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100It's pure cinema, spread over several genres. It's a caper movie, a gangster movie, a sex movie and a slapstick comedy.
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100It's a complex, satisfying piece of entertainment, a succession of unexpected, outrageous scenes.
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The writing-directing team of brothers Larry and Andi Wachowski has chosen as its filmmaking debut a tightly constructed, stylishly (but rarely self-consciously) executed, gripping little noir parable that couldn't be more firmly grounded in American movie tradition if the filmmakers created a wacky romantic farce about mismatched paramours.
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88The result is flashy -- first-time directors Larry and Andy Wachowski never miss an opportunity to show us red, red drops of blood against brilliant white -- but pretty good fun, especially if the thought of Tilly in a succession of thigh-high bandage dresses makes you sweat.
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88Some caper movies build suspense, while others tweak the genre with tongue lancing cheek. But this lesbian caper pic (how's that for a rarefied subgenre?) often pulls off both feats in the same scene, even simultaneously. [04 Oct 1996 Pg.04.D]
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88From the first scene, however, it's obvious that the writing/directing team of Andy and Larry Wachowski are aiming for something considerably higher than rudimentary titillation. And, by taking chances and twisting conventions, they have hit paydirt.
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83The true pleasures of Bound lie in the Wachowskis' inventive updated take on film noir traditions, sensuously realized by cinematographer Bill Pope ("Clueless").
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80Lovingly designed in black and white, and played with a nice sense of irony, this offers the not unappealing spectacle of gorgeous, funny, clever women making fools of hard-boiled Mafia guys.
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80In short, Bound is admittedly derivative, but it's such an amusing low-down entertainment it really doesn't matter.
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The Wachowski brothers are to be applauded for a film that is also nearly as stylishly funny as it is sexy and fast-paced.
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70The Wachowskis have the predilection for loopy camera setups common to first-time directors, but their hearts are in the right transgressive place, and their film will tide some of us over until Quentin gets...well...unbound.
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70Bound, a diabolically clever caper, isn't nearly so deep as the genre it kids.
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70This gets very suspenseful (as well as fairly gruesome) in spots, and if it never adds up to anything profound, it's still a welcome change to have a lesbian couple as the chief identification figures.
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67What's more, they toss a few original twists into a familiar generic set-up and thereby create a thoroughly entertaining and stylish thriller.
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50The film is shot by Bill Pope with such enterprising flair that it never looks claustrophobic, but the action inevitably stalls in such close quarters.
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Like so many other rob-the-mob movies, the plan seems pretty far-fetched, and the ending isn't much of a surprise. But if you like your films sprinkled liberally with sex, violence and humor, then you're bound to like Bound.
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25Larry and Andy Wachowski directed this lurid, sexually explicit thriller.
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10While the women go through a few of the motions, shifting decorously under the sheets and sucking face, there's no lust in their coupling, just choreography and the conceit of two filmmakers with nothing more on their minds than fake dykes and bloodshed.
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10Debuting writer-directors Larry and Andy Wachowski come off like Coen brothers wannabes with no sense of humor.