The Terminal
DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: June 18, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
13
Negative:
5
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
The movie is a delight in many ways: an unabashed romantic comedy and Capraesque fable that takes Spielberg into realms he's rarely traveled before. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Like a story-spinner from the "Tales of the Arabian Nights," Steven Spielberg begins by demanding we accept impossible things. If we do, his spell can enchant us; if not, it must vanish like colored smoke. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A sweet and delicate comedy, a film to make you hold your breath, it is so precisely devised. It has big laughs, but it never seems to make an effort for them. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
In a summer of remakes, sequels and movies swollen with effects, The Terminal stands out as a strikingly original comedy. Read full review
80
VarietyScott Foundas
This buoyant, optimistic fable seems to share in the late Ronald Reagan's optimism for America. It does so with the help of a gifted comic ensemble led by Tom Hanks. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
Thanks to Spielberg's vivid storytelling and Hanks' matchless gift for bringing the common man to life, this is a relentlessly charming movie. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Entertainment like this is too hard to find to second-guess for too long. Read full review
80
EmpireIan Nathan
Far less cuddly than expected, this unusual and elegant movie may have failed to connect with US audiences but it proves Spielberg is currently the most unpredictable director in Hollywood. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
To be savored for its unhurried approach and simple fish-out-of-water story that favors individual character-driven moments over dramatic plot developments. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
If moviegoers suspend their disbelief -- easy enough thanks to the diverse and talented cast, as well as Spielberg's capable direction -- they're bound to enjoy this cinematic fantasy. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
As well made, entertaining and seductive a showcase for Hanks as it is, the movie doesn't have a magical impact and doesn't stay with you. And while you're watching it, there's always some slight annoyance, inconsistency or motivational-lapse to slap your face in almost every scene. Read full review
75
New York PostJonathan Foreman
It's an original, and a gamble, and one of those movies that works better than it should, despite considerable flaws of conception and execution. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
I liked every minute in it. Other films are like empty containers; this one's full. It's full of invention, full of moments, full of business, full of the nuances of human interaction, full of feeling. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Here's a film made by grown-ups for grown-ups, on grown-up themes of statelessness and belonging. Yet you could show it to a 6-year-old and have him or her understand all the nuances of plot and characterization. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
So beautifully directed, so pleasurable to watch and so thoughtfully put together, it's a disappointment when you realize, halfway through, that the movie is going to fall way short of a masterpiece. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
It’s an odd fable: Viktor is the mysterious visitor who shows us what the American Dream is all about--in the movie’s terms, compassion for others--without ever wanting to become an American himself. He's a spiritual twin to E.T., who also had trouble phoning home. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
In the latest of a long string of memorable performances, Hanks balances wide-eyed confusion with innate shrewdness, finding a character who's both unfailingly sweet and nobody's fool. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
The Terminal perfectly captures Spielberg's ambivalent worship of capitalism. His big boy's love of gadgetry is everywhere apparent in the security cameras, blinking computer screens and one-way glass walls. Read full review
70
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Rarely have I been so acutely aware of a movie's softness and sentimentality, and rarely have I minded less. Some of the credit surely goes to Mr. Hanks...His performance is so easy and amiable that its nuances emerge only in retrospect. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Spielberg has made a small and charming story out of The Terminal. Read full review
70
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
It may not be great but you're guaranteed to feel great walking out the theater door. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianKaren Karbo
Hanks is remarkable in one of the minor films in smarm-meister Spielberg's oeuvre. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
It's a hokey piece of melodrama in a movie that cheats its characters - and its audience - out of some emotional truth. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
I didn't mind The Terminal, but I didn't really buy it, either. Spielberg has crafted the film with a proficiency as seamless, and impersonal, as the setting, and you may feel, after a while, that you're longing for your departure time. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Corliss
The Terminal is Spielberg's shortest feature since the first "Jurassic Park," yet it drags, plods, piling one lifeless situation atop another. For all the effort and good intentions, the movie is in-terminal-ble. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
In his sappiest film since 1989's "Always," director Steven Spielberg has come down with a case of the cutes that the whole cast catches. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Seeing The Terminal is like experiencing an uneventful flight: The trip was pleasant but not delightful, and you’re happy to deplane at the other end. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
There's a thin line between fable and twaddle, and this feel-good trifle veers dangerously close to the latter. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Manages to entertain, and yet, like so many flat-footed attempts at waving the flag, it feels disingenuous and dogmatic. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Spielberg believes, admirably, that art can grow from love, and vice-versa. But in The Terminal he makes the mistake of insisting on it, repeatedly. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The Terminal is highly crafted whimsy; it lacks any compelling reason to exist, and its love story is a dud. Ever bashful when it comes to boy-girl stuff, Spielberg has structured the relationship between Amelia and Viktor to be as asexual as possible. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Making Viktor a Middle Eastern, a South Asian, or even a Bosnian tourist would have given this trite exercise an edge--and a measure of human pathos. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
As usual Spielberg is too bored by everyday life to use his premise for anything but a fairy tale, whose cheap pathos suggests a bad Chaplin imitation. This grows progressively phonier and eventually devolves into "Mr. Roberts," with Stanley Tucci filling in for James Cagney as an airport bureaucrat. Read full review
40
SlateDavid Edelstein
Isn't a disaster, but after an entertaining start it congeals into something icky and fake, and it leaves you thinking that Spielberg and his team of screenwriters (Sacha Gervasi and Jeff Nathanson, from a story by Andrew Niccol and Gervasi) missed the real story. Read full review
40
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
There are worse movies out there than The Terminal, but few that feel quite so…unnecessary. Read full review
40
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Even at the low end of the Spielberg spectrum, there has always been some air of ingenuity, some sense of the maker's excitement. Not here. The Terminal plods in spirit and execution. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The net result is a few shaky laughs and one unwavering sensation -- that The Terminal is interminable. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The Terminal is a terminally fraudulent and all-but-interminable comedy.
30
SalonCharles Taylor
Probably the worst-directed film Spielberg has ever made. A peculiarly rhythmless piece of work, it seems to go on forever, though nearly every one of the scenes is cut off before it has been dramatically developed. Read full review
30
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Hanks is great; the movie isn't. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
As he showed in the recent "Catch Me if You Can," also a Hanks vehicle, Spielberg has little talent for emotional realism, not to mention psychological suspense. He should scurry back to "Jurassic Park" as soon as the next flight leaves. Read full review
More From This Movie

55 Critic Reviews

8.1 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL