- 9
...terrifying, intelligent....
—Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times
- 8
...timely...
—Ken Fox TV Guide
- 7
...stumbles as it attempts to make political points.
—Peter Rainer Christian Science Monitor
- 6
...guaranteed to get your heart racing. It pushes all the buttons these kinds of suspenseful dramas usually do, but too many unanswered questions make the satisfaction level a little less than it could've been.
—Pete Hammond Maxim
- 6
...blindly believes in one ending that will crown those who stand against torture and persecution as the righteous. Towards the later half, the film goes so far as to presuppose that if people were to merely read about the torture and mistreatment of an innocent that would change things for the better. In many ways, Rendition can be best described as a fantasy.
—Chris Cabin filmcritic.com
- 6
...this week's furrowed-brow topical special...
—Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly
- 6
...couldn't be timelier.
—Carina Chocano Los Angeles Times
- 6
...blindly believes in one ending that will crown those who stand against torture and persecution as the righteous. Towards the later half, the film goes so far as to presuppose that if people were to merely read about the torture and mistreatment of an innocent that would change things for the better. In many ways, Rendition can be best described as a fantasy.
—Chris Cabin Reel
- 5
...makes an effort to convince us that the war on Islamist fanatics is really an attack on the Reese Witherspoons of the world. Good luck selling that one, guys.
—Kyle Smith New York Post
- 5
...feels generic and lackluster, more devoted to its preening structural twist than to a tacked-on subplot designed to show that Islamist fundamentalists are people too.
—Ella Taylor LA Weekly
- 5
...feels generic and lackluster, more devoted to its preening structural twist than to a tacked-on subplot designed to show that Islamist fundamentalists are people too.
—Ella Taylor Village Voice
- 5
...timely without being gripping.
—Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune
- 5
...a Traffic/Syriana/Babel clone about the extrajudicial use of secret prisons and torture tactics post-9/11.
—Scott Tobias Onion AV Club
- 5
What a cast, indeed. And what a bust as persuasive drama.
—Peter Travers Rolling Stone
- 5
...feels like a watered-down Babel...
—Leah Rozen People
- 5
...a well-meaning, honorable movie. Which is not to say that it is a very good one.
—A. O. Scott New York Times
- 5
A fascinating and topical subject -- the personal and political costs of U.S. torture policies -- is roadblocked by a stale subplot that does more than slow the movie down; it dilutes its message. But wow are there some good actors in this.
—Dezhda Mountz E!
- 3
...does not boast the poetic minutiae of Babel, and though it may spare us Syriana's brutalizing lecture approach, its harangue about the U.S. government policy of "extraordinary rendition" -- struck up during the Clinton administration but given "fuck-yeah!" leverage during Bush II's regime -- is just as trite and condescending.
—Ed Gonzalez Slant Magazine