Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
The movie itself feels a little out of date, taking place in the present, but emotionally invoking a world of Enrons, Bernie Madoffs, tech bubbles and Wall Street meltdowns.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
A clever financial thriller with comic overtones that's a solid investment of your time thanks to stellar work by George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
Clooney provides the glue. Like director Foster, he has a genuine interest in making commercial movies that matter, at least a little bit - movies that engage with questions of media hypocrisy and financial outrages.

Name : Stephanie Zacharek / Alias : TIME Magazine
Foster navigates the tonal shifts with ease, and her actors follow.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
While it often feels like Foster's instincts as a director outpace the abilities of her screenwriting team, what she delivers is infernally attractive.

Name : David Sims / Alias : The Atlantic
As its tense studio antics unfold, though, the sad truth becomes apparent: Money Monster is a movie-star vehicle that isn't giving its movie stars anything to do.

Name : Kate Taylor / Alias : Globe and Mail
In a different year, Money Monster might just be another solidly entertaining thriller with an admirable script; in 2016, it feels like the movie of the moment.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
The film whirs along with such entertaining efficiency that you may not realize that, by the end, it has shifted its blame .

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
"Money Monster" is better than a mere statement of the times. It's terrific entertainment, and it deserves to be seen now.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
An ordinary film about an extraordinary situation.

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
Money Monster might not be a great movie, but it is a comforting movie-movie that's still fun to watch even if it whiffed on being something more.

Name : Cary Darling / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
Unfolding in real time, Money Monster hints at being a more taut, topical thriller than it turns out to be. While always compulsively watchable, and often surprisingly funny, it loses some of its steam once it becomes clear where it's going.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Even if Money Monster ultimately gets held hostage by its plot intricacies, Clooney, Roberts, O'Connell, and Foster do their jobs. It's a movie worth investing in.

Name : Bruce Kirkland / Alias : Toronto Sun
The film could be better - and it should be better, considering the depth of the talent involved.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
It's well made, juicily acted, a fun watch, but for all its financial-vigilante noise, the movie's a slick Hollywood response to the depredations of Wall Street.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : MTV
If Bernie Sanders is elected president, Money Monster will be the only movie allowed on Air Force One.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
Foster has crafted a piece that, in places, proves to actually be funnier than might be expected, and she gets the most out of her fellow A-listers .

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Ultimately, "Money Monster" is always watchable - but forgets to give us a compelling reason to watch.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A potentially topical thriller marred by pandering dialogue and clumsy plotting. Spend your money elsewhere.

Name : Andrew Barker / Alias : Variety
The film hangs together surprisingly well, thanks to on-point performances from George Clooney and Julia Roberts, a sprinkle of obtuse humor and Foster's streamlined direction .

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
A polemic disguised as a thriller .

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Foster moves her film from a pulse-quickening nail-biter to an incisive look at a beleaguered America undergoing a crisis of faith.

Name : Dave Calhoun / Alias : Time Out
'Dog Day Afternoon' for dough-brains.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
It recognizes the inchoate anger of people who suddenly realize they've been duped by a fast-talking hustler who promised gold but delivered dirt.

Name : Melissa Anderson / Alias : Village Voice
There's a lot of excitable talk about algorithms (or "algos"), the overuse of the term perhaps fitting for a film that seems to have been constructed not by humans but by binary code.

Name : Matthew Lickona / Alias : San Diego Reader
One long series of narrative gotchas masquerading as moral or intellectual sophistication before finally revealing that it offers nothing more than world-weary sentimentality.

Name : Kenneth Turan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
A film that is both less entertaining and less significant than it imagines.

Name : Mark Jenkins / Alias : NPR
Plays it straight with a topic that in reality is far more twisted.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
Not quite the sophisticated drama the era deserves, but not the usual adrenaline-addled genre exercise, either.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
Unfortunately, despite a surfeit of talent in front of and behind the camera, the movie is unable to overcome a shaky narrative whose increasing preposterousness ensures it's difficult to take seriously.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Sometimes very funny and occasionally legitimately tense.

Name : Leah Greenblatt / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
As a solid B-movie elevated by A-list talent and pushed along by a brisk running time-it's only 98 minutes-Money has its own rewards.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
Investing in this movie would not be a safe bet.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
You will not necessarily learn anything here about how TV or high finance really work, but you will be invited to enjoy the illusion of such enlightenment in the skilled and charismatic company of Julia Roberts and George Clooney.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
Money Monster should turn into some kind of a nail-biter, but Foster, a novice at suspenseful filmmaking, doesn't seem to know which screws to tighten or if screws even need tightening at all.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : RogerEbert.com
Jodie Foster has directed a real-time drama that's lean, efficient and benefits from the enormous charisma of George Clooney in the starring role as a slick, smug financial pundit.

Name : Andy Webster / Alias : New York Times
This candy-coated confection is so irresistible that you're captivated by its sentiment even as you acknowledge its manipulations.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
The story soon gives way to characters kvetching about romance and the working world, their sentiments recycled from the director's other movies.

Name : Tom Huddleston / Alias : Time Out
The sort of movie that adjectives like 'frothy' and 'bubbly' were invented for.

Name : Jordan Hoffman / Alias : New York Daily News
If this Semitic "Strictly Ballroom" and its campy, colorful characters (including a hummus baron!) don't win you over, you may want to check your pulse.

Name : Sheri Linden / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Though the comic confection's clunky moments keep it from achieving souffle delicacy, its bright zingers and seamless fantasy sequences amp the playfulness, and the mostly unforced performances complement the production's cartoonish exuberance.

Name : Serena Donadoni / Alias : Village Voice
Fox infuses Cupcakes with Ofer's can-do optimism, where the power of song can overcome any personal or professional strife.

Name : Ronnie Scheib / Alias : Variety
Israeli helmer Eytan Fox's candy-colored musical is an endearingly goofy celebration of the right to be yourself.