50
A competent, if unremarkable, espionage thriller that is enjoyable while it lasts and forgotten moments after the credits roll.
We hate to say it, but we can't find anywhere to view this film.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
The Fourth Protocol was a great in-flight read, and it will probably be a great in-flight movie, too-though in a theater it looks a little pale and overextended. [28 Aug 1987, p.FC]
90
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
An absorbing, intelligent and suspense-filled film... It's streamlined and rich at the same time -- like the best of the James Bond films, but serious.
75
Chicago Tribune by Gene Siskel
The Fourth Protocol is full of seemingly inside information about the techniques of spies. And although the film rarely develops as much sustained tension as the adaptation of Forsyth's "The Day of the Jackal," The Fourth Protocol does have Caine as an anchor of credibility as well as solid performances as Russian agents by Joanna Cassidy and Brosnan, who looks here like he would have made a fine James Bond. [28 Aug 1987, p.A]
60
The New York Times by Janet Maslin
A coolly efficient thriller with an octopus of a plot.
90
Washington Post by Rita Kempley
An engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable adaptation of the bestselling spy thriller by Frederick Forsyth.
88
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
The Fourth Protocol is first-rate because it not only is a thriller, but it also pays attention to its characters and shows how their actions grow out of their personalities. Like Michael Caine's other recent British spy film, "The Whistle Blower," it is effective not simply because it's a thriller but also because for long stretches it simply is a very absorbing drama.
30
Los Angeles Times by Sheila Benson
As The Fourth Protocol begins at the outside and curls its way into the center of its wildly complex plot, it becomes almost a "Saturday Night Live" spy spoof. We're saturated with detail: Where will the nested Russian folk-art dolls, the visiting violinist's patent-leather shoes and the American Air Force officer's randy wife fit into the Greater Scheme of Things? Gradually, as our eyes glaze over, it becomes very hard to care--and even harder to suppress a giggle.