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No consensus yet.
All Critics (14) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (8) | Rotten (6)
Shot in black and white, it is well made and helped by copious research. Apr 20, 2012 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
Shot in black and white, it is well made and helped by copious research.
Derek Malcolm
The kind of serious, adult action movie that the US and UK struggle to make. Apr 19, 2012 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
The kind of serious, adult action movie that the US and UK struggle to make.
Phelim O'Neill
A very robust piece of filmmaking with subtle shades of moral complexity to boot. Apr 19, 2012 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
A very robust piece of filmmaking with subtle shades of moral complexity to boot.
David Jenkins
So gripping and focused that it easily bests Hollywood movies with 50 times its budget. Apr 6, 2012 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
So gripping and focused that it easily bests Hollywood movies with 50 times its budget.
Kyle Smith
In place of emotional stakes, we get gleaming, stylized, occasionally slow-motion violence, filmed in such extreme close-ups and cramped spaces that it's impossible to differentiate gunman and victim. Apr 5, 2012 | Rating: 2.5/5
In place of emotional stakes, we get gleaming, stylized, occasionally slow-motion violence, filmed in such extreme close-ups and cramped spaces that it's impossible to differentiate gunman and victim.
Jeannette Catsoulis
Brisk and technically efficient, The Assault is a dull film based on a real event that certainly wasn't. Apr 5, 2012 | Rating: C+
Brisk and technically efficient, The Assault is a dull film based on a real event that certainly wasn't.
Alison Willmore
The staging is meticulous. Apr 22, 2012 | Full Review…
The staging is meticulous.
Philip French
Curiously lacking in tension. Apr 6, 2012
Curiously lacking in tension.
Ethan Alter
Exploiting film's visceral, kinetic and pummeling power to the max, this fact-based thriller about the 1994 Algerian terrorist hijacking of a Paris-bound flight is an outstanding achievement in genre entertainment. Apr 6, 2012 | Full Review…
Exploiting film's visceral, kinetic and pummeling power to the max, this fact-based thriller about the 1994 Algerian terrorist hijacking of a Paris-bound flight is an outstanding achievement in genre entertainment.
Doris Toumarkine
Could have been better, had Leclercq resisted to urge to include the soap operatics ... It's solid - but it should have been gripping. Apr 5, 2012 | Full Review…
Could have been better, had Leclercq resisted to urge to include the soap operatics ... It's solid - but it should have been gripping.
Marshall Fine
A tension-filled dramatization of the actual hijacking of a French airbus in December 1994. Mar 15, 2012 | Rating: B | Full Review…
A tension-filled dramatization of the actual hijacking of a French airbus in December 1994.
Harvey S. Karten
Julien Leclercq's The Assault works hard at finding its human factor, the thread linking the cold-blooded facts of the 1994 hijacking by Muslim extremists of Air France Flight 8969 and the people on the plane. Apr 27, 2011 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…
Julien Leclercq's The Assault works hard at finding its human factor, the thread linking the cold-blooded facts of the 1994 hijacking by Muslim extremists of Air France Flight 8969 and the people on the plane.
Robert Tumas
Genuinely surprised by the lack of enthusiasm for this fantastic film. It deserves a lot of love for the way it crafts a tense but realistic thriller. SOmething of a different Christmas movie for me, this recounts the true events of Christmas Eve - Boxing Day 1994, as armed Algerian terrorists take over a plane. We weave in and out of the different facets that must deal with the crisis including those on the plane, the government, and the tactics team that will eventually have to take them down. The film is shot with urgency and perfectly recreates the feeling of dread and despair. Best of all is the historical for this film. People laugh and ignore the woman who believes this to be a suicide mission. Something we most certainly would make our first guess in this day and age. The action is incredible, considering it takes place in such a small space. The climax is repetitive in an invigorating way, as the terrorists and police trade shots without busting out into action heroics. I was completely engrossed by this little gem, which I may make a Christmas regular.
Super Reviewer
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