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Pushing Tin
Metascore
47 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 29 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 29
  3. Negative: 4 out of 29
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    The movie is worth seeing, for the good stuff. I'm recommending it because of the performances and the details in the air-traffic control center.
  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    Takes viewers into a unique world. It's not just about air traffic controllers. It's about controllers in a specific place and from a specific social background.
  3. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: G. Allen Johnson
    75
    It succeeds because of the frenzied, kinetic direction by Mike Newell, one of the most interesting big-hit directors.
  4. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    75
    An entertaining takeoff and a high-altitude ride eventually runs into some bumpy weather and a clumsy landing in Mike Newell's new comedy.
  5. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    70
    Almost always a pleasure to watch. Pushing Tin is, essentially, a western -- Cusack really is the fastest gun in the West.
  6. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    63
    One of the most discouraging things about many big studio movies is the way they waste resources, mainly talent and money. Pushing Tin manages to waste an excellent cast, a glossy production and what initially seems to be a bright, funny script. [23 April 1999, Friday, p.A]
    All this critic's reviews
  7. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    63
    Uneven but fitfully entertaining.
    All this critic's reviews
  8. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    60
    A mess, but for the most part it's a fascinating mess. It helps that it boasts great acting all around--not just from Cusack, Thornton, and Jolie, but also from Cate Blanchett
  9. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    60
    It's an intriguing film, one of the year's most interesting, but involving as much of it is, it leaves an unsatisfied taste when it's over.
  10. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Elvis Mitchell
    60
    Newell's ensemble timing and breezily sardonic style make it work better than might be expected.
  11. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    58
    Makes you wish that Newell and company had had the gumption to finish what they so enticingly started.
  12. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    Bids for originality by focusing on an offbeat profession. Every other aspect is pretty stale, though, from the smart-alecky characters to the romantic-triangle plot.
  13. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    50
    Top-flight cast.
    All this critic's reviews
  14. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    The premise is inherently interesting, but the screenplay (by Glen & Les Charles) is unwilling to take chances. Instead, it uses stock events to push events forward.
  15. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    50
    It's a glorious mess, though, with genuine bits of comic genius strewn amidst the rubble, not unlike a plane crash in its own way.
  16. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    50
    Barely rates faint praise.
  17. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Hal Hinson
    50
    Ultimately, though, it is Angelina Jolie who ends up stealing the show. As Mary, she lets her eyelids droop and her lower lip swell as if she were just so full of sex that she's almost drunk.
  18. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    50
    You're not sure where it's headed, but with an ensemble this good the aimlessness seems invigorating. It's when the plot kicks in that Newell's movie gets less interesting. It's frustrating to see such a promising premise, and such a delightful cast, wasted.
  19. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    50
    Unfortunately, story's tension climaxes a half-hour before the film is over, and thereafter dissipates much of the charge and good will generated up to that point.
  20. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    50
    The only thing that keeps the proceedings bearable is the cast gamely rolling with all the shameless sitcom punches the script keeps throwing at them.
  21. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    42
    Does have one saving grace, however. As Nick's long-suffering wife, Blanchett gives the movie some badly needed charisma, and its one point of sympathy -- even nobility.
  22. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    40
    Contrived, meandering, clichéd and just plain preposterous.
  23. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    40
    Pushing Tin pivots on our dubious fascination with professional erection duels, which are a sad substitute for dramatic conflict.
  24. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    40
    Tin tailspins into silliness and never regains its flight pattern.
  25. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    40
    The clichéd macho silliness of the picture gets to be infuriating after a while.
  26. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Anthony Miele
    30
    Uneven, unfocused and boring. It is listed as a "black comedy" and while there are humorous moments you will not be laughing much.
  27. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    30
    The movie's fundamental problem is that Cusack's character isn't very interesting.
  28. The New Republic
    Reviewed by: Stanley Kauffmann
    30
    Not every stupid film sets out to be that way. But a furious zeal to entertain, especially to find twists, can push filmmakers past credibility, past twist, even past social decency. A dreadful example is Pushing Tin.
  29. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    20
    A fast-paced, twisty-turny, high-fiving, but ultimately spiraling disaster of a movie about air traffic controllers, gets lost in this hyperbolic cloud cover, never to be found again.
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