The Highwaymen
Netflix | Release Date: March 15, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
16
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 21, 2019
Even if you’ve somehow never even heard of the story upon which this film is based, it’s a crackling good lawman tale. Read full review
88
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMar 19, 2019
An excellent and entertainingly old-fashioned police procedural. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 22, 2019
At his best, Costner both exalts and complicates the strong and silent types who crowd, often to diminishing effect, so much of our American movie mythology. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 1, 2019
Although nowhere near as lush, artistic, and downright entertaining as the Warren Beatty/Faye Dunaway interpretation, The Highwaymen hews closer to the historical facts (with the climactic ambush being filmed on-location where it happened). Read full review
75
The Associated PressMark KennedyMar 25, 2019
The film often feels in many ways as an attempt to correct history, or at least the previous Dunaway-Beatty-led portrayal of a bumbling Hamer. But there are moments of beautiful stillness and nicely-filmed sequences — like a nifty car chase in dust clouds — that make the hunt enjoyable. Read full review
75
Original-CinLiam LaceyMar 21, 2019
What we have is a solidly crafted reworking of some familiar Western tropes by director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, Saving Mr. Banks), a Texas native who shows care for the period details, with handsome cinematography on the original Lone Star State locations. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMar 14, 2019
The Highwaymen is a leisurely ride with a pair of actors who know how to do a lot by not doing too much. It won’t reinvent cinema the way that "Bonnie and Clyde" once did. But it’s a ride worth taking nonetheless. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesMichael OrdonaMar 14, 2019
Highwaymen captures, through the eyes of common people, the perceived rebel spirit that made the couple folk heroes during the Great Depression. It establishes through wardrobe and production design how rough that era was. It’s not just a setting; it’s a grim and desperate worldview. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredLuke ParkerMar 12, 2019
Though The Highwaymen makes sure it tells the right story about Bonnie and Clyde, it doesn’t win the argument that it tells the better one. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnMar 12, 2019
There was more to Bonnie and Clyde than 'Bonnie and Clyde,' but The Highwaymen falls short of making the case that the good guys had the better tale. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 4, 2019
The film doesn’t have the pacing of a theatrical release — it’s “streaming slow,” sluggish at times. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMar 29, 2019
That tension niggles away within The Highwaymen, a sporadically stodgy, dour production which often seems painfully aware that the really fun stuff is happening out of shot. But then Costner and Harrelson get to talking, the light lands on their features just so, and the film casts its own curmudgeonly spell. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 29, 2019
The Highwaymen never quite manages to conjure a changing world, and as a result its more interesting ideas are left blowing in the wind. But as an excuse to spend some time with Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson doing what Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson do, it’ll do just fine. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelMar 20, 2019
Directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, Saving Mr. Banks), it’s a well-crafted procedural, but it’s also a whole lot of familiar tropes put together in familiar ways. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonMar 13, 2019
A smoothly executed but decidedly drab crime drama. Checking all the necessary narrative boxes for its target audience and asking little of stars Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson other than to bring their well-established onscreen personas to the characters, the latest from director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, Saving Mr. Banks) dabbles in familiar dramatic ironies and rather obvious observations about violence, celebrity and ageing. The Highwaymen never puts a foot wrong, but it fails to elicit much passion or fascination. Read full review
60
VarietyJoe LeydonMar 12, 2019
Commands attention less as historical counterpoint than as a sturdy showcase for the neatly balanced lead performances of Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMar 27, 2019
Where Bonnie and Clyde is gloriously tragic, The Highwaymen is blunt and anti-climactically savage, fulfilling as well as somewhat critiquing former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer’s bloodlust. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerMar 26, 2019
After noble and varied entries like "Jack Reacher," "Hell Or High Water," and "The Old Man & The Gun," The Highwaymen is a crucial reminder that good Dad Movies aren’t as easy to make as they look. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 22, 2019
There are so many missteps that Hancock and screenwriter John Fusco make here, but to list a few briefly: The dialogue is 85-per-cent clumsy exposition, the heroes are given exactly one character trait each (Gault’s a drunk, Hamer’s a jerk) and the film’s politics read as MAGA-esque vigilante evangelicalism (the movie is perpetually on the verge of having Hamer say, directly to the camera, something along the lines of, “the only good criminal is a dead criminal”). Read full review
50
ConsequenceRandall ColburnMar 20, 2019
It’s a valid mission, one supposes, but rendering Bonnie, Clyde, and their cultural impact in such a one-dimensional fashion doesn’t add weight to its subjects. It only serves to strip dimension away from their own story. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoMar 14, 2019
Costner’s performance is mostly monotone, but Harrelson has some nice moments portraying Gault as surprisingly reflective. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 14, 2019
This isn’t an especially good movie — it’s too long, too drenched in Thomas Newman’s cloyingly eclectic score, too full of speechifying and self-regard — but it is a coherent one, with the courage of its vengeful, murderous, politically terrifying convictions. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 12, 2019
The best thing about The Highwaymen by a long shot is seeing Costner tap back into that Gary Cooper mode he once perfected and add older, wiser touches to it. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMar 11, 2019
Costner and Harrelson both give fine performances, but when it's time for each to have his one allotted dramatic monologue, you can practically hear the movie clearing its throat: Shut up and listen while the man is speaking, folks. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 11, 2019
What makes The Highwaymen particularly disappointing is that two solid pieces of character work get buried in the filmmaking. Read full review
42
The PlaylistRyan OliverMar 12, 2019
As it stands now, The Highwaymen arguably does just enough legwork to justify its existence, but good luck enduring it. Read full review
40
UproxxVince ManciniMar 29, 2019
The Highwaymen seems to want to be reactionary but comes off merely crotchety. Read full review
20
The GuardianCharles BramescoMar 12, 2019
Hamer and Gault won the day in a hail of submachine fire, but even their hagiography can’t hide that they’re history’s losers. Read full review
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