Six Minutes to Midnight

"How it could have taken British cinema... until now to get to such a tantalising nugget? The answer might be suggested by the stodge of the results here."

"The word you're looking for is ... nein."

"There’s a perfunctory feel to its chases, shootouts, close calls and shadowy behaviors, as well as to the often transparent dialogue."

"Eddie Izzard... is bizarrely miscast in a deadpan-serious acting role for this weird, strained, second world war spy melodrama..."

"The double-crosses are depicted by (Goddard) with better-than-average craft, but the more the movie leans into old suspense conventions the more interest it loses..."

"The combination of heart-on-sleeve and tongue-in-cheek could hardly seem less expert."

"The film is... rather rushed and seems disinterested in the details of its own story."

"It's Hitchcock without the verve, a succession of generic chases, only one of which is any fun..."

"Goddard's film is far too aware of its subject's peculiarity, and every frame knows full well that something is a bit off."

"Unfortunately, the school's actual history remains more fascinating than the narrative written by Izzard, Celyn and Goddard."

"Not even Judi Dench can save writer and star Izzard’s prewar romp from drab mediocrity."

"The crackerjack espionage thriller that might have been, the one filled with ideas and purpose, is defeated by flat execution."

"The movie tells us at least three different stories at once and the spy story is the least interesting."

"There's a fascinating film... trying to escape from this creaky passion project of Eddie Izzard's."

"Fascinating if flawed... a genteel and stoic movie."

"An unusually gentle-spirited spy tale."

"Six Minutes to Midnight has a great title... a great cast (including Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent) and a great premise... Unfortunately, it's a desperately clunky affair..."

"Works overtime for scant reward."

"A suspenseful film, made that way less from its prewar setting and the violence it contains, than by one man running - racing, really - to stop a conspiracy and prevent a disaster."

"Andy Goddard's film clumsily superimposes a frenzied, completely fictional spy adventure onto a fascinating fragment of pre-war history."