With outstanding performances by Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as the embattled father and daughter, the film is a remarkably mature treatment of conflict in a family whose members are fully involved in the problems of our times. [15 Mar 1991]

When it's good, there is no more riveting movie genre than a courtroom drama, and Class Action is one of the best in ages - perhaps since "The Verdict" in 1982. [15 Mar 1991]

Class Action s good, chewy entertainment, part courtroom pyrotechnics, part Machiavellian legal maneuvers. [15 Mar 1991]

Grounded in a good cause but never puffed up or preachy, the father-daughter drama transcends the issues.

Apted gives this smarter-than-average script a slick look and expertly develops suspense.

It's an undemanding yet bright delight. [16 Mar 1991]

The screenplay by Carolyn Shelby, Christopher Ames and Samantha Shad contains dialogue scenes so well-heard and written it's hard to believe this is a Hollywood movie, with Hollywood's tendency to have characters underline every emotion so the audience won't have to listen so carefully.

Winning performances by Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and potent direction by Michael Apted pump life into the sturdy courtroom drama formula once again.

Director Apted has somehow managed to take one of the most contrived plots I've ever seen and make it seem, if not original, then at least way above average.

The work of Hackman and Mastrantonio keeps the action afloat and more credible than it deserves to be.

Class Action won't put you to sleep. Yet it vanishes from the memory as fast as anything dreamed in the conventional manner.

The political correctness of Class Action verwhelms its sense of life. It turns into just another movie. [15 Mar 1991]

There is cinematic art, and there's a good evening out; this is the latter. [15 Mar 1991]

Class Action occupies itself with long passages of family melodrama, most of it as familiar as the courtroom drama but far less entertaining. [15 Mar 1991]