Very violent movie ultimately just falls apart.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 28, 2010

Barely memorable.

| Original Score: C+ | May 4, 2005

The real violence, as is always the case with Mamet, lies not in the mayhem but in the thrusting rhythms of the dialogue.

Full Review | Aug 7, 2004

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 6, 2004

Famed for his way with words, it's as if Mamet has tried to outdo himself here, but without the trademark humour that might've lifted this otherwise constipated Tom Clancy knock-off.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 20, 2004

Both technically accomplished and moderately entertaining.

| Mar 25, 2004

Mamet's understanding of the essentials here and his skill in supplying them are not major achievements for him, but it would be wasteful not to recognize them.

Full Review | Mar 21, 2004

Spartan is the same old stuff, but now it's been thoroughly Mametized, like a spray-on treatment you could spritz out of a can.

Full Review | Mar 21, 2004

Not one character makes sense, there is no shred of craft, and the script sounds like it was written by a 6-year-old who has accidentally swallowed a microchip.

| Mar 18, 2004

A political thriller with topical currency, Spartan delivers the goods.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 16, 2004

He commits the very last sin his characters would permit -- he loses control with multiply paranoid layers that wear out instead of boring in.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Mar 14, 2004

Is Spartan a perfect, or even a great, movie? Probably not. But in its prickly irascibility and deeply unsettling intelligence, it makes for a very, very good one.

Full Review | Mar 12, 2004

Until its final stumble, this intelligence thriller ... is charged with brilliance.

Full Review | Mar 12, 2004

Despite its many failings, Spartan is better than most of what passes for thrillers down at the multiplex.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 12, 2004

The first hour of Spartan can make you sick with dread, like the first season of the 온라인카지노추천 series 24 ... The last half-hour of Spartan is still entertaining, but it's laughable.

| Mar 12, 2004

A cold piece, mechanistic and only intermittently involving.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 12, 2004

Starts out promisingly, but quickly sinks under the weight of its own plot twists, ponderous pacing and Val Kilmer's monotonous performance as a ruthless special-ops agent.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 12, 2004

Mamet's normally dead-on cynicism is wildly off the mark.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 12, 2004

Though it's not up to his best work, it's a worthy addition to Mamet's oeuvre.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Mar 12, 2004

The non-conformist has conformed, giving us a movie little different in impact from those many other Hollywood thrillers out there -- the kind that start out really strong only to wind up weak and wonky.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 12, 2004