The Last Castle is pretty much every prison movie cliché and every mutiny movie cliché you’ve ever seen -- along with some Spartacus/Ben-Hur–style shirtless movie star masochism -- served up in one bombastic package.

| Apr 5, 2022

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 30, 2006

Not a serious prison flick, but director Lurie finds fresh ways to frame familiar situations, and pulls it off with enough tongue-in-cheek wit.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 24, 2001

Bizarre, confused, sanctimonious manure.

Full Review | Oct 23, 2001

Some films just leave you puzzled, and The Last Castle is one of them.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 21, 2001

The themes that ring out most loudly in the end -- some men are just born leaders; others do best if they just conform -- are numbingly retrograde.

| Oct 20, 2001

Devolves into a mundane warden-versus-inmate conclusion.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 19, 2001

A heavy-handed military prison melodrama.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 19, 2001

The Last Castle, while engrossing in parts, might have benefited from more pre-shooting talk about what makes an intriguing character -- and what makes a star performance.

| Oct 19, 2001

The Last Castle is not as simple as it looks, though its appeal is simple.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 19, 2001

An intermittently witty script and Rod Lurie's assured direction triumph over the cornball factor.

Full Review | Oct 19, 2001

The story is a stirring vehicle for serious themes embodied by sharply drawn characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 19, 2001

It's not objectionable (which is saying something these days) but neither does it have any compelling reason to be seen.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 19, 2001

When the screen finally darkens and the doors open for our release, we come away mildly entertained by the experience, although definitely grateful to get off with time served.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 19, 2001

The Last Castle is not a movie you want to think about too hard, because if you do, you'll find yourself facing some tough questions.

| Oct 19, 2001

If Castle isn't offensive, it is deeply stupid.

| Oct 19, 2001

The Last Castle is the kind of movie you can enjoy easily enough, as long as you don't think about it much.

Full Review | Oct 19, 2001

The immediate experience of watching The Last Castle is strongly involving, and the action at the end, exciting.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 19, 2001

It seems a lot longer than that before this movie finally gets moving, but the character development is worth the wait.

| Oct 19, 2001

[Lurie] acquits himself well in his first large-scale action movie.

Full Review | Oct 19, 2001