Charles Binamé’s biopic about hockey’s Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard is scoring big with the critics.

A ‘dynamite movie,’ raves the Ottawa Sun’s Louis B. Hobson and ‘the best of tributes’ to the legendary Montreal Canadiens forward.

The film, which chronicles Richard’s career with the Canadiens up until the riot caused by his NHL suspension in 1955, ‘manages to get across a lot more than a battle between men on ice,’ writes Ken Eisner of the Georgia Straight.

‘The decision to so strongly emphasize Richard’s importance as a political and cultural figure gives greater heft to the many conventional sports-flick tropes and cornier bits of dialogue,’ adds Jason Anderson in Eye Weekly.

‘Ultimately, The Rocket scores because it’s a significant, rigorously intelligent sports film (a rarity) that transcends all the clichés,’ says the Winnipeg Free Press’ Randall King.

Roy Dupuis plays Richard to high praise, ‘as if he had been bred for the role,’ according to Erik Floren of the Edmonton Sun. Stephen McHattie, meanwhile, turns in a ‘brilliantly ferocious’ performance as the Canadiens coach Dick Irvin, cheers Michael D. Reid of the Victoria Times Colonist.

The Globe and Mail’s Rick Groen complains the film lacks complexity, however, grousing that ‘the result is a gaseous bit of myth-making that steams out the wrinkles of a life to accommodate the demands of a legend.’

Silent Hill: The real horror story behind the latest Don Carmody production is in the reviews. Silent Hill is ‘witless, soulless and joyless,’ complains Ray Bennett of the Hollywood Reporter, setting the tone for his colleagues, and ‘displays its video game origins throughout.’

The Canada/France copro ‘starts out promisingly – atmospheric and creepy – but degenerates into a muddle of nonsensical plotting, dull characters and unintentional hilarity,’ says the Toronto Sun’s Steve Tilley.

Despite director Christophe Gans’ elaborate visuals and stabs at psychological depth, the ‘final effect is negligible,’ agrees Variety’s Dennis Harvey.

Peter Howell of the Toronto Star is even less generous. ‘Dumber than a bag of coffin nails,’ he quips. ‘The movie is like a cross between House of 1000 Corpses, Mad Max: Thunderdome and a lost Michael Jackson video, and it doesn’t make a lick of sense.’

Howell wasn’t the only one who found the plot, about a mother who goes to a ghost town with her dying daughter only to be preyed upon by monsters, confusing. It also lost the Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert:

‘Not only can I not describe the plot of this movie, but I have a feeling the last scene reverses half of what I thought I knew (or didn’t know),’ writes Ebert.

The chorus of complaints also touches on the 125-minute runtime, the acting and the dialogue, which ‘become exponentially more painful when the movie goes on forever,’ says Peter Hartlaub in the San Francisco Chronicle.