Cusack is halfway between Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Stewart, and the result doesn't come together.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 7, 2015

Even if an uncredited editor were hired to make clear sense of these pieces, the film wouldn't work.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 2, 2015

You might be forgiven for expecting either an unfairly squelched masterpiece or an unholy mess. The movie is neither, although it falls closer to the mess side of the table.

| Oct 1, 2015

Under Mikael Hfstrm's visually clunky, rhythmless direction, it's a snooze of epic sameness: choppy action scenes, a blankly stern Cusack, and too many allegiance shifts to count or care for.

| Oct 1, 2015

It is hampered by weak writing and a badly executed story line.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 1, 2015

Director Mikael Hafstrom and a fine cast and crew have made a film that's elegant and gauche in roughly equal measure.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 1, 2015

Hfstrm directs it like he's sucking too hard on a cigarette, in a quick, over-and-done-with style that results only in fitful coughs of smoke.

| Original Score: C | Oct 1, 2015

How many times does John Cusack have to prove he is no leading man? In Shanghai he comes off as Sam Spade with chopsticks.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 30, 2015

Goes through all the motions of an old-school wartime spy pic with plenty of technical competence but zero panache, the filmic equivalent of a bar band working through one last Skynyrd cover just before last call.

| Sep 30, 2015

The film often feels like a drab collection of scenes where John Cusack disinterestedly questions attractive, elusive Asian cast members.

| Sep 29, 2015

Everything in Mikael Hfstrm's film is needlessly bloated to accommodate its status as an international, prestige production.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Sep 27, 2015

Cusack says at one point: "I did what you do with a puzzle. I stared at it until it made sense." That, I can guarantee you, won't happen with "Shanghai."

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 20, 2015

[A] really boring 1940s spy drama starring John Cusack.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 23, 2012