Firewall
Release Date: February 10, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
26
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
A thriller with enough of the right ingredients to provide a couple hours of escapism. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
An ingenious attempt to update an old plot with new technology, and it is made with competence, skillful acting, and the ability to make us feel cleverer about digital stuff than we really are. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate Taylor
Overall, it's a satisfying example of the classic thriller, with a nifty digital update for these times. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
There's almost nothing you haven't seen before in this slick, preposterous, but occasionally exciting thriller. An angry Ford absorbs, and dishes out, massive punishment for a fellow his age, while Virginia Madsen is sadly wasted as his wife. Read full review
67
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
It's the wrestling match between the banker and the bad guy that fuels the audience's adrenaline. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
This movie, an efficient time-passer at least until the plot starts obsessing over the fate of the family dog, is more into gadgets than people. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
The amount of enjoyment one gets out of the Harrison Ford crime-action thriller Firewall depends on one's tolerance for watching thugs terrify an innocent family for most of the movie. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian Lowry
Firewall begins slowly, exhibits hints of promise in the middle and then descends into silliness. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The director, Richard Loncraine, doesn't generate much tension in Firewall's first half...The standard-issue climax is pretty exciting, though. Read full review
60
SalonStephanie Zacharek
There's just not enough of Forster, who has a small role as Ford's work colleague and confidant. ..Sometimes star quality shines out from the corners of a movie, and not from the center. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyJohn Patterson
We spend too much time with the kidnappers - a veritable Geek Squad of undifferentiated techies - as each successive escape attempt is foiled and our eyes are warped by abundant shots of computer screens and grainy surveillance-camera footage. Read full review
50
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Firewall’s predictable second half betrays the film's early promise. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
It starts off with a slick split-screen bang, but this high tech heist thriller is like a For Dummies guide to the genre. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Schickel
To make something like Firewall good, you have to make it at least a little bit new--or add more than an unending patter of rain and techno-talk. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
Everything here is a known quantity except one question that could have been inspired by a Tootsie Roll Pop commercial: How many twists does it take to finally, at long last, get to the predictable ending? Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
As a thriller, Firewall is flabby and familiar. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Ford, soon to be eligible for Medicare, gives his entire performance without losing his breath or changing his expression, and Bettany, a British actor whose pasty complexion won him the role of Silas the Albino in the coming "The Da Vinci Code," is an apt tormentor cum foil of his prey. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Manages to entertain mildly only because it traffics in all the familiar action-movie clichés, giving moviegoers ample opportunity to test their action-movie I.Q. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Firewall might be worth renting on an inclement weekend when the pickings are slim. It does have some tense moments - even if some of the technical plot points don't quite scan. But, overall, it just feels like a rehash. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It disrespects Seattle. Not only is this yet another filmed-in-Vancouver movie that's supposed to be set here, it takes place in a blinding rainstorm of the kind only a Hollywood rain machine can make. As we all know, it never rains like that in Seattle. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
For though it is a reasonable facsimile of a successful thriller, this film (named after a barrier that protects computers from hackers) never manages to be more than mildly effective. Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
One of the many disappointments of Firewall is how it squanders its own cast. Good character actors, including Robert Forster and Alan Arkin, are wasted--literally, in some cases, as the body count piles up. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
Harrison Ford carries this talky, formulaic thriller by virtue of his authority, culled from years in front of the camera, but his performance can't obscure the obvious plot machinations. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
I like it for the thing it is, a reasonably solid B movie, and I like it as one in the continuum of bizarre Ford vehicles that combine high-stakes action with household horror. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A movie like this needs a suave, amoral villain, so here's Paul Bettany. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Although a happy ending is preordained, at least Joe Forte's script takes the less-obvious route there. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
For a while, Firewall whips up the accordant dollops of suspense and dread, but it's not long before the timely issue of identity theft takes a backseat to old-fashioned Hollywood villainy, unnecessary (and nonsensical) red herrings, and STUFF THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
It's disconcerting to see Virginia Madsen, who was so marvelous in her 2004 comeback role in "Sideways" reduced to playing the terrified wife here. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Firewall does more to destroy my desire to see a new Indiana Jones movie than anything the aging process could conjure. Read full review
40
EmpireTony Horkins
Covers disappointingly predictable territory for an actor of Ford's skills and reputation. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
As used cars go, the latest and possibly last Harrison Ford thriller, Firewall, is no deal: It runs rough, stalls frequently, smells like the stale sweat of four dozen older movies, and handles like a blind mule. Read full review
40
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Flagging energy isn't the only issue here; Ford has become enslaved in his own cliches. Read full review
38
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The charismatic Rajskub, who played a prickly computer geek on TV's "24," has nothing to do as Jack's loyal secretary. Read full review
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
The kind of thriller whose ridiculous climax hinges on a hitherto undisclosed GPS tracking device in a dog's collar - an appropriate touch in a movie that's more than a little flea-ridden itself. Read full review
38
PremiereJohn Migliore
Clichés are often a big part of what makes suspense films enjoyable. But Firewall goes out of its way to promise something more than business as usual, and then makes no attempt whatsoever to deliver. Read full review
30
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Its execution is stultifying, laughable and ultimately a little offensive. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Before Firewall crumbles into foolishness, Harrison Ford and Paul Bettany make an oft-recycled plot look like a stylish model that just rolled out of a showroom.
16
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Firewall is a witless entertainment, and a derivative one, too; it's everything listless about Hollywood in February, everything discardable about the genre in general. Read full review
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