While conventional, “Hard Miles” is a well-meaning and benign effort boosted by an agreeable cast.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 7, 2024

Mack Fisher’s cinematography gives a good viewpoint to the film so the audience can see what kind of desert country this is, while Andrew Johnson’s music adds to the mix. This gives the word “accomplishment” new meaning.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 6, 2024

Though you know exactly what you’re going to get from co-writer/director RJ Daniel Hanna’s film... it’s made with care, there are some nice performances from the supporting cast, and the Colorado vistas are suitably epic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 4, 2024

Hard Miles hauls its tired-out premise up approximately 750 miles of winding, mountainous roads in search of a foregone conclusion.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 3, 2024

Matthew Modine finally gets the starring role he deserves, the first that’s fully tested him since his Eighties heyday, in this true-life sports drama about the healing power of cycling.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 31, 2024

It is not a hard movie to love.

Full Review | May 30, 2024

A formulaic sports movie that unfolds predictably, exactly on cue, with no surprises or upsets. But I warmed to its sensitivity; it possesses an insistence that these difficult boys are vulnerable and scared kids.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 29, 2024

A formulaic but well-acted film.

Full Review | May 8, 2024

The movie is very well-paced, logically structured, and consistently engaging throughout its nearly two-hour runtime.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 29, 2024

By the end we want these boys to succeed and make something of their lives

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 28, 2024

With counselor Greg rolling through mountains of metaphors and aphorisms, this drama about the real-life Rite of Passage cycling program is a vehicle made for families with teens to view together.

Full Review | Apr 27, 2024

It passes the time with some pretty sights, fairly worn cliches and semi-serious cycling, a pleasant-enough dramedy that never gets out of the low, easy gears.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 26, 2024

There’s a cable channel quality to this inspirational sports movie...a clichéd but well-meaning coming-of-age cycling drama that will warm the hearts of viewers willing to overlook its predictability even as it will irritate those who won’t.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Apr 24, 2024

With nicely offhanded dialog and engaging characters, the film holds the interest even though it's clear from the start where it's heading. So while there are edgy, humorous touches, it's ultimately a warm, fuzzy story.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 23, 2024

Hard Miles is not going to be considered a classic movie about underestimated marathon bicyclists. However, this sentimental drama has good acting performances and an inspiring message that outweigh many of the corniest moments.

Full Review | Apr 19, 2024

With an excellent round at festivals, delicious performances, warm cinematography and a story worth telling, director and screenwriter R.J Daniel Hanna scores a success with a film that has the gift of inspiring. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 19, 2024

This inspirational cycling story is worth an easy trip to the movie theatre.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 19, 2024

[T]he film is a combination of spectacular scenery, arduous exertion, inspiring pep talks, adolescent rebellion, emotional confrontations, and lessons learned by both the teenagers and their leader.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 19, 2024

An inspiring movie that pushes away the soot and trauma of our overtaxed corrections system to find the inherent good in its young denizens, one pedal, one hard mile, at a time.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 19, 2024

The term "feel good" is as critic present as flop sweat, but this film embodies feel goodism. The metaphoric journey delivers all of the characters, an authentic story of what would actually happen to pedal pushers in the scenario. Matthew Modine rocks!

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 19, 2024