Critic Reviews
53
Metascore
Mixed or Average
positive
8(32%)
mixed
15(60%)
negative
2(8%)
Showing 25 Critic Reviews
88
It's a thinking person's thriller, where pyrotechnics give way to plot, character development supplants fight scenes, and adrenaline does not short-circuit intelligence.
80
A political thriller with more plausibility -- and yes, more thrills -- than most.
70
An intramural debate masquerading as an action movie.
70
What a shame, therefore, that in its puritanical treatment of the only strong female character, the otherwise politically correct police story is blithely unaware of its own closet misogyny.
70
A political film in the form of a thriller, rather than a garden-variety potboiler gleefully helping itself to stock political tropes from the genre's grab bag.
67
It's a cautionary tale about the excesses of jingoist paranoia, and the folly of it all is that the more the film descends into somber liberal chest thumping, the less engrossing it becomes.
63
The Siege is not a documentary but a glossy Hollywood entertainment that is prey to all the exaggerations, simplifications and acting histrionics that come with the genre.
63
In its clumsy way, it throws in comments now and then to show it knows the difference between Arab terrorists and American citizens.
60
If The Siege frustrates anyone, it should be the moviegoers who turn up expecting the kind of clean resolution that action movies thrive on.
60
A potentially provocative idea is played out to diminishing returns.
