Criminal
Lionsgate | Release Date: April 15, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
9
Negative:
15
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 16, 2016
As a race-against-time, Jason Bourne-inspired adrenaline cocktail, Criminal offers a couple of hours of popcorn-munching entertainment. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 13, 2016
Criminal depicts a compelling situation, made rich and entertaining through its extreme characters. Read full review
63
Boston GlobePeter KeoughApr 14, 2016
Kevin Costner should stop trying to be so nice. His best performances have been as baddies. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranApr 14, 2016
Half science-fiction tale, half espionage thriller, it's a pleasantly far-fetched endeavor that moves along so briskly that it leaves no time to consider its implausibilities, which are many. Read full review
60
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerApr 14, 2016
Ariel Vromen has directed a decent, fast-paced action movie, and Mr. Costner is enjoyable to watch as Jerico Stewart. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyApr 13, 2016
A high-concept thriller that teeters like a seesaw between deranged and dull. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshApr 14, 2016
Criminal feels like the kind of high-concept, unapologetically preposterous action movies of the heyday in the '80s and '90s. If that's your thing, it's a hoot. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorApr 14, 2016
The disappointment here is that an intriguing psychological premise about a personality swap is never used to do anything more than provide the juice for a run-of-the-mill action movie. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaApr 14, 2016
[Costner's] utter conviction to such a daffy project is strangely endearing. You may never believe one minute of Criminal, but Costner sure does. Read full review
50
TheWrapRobert AbeleApr 8, 2016
The movie equivalent of a diverting beach read. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyApr 7, 2016
The leading man aside, a fine cast is thoroughly wasted in a tale that centers on old-fashioned Cold War-style conflict rather than the sort of terrorist drama that's more pertinent today. Read full review
40
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganApr 7, 2016
Vroman follows up The Iceman with a competently-made film, featuring solid production design from Jon Henson (Testament of Youth) and some good, gritty chase sequences, particularly at the film’s onset. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenApr 21, 2016
Criminal has a strong supporting cast, but the big names aren’t doing much beyond the bare minimum to qualify for a payday. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 15, 2016
Criminal, with its criminally lazy title, is mostly Costner's to growl and scowl his way through. Read full review
38
New York PostSara StewartApr 14, 2016
Turn off your frontal lobe, and you just might enjoy it. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 13, 2016
And Reynolds? Put your money on him hitting his knees tonight and thanking Marvel for that red suit and all those zingers that “Deadpool” gets to deliver. They saved him from duds like this. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesApr 20, 2016
Criminal is a perfectly passable thriller, if you’re cool with no one here passing as an actual human being. Read full review
30
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Apr 13, 2016
Quick, what do you call it when a movie takes both of the year’s biggest breakout action stars and wastes them in a bad Kevin Costner movie? Criminal. Read full review
30
VarietyAndrew BarkerApr 7, 2016
Struggling to generate much tension, the film opts for sensory battery in the action scenes, rendering gunshots as loud as cannon fire and splashing blood every which way. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 14, 2016
Given the lurid, stupid, loony and unintentionally laughable nature of this espionage thriller, I found some measure of entertainment studying the vastly different approaches taken by Costner, Jones and Oldman — three of our finest actors over the last 30 years. Read full review
25
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanApr 14, 2016
Like its brain-damaged protagonist, Criminal just shouts and shoots its way into, not out of, an oblivion of illogic, plot holes and emotionally unengaging scenery-chewing. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiApr 14, 2016
Criminal is the kind of dunderheaded enterprise that leaves viewers reeling from the idiocies they have just endured, wondering how something like that could possibly get made in the first place. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernApr 14, 2016
Criminal’s story moves like a fat cow. Costner and Oldman’s characters are sluggishly chasing after — irony alert! — a big black duffel back full of $100 bills, hidden behind a stack of George Orwell books. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezApr 13, 2016
Criminal's absence of style, the lack of relish the filmmakers take in the material's inherent ludicrousness, is a failure of conviction. Read full review
20
Total FilmJames MottramMar 30, 2017
Jones and Oldman are on autopilot, while Costner grizzles like a sore-headed bear. Only Gal Gadot, as Reynolds’ widow, has any cred in this utter pap. Read full review
20
EmpireJohn NugentApr 18, 2016
A preposterous premise that never makes sense. A tedious thriller that offers no thrills. An A-list cast reduced to C-list material. Piers Morgan. We can but pray that scientists invent a procedure to remove the memory of ever watching this film in the first place. Read full review
20
Time OutTom HuddlestonApr 15, 2016
When great actors meet a misguided script, the results can be hilarious. And so it proves with Criminal, a nutso mash-up of The Bourne Identity and The Man with Two Brains which, despite a laughable plot and ridiculous dialogue, somehow managed to attract Kevin Costner to the lead role, with support from Ryan Reynolds, Tommy Lee Jones, new Wonder Woman Gal Gadot and even Gary Oldman (who really needs to have a word with his agent after this and Child 44). Read full review
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