Critic Reviews
Syriana (2005) Rank 2 Reviews
Expert Review Summary
based on (392) reviews
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Reviews by Score:
Political Affairs
The New Yorker (David Denby)
homevideo.about.com (Ivana Redwine)
The Patriot Ledger
Cinema Signals
San Diego CityBeat
moviereview (Colin Fraser)
Political Film Society
San Francisco Bay Guardian
A paunched-out, credibly weary George Clooney plays CIA agent Bob, who facilitates speedy deaths for inconvenient people in the oil-rich Near East. His promised final assignment before desk-job retirement is to eliminate Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig), ...read the complete Syriana movie review at San Francisco Bay Guardian
Chicago Tribune (Michael Phillips)
filmcritic.com (Chris Barsanti)
a fitfully engrossing and overreaching film that is both somehow too much and yet not enough. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at filmcritic.com (Chris Barsanti)
Uruguay Total (Enrique Buchichio)
Un tenso e interesante thriller político, si bien abrumador y por momentos confuso, sobre tema actual, con destacada labor de George Clooney. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Uruguay Total (Enrique Buchichio)
ReelTalk (John P. McCarthy)
IGN Movies (Todd Gilchrist)
There are few movies released by major studios these days possessed with as much intelligence and purpose as Gaghan's. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at IGN Movies (Todd Gilchrist)
Hero Realm (Stefan Halley)
The events in the Middle East are much to complex to be summed up in a two hour movie. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Hero Realm (Stefan Halley)
Boxoffice Magazine (Wade Major)
The result is both winning and problematic, though the positives sufficiently outweigh the negatives to make the result well worthwhile. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Boxoffice Magazine (Wade Major)
Cinepassion.org
Stumblebum Studios (Bobby Blakey)
Reel.com (Tim Knight)
El Criticon (Antonio Méndez Casanova)
Slant Magazine
Chicago Tribune (Matt Pais)
Baltimore Sun (Michael Sragow)
The movie comes together like a nihilistic jigsaw puzzle - with a few pieces removed for that special, indefinable dash of pseudo-density. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Baltimore Sun (Michael Sragow)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
It's simply not a very good movie. Its story line is populated with so many characters and meaningless names that it's nearly impossible to follow, and its author's message doesn't amount to much more than a cry of despair. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Canadian Jewish News
CineFile : il Cinema in Rete (Fabrizio Formenti)
Xi-online (Sander Pieck)
Deze film is in tegenstelling tot Fahrenheit 9/11 echter geen directe aanval op het beleid van Bush, maar men kan zich niet onttrekken aan de notie dat deze film zich kritisch uitlaat over het buitenlandse beleid van de V.S.. Syriana vangt aan door ons ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Xi-online (Sander Pieck)
Boxoffice Magazine
Pop Entertainment.com
Cinema 2000 (João Lopes)
St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt (St. Paul))
Syriana is like a position paper, and scenes that should pull us in fall flat. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt (St. Paul))
Movie Habit (Rise Keller)
A graduate-level lecture on oil politicking, Washington law and Middle-Eastern power structures ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Movie Habit (Rise Keller)
Filmtracks (Christian Clemmensen)
In "Driving in Geneva," quickly but quietly alternating
strings are joined by the electric bass to create a canvas of slight
urgency despite the significantly slower, more mellow piano solo on top
of that canvas. The rhythms would proceed to ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Filmtracks (Christian Clemmensen)
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Phoebe Flowers)
The problem with Syriana is not that it lacks good elements, but that it has no idea how them shape them into a comprehensible story. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Phoebe Flowers)
Worcester Telegram & Gazette (Daniel M. Kimmel)
However it's Clooney's performance that will stick with you... One wishes his story was the focus of the film instead of one thread among many. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Worcester Telegram & Gazette (Daniel M. Kimmel)
The Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt)
The character and geographical jumps leave you in a muddle with thinly sketched personalities and confusing plot points. Worse, dialogue dense with nuance and shaded meaning flies by too quickly. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at The Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt)
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) (Josh Larsen)
I suppose if I created a flow chart of characters and devoted a few solid hours to it, I could make some sense of ... `Syriana.' ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) (Josh Larsen)
Aisle Seat (Mike McGranaghan)
The film throws so much information at you so quickly and so relentlessly that it's easy to become overwhelmed and confused. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Aisle Seat (Mike McGranaghan)
San Jose Mercury News (Bruce Newman)
You keep straining to understand the bits and pieces of information that you can make out, but it still adds up to a lot less than the sum of its parts. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at San Jose Mercury News (Bruce Newman)
efilmcritic.com (Collin Souter)
A well-meaning, yet meandering and confusing political thriller. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at efilmcritic.com (Collin Souter)
San Francisco Chronicle (Ruthe Stein)
It's hard to get passionately swept away by a movie when you're struggling continually to figure out who's doing what to whom and why. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at San Francisco Chronicle (Ruthe Stein)
Movie Parables (Michael Elliott)
They say that if one stays plugged into the film... the payoff is satisfactory. Sorry, but they can't prove it by my experience. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Movie Parables (Michael Elliott)
San Diego Union-Tribune (David Elliott)
The movie isn't terrible, many details are vivid, yet the depth is all sheen and display. It has some tough truths at heart, but its brain is a blurof fast cards dealt by an insecure croupier. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at San Diego Union-Tribune (David Elliott)
San Francisco Chronicle (Ruthe Stein)
It's hard to get swept away when you're struggling to figure out who's doing what to whom and why. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at San Francisco Chronicle (Ruthe Stein)
The MovieHamlet (Stefan Hedmark)
Hildebrand och Henriksson har inte lyckats göra något speciellt med den här gamla tyska scenfarsen, där kvinnorna i en grosshandlarfamilj börjar tro att deras karlar bedrar dem. Modéen spelade grosshandlaren på scen och gör om den rollen med ...read the complete Syriana movie review at The MovieHamlet (Stefan Hedmark)
Mark Reviews Movies (Mark Dujsik)
Review by Mark Dujsik
With its focus entirely on politics and policy,
Syriana is blind to its cinematic purposes. As an indictment of U.S.
Middle Eastern policy in regards to oil, the movie feels like a ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Mark Reviews Movies (Mark Dujsik)
Tail Slate (Michael Sheridan)
I’m not about to turn this review into a political essay, so you’ll excuse me if I avoid getting bogged down in this debate. Everyone will have to make up their own minds whether Syriana’s commentary is right or wrong. As a film, I feel it ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Tail Slate (Michael Sheridan)
d+kaz. Intelligent Movie Reviews (Daniel Kasman)
A crucial scene at the climax of Syriana shows an anonymous CIA worker using a joystick to target and destroy a vehicle shown via satellite on a screen in front of him. This explosion, seen from so far above that neither we nor the agent can ...read the complete Syriana movie review at d+kaz. Intelligent Movie Reviews (Daniel Kasman)
Bullz-Eye.com
This isn’t to say that “Syriana” isn’t a historically significant film, or that it won’t enjoy its share of praise come award time, but it’s just not the same movie that everyone was expecting. The filmmaker’s decision not to include a ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Bullz-Eye.com
Houston Chronicle (Amy Biancolli)
Syriana is an ambitious edifice, built with conviction and skill. But I'm not sure I understand it, and I'm not sure I care. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Houston Chronicle (Amy Biancolli)
eFilmCritic.com (Erik Childress)
Damon again getting Gerry'ed out in the middle of nowhere encapsulates Gaghan's wandering around an issue that should leave us with something more substantial than one man trying to make sense of what just happened. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at eFilmCritic.com (Erik Childress)
Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas) (Mark Collette)
The plots are not so much carefully interwoven as they are frantically blended, like a dubious cocktail whose true ingredients the bartender would like to hide. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas) (Mark Collette)
Boulder Weekly (Thomas Delapa)
Whether you follow the oil or the money, as drama Syriana is a dry well. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Boulder Weekly (Thomas Delapa)
Tail Slate (Michael Sheridan)
Las Vegas Weekly (Steve Bornfeld)
Nothing ... defuses the newsy immediacy of a world in crisis like a glorified illustrated lecture ( Syriana ). ...read the complete Syriana movie review at Las Vegas Weekly (Steve Bornfeld)
Providence Journal (Michael Janusonis)
FromTheBalcony (Bill Clark)
...manages to take one of the hottest and most controversial topics in the world and turn it into a convoluted snooze fest. Color me shocked. ...read the complete Syriana movie review at FromTheBalcony (Bill Clark)
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