| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie is not intended to be subtle. It is sweaty, candle-lit melodrama, joyously trashy, and its photography wallows in sumptuous decadence.
|
| 70 |
Chicago Reader
Staff (Not Credited)
Retained my interest and sympathy -- at least until the nonsensical ending,
|
| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
Jolie and Banderas are two hot actors, in many senses of the word, and their scenes together have a lewd excitement.
|
| 60 |
TV Guide
Ridiculous, yes, but in an eminently watchable way. Most of the plot twists work surprisingly well, and the frequently naked leads work up some genuine chemistry.
|
| 60 |
Variety
Lisa Nesselson
Lavish and florid, the corny venture falls into so-bad-it's-good territory.
|
| 50 |
Boston Globe
Despite the heavy-handedness, isn't awful enough to be a hilarious howler. But neither is it good enough to become the tropical noir it could have been.
|
| 50 |
Austin Chronicle
It's not nearly as mediocre a two hours as the trailers would have you think.
|
| 50 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
The lead performances are very strong -- few actors possess as much sheer physical presence as this pair -- but their dialogue is stilted, as though lost in transit from a Victorian hothouse.
|
| 50 |
New York Daily News
Banderas has some very effective moments, but in his emotional scenes, Cristofer has him screaming his lines into Jolie's face with such a spritzing fury, she might have filed a union grievance.
|
| 42 |
Entertainment Weekly
Aspires to blasphemy but achieves only banality.
|
| 40 |
Rolling Stone
An erotic thriller with flaws.
|
| 38 |
Charlotte Observer
How bad, really, could it be? I couldn't have guessed.
|
| 30 |
LA Weekly
The director belabors every moment, forgetting that pulp tales need to be told quickly, lest the viewer have time to second-guess.
|
| 30 |
Washington Post
Aficionados of movies in the so-bad-they're-good category might just revel in this overheated costume melodrama.
|
| 30 |
Los Angeles Times
It's too labored and ponderous to qualify as a so-bad-it's-good amusement. Original Sin is merely an old-fashioned bore.
|
| 25 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Neither epochal nor epic in its ludicrousness. It's just run-of-the-mill trash.
|
| 25 |
New York Post
Even the lovemaking scenes between two of Hollywood's most attractive stars -- often shot from above, like Cinemax soft porn -- are so unerotic, they make your skin crawl.
|
| 25 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A first-class snoozer.
|
| 25 |
USA Today
It's one bad apple.
|
| 20 |
Mr. Showbiz
An early scene inside a theater seems intended to wink at Sin's critics: "Disgusting! Cheap melodrama," a lady sniffs during intermission. It's a neatly reflexive acknowledgement of what we ourselves are watching, but even at that, our filmmaker is praising himself too extravagantly by half.
|
| 20 |
New Times (L.A.)
Anyone who expects a little drama with their screen sex will have to go elsewhere.
|
| 20 |
The New York Times
Everything in this film is forgettable, right down to bongos pounding on the soundtrack to indicate a quickening of the pulse.
|
| 10 |
Village Voice
Doesn't even have earnestness going for it -- a tepid, blindly assembled post-noir.
|
| 10 |
Washington Post
About half a notch above disaster.
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