The Chamber
Universal Pictures | Release Date: October 11, 1996 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
14
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Delivers the entertaining goods without fuss or frills. Read full review
70
VarietyEmanuel Levy
An intelligently proficient movie that works more effectively as a family drama than a legal thriller. Read full review
63
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
Hackman is, as ever, a master performer, an actor at the peak of his powers. However, he can't carry the whole movie. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not credited)
The usual John Grisham legal hokum, tranformed by director James Foley into surprisingly grim and affecting stuff. Read full review
60
Washington PostRita Kempley
Though it lacks the gloss, twists and star power of earlier Grisham movies, The Chamber does possess Gene Hackman's most cantankerous turn since the lowdown lawman he created in "Unforgiven." Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The films portray the Klan as criminal, racist and anonymous, but those have always been its selling points; it is not portrayed as boring and stupid. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Mechanical and artificial, and tells you what to think. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
Timing does no favors for The Chamber, the John Grisham death row drama that arrives on the heels of a better death row film (''Dead Man Walking'') and a better Grisham adaptation (''A Time to Kill''). But this film's also-ran aspects are partly offset by Gene Hackman's superlative performance. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Even more sad is an embarrassingly shrill performance by Faye Dunaway, and an ending which insults the ability of the audience to watch a movie without having a conclusion spoon-fed to them. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Hackman gives a powerful performance as the killer, and the storytelling is often gripping. But the film contains much extremely offensive language and gratuitous depictions of violence, some of it aimed at children, not needed to get the plot across. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The Chamber goes so far toward humanizing bigotry it ends up sentimentalizing it. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
The Chamber merits some respect for daring to be gloomy, for facing the capital punishment issue head-on and for the quality of Gene Hackman's performance. [11 October 1996, p.1D]
40
Austin ChronicleJoey O'Bryan
An adequate, inoffensive thriller that, every so often, shows itself to be a little smarter than it needs to be… even if it isn't often enough to make this thriller anything more than average. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
The Chamber is like a balloon that all the air has leaked out of. Maybe it wasn't magnificent before, but in its current state it is sad indeed. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Material so bereft of plot and insight that all it can provide is actorly turns with no cogent means for tying them together. Read full review
40
EmpireIan Nathan
No fun at all. Read full review
40
The New YorkerBruce Diones
The film flails all over the place in an attempt to appear tense and authoritative--but the plot never takes hold. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The Chamber has nowhere to go and it goes there slowly, flirting in all directions. Read full review
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