Dragged Across Concrete
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: March 22, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
13
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMar 24, 2019
It’s a cliché to say that they don’t make movies like this anymore — nasty, nihilistic, nicotine-stained ‘70s death trips. But thank goodness that Zahler’s doing everything in his power to prove that cliché wrong. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMar 21, 2019
With his latest, S. Craig Zahler doubles down on the best and worst elements of the pulp film. Read full review
83
IndieWireMichael NordineSep 3, 2018
Dragged Across Concrete may be a hard movie to love, but it’s a much harder one not to respect and even admire. Read full review
80
CineVueAlasdair BaymanApr 19, 2019
Dragged Across Concrete is a unique take on ultraviolence in an age whether the production of films is becoming increasingly polarising. Imbued with a particular stand out performance by Gibson breathes life into Zahler’s mature approach to genre filmmaking. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 17, 2019
This is a long film, but there is something so horribly compelling about its unhurried slouch towards the precipice. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMar 20, 2019
Dragged Across Concrete is a nihilist's morality tale. In the end, Zahler suggests, there's the dead, the innocent, and those smart enough to know that running is the only path out; and even then, there's a lot of innocence on that pile of corpses. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 22, 2019
The result is a film that often feels like Zahler’s most assured to date. Self-indulgent? Oh yeah. A provocation? You bet. But it’s difficult to ignore the craftsmanship and performances in Dragged Across Concrete simply because you don’t like some of its darker themes or feel like it’s too long. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Mar 20, 2019
This is an ugly, borderline vile piece of work. Thing is, it’s also been made with craft, wit, and a frankly exhilarating disregard for how films like this are supposed to operate, how they usually sound and move. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 24, 2019
I’ll see anything Zahler does because I was weaned on the same junk he was and find his mix of amateurism and genre smarts appealing. That’s not a sign of my integrity — a man’s gotta watch what a man’s gotta watch — but of my fundamental laziness and corruption. I hate that I can settle for Dragged Across Concrete. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMar 21, 2019
Dragged Across Concrete has been made with enough skill and moody, meticulous craftsmanship — another Zahler signature — to earn its own measure of tolerance, or at least some closer scrutiny. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 20, 2019
Dragged Across Concrete is apt to send crime-film fanatics, especially ones who prefer their pulp nasty, brutish and incredibly long, into frothing fits of glee. For other folks, the title will double as an apt description experience of watching it. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 3, 2018
At a whopping 158 minutes, “Concrete’s” sleek, languorous anatomy of a heist represents the filmmaker’s most extreme exercise yet in painstaking genre deceleration, sparked as ever by the tangy movie-movie vernacular of his writing, the crunchy metal-on-asphalt dynamism of his craftsmanship, and the back-from-the-brink reanimation of his stars. Read full review
67
The Film StageLeonardo GoiSep 4, 2018
Where the new entry lacks in bloodshed and bone-splintering violence, it still confirms Zahler’s penchant for complicated characters, and conjures up a bad cops action movie which, despite blips in tension and a second half far superior to the first, crystallizes Zahler’s as a key name to watch for lovers of the genre. Read full review
63
Washington PostPat PaduaMar 19, 2019
Dragged Across Concrete may not be the kind of movie you’d expect to emerge from such inspiration, yet the impassioned energy of those composers is echoed in Zahler’s feverish yet stubbornly patient approach to storytelling. Read full review
60
EmpireNick de SemlyenApr 18, 2019
As well-constructed, unique, hardboiled and brutal as Zahler’s prior films, but this one leaves a less welcome bad taste in your mouth, thanks to its repugnant heroes and racial stereotypes. Impossible to dismiss, but hard to warm to. Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMar 23, 2019
You’d call it Tarantino-esque but for the pacing and lack of a soundtrack. (Even Tarantino might have cut a couple of these baggy subplots.) Read full review
60
Film ThreatAlan NgJan 27, 2019
This film barely gets a recommendation only because it finally gets interesting at the end. Read full review
60
Screen DailyDemetrios MatheouSep 3, 2018
Anyone expecting a progression in Zahler’s work may be disappointed, as the amusingly mannered dialogue starts to feel self-conscious and forced, as does the fatalism. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 3, 2018
Even when the heist gets underway, the film takes its time about everything: what Zahler has essentially done is put a 15-minute mid-blockbuster set-piece on the rack and stretched it out until its cartilage pops. The duration is part of the point – you can’t do gnawing fatalism in a hurry – but the repetitions and languors here can feel presumptuous. Read full review
60
The GuardianDamon WiseSep 3, 2018
Zahler has a way with action, and the set pieces are inventive and nasty, with an unflinching eye for violence. Such style and confidence is impressive. But after three movies, his increasingly morose characters’ world-weariness is becoming wearying in itself; a little more light and shade here and there would easily take this cult director to the next level. That is, if he wants to go. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzApr 25, 2019
Nearly everyone in this movie, and nearly everything that happens in it, is awful. Vile. Nasty. But it is a nastiness that sticks. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 22, 2019
An admittedly distinctive but ultimately mediocre movie that provides far more empty calories of exploitation than genuine food for thought. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 20, 2019
The movie is generally watchable, even at its slowest and ugliest, simply because the actors are solid even when their characters are repellent. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 3, 2018
The insanely self-indulgent running time of two hours and 40 minutes and the tendency to undercut tension with fussy dialogue that continually draws attention to its cleverness make Zahler’s third feature a lot less fun than it seems to think it is. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 22, 2019
Unfortunately, kind of a drag. Read full review
40
TheWrapTodd GilchristMar 22, 2019
Dragged Across Concrete is not a terrible movie, but it’s not so good that Zahler shouldn’t get dragged for it. Read full review
40
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 4, 2018
The trademark brutal violence remains effective, and Zahler maintains a pervasive feeling of dread throughout his films, but Dragged Across Concrete shows the limits of taking the game long. Read full review
30
Vanity FairK. Austin CollinsApr 3, 2019
S. Craig Zahler's controversial movie about a pair of racist cops gone rogue has more bark than bite—and that’s telling. Read full review
More From This Movie

60 Critic Reviews

6.9 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 82 The Northman
2 81 Everything Everywhere All at Once
3 72 Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie
4 72 7 Days
5 67 The Unbearable Weight of Massive...
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL