Rules of Engagement: Critic Reviews

86%

MovieWeb: 1 reviews

37%

RottenTomatoes: 50 reviews

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Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly (Top Critic)

67

The two actors are soldiers of hard-headed substance at attention in a field of milder actors at ease.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Mike Clark USA Today (Top Critic)

The sentiments here are thoroughly semper fi, but the result occasionally works at cross-purposes.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Jay Carr Boston Globe (Top Critic)

Rules of Engagement never engages us.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Michael Wilmington Chicago Tribune (Top Critic)

Written with such murderous gravity, certainty and gloomy solemnity ... that it tends to kill our interest.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Susan Stark Detroit News (Top Critic)

75

At their best, [Jackson and Jones] are merely two of the most cunning, commanding performers in all of movies.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Todd McCarthy Variety (Top Critic)

A broad and obvious approach to ambiguous material that's virtually all plot mechanics with little nuance or characterization.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Jonathan Foreman New York Post (Top Critic)

63

Entertaining.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Jay Boyar Orlando Sentinel (Top Critic)

This movie is a blunt object -- blunt, but not particularly effective.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Geoff Pevere Toronto Star (Top Critic)

The casting pays off.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times (Top Critic)

50

It doesn't have the chops or the ambition to wrestle with the questions it raises.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Michael Dequina TheMovieReport.com

50

If the makers hadn't stuck so closely to the rules, this film would have been far more engaging.
Full Review » 2 years ago
Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid

75

Not exactly a triumphant return to form for maverick director William Friedkin, but it's not bad, either.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Jon Niccum Pitch.com

63

Whereas a TV version of the same material might flounder, this slick, big-budget film works because there is legitimate doubt as to both the level of guilt of the accused and the outcome of the trial.
Full Review » 10 years ago
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Spirituality and Practice

A thriller set in Yemen that turns into an ethical examination of the use of force by the military.
Full Review » 10 years ago
Rob Vaux Flipside Movie Emporium

42

It has the gumption to open a huge ethical can of worms without the first idea what to do with them.
Full Review » 11 years ago
Prairie Miller Playboy Online

Hey, dazzle us with a movie, don't shove it down our throats.
Full Review » 11 years ago
Chuck Rudolph Matinee Magazine

34

A silly courtroom thriller that comes dangerously close to remaking [Joel] Schumacher's A Time to Kill.
Full Review » 11 years ago
Wesley Morris San Francisco Examiner

Cruelly drab.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Steve Rhodes Internet Reviews

63

Will engross you while you're there but will fall apart in your mind as you begin to think about it later.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Joe Baltake Sacramento Bee

Both actors are excellent.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Steve Murray Atlanta Journal-Constitution

What distinguishes Rules is its use of xenophobia to bolster its legal arguments, and presumably tap audience's deep-seated prejudices.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Duane Dudek Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Its story turns on implausibilities and improbabilities.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Bob Graham San Francisco Chronicle

75

This drama about a massacre in Yemen takes on unexpected interest because the main character, a fiery-eyed Marine combat hero played by Samuel L. Jackson, is presented as a believably flawed man.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Jon Popick Planet Sick-Boy

A run-of-the-mill courtroom bore with one of the most anti-climatic ending in recent memory.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Steve Schneider Orlando Weekly

Webb, Gaghan and director William Friedkin aren't courting the sensible; they're out to appeal to right-wing hawks whose talons outnumber their I.Q. points.
Full Review » 12 years ago