Catch a Fire
Focus Features | Release Date: October 27, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Stories of resistance to oppression will never become obsolete, but this feels like a picture that should have been made a long time ago. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
The less rosy message of Catch a Fire is that aggression breeds aggression. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'Hara
An intelligent thriller that effectively conveys the message that terrorism, even in apartheid-era South Africa, is rarely a black-and-white issue. Read full review
50
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
In the end, Catch a Fire plays like some weird hybrid on the crazy-quilt filmography of Phillip Noyce, which includes small productions made in his native Australia and the Sharon Stone sexcapade "Sliver." What it's definitely not is the standard-issue movie about apartheid; there's no white protagonist, no pale-faced hero riding in on his high horse to save the oppressed black man. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneJessica Reaves
The horrors of apartheid deserve a better treatment than this. Read full review
50
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Director Phillip Noyce has made a serious movie that switches to almost popcorn entertainment. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
It’s a film that wants to play as if it were ripped from today’s headlines, but has been shredded into near incoherence. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The problem with Tim Robbins' dreadful turn as a South African "anti-terrorist" official in Catch A Fire--and it was also a problem with his sniveling Bill Gates impersonation in "Antitrust"--is that he can't hide his distaste for his own character. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The film never strays much beyond the obvious, despite a conscientious effort by Tim Robbins to humanize a white security officer. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Catch a Fire just doesn't spark. Read full review
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