Panic Room
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: March 29, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
13
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
Panic Room is fluidly made, and it keeps the audience quiet and unpleasantly gripped. But the only surprise is the absence of surprise; that trap is in too-plain view. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
A well-crafted exercise in urban paranoia that's so controlled it never achieves the reckless, visceral immediacy its subject matter demands. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
What's surprising about this traditional thriller, moderately successful but not completely satisfying, is exactly how genteel and unsurprising the execution turns out to be. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Soon enough a pointed ode to New York City nerve-rack and survival skills dissolves into a far more average, less compelling, and sometimes just slapdash-vicious cat-and-mouse game. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Might give you a few decorating ideas if you happen to have been wondering about a home bomb shelter, but it's a thriller that doesn't thrill. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Feels like a Fincher film: It possesses the same smarts, the same visual panache, the same violence. But not the same heart. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
I was never bored but only occasionally interested. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The kind of joyless, over-calculated hit that may leave viewers feeling not haunted but headachy. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Foster is fine, but the story's outcome would seem a tad more uncertain if another actress had the part. How scary are three New York tough guys when you've handled Hannibal Lecter in your time? Read full review
40
SalonCharles Taylor
Might be entertaining for those who like seeing a terrified teenage girl watch a loved one get beaten to a pulp while she slides into a diabetic coma. For the rest of us it's both stagnant and vaguely unpleasant. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Like the shelter for which it is named, Panic Room is an efficiently tooled construction (albeit one whose success is overly predicated on its villains' single-minded idiocy). But unlike the eponymous treasure trove, there's nothing inside. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
It's difficult to work up a strong case of the heebie-jeebies when you keep getting thrown out of the movie by all the atrocious acting. Read full review
40
New Times (L.A.)Robert Wilonsky
The cumulative effect is less thrilling than it is merely amusing. Read full review
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