Metacritic Film

Wisdom of Crocodiles, The

Starring Jude Law, Stuart Bowman, and C.J. December

MPAA RATING: R for some strong violence and gore, language, and sexuality

Miramax Films
Suspense/Thriller
98 minutes | Color
UK
Released In Theaters July 14, 2000

Searching for an ideal woman, Steven (Law), a "vampire" type in London, craves the intimacy of women. He meets a strong woman named Anne and it is clear only one of them will survive.

WRITTEN BY
Paul Hoffman

DIRECTED BY
Po-Chih Leong

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

58 / 100

Critic Reviews

90 Film.com
A rich and challenging variation on the serial-killer genre.
83 Entertainment Weekly
Peculiarly bloodless.
80 Time
From its first shot, of a mangled car high up in the branches of a tree, this cool, handsome thriller proceeds with an elliptical elegance.
80 Village Voice
Inoffensively glib and innocuously arty.
75 Christian Science Monitor
The picture is a little too pretentious to achieve its artistic and emotional goals, but its ambition and imagination are impressive at times.
60 The New York Times
Mr. Law doesn't disgrace himself here, though he doesn't have much to do, and the director, Po Chih Leong, is deft at creating atmosphere, but it's an atmosphere we've all seen before.
50 TV Guide
Nearly strangles in its own stylishness but benefits from smoldering performances.
50 New York Daily News
With all the brooding, stylized closeups of blood, crosses and cigarettes, the overall effect is fashion-mag chic -- not, as intended, intellectual thriller.
39 Mr. Showbiz
An orgy of bad decisions and cheap ideas.
38 New York Post
A real crock.
30 Variety
Starts intriguingly but ends up thrashing around as a toothless wonder.

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