A Time to Kill
Metascore
54 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 21
  3. Negative: 4 out of 21
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  1. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Elvis Mitchell
    90
    If the film doesn't add up to a cogent legal argument, neither does it have trouble delivering 2 hours and 20 minutes' worth of sturdy, highly charged drama.
  2. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    90
    Director Joel Schumacher's breathlessly paced and incident-crammed movie will induce a certain sense of deja vu among veteran viewers.
  3. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    90
    As originated by Grisham and adapted by Akiva Goldsman, this is a story of elemental emotional and legal issues splashed across a large canvas, and director Joel Schumacher has done a solid job of keeping the many components in focus and balance.
  4. Empire
    Reviewed by: Ian Nathan
    80
    Schumacher is never quite smart enough to keep the debate neutral, and the unrestrained hero worship at the close leaves a nasty taste.
  5. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    A Time to Kill, based on the first novel by John Grisham, is a skillfully constructed morality play that pushes all the right buttons and arrives at all the right conclusions.
  6. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Edward Guthmann
    75
    Joel Schumacher, the director of "Falling Down," "The Client" and "Batman Forever," has a strong feel for this kind of glossy pop entertainment and a way of integrating social issues without sacrificing narrative drive.
  7. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    75
    Then again, it's worth noting that this Hollywood production is actually saying something, rather than just churning out eye-popping special effects while relying on a regurgitated plot.
  8. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    67
    To its credit, A Time to Kill allows the debate to snake through the entire movie, engagingly pitting characters and speeches against each other, creating a dramatic forum for ethical debate uncommon in most commercial American films.
  9. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    60
    Oblivious to niceties like subtlety, plausibility and discretion, it rushes heedlessly toward its destination of audience arousal. Like a flood, the impact is undeniable but it's not something everyone will want to get in the way of. [24Jul1996 Pg. F.01]
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  10. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    50
    Audiences expecting more Bullock or more weighty import from A Time to Kill will have to adjust expectations and settle for the kick of a good yarn.
  11. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Barbara Shulgasser
    50
    Director Joel Schumacher and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman seem incapable of emphasizing what's important and relegating the rest to secondary status.
  12. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    50
    A handsome but riotously cluttered melodrama with maybe 145 subplots, it's the latest and least in a soulless string of preordained multiplex hits from the John Grisham warehouse. [24Jul1996 Pg. 10.B]
    All this critic's reviews
  13. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    50
    Director Joel Schumacher has pulled no mawkish punches, wringing every drop of emotional potential from the script (adapted by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman from John Grisham's popular novel) down to the last manipulative glance and close-up. Call it A Time to Overkill.
  14. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    50
    A slick, synthetic, self-important drama that thinks it is saying more than it is simply because of its subject matter.
  15. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    But the drama's attack on racism would be more persuasive if it rejected vigilante justice and recognized that hatred and violence of all kinds must be condemned if evils like bigotry are ever to be eradicated.
  16. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    50
    A Time to Kill embodies all that is wrong with Hollywood attempts to address important issues, raising questions of race and justice but refusing to deal with them on anything but the most simplified, manipulative moral terms.
  17. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: Jeff Giles
    40
    Kill is a disappointing movie: slow, overpopulated and muddled in its thinking.
  18. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Staff(not credited)
    38
    A Time to Kill seems to argue that America's racial problems aren't so bad because, even in the heart of bigoted Mississippi, a black man can get away with murder.
  19. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    30
    There's no question the movie's entertaining. But the blatantly schematic depictions of black and white, liberal and hawk, and other tiresome dichotomies turn A Time to Kill into the moral equivalent of a cockfight.
  20. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Hal Hinson
    20
    In his screen version, Schumacher does a flamboyant job of staging the book without showing the slightest interest in what it's about. Granted, Grisham's original is no masterpiece; it's beach reading, but it deserves credit for addressing its subject with some conviction and integrity.
  21. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Anthony Puccinelli
    10
    Like many artists today, Grisham and Schumacher exploit racial tension without understanding it.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 28 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. JaredB.
    10
    I have seen almost every one of the movies that have been adapted from John Grishams novels. This is, by a longshot, the best one. Samuel L. Jackson plays Carl Lee, a black man whose daughter is brutally raped by two racist rednecks. As the rapists are being brought to their arraignment, Carl Lee steps in and shoots them both, killing them. Carl Lee is then arrested and charged with murder. He picks Jake Brigance, brilliantly played by Matthew McConaughey, to defend him. When Brigance agrees, he finds himself spending more time on the case, and less time on other things, like his family. This puts a major strain on his marriage. I also liked Sandra Bullock as Ellen Roark, a Boston Law student who badly wants to help. I can't reveal the end of the movie, because then, I'd spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. If you havent yet seen this movie I strongly recommend it. Be warned, however, that, because of some violence and graphic descriptions of rape, this movie is NOT for very young children. Personally, I absolutely adored this film.… Full Review »
  2. vbee
    5
    This movie is too stupid to address the issues it's about.
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