Rules of Engagement
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: April 7, 2000 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
14
Negative:
10
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The drama ultimately retreats to safer, duller, more illogical, and more reactionary impulses and stereotypes. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleBob Graham
But the single most compelling performance may belong to Australian actor Guy Pearce. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyJohn Patterson
Worth it, though, for the conviction and ramrod-erect bearing that pros Jackson and Jones bring to their roles. Read full review
70
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Friedkin turns on the juice and Jones and Jackson let it rip.
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Works splendidly as a courtroom thriller about military values as long as you don't expect it to seriously consider those values. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The setup doesn't make sense from the get-go. Read full review
63
New York PostJonathan Foreman
As mechanical and predictable as a cuckoo clock, it shouldn't work half as well as it does. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Friedkin does a superb job of serving up the well-appointed script by James Webb and Stephen Gaghan. Read full review
60
NewsweekTed Gideonse
Jones even manages to save this somewhat tiring film. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Passable, moderately diverting dramatic entertainment. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Sometimes, movies would work better if you couldn't see them. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
There's not much going on here, and there is little suspense. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
It's a deftly executed crowd-pleaser, but it's dishonest to the core. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A broad and obvious approach to ambiguous material that's virtually all plot mechanics with little nuance or characterization. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It's bottom-feeder entertainment wrapped up in high-minded airs. Read full review
50
Film.comJohn Hartl
What rescues the movie, time and again, is the strength of Jones' and Jackson's performances. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
The sentiments here are thoroughly semper fi, but the result occasionally works at cross-purposes. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
This military courtroom drama is full of questions, but woefully short of answers. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Written with such murderous gravity, certainty and gloomy solemnity - such an absence of real life or feeling - that it tends to kill our interest. Read full review
40
Washington PostDesson Thomson
It is the verdict of this court that it be led to a stockade reserved exclusively for cheap, pandering movies and duly shot. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
It's amazing the filmmakers never really concern themselves with satisfying the audience's rules of engagement. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
A casualty of its own clumsy storytelling. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Strenuously as it tries, and pulse-poundingly successful as the embassy rescue scene is, Rules of Engagement never engages us. Read full review
38
Mr. ShowbizRichard T. Jameson
Pearce is shot in such distorting closeups that he looks like an overdeveloped athlete who's been getting steroid injections in his cheeks. Read full review
35
TNT RoughCutSusannah Breslin
Formulaic and pretty darn plodding.
33
Portland OregonianBarry Johnson
Plays like an episode of "JAG," the naval courtroom TV series. A L-O-N-G episode. Read full review
30
Film.comPeter Brunette
It just doesn't work. Worse, it's downright offensive. Read full review
25
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
A wildly dull, predictable script whose holes seem to be courtesy of random sniper fire. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Spoiled by its simplistic portrait of people from the Mideast as incorrigibly violent and untrustworthy. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
By the time the film plummets to its rock bottom, we find ourselves in a flag-waving no-brainer of the first order, and one of the most thoroughly confused morality tales in recent memory. Read full review
10
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
The clichés lap like bay waves, from the salutes to the brotherly brawl to the olive-oil tear streaks semipermanently painted down Jackson's cheeks. Read full review
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