47
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranA tight courtroom melodrama that serves up twist after twist like so many baffling knuckle balls, this film handles its suspenseful material with skill and style.
- 75USA TodayMike ClarkUSA TodayMike ClarkAs a forum for its actors and for the big-screen directorial debut of multi-Emmy winner Gregory Hoblit, the film is up to the job.
- 50Austin ChronicleAustin ChronicleNorton's performance and the well-paced tension preceding the movie's climactic sequence provide an entertaining if slightly predictable thriller.
- 50TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThe sky-high sleaze quotient -- lascivious priests, amateur porn movies, teenage hustlers and institutionalized corruption of every kind -- ought to guarantee fun for all, but heavy messages keep poking through and spoiling everything.
- 50ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliDespite high production standards and a slick advertising campaign, Primal Fear is as trite and routine as any made-for-TV courtroom drama.
- 50TimeRichard SchickelTimeRichard SchickelDiverting without being fully absorbing, this is a film best appreciated as an exercise in--shall we say it?--Primal Gere. [15 Apr 1996, p.100]
- 50Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumSemiabsorbing.
- 40Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonThe special twist-which Paramount Pictures has implored critics not to divulge-redefines the story completely. It also ruins everything.
- 12Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversYou'd get more of a jolt from Angela Lansbury on "Murder, She Wrote" and more intellectual stimulation from a cozy game of Clue.
- 10SalonSalonIt should have been sent straight to video. As a courtroom drama, it stumbles from one ludicrous howler to another. Were the movie's "legal technical advisers" on another planet while the rest of the world was learning about legal procedure courtesy of the O.J. trial?