"Lee's finest, most unabashed labor of love."
— Desson Thomson, Washington Post
"This is an extraordinary life, and Spike Lee has told it in an extraordinary film."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"Unusually rich, absorbing and often brilliant film-making, an epic deserving of the description."
— Lynden Barber, Sydney Morning Herald
"A spiritually enriching testament to the human capacity for change -- and surely Spike Lee's most universally appealing film."
— Rita Kempley, Washington Post
"Lee and company have performed a powerful service: they have brought Malcolm X very much to life again, both as man and myth."
— David Ansen, Newsweek
"Though at times it borders on the hagiographic, Malcolm X is remarkably faithful to the essence of the man -- his anger, his sly wit, his perpetual growth."
— Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
"Lee's biography of the slain civil rights leader treats Malcolm, not as a political rallying point, but as a fully rounded individual whose life defies reduction to symbolic status."
— TV Guide Magazine
"Washington has never been better, capturing the greatly varied phases of Malcolm’s personality while always giving us a full sense of a single man: sharp, smart, with a quick smile but also a simmering, righteous anger."
— Josh Larsen, LarsenOnFilm