53
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFilmmaker Herbig and his team prove to be especially adept at contriving situations where anything anyone does causes fear, anxiety, stress and worry, leaving everyone, very much including the audience, existing on the knife’s edge of unremitting tension.
- 70Film ThreatAlex SavelievFilm ThreatAlex SavelievThe movie is a heart-on-the-sleeve, old-fashioned action-adventure thriller. This Balloon may not exactly soar, but it’ll give you a satisfyingly stirring ride.
- In this entertainingly tense thriller, Hebrig finds extraordinary courage and understandable fear in both the Strelzyk and Wetzels.
- 56TheWrapMichael NordineTheWrapMichael NordineIt feels like an attempt to transpose the mix of thrills and prestige of a film like “Argo” onto a different true story, a paint-by-numbers approach that’s far less compelling than drawing outside the lines would have been.
- 50The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThe New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThere is nothing objectionable about Michael Bully Herbig’s glossy political thriller, Balloon, but there’s nothing particularly exciting about it, either.
- 50VarietyTomris LafflyVarietyTomris LafflyBalloon is decent entertainment to a degree, and that is mostly thanks to its handsome production values.
- 50Boston GlobeMark FeeneyBoston GlobeMark FeeneyBalloon manages to combine slickness and sentimentality, predictability and implausibility. The fact that it’s based on a true story — the closing credits include photographs of the actual families — does not make up for the amassing of red herrings, close calls, and occasions for head-scratching.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckBalloon simply doesn't feature the sort of cinematic thrills necessary to keep us fully invested in the travails of its central characters. It's not that the events are depicted in anything less than bombastic, hyperbolic fashion. It's more that the filmmaker lacks the directorial finesse to calibrate the suspense for maximum cinematic effect.