Money Monster
TriStar Pictures | Release Date: May 13, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
15
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
89
The VergeTasha RobinsonJun 3, 2016
Foster's daringly different comedy is more interested with observing its well-drawn characters, and what it takes to change them on a fundamental level. It's easy to see it as a drama that fails to fully address America's shortcomings. It's actually something better: an insightful comedy about human perspective. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 12, 2016
Thanks to a stylish directorial turn by Jodie Foster and the shining star power of George Clooney and Julia Roberts (as well as a first-rate supporting cast), Money Monster rises above an uneven script that veers from clever and insightful to heavy-handed and obvious — sometimes within the same scene. Read full review
80
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)May 23, 2016
A fast-paced, entertaining, if somewhat on-the-nose mélange of thriller, satire, and drama, this is Jodie Foster’s best movie as a director. And we’d happily watch any TV show George Clooney wants to host. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekMay 13, 2016
Like the provocative classics Dog Day Afternoon and Network, this is discomfiting entertainment–its edges are serrated, sharp enough to cut. The camera moves to just the right place every minute, and the editing is crisp. Moments of nearly unbearable tension are broken by bursts of energy and even humor. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 12, 2016
It's a crudely populist movie designed to rouse the rabble, to loudly remind us greed isn't good. Viewers seeking another "The Big Short" will leave shortchanged. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorMay 12, 2016
Foster, recovering nicely from her last directorial outing in the surprisingly unfunny "The Beaver," proves her smarts by managing to balance these different strands of humour while keeping the action ticking along. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickMay 12, 2016
Cross “Dog Day Afternoon’’ with “The Big Short’’ and throw in a dash of “Network’’ and you’ve got Money Monster, a clever financial thriller with comic overtones that’s a solid investment of your time thanks to stellar work by George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayMay 12, 2016
Jodie Foster manages the interlocking tones of outrage and low humor with an unfailing rhythm and an engagingly casual cynicism. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 12, 2016
In a way it’s just another well-made thriller, but there are things here — currents captured, ideas frozen in time — that might make it more interesting as the years pass. For the time being, it’s good entertainment and deserves to be seen now. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 12, 2016
Foster's film doesn't doubt that money rules our lives. But it does wonder, provocatively, why we're dumb enough to let it. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 12, 2016
Smart and gripping - at least until the third act. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMay 12, 2016
As a solid B-movie elevated by A-list talent and pushed along by a brisk running time — it’s only 98 minutes—Money has its own rewards. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 12, 2016
Money Monster begins with a jolt of satire, proceeds through a maze of beat-the-clock exposition and lands on a surprisingly gentle, sentimental note. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 12, 2016
The film whirs along with such entertaining efficiency that you may not realize that, by the end, it has shifted its blame in a manner that does not exactly betray a lack of courage in its convictions, but a willingness to let some of the bad guys off the hook. Read full review
70
VarietyAndrew BarkerMay 12, 2016
As an indictment of Wall Street chicanery, it’s largely toothless; as a pure thriller, it only quickens the pulse once or twice; as a conspiracy saga, its central mystery falls flat. Yet somehow the film hangs together surprisingly well. Read full review
67
HitfixDrew McWeenyMay 18, 2016
Jodie Foster deserves credit for orchestrating things with a nimble wit and a relentless energy. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnMay 12, 2016
Foster's suspenseful treatment of the material is fun to watch but not the dramatic statement its blaring tone would suggest. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireMay 15, 2016
Ultimately, the film registers less as an indictment of widespread financial corruption than as a shallow exploration of one man’s greed. But briefly, when it’s at its peak value somewhere in the middle, Money Monster is a solid bet. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 12, 2016
An acceptable time-waster for a slow day in a movie theater or a slow night on cable. But it never makes you mad as hell, so what’s the point? Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 12, 2016
Unfortunately, despite a surfeit of talent in front of and behind the camera, the movie is unable to overcome a shaky narrative whose increasing preposterousness ensures it’s difficult to take seriously. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittMay 12, 2016
A hostage thriller, a campy satire of the 24/7 media culture and a takedown of Wall Street, though it never fully succeeds on any of those tracks. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 12, 2016
Money Monster, which is at its best when it’s at its most crisply realistic and timely, suffers from the kind of only-in-Hollywood plot twists and eye-rolling exaggeration that results in smarter than average pulp, but pulp nonetheless. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 12, 2016
Foster's direction, aided by cinematographer Matthew Libatique's sharp, clean light, is the most fluid and well-considered of her career. The script is an asset, too. Until it becomes a mixed-bag liability. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMay 12, 2016
Unfortunately, Money Monster, though perfectly competent, is one of those movies that promises more than it delivers. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 12, 2016
It’s not a “Nework” for our times. But a game cast and a reasonably tense take on a topic that is a major component of this election year’s zeitgeist — financial cheats stealing from America, and never brought to justice — make it work. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 24, 2016
There's no escaping it: Money Monster is a basic, silly movie. But it has on its side a top-notch cast and an entire absence of self-seriousness. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 12, 2016
You miss the lingering after-sting of catharsis that was a regular signature of Lumet’s work, but in the heat of the moment, Money Monster’s bluster and nerve keeps you hooked. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 12, 2016
This is no masterpiece, but it’s amiable slice of popcorn entertainment. Read full review
58
The PlaylistRuss FischerMay 12, 2016
The film is never as savage as the first-act anarchy suggests it might be, and its best ideas are subsumed into familiar thriller concepts. Good craftsmanship elevates the result above workaday thriller territory, but ultimately Money Monster never rages in the “mad as hell” mode that’s always kept just out of reach Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMay 18, 2016
While the Occupy Wall Street rage supposedly fueling this thing is flimsy, what’s left is still solidly entertaining. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty May 13, 2016
Director Jodie Foster's Money Monster runs a trim 98 minutes, but it's still not quite worth the investment. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMay 13, 2016
I couldn’t tell whether the film was intended to be a comedy; as it became more and more improbable, both predictable and ludicrous at once, I heard audience members chortle again and again. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 12, 2016
Unfortunately, as a director, Foster shows no knack or instinct for building tension; her style is strictly presentational, brisk and efficient, but with no sly trickery, desire to surprise or to forge technique that suggests an imaginative approach to storytelling. Read full review
42
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonMay 14, 2016
The direction and editing are slick and workmanlike, letting the performers do the work without overplaying the limited setting in which most of the film takes place. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 13, 2016
Money Monster turns into an unintentional parody. Investing in this movie would not be a safe bet. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushMatt SingerMay 15, 2016
Clooney and Roberts are both good fits for their roles, and they do what they can with the material they’re provided. It’s just that the material they’re provided is so crummy. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMay 12, 2016
Money Monster is all over the map, mixing earnest contemporary relevance, black comedy, bogus emotion and tragedy with its nominal thriller plot, all to frankly bewildering effect. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 12, 2016
Mr. Clooney’s prancing, dancing and clowning for the TV camera feel tame and vaguely self-conscious when measured, as they will be, against the calculated craziness of his role’s model, Mr. Cramer, who usually manages to seem simultaneously shrewd and stridently unhinged. Read full review
40
TheWrapRobert AbeleMay 12, 2016
A bewilderingly facile and preposterously plotted misfire that offers few pleasures as either a star-driven thriller or a big-screen indictment of the forces that devastated global bank accounts. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 12, 2016
The movie is competently made, but also perfunctory, telling us things about the greed of rich business executives and the shallowness of cable TV that we already know. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerMay 12, 2016
Foster, a novice at suspenseful filmmaking, doesn’t seem to know which screws to tighten or if screws even need tightening at all. Read full review
30
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonMay 14, 2016
As generic and impersonal as a new credit card offer, Jodie Foster’s Money Monster is the latest big-studio production to try to cash in on populist outrage over Wall Street abuses and New Gilded Age inequality. Read full review
20
CineVueMatthew AndersonMay 15, 2016
Money Monster hobbles towards the most unsurprising of finish lines. Thankfully, reaching the finale does put everyone out of their misery. Read full review
10
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 13, 2016
A stodgy, moribund plodder loaded with stock characters that wouldn’t have felt edgy in 1983 and has about the same contemporary urgency as your average late-night rerun of “CSI: NY.” Read full review
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