The Hunt for Red October

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: March 2, 1990

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

58	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Staff (Not Credited)

The Industrial Light & Magic special visual effects unit does yeoman work in staging the action with cliffhanger intensity. Read full review

Marjorie Baumgarten

This Tom Clancy thriller gets the proper screen treatment here with this first-rate cast and direction by one of the genre’s best: Die Hard director John McTiernan. Read full review

Roger Ebert

A skillful, efficient film that involves us in the clever and deceptive game being played by Ramius and in the best efforts of those on both sides to figure out what he plans to do with his submarine - and how he plans to do it. Read full review

Mike Clark

Hunt is coldly clinical rather than emotionally resonant; so is the measured ensemble work of a super cast. [2 Mar 1990, Life, p.1D]

Richard Schickel

McTiernan does not fall too much in love with any scene, character or gadget. He has judged his material (and our attention spans) very well. His alternation of menace and human interest, technological wizardry and action sequences is subtly calibrated, ultimately hypnotic in its effect. [5 Mar 1990, p.70]

Desson Thomson

This is a Reagan youth's wet dream of underwater ballistics and East-West conflict. Read full review

Sheila Benson

The production is as clean and effective as Red October herself; there's not one dial or glowing radar screen too many; the underwater hits and near-misses are clearly choreographed and the undersea intensity is captured perfectly by Jan De Bont's camera work. [2 Mar 1990, Calendar, p.F-1]

Owen Gleiberman

Colorful and exciting, yet unless you're a young moviegoer, nothing in it takes you by complete surprise. (It's less a nail-biter than a chin-stroker.) Read full review

Mick LaSalle

Even when it's hard to follow, it looks good. The undersea action is visually convincing, and Ramius' submarine, with all its rooms and compartments, is always believable. The moonlit photography in the picture's final scene is stunning. [2 Mar 1990, Daily Datebook, p.E1]