Locked Down
HBO Max | Release Date (Streaming): January 14, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
12
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJan 13, 2021
It’s a daring mix of genres, but it works, as though Noah Baumbach had been called in to do a rewrite on “How to Steal a Million.” Steven Knight wrote and directed one of the best (“Locke”) and worst (“Serenity”) films of the last decade, but when he is good, he is very, very good, and his skillful handing of relationships and claustrophobia and corporate-speak is matched by Liman’s ability to bring all of this to fruition. Read full review
83
PolygonQuinci LeGardyeJan 15, 2021
Rather than being depressing or overly nihilistic, Locked Down fills the situation with a dry humor and slight absurdity which, combined with the distance from the beginning of the pandemic, makes the film the best COVID-related piece of media to come out so far. Read full review
80
VarietyOwen GleibermanJan 13, 2021
Locked Down, at times, generates an uneasy mixture of intimacy and showiness, yet it’s a kick to watch a couple of actors who are this terrific pull out all the stops. Read full review
75
Film ThreatAlan NgJan 21, 2021
As much as I thought the film’s heist element was unnecessary, which it is, Liman sure knows how to make it exciting and even in a pandemic. Locked Down could have been a much worse movie, but ultimately it’s a love story and a good one too. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleJan 19, 2021
Locked Down is inevitably, and intentionally, of the moment. But I hope some of its off-the-cuff spirit lasts after the pandemic. So much Hollywood moviemaking is laboriously preordained. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJan 13, 2021
If Hathaway and Ejiofor are sometimes saddled with talky theatrical monologues that sound far more like a screenwriter's fever dream than the words of any ordinary human, they also commit in a way that manages to makes the leaps in tone and logic work, probably better than they should. Read full review
75
ConsequenceJesse HassengerJan 13, 2021
If you’re looking for two hours of not-quite-escape, the solipsism of Locked Down has real charm and entertainment value, not least in its willingness to be a movie about adults — and for adults. If the specter of a global pandemic haunts the material more than it enriches, well, it’s not alone, is it? Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 13, 2021
COVID-19 serves as a fitting backdrop for an amiable romp about the freedoms we take for granted, and the confines that dictated our lives long before we were forced to spend them at home. Read full review
67
Original-CinKaren GordonFeb 16, 2021
Shot when COVID protocols allowed for minimal location shooting, the film is amusing partly because it hits on these resonant COVID-tropes. That and some nice stunt casting, makes this rom-com/heist fun. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearJan 14, 2021
It works far better as a partial document of life under lockdown than as a genre mash-up. Read full review
60
SlateDana StevensJan 13, 2021
Hathaway and Ejiofor seem excited to play edgier, less nice people than they often get the chance to, and the early scenes of them locking horns in their claustrophobic (if posh) flat generate enough energy to carry the movie almost all the way over the finish line. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jan 13, 2021
Maybe this all works, accidentally or not, as a time capsule of very contemporary irritation. Will future audiences look back on Locked Down and feel some of our pain, watching two good actors sputter through a simulacrum of cabin-fever conflict? Read full review
55
CNNBrian LowryJan 13, 2021
Thanks to Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anne Hathaway it's mildly watchable, but mostly an artifact that might look better after a few years in the Covid time capsule. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 15, 2021
In the end, we’re left with a gimmick movie that doesn’t come off, an accurate-enough artifact of the global lockdown of last spring that will be remembered for that, and little else. Read full review
50
Screen RantChris AgarJan 14, 2021
Locked Down is an average drama that relies on the strengths of its two lead actors to help elevate it above its various shortcomings. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comNick AllenJan 13, 2021
In spite of the available chemistry and charisma from Hathaway and Ejiofor, Locked Down proves to be a bewildering mess, in part because of choices made in how to tell a story that mixes two-hander drama with a heist. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 13, 2021
The picture’s just-a-lark tone, emphasised by the quick turnaround from script to final product, proves to be a double-edged sword: Locked Down feels like a fleetingly fun experiment that would have benefited from more time. Read full review
50
The Film StageMichael FrankJan 13, 2021
There are flashes of enjoyment and clarity, mostly within the home shared by Linda and Paxton, with Hathaway and Ejiofor showing their chemistry and their willingness to commit to the project. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJan 13, 2021
I’m wary in general of making any definitive pronouncements about Locked Down, whose charms and irritations (and it has its share of both) are largely a matter of timing and perspective. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 13, 2021
Certainly, the actors seem to be having a good time, even if the people they’re playing are utterly miserable. Hathaway’s comic timing has become a marvel in recent years, but Ejiofor, too, exults in the chance to throw off his usual gravity. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeMar 16, 2021
The film busts a gut attempting to free itself from the confines of the couple’s home. In this, it’s at least true to the spirit of lockdown, but it feels like a missed opportunity. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 13, 2021
The actors take your mind off things when they can: I like the way Hathaway jabs her elbow at the elevator buttons for punctuation, and the ardent commitment to language Ejiofor brings to his character’s public poetry readings. But a movie shouldn’t rely on Hathaway and Ejiofor to shell-game your attention away from the movie itself. Read full review
30
The New York TimesNatalia WinkelmanJan 14, 2021
The best that Locked Down has to offer, at least while we remain in the throes of a deadly crisis, is a window into a luxurious space to quarantine. Read full review
30
Paste MagazineJacob OllerJan 13, 2021
Locked Down is a crushing miscalculation on every level that should’ve stayed locked up. Read full review
25
ABC NewsPeter TraversJan 15, 2021
Doug Liman’s gimmicky dud about a London diamond heist set during the pandemic falsely assumes that quarantined audiences are panting to see films about the hell of living in quarantine. Despite a starry cast led by Anne Hathaway, Locked Down is a major letdown. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineJake ColeJan 13, 2021
Had the filmmakers taken a more easygoing approach, Locked Down might have landed in the realm of The Thomas Crown Affair. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 13, 2021
Imagine the worst night of two-hander theatre that you were ever subjected to in the Before Times. Then add in 12 too many scenes of (accurate but annoying) glitchy Zoom calls featuring other famous actors. And then multiply that by the number of minutes you’d be better served scrolling through the back catalogue of your streaming service of choice. Read full review
20
The TelegraphTim RobeyMar 12, 2021
This film’s two hours feel like four. Read full review
20
The AtlanticDavid SimsJan 19, 2021
While Locked Down is an undoubtedly fascinating pop-culture curio, it’s also sloppy and cringe-inducing, and feels like it was made in a hurry. Read full review
20
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 13, 2021
A lo-fi treatment of a high-concept crime rom-com deficient in sexual chemistry, laughs and suspense, this is a grating stunt in which actors who ought to know better, led by Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor, play synthetically movie-ish characters meant to tickle us with the all-too-real trials of the COVID era. If you still think frozen screens and kids disrupting Zoom business calls are a hoot, it's all yours. Read full review
20
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJan 13, 2021
A head-smashingly redundant waste of time, talent, energy and resources, a shockingly early yet entirely convincing contender for worst film of the year. Read full review
16
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezJan 19, 2021
Resembling a patched together sketch of an idea, and a thrown-together filmed play, set (mostly) inside a house, Locked Down should have just been terminated in the lab, instead of rushing out like a vaccine of entertainment that cured absolutely no one of their doldrums. Read full review
10
Vanity FairRichard LawsonJan 13, 2021
Locked Down is a grating yank into a nasty headspace, a pompous sort of fury. There is no empathy for the common cause of quarantine in the film, only spittle and outrage and corny existential angst. Read full review
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