Production notes

Box office receipts totaled US$105.2 million, of which $74.1 million was from the United States having earned US$16.7 million in its opening weekend at 2,530 theaters.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 32% based on reviews from 124 critics. The site's critics consensus is: "Derivative and contains too many implausible situations". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 42 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times called the film an "overplotted, hollow thriller" with too much exposition. He praised Freeman, whose "prickly smarts and silken impatience" made the film better. However, he felt Freeman was ultimately wasted in "almost an inept thriller". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, calling it "loophole-riddled, verging on the nonsensical". Though he criticized the plot holes, Ebert thought that Freeman's performance was commendable and suggested awards should perhaps focus more on poor films that had excellent performances. Robert Koehler of Variety felt that Cross's intelligence and detective skills were "reduced here to the most fundamental and predictable level", though he also praised Freeman's gravitas.

Jerry Goldsmith won the BMI Film & TV Award for his original score, and Morgan Freeman was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, but lost to Denzel Washington for Training Day.