Movie has its heart in the right place but isn't angry or intrepid enough.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 28, 2021

Harrelson and Marsden are quite good and have a professional chemistry that is right up there with some of the best newspaper dramas.

Full Review | Jun 17, 2020

The clumsily on-the-nose dialogue sounds as though it was cribbed wholesale from Geopolitics for Dummies.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 10, 2019

SHOCK AND AWE is an absolute"Must See"! In this day and age of "fake news" hysteria generated by our political leaders, SHOCK AND AWE is the shot in the arm that legitimate journalists need, not to mention what the public needs to see.

Full Review | Nov 3, 2018

Reiner is clearly passionate about the material, but he can't translate that to the screen.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 11, 2018

The main characters aren't really explored and the supporting cast, such as Jessica Biel, who plays Strobel's love interest, appear peripheral to the story.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 14, 2018

Rob Reiner's worst movie in years...

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 20, 2018

What could have been an important and timely film in an era of distrust in journalism is sadly wasted. The film bombards its audience with surgically rapid scenes that feed as much information as possible with no emotional pay off.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 2, 2018

It would be hard enough to compete in a straight drama, but when your dramatic characters seem to only really exist as a bridge between footage clips it's impossible.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 2, 2018

Perhaps the recent profusion of fake news has made it more difficult for some Hollywood liberal creatives...to write about the War on Terror with a more self-reflexive and objective lens -- thereby ensuring that Shock and Awe fails to live up to its name.

Full Review | Aug 1, 2018

There's just not enough quality time invested in getting to know the characters for any of this to feel compelling.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 31, 2018

This sadly derivative film has one too many screenings of All the President's Men written all over it.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 27, 2018

Reiner's ham-fisted newspaper drama aspires to be gripping like Spotlight but falls victim to the clichés of the genre.

Full Review | Jul 26, 2018

The real problem here is false consciousness. Joey Hartstone's didactic, sermonizing screenplay is hardly any less fantastical than the lies it seeks to condemn.

Full Review | Jul 26, 2018

The story gives audiences an inside look at how journalism actually works at ground level, including the cultivation of sources, the use of "background" and off-the-record information. It has a strong feel of authenticity.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 26, 2018

The story at hand is certainly important but Shock and Awe fails to replicate the urgency of Tom McCarthy's Spotlight, which it clearly thinks it's doing.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Jul 16, 2018

Harrelson's a joy to watch, as usual, as are Marsden and Jones, although Jessica Biel is given little to do as Marsden's love interest, and Milla Jovovich plays a nagging-wife role best left in another decade.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 16, 2018

This isn't a subtle movie, and it feels the compulsory need to walk its viewers through even the most basic ideological building blocks.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Jul 16, 2018

At its best, Shock and Awe still feels like it strains to be Spotlight-lite and comes up lacking. The title is a misnomer.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 16, 2018

There is a degree of outrage [in] the movie, but there is no passion in that outrage...the characters had it but the movie didn't.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.6/10 | Jul 13, 2018