The pieces would seem to be in place, but ... "Money Monster" is a stodgy, moribund plodder loaded with stock characters that wouldn't have felt edgy in 1983 and has about the same contemporary urgency as your average late-night rerun of "CSI: NY."
– Andrew O'Hehir,
Salon.com,
16 May 2016
rotten:
A bewilderingly facile and preposterously plotted misfire that offers few pleasures as either a star-driven thriller or a big-screen indictment of the forces that devastated global bank accounts.
– Robert Abele,
TheWrap,
18 May 2016
rotten:
No matter how many times Jack O'Connell waves his gun in the air and threatens to detonate the place with a bomb, you never truly believe anyone's life is in danger.
– Mara Reinstein,
Us Weekly,
19 May 2016
rotten:
With all the ranting about a "rigged" financial system, the movie certainly captures the zeitgeist, but it' so overloaded with action-movie tropes and tech-based plot contrivances that it begins to feel a little silly.
– J. R. Jones,
Chicago Reader,
19 May 2016
rotten:
The frenzied drama has no clear point of view besides its air of celebrity condescension.