Critic Reviews
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
Fishburne excels in his triple-threat roles as actor, director and adapter of his own play, and his cast glows under his direction.
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| 75 |
Entertainment Weekly
Showcases a trio of terrific performances.
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| 70 |
LA Weekly
May lack any transcendent point that would make it exceptional, but it is certainly a worthy start, and worth catching.
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| 68 |
Mr. Showbiz
Has a credibly gritty texture, thanks in large part to Fishburne's generosity with his fellow actors.
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| 63 |
New York Post
Basically it's an acting exercise - a one-set rendition of that old stage and movie standby, the ex-convict struggling to go straight who's tempted to attempt one last score.
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| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
Strong, hard, dirty, funny, moving atmospheric and laced with scabrously musical street dialogue.
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| 50 |
New York Daily News
As urban gangster drama, Once in the Life is way below mundane, and Fishburne's direction exceeds the rookie jitters.
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| 50 |
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie remains an actor's exercise--too much dialogue, too much time in the room, too much happening offstage, or in the past, or in memory, or in imagination.
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| 50 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
If Laurence Fishburne could only have harnessed his fierce performance to drive his directoral debut, Once in the Life might have made something memorable of the done-to-death tale of small-time crooks on the run after a heist gone wrong.
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| 50 |
Village Voice
While the line-readings are often dead-on, Fishburne's movie suffers from the usual one-room claustrophobia and Mametian repetitions.
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| 50 |
Variety
A film that ultimately feels stagebound and excessively talky, but which showcases an exceptional performance.
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| 40 |
TV Guide
The good news is that Fishburne also stars, and has recruited a talented group of actors to flesh out the cast; the bad news is that no one seems to have been on hand to help out with the rest of film.
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| 40 |
Film.com
Doesn't have a lot to offer that hasn't been done better -- and worse -- in hundreds of ghetto-sink shoot-em-ups.
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| 40 |
The New York Times
(Fishburne's) performance here, witty and profane, vulnerable and strutting, nearly holds the movie together.
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