32
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 60EmpireWilliam ThomasEmpireWilliam ThomasThis uneven but well-researched film takes a much more sober and realistic view than the Rambo-esque capers, of the hardships endured by shot-down Americans in conditions that were anything but Hilton-like.
- 50The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyAn earnest but clumsy tribute to the heroism of the American servicemen - mostly officers - who were captured and held prisoner by North Vietnam during the long, desperate undeclared war we now refer to simply as Vietnam.
- 50Chicago TribuneDave KehrChicago TribuneDave KehrThe film's didactic passages cancel out its dramatic integrity, and the results are strangely neutral and unmoving.
- 40TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThis film is really blatant right-wing propaganda loaded with a stunning amount of racial and political stereotypes.
- 38Miami HeraldBill CosfordMiami HeraldBill CosfordChetwynd's design, to show the POW plight in terms as dreary as its reality, works against the movie at almost every point. [20 May 1987, p.D8]
- 38The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenChetwynd fumbles the job badly. [2 May 1987]
- 30The Hanoi Hilton is a lame attempt by writer-director Lionel Chetwynd to tell the story of US prisoners in Hoa Lo Prison, in Hanoi during the Vietnam War. Pic is a slanted view of traditional prison camp sagas, injecting lots of hindsight and taking right-wing potshots that do a disservice to the very human drama of the subject.
- 30Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonLionel Chetwynd has achieved the impossible -- making a Vietnam prison torture movie dull. And although his sympathy for Americans missing in action seems genuine and laudable, the film liberal-bashes so heavyhandedly it's enough to make Nixon cry "Fonda."
- 20Washington PostRita KempleyWashington PostRita KempleyDull and unimaginative, Chetwynd treats his characters with such reverence that they might as well be saints in striped prison pajamas, martyred for the sake of some robotic patriotism. At least, his villains stand out from the host of underdeveloped heroes. Boob journalists, a doofus peacenik actress and a Cuban goon -- Michael Russo, who seems to think he's playing a pimp on "Miami Vice" -- add the unintentional comic relief.
- 20Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonLos Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonIt's just another failed movie: a loud, shallow fiasco that leaves you feeling used.