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Firm, The

EMAILPRINTParamount Pictures

Firm, The reviews
58
7.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 1 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: David Rabe
Robert Towne
David Rayfiel
John Grisham (book)

Directed by: Sydney Pollack

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 30, 1993
DVD: May 23, 2000

Running Time: 154 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for language and some violence

Starring Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Hal Holbrook, Terry Kinney, Wilford Brimley, Ed Harris, and Holly Hunter

John Grisham’s best selling novel comes to the big screen.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The result is a top-drawer melodrama, a polished example of commercial movie-making that manages to improve on the original while retaining its best-selling spirit. [30 Jun 1993 Pg. F1]

90

Variety Todd McCarthy

Rebounding from his biggest career flopflop with "Havana," Sydney Pollack has done an ultra-pro job in giving spit and polish to this star-driven, sure-fire commercial project.

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80

Washington Post Joe Brown

Cruise was born to play company man, and the role is an opportunity to sum up his old roles and transcend them with his most potently emotional work.

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75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

But with a screenplay that developed the story more clearly, this might have been a superior movie, instead of just a good one with some fine performances.

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75

TV Guide Staff(not credited)

This is a professional machine of a movie that compresses huge amounts of information into its two and a half hours of screen time. But it's so weighed down by detail, it fails to generate any real suspense.

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75

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

No one is going to confuse The Firm with art, but its high- cholesterol virtues-a story that keeps you guessing, a dozen meaty character turns-are enough to send you home sated.

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63

USA Today Mike Clark

Yet the film's most serious flaw (next to a newly concocted fizz-out ending) is that it's not sinister enough. [30 Jun 1993 Pg. 01.D]

60

Empire Matt Mueller

An average movie improved by Cruise's star appeal and accomplished supporting cast.

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60

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Pollack makes a solid job of it, as does Cruise. But solid isn't enough when it comes to thrillers -- or courtroom dramas, for that matter. Solid is great when it comes to office furniture.

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50

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

By the film's climax, following the plot movements has become merely complex rather than suspenseful.

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50

The New York Times Vincent Canby

The movie is extremely long (two hours and 34 minutes) and so slow that by the end you feel as if you've been standing up even if you've been sitting down.

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50

The New Yorker Michael Sragow

The supporting cast provides centripetal force; too bad the center cannot hold.

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40

Time Richard Corliss

Tom Cruise heads a tony cast in a best-seller movie that is firm at the start and infirm by the end.

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38

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

By then, the lofty ambitions can't disguise the sad reality - it's long, it's cluttered, and it's trite.

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38

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Very little of what made the written version so enjoyable has been successfully translated to the screen, and what we're left with instead is an overly-long (two hours and thirty-four minutes, to be exact), pedantic thriller.

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38

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Director Sydney Pollack zapped out a taut thriller in "Three Days of the Condor". But The Firm is mostly flab, in the manner of Pollack's elephantine Havana.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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