Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
66
(33 sources)
66
(33 sources)
-
90
Washington Post
Mamet loves two things: scams and dialogue. This movie is rich with both. Read Full Review » -
90
Los Angeles Times
The thinking person's caper flick, with its endlessly clever plotting revealing character under the utmost pressure. Read Full Review » -
90
The New York Times
Heist is a pleasure to watch, and the greatest pleasure is to watch Mr. Lindo and Mr. Hackman steal it. Read Full Review » -
90
Washington Post
Mamet doesn't just give us an enthralling heist flick, he makes the language something to savor. You're biting your nails with your ears peeled. Read Full Review » -
90
Rolling Stone
Mamet -- crafts tangy, well-seasoned dialogue that a good cast can feast on. And this cast is prime. Read Full Review » -
88
Chicago Tribune
Mamet takes exactly those qualities that we most prize in genre movies -- characters, cleverness and high style -- and refines them to a high shine. Read Full Review » -
88
Chicago Sun-Times
The kind of caper movie that was made before special effects replaced wit, construction and intelligence. This movie is made out of fresh ingredients, not cake mix. Despite the twists of its plot, it is about its characters. Read Full Review » -
80
Slate
With an actor as great as Gene Hackman in the lead, a lot of scenes even breathe. Read Full Review » -
80
Wall Street Journal
An exciting caper, though sometimes a trying one, with great dollops of self-parodying dialogue that will test your loyalty to Mr. Mamet's way with words. Read Full Review » -
78
-
75
Christian Science Monitor
The ultimate challenge of making a first-rate caper movie is dishing up often-used ingredients with enough novel twists to make them seem familiar and fresh at the same time. Mamet soars over the hurdles with energy and imagination to spare. Read Full Review » -
75
New York Post
A muscular, endlessly twisty homage to film noir capers like "The Asphalt Jungle." Read Full Review » -
75
Boston Globe
Not only reminds us that there's a little larceny in all of us, it reminds us how much fun it can be to commune with our inner thieves. Read Full Review » -
75
Entertainment Weekly
If it's not up to the cups-and-balls elegance of previous Mamet movies like ''The Spanish Prisoner'' and ''House of Games,'' if it piles on more psychological fake-outs than is safe in a setup this size -- well, at least it's got that talk, that language, that thing Mamet does that is at this point as identifiable as the cadences of the Bard. Read Full Review » -
70
The New Yorker
Hackman works with a joyous authority that seems to come out of the experience of the character he's playing. He liberates David Mamet from David Mamet. [12 Nov 2001, p. 139] Read Full Review » -
70
Chicago Reader
More entertaining than "The Spanish Prisoner" -- it also turns out to be more conventional and predictable. Read Full Review » -
70
Village Voice
Heist is a neat, bouncy, minor-key crime procedural that shakes no rafters. Glorious, freestanding Mametisms are dropped into it like beef hunks into clear soup. Read Full Review » -
63
Miami Herald
Carries a whiff of disappointment: There's little here Mamet hasn't done before, and done better. Read Full Review » -
63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Hackman's in it a lot, and he is, as almost always, great fun. Read Full Review » -
63
New York Daily News
While not nearly as elaborate as either film, Heist plays like a combination of "The Sting" and "Mission: Impossible." Read Full Review » -
63
Baltimore Sun
As a movie, Heist is merely an amiable time-killer. But it presents a terrific argument for federalizing airport security. Read Full Review » -
63
USA Today
Passable but never exciting, Heist is on a level with those minor Burt Lancaster action pics the actor's name helped bankroll in the '70s. Read Full Review » -
60
Film Threat
With yet another snappy script and a fiendishly clever story, Mamet leads us through this labyrinthine film with skill and wit. It's nothing terribly original, but it is a lot of fun. Read Full Review » -
60
TV Guide
Solidly entertaining and surprisingly free of the Mamet-isms that can suck the life right out of the most tightly crafted story. Read Full Review » -
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
You've already seen this movie, right? Just a few months ago. It was called "The Score." Read Full Review » -
50
Charlotte Observer
A typical shallow caper film. Just assume the truth is the exact opposite of what's happening. Read Full Review » -
50
LA Weekly
Can he do the thing? Well, yes and no. He -- Mamet, David, celebrated celebrity playwright and less-certain maker of movies -- can do some of the things, like assemble a cast sleek as a cat. Read Full Review » -
50
San Francisco Chronicle
Even a mediocre David Mamet movie is still a David Mamet movie. That means there are lines to savor, partly because the lines are so good, partly because they are so Mamet. Read Full Review » -
50
Variety
While staccato dialogue and edgy confrontations have always been the wordsmith's forte, the precision-tooled mechanics of an elaborate crime caper have not, and the physical direction here could use some muscle. Read Full Review » -
50
Time
The result is a well-tooled machine chugging coldly along a twisting road to nowhere. Read Full Review » -
40
-
30
Salon.com
There's something offensive about how Mamet continues to win praise as a serious filmmaker with such a joyless picture, a picture that -- intentionally -- gives the audience so little. Read Full Review » -
20
New Times (L.A.)
With a movie like this, there's no risk of spoiling the ending, because the entire plot is merely a formality trudging toward a foregone conclusion. The viewer's biggest challenge is to survive fits of yawning so violent they could disrupt ornithic migratory patterns. Read Full Review »
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