so obvious! Anyway, that's an hour and a half of my life that I'll never have back. If you haven't seen it yet: don't! I am a horse person; I have 2 horses of my own, so naturally I'm very critical of horse movies. But that was the worst I've seen since Black Beauty.

David Matthews O.K. you can see the plot twists coming a mile way but the film ends up being a pleasant experience and a notch better than the usual 'girl and her horse movie' mainly because of the superior production. There is some beautiful Nova Scotia scenery and many shots of galloping horses to delight the horse lovers.The acting is generally good although Gabriel Byrne's mind seems elsewhere and he tends to mumble his lines and that, with his Irish accent makes him difficult to understand sometimes. The two young girls playing his daughters however bear the brunt of the film and they are both excellent and pretty. There is sentiment in the movie but it never gets maudlin. The scene where the girls reminisce about their dead mother is genuinely moving.The lengthy final endurance horse race is well done and the suspense is maintained until the end as the bad guys (more jerks than anything else)try their skullduggery to stop Virginia from race. The kids will love it when one of them gets his comeuppance in that old cliche - the horse trough.There in nothing scary for the kids and when the film is over you are left with a nice warm feeling, which is the way this type of film should leave you.

Frolic Magnificent family entertainment. Nice to see the bad guy dressed totally in black, just like the good old cowboy movies! My nine year old daughter was on the edge of her seat from beginning to end, relating to the young women who were struggling to win, and to the magnificent horses.

jlinksmi ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I saw Virginia's Run at the Seattle Film Festival and found myself totally absorbed. The movies it brings to mind are National Velvet and more recently Fly Away Home. The cinematography is beautiful a la The Black Stallion but it is the story that swept me away. A family is recovering from the loss of their mother in a horse accident and the 12 year old daughter is forbidden to ride again by the father, Gabriel Byrne. She helps deliver a foal in the middle of the night (how they did this is beyond me) and she adopts the horse without telling her dad. When the horse is grown she rides him at night, Eventually he finds out, trauma ensues but ut us resolved and in the end she enters a 50 mile endurance race where her chief rival is her sister's boyfriend. The film never has a false moment and the acting is strong across the board. Gabriel Byrne is a wonderful presnece and really anchors the film. JoAnne Whalley plays an outsider who prods him along accepting Virginia's desire to ride and she is very good. I loved the relationship between Virginia and her sister, Caroline who is a few years older and very different in terms of her interests. She is going through the mid-teen sexuality trip which Virginia can't relate to. There is a scene where Caroline reads (actually she has it memorized) her mother's diary that had the entire audience in tears. Actually I counted four times I was drawn to tears. Caroline's boyfriend is cute as hell but a real jerk. And a very effective jerk. You can't wait to see him get squashed. For my kids there was great action. The horse photography is fabulous and the scenery breathtaking. The girl who played Virginia is so spunky and real that she could carry the movie by herself. She doesn't ever overact and is right on the money in every scene. If you want to see a film for the family that isn't in the 'dumb comedy' category or isn't animated film this is the real thing. After the theaters it's going to sell tons of videos.