The Last Castle
DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: October 19, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
14
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York PostJonathan Foreman
It's an even rarer pleasure to see a film that combines exciting action with a smart, well-informed script and vivid yet restrained performances. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It could have been more, could have been a triumph and a classic, instead of simply an effective entertainment. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeJay Carr
The kind of movie you can enjoy easily enough, as long as you don't think about it much.
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Not as simple as it looks, though its appeal is simple: Robert Redford goes to prison, and James Gandolfini ("The Sopranos") is the warden. That's a movie worth seeing right there. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Like Lurie's previous two films, it's also simplistic and somewhat muddled. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
Lurie manages, despite these obstacles, to inspire Redford to give one of the most layered and interesting performances of his career. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ. R. Jones
Engrossing if standard-issue prison drama. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
An outrageously unlikely prison action movie made with lots of eye-catching pizzazz and undeserved expertise.
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
If this melodrama has that haven't-we-met-before look, it's because it combines elements of "The Caine Mutiny" (Gandolfini's Winter is Queeg-like) with those of "Stalag 17." Read full review
60
Mr. ShowbizCody Clark
It's good enough, smart enough, and people will like it. It's also a high-concept cop-out, a convention-strangled genre movie that never zigs when your every instinct is screaming that it's about to zag.
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A disappointingly pedestrian prison meller that falls between stools artistically and politically. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
This is, after all, not just Robert Redford. It's Redford in the nobly burnished self-mythologic perfection of his late-middle-aged golden god-ness. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
While the film is shot in shades of gray, the drama is played out in black and white. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Often feels choppy, as if chunks of connecting narrative had been lopped off in the editing room. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
They may call it The Last Castle, but moviegoers will ultimately feel rooked. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The movie is exuberant, strapping and obvious -- a problem drama suffering from a steroid overdose. Read full review
40
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
All crass in its empty bluster and bogus uplift. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Ruffalo, actually, who was so perfect in the little-seen "You Can Count On Me," is the only real reason to sit through The Last Castle. Read full review
40
Washington PostRita Kempley
Robert Redford does everything but wear a crown of thorns as the selfless war hero of The Last Castle, a heavy-handed military prison melodrama. Read full review
40
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Although the movie has a few interesting twists and turns, its mind-versus-mind conceit devolves into a mundane warden-versus-inmate conclusion. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
This is an odd and ultimately dispiriting film, despite some intriguing ideas about brute force vs. moral authority, the elaborately staged uprising -- and impressive actors in the cast. That is to say, they've been impressive elsewhere.
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
It's not objectionable (which is saying something these days) but neither does it have any compelling reason to be seen. Read full review
40
The New YorkerDavid Denby
(Lurie's) a shameless, if skilled, manipulator of easy emotions. (29 Oct 2001, p. 93)
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
I don't know why Redford and the white-hot Gandolfini signed on for this fiasco, but the give-and-take between them is the film's sole pleasure. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
It's a mishmash of "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "From Here to Eternity" and "The Great Escape," with everything complex and entertaining siphoned off. Read full review
33
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Miscast, clumsily staged and ideologically wobbly. Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Deadly dull. Read full review
30
New Times (L.A.)Luke Y. Thompson
Lurie's politics aside, it's astonishing that a man who once reviewed films keeps churning out movies full of cinema's most hollow clichés; indeed, he turns out stuff that's even more disjointed and improbable than the most mediocre fare. Read full review
30
SlateDavid Edelstein
A melodrama in which the clichés prove more lethal than the bullets. Read full review
30
TimeRichard Schickel
Redford underacts, Gandolfini overacts, and this movie is directed with the same air of unreality, the same grim passion for cliches, both cinematic and emotional, that Lurie brought to his first film, "The Contender." Read full review
20
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Plays out like "Cool Hand Luke" meets "Attica," and it's quite the silliest thing. Read full review
20
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Bizarre, confused, sanctimonious manure that makes Lurie's own "The Contender" look responsible by comparison. Read full review
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