| 75 |
Boston Globe
Jonathan Perry
All About the Benjamins has: flash, cash, and enough videogenic eye candy to make ''Miami Vice'' look like ''Little House on the Prairie.''
|
| 70 |
Film Threat
Marcus D. Russell
Did what I had yet to see any other entrant in this arena do, it crossed generational lines and had 18 year-olds and 50 year-olds talking about the merits of the same film.... and that is truly it’s greatest accomplishment.
|
| 63 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
This is a movie fantasy, folks -- like James Bond, without the smarm and martinis.
|
| 63 |
Miami Herald
It's fun to watch the stocky, scowling Ice Cube and skinny, jittery Epps play off each other; they click on screen.
|
| 58 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
This is Epps' showcase. He can't cover all the film's flaws, but he'll sure gab your ear off trying.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
The strange case of a movie that clunks in every possible way but the ultimate way -- it entertains.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
Unfortunately, the home-run performances of Cube and Epps are handicapped by inept and illogical action sequences.
|
| 50 |
TV Guide
Oddly, the most appealing thing about the movie is that in an age of ever-escalating special effects, it's refreshingly low-tech, more like a '70s action movie than a modern-day one.
|
| 50 |
USA Today
Such overkill might seem like an asset to teenage boys (and those who think like them). The rest of us are better off not wasting our Washingtons.
|
| 42 |
Entertainment Weekly
Something puddles to nothing in this relentless Miami sun.
|
| 40 |
Village Voice
Glitz and speed help alleviate cavernous plot holes and rote gangsta misogyny, while the gleeful violence, pointlessly sappy lulls, and racial sparring are leavened a bit by capricious auto-critique.
|
| 40 |
LA Weekly
This is high school fantasy straight outta Compton. As such, it has a certain compelling enthusiasm.
|
| 40 |
Los Angeles Times
Its dark-edged crime-caper plot is so formulaic it seems almost ritualized. Yet Ice Cube and Mike Epps enact their standard odd-couple tango with such ease and brio, you'd think they'd never seen such movies before.
|
| 40 |
Variety
Boilerplate crime comedy.
|
| 38 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Ice Cube possesses real screen presence, and it's a shame to see him squander his talents here. He and Epps made me laugh in "Next Friday." They made me squirm here.
|
| 38 |
New York Post
Director Kevin Bray, whose clichéd style betrays his music-video roots, devotes far too much time to the mechanics of the illogical plot.
|
| 38 |
Baltimore Sun
Strings of four-letter words are a poor substitute for dialogue, and it's not until the movie is almost over that someone realizes there's no reason, other than assumed macho posturing, for Cube's character to go after these bad guys so hard.
|
| 38 |
New York Daily News
Those who need little more than a car chase, gunplay, pretty girls and a solid soundtrack will be entertained. And Ice Cube fans won't be disappointed. Everyone else may want to think twice before shelling out hard-earned dollars.
|
| 30 |
The New York Times
This movie, a chaotic caper film at heart, wrecks its comic tone with some moments of gruesome violence.
|
| 30 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
A witless, bloody, unpleasant mismatched-buddy movie.
|
| 30 |
Chicago Reader
Hank Sartin
The whole movie feels stiff and awkward whenever the actors stop chasing each other long enough to talk.
|
| 30 |
New Times (L.A.)
Plays like a knockoff of Michael Bay's already derivative and much more fun "Bad Boys," only with even less plot. It also recalls the worst qualities of John Singleton's mean-spirited "Shaft."
|
| 20 |
Washington Post
You can laugh with or without irony. Or you can simply stay away.
|
| 20 |
Washington Post
Teresa Wiltz
It's painful watching a talented thespian diminish himself so. It's clear he did it for the Benjamins.
|
| 20 |
Salon.com
The comedy is tepid, the action is dopey and even the violence is boring and occasionally cruel.
|
| 20 |
Austin Chronicle
The unnecessary nastiness, even sadism, of much of the violence also bears mentioning if you're expecting more of the benignly cartoonish silliness of Cube's lone directing effort, "The Players Club."
|
