Edge of Darkness
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: January 29, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
14
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
An intense Mel Gibson performance anchors this brutally effective crime thriller. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
His (Gibson) slow-burn fury keeps the movie going, but not enough to invest us in any justice beyond payback. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Campbell’s film offers not surprises, exactly, but craftsmanship and low, brute, cunning satisfactions. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
I don't see Edge of Darkness as a great movie, or a particularly exalted one, but I do see it as one made by people who know where the buttons are - and who know how to press them. Hard. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Though the experience is nerve-racking and cathartic under Campbell's skilled direction, musings on family and grief and Gibson's intense, but subtle, performance stay with us longest. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Perhaps the best compliment I can pay to his work in Edge of Darkness is that I wouldn't particularly want to see this movie with grumpy Harrison Ford starring instead. Welcome back, Mel. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNick Pinkerton
Onscreen much of the time, thicker and more creased than you remember, Gibson can make this rather unshapely movie seem taut. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
Both the film and television project were directed by Martin Campbell. He creates a nice level of tension throughout, and there are a couple of legitimate shocks (including one jaw-dropper). Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Edge of Darkness is somewhat stylish, and it's intelligently made. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
A meathead revenge picture, but it’s very satisfying. Director Martin Campbell, coming off "Casino Royale," has a style that’s blunt and bruising. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
An efficient, politically inert fantasy. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Winstone's interaction with Gibson provides the movie with much of its interest. For the rest, it's a skillful exercise in CGI and standard-order thriller supplies. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeSam Allis
The movie’s weaknesses include the overuse of grainy flashbacks of Craven’s daughter as a child, and the conversations he has with her after she is gone. Both are tremendously moving ideas but eventually succumb to bathos from repetition. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Strange and gloomy. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Gibson's acting has deepened. Too bad his comeback vehicle springs so many leaks. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
Director Martin Campbell does a nice job of creating suspense, and Ray Winstone stands out for his performance as a conflicted hitman. Read full review
63
PremiereGene Newman
Apart from feeling misled by the trailers, it's a decent, middle-of-the-road adult thriller that competently goes through the paces. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian Lowry
Campbell's topnotch production team yields predictably polished results, but the director's decision to revisit the late Troy Kennedy Martin's teleplay, finally, feels lacking. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith Uhlich
There’s no room for such soul-searching uncertainty with Gibson. After a few rapidly ticked-off minutes of gloom, the mission is clear: Get the sons of bitches, and make ’em pay. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazinePete Hammond
They’ve shed all of the Brit-centric political aspects and updated it to make a riveting, pulse-pounding suspense thriller that really does keep you on ‘edge.’ Read full review
60
EmpireNev Pierce
An uneven, somewhat meandering thriller is given emotional pull by Mel Gibson’s excellent comeback performance. The lethal weapon hasn’t lost it. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
In Hollywood, all is forgiven if you can deliver the goods. On-screen, at least, there’s little difference between this Gibson and the one we remember from earlier films like “Ransom” and “Payback.” Read full review
50
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
An odd duck of a thriller. Quiet, talkative, with the occasional explosion of violence, it has ghosts and characters philosophizing, quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald or blurting insensitive non-sequiturs. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Considering the talent involved and the strength of the source material, there's no way Edge of Darkness should have been this disappointing. Part of the problem is a direct result of condensation - there's no way to cram six hours of the dense mini-series upon which the movie is based into about 110 minutes without paying a penalty. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Quickly devolves into another showcase for Gibson’s snorting-bull act, a routine he could happily have shelved during his time off. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Edge of Darkness is reasonably well executed, but its competence reeks of fatigue. Another dead kid. Another angry dad. Another day at the office. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Feels like a movie that wants to bare its fangs, but only manages a mild gumming. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
Martin Campbell directed, displaying none of the flair that made his “Casino Royale” such a hoot. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The larger shell game here is that Edge of Darkness is offered as a political thriller, but with real-world politics removed. What we’re left with is a familiar mechanism for delivering a vicarious, violent, wish-fulfilment fantasy, with Mel in a familiar position, in the driver’s seat, pedal to the metal. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
The movie isn't exactly full of twists and turns, but neither is it a long, hard slog. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Edge of Darkness has the look and feel of a Brit film shot in America – it's all dark, boxy rooms with powerful white men in impeccable black suits discussing how to tidy up the minor mishaps of their game over brandy and cigars. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
Here most of the punishment is inflicted on the audience, which gets nailed to a cross of boredom. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Edge of Darkness was one of the most enthralling, intricate and genuinely thrilling productions in the history of the small screen. The big-screen version--directed by Martin Campbell, who did the original--offers an example of why the studios' numbers often add up, and why, at the same time, so many of today's Hollywood movies leave us cool if not downright cold. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
A thriller boasting Mel Gibson's first starring role in eight years, elicits a gigantic wow -- as in ``Wow, does this movie suck!'' Read full review
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