Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: It's a brutal, merciless, somber picture, utterly devoid of the heart-tugging sentimentality that always creeps into even his best films. It is also, unfortunately, timid when it should be bold and clunky when it should be eloquent. Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's a smart, mesmerizing and often angry film, from a truly confident filmmaker, but it remains, maddeningly, just beyond our grasp. Read more
Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune: Do we need another handsome, well-assembled, entertaining movie to prove that we all bleed red? Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Everything that keeps it from being lovable could be looked upon as a virtue, and everything about it is intentional. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It's a very strong film. Read more
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Spielberg asks the questions with great skill and greater sorrow. But he doesn't have the answers. Perhaps no one does. Read more
Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Spielberg's usual competence is on display, in many ways, but Munich is like no other Spielberg movie. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Simply stated, Munich is Steven Spielberg's return to seriousness and his finest film in years. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: In this age of feckless and unapologetic zealotry, with leaders whose passion for extremism has led to the lamentable results we see all around us, Munich's even-handed cry for peace is not an act of equivocation but one of bravery. Read more
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Across the board, the film's performances are sinewy and tough, elastic enough to bend with misgivings. Read more
Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: A visceral, emotionally exhausting work that dares to ask questions -- and gives no easy answers. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: As a piece of filmmaking, Munich is rarely less than gripping. As a political essay, as a brief against despair, it is far less convincing. Read more
Michael Booth, Denver Post: Munich can't decide where to end, so we get six or seven possible finishes, each exhausting. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Munich, Steven Spielberg's spectacularly gripping and unsettling new movie, is a grave and haunted film, yet its power lies in its willingness to be a work of brutal excitement. Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Spielberg is simply reiterating that the Old Testament demand of an eye for an eye has left the world blinded and wandering in an endless cycle of reprisal. This is not exactly a philosophical or dramatic revelation. Read more
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Munich is an action movie with a conscience, made by a filmmaker whose good work is still better than most directors' best. Read more
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Munich is an extraordinarily effective and occasionally uproarious account of the early phase of global terror. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: The film is a slick piece of work, yes, but one that has had people on all ends of the political spectrum arguing over it weeks before it had seen the light of a projector. On that score, I'd say mission accomplished. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The ultimate problem with Munich is that it's looking for a clear-cut answer that doesn't exist. And while it frames its final act as an argument, it's an argument it's having with itself. Read more
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: The failure of a movie that is so good in so many ways leaves me to wonder if Spielberg is up to this kind of complex, multitasking story. Read more
Manohla Dargis, New York Times: An unsparingly brutal look at two peoples all but drowning in a sea of their own blood, Munich is by far the toughest film of Steven Spielberg's career and the most anguished. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: It's overlong, psychologically unfocused, thematically devious and curiously anachronistic in its crypto-pacifism. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Like the superior Syriana, this isn't a Middle Eastern tale that offers much hope. It's just bloodstained history. And if we don't remember that history, Spielberg says, we learn nothing. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: A film of uncommon depth, intelligence, and sensitivity, Munich defies easy labeling. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: As a thriller, Munich is efficient, absorbing, effective. As an ethical argument, it is haunting. And its questions are not only for Israel but for any nation that believes it must compromise its values to defend them. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: The problem with Munich is that Spielberg has made a beautifully crafted, intelligent picture that raises some very complicated, and not easily dismissed, moral questions -- only ultimately to find the easiest way to dismiss them. Read more
David Edelstein, Slate: Munich is the most potent, the most vital, the best movie of the year. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Spielberg has given us the Special Two-Disc Extended Director's Cut DVD version when all we wanted was a lean, energetic thriller. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Bouncing about from one flawed movie to another, Steven Spielberg has lost his way of late, and Munich finds him more disoriented than ever. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: An impressive achievement by a man in touch with his art and his soul. Read more
Mike Clark, USA Today: This is a smart and often tense work whose ultimate merit isn't completely calculable now. Read more
Todd McCarthy, Variety: It's rare for such a popular entertainer as Spielberg to fail to provide a rooting interest or, in its absence, a point of entry to one of his films. Read more
J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Spielberg surrenders to his own despair and lashes out . . . at the audience. Read more
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Read more
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: It seems almost disrespectful to weave in a provocative re-creation of the killings -- somehow a massacre of unarmed innocents that shocked the world should be more than just fodder for ginning up the tension at the end of a commercial movie. Read more