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High Crimes
20th Century Fox Film Corporation
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for violence, sexual content and language
Starring
Ashley Judd,
Morgan Freeman,
James Caviezel,
Adam Scott,
Amanda Peet,
Michael Gaston,
Tom Bower,
and
Jesse Beaton
A young San Francisco attorney (Judd) gets help from a former military attorney (Freeman) when she defends her husband in a top-secret military court.
| GENRE(S): |
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Joseph Finder (novel)
Yuri Zeltser
Grace Cary Bickley
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Carl Franklin
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: August 27, 2002
Video: August 27, 2002
Theatrical: April 5, 2002
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
115 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
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...
80
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Stylish and effective, if slightly overlong, thriller.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Has some faults, but it manages to keep its audience either angry or jumpy from start to finish.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
Comes across as gratifying, not grating: the same way the familiarity of a well-crafted whodunit is part of the book's pleasures.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
This is the second movie Judd and Freeman have made together (after "Kiss the Girls" in 1997). They're both good at projecting a kind of Southern intelligence that knows its way around the frailties of human nature.
70
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Satisfies a hunger for the basics: a decent mystery to chew on, a bit of juicy suspense, maybe a plot twist as garnish. The fare is all on the standard menu, but it goes down well just the same.
67
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
Franklin injects life into a flat format and has in the process done something nearly unheard of in Hollywood as of late: He's brought class back to the genre film.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Even if it lacks the finesse of Franklin's earlier work, High Crimes moves like a bullet.
63
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
It's still a disappointment: a well-mounted and well-acted suspense movie that, thanks to its illogical script, falls off a cliff midway through.
60
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
The problem with High Crimes, acceptable though it is, is that it's not close to anyone's best work.
60
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
Franklin directs smoothly, but except for Freeman, the theatrics are pretty pro forma.
60
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Ms. Judd commands the screen with consistent authority, and Mr. Freeman brings expansive humor to the role of a self-styled wildcard who's still dangerous in court.
50
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
The biggest offense in the somewhat unimaginative but serviceable legal thriller High Crimes is that the venerable Morgan Freeman simply does not get enough screen time, and when he's up there, he doesn't have enough to do.
50
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
For his part. Mr. Freeman shows himself, once again, incapable of giving a bad performance.
50
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
This is very much a ''woman's picture,'' driven by a twin rudder of anxiety and empowerment.
50
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Every minute of the film is trash, and director Carl Franklin seems to know it.
50
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
It's hard to see Franklin's fingerprints on the material. It's as if he directed with his gloves on.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
This thing's got more plot than an Alliance convention. Unfortunately (to extend the comparison), not a whole lot of it makes a lick of common sense.
50
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
It's terribly predictable and often risible stuff.
50
USA Today
Mike Clark
It's no crime the movie has one or two endings too many, given that many thrillers of the past quarter-century have had the same. But Judd's latest is too harmless to be anything but a misdemeanor.
50
LA Weekly
Manohla Dargis
While its blowout finale is telegraphed long before the first act ends, and too much else is just as obvious and bland, Judd, Freeman and Franklin never stop adding filigree. The big picture isn't much to look at, but the detailing isn't bad.
50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
The story has possibilities, but you'll spot the big plot twists long before they happen, and the acting by Judd and Cavaziel is strictly by the numbers.
50
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Judd has genuine movie star magnetism -- beauty, intelligence, presence and talent to spare. In the old studio days, she'd be Ingrid Bergman by now.
50
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
The chief pleasure of High Crimes (and it's a limited one) comes from watching Morgan Freeman, who can bring a sense of integrity to even the silliest thriller.
50
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Undermined by contrived suspense sequences, a pointless subplot involving Claire's flaky, trashy sister, and a formulaic thriller ending.
40
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
High Crimes does offer good, often sharp and funny work from its two stars. But you can't fake excitement, and it's a lousy feeling to know that the best commercial movie I can point you to right now is this shallow, self-erasing nonsense.
40
Slate
David Edelstein
The strands in High Crimes don't coalesce. Those red herrings somehow take over the picture; the thing itself turns into a giant red herring.
40
Variety
Robert Koehler
Judd now is top-billed, but her performance is so resolutely humorless and businesslike that Freeman's gruffly affectionate warmth becomes doubly valuable, though not nearly enough to lend this generic project any special character.
40
New Times (L.A.)
Luke Y. Thompson
Film falls into the same trap as the book: a moderately interesting setup ultimately undone by an ending that makes the audience feel like fools for investing any sympathy with the characters.
40
Film Threat
Michael Dequina
Washes away whatever unique filmmaking personality Franklin has.
38
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Once, for no reason, Franklin whirled the camera around 360 degrees while two people were having an ordinary conversation. I suspect he must have been as bored by then as I was.
30
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
A major disappointment that lacks the courage to follow through on its premise's themes.
30
Village Voice
Nick Rutigliano
Secret trials and buried atrocities are no match for a plucky (and rich, and svelte) young heroine, least of all Ms. Ashley Judd, who eyebrow-cocks her way through Carl Franklin's witless High Crimes.
20
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
All in all, High Crimes isn't worth the crayons it took to write the script.
 The average user rating for this movie is 5.4 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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