The Informers
Senator Distribution | Release Date: April 24, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
20
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
4
Negative:
19
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Has an air of detachment and sadness, enhanced by the movie's being set a full quarter century ago. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
If The Informers doesn't sound to you like a pleasant time at the movies, you are right. To repeat: dread, despair and doom. It is often however repulsively fascinating and has been directed by Gregor Jordan as a soap opera from hell, with good sets and costumes. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Though The Informers is by no means great--nor wholly true to the vision of Ellis, who co-wrote the screenplay with Nicholas Jarecki--moments sprinkled throughout the film capture Ellis' particular mix of flip yuppie satire and lived-in paranoia better than any big-screen version of his work to date. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterStephen Farber
One long wallow in sordidness. Read full review
50
VarietyRob Nelson
The film is banal by obvious intent. The only question, as with other Ellis adaptations including "American Psycho," is whether auds will appreciate the aggressively shallow depiction of an aggressively shallow milieu, or mistake the pic's implicit critique for the crime itself. Read full review
50
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
This is one of those "Crash"-style pictures with interwoven narrative strands. The problem here is that most of the strands wind up little more than loose ends. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The Informers is nihilism for nihilism's sake; a bleak and borderline-unwatchable collage of misanthropes, self-absorbed a**holes, and pathetic weaklings as they struggle to move forward during the early 1980s in Los Angeles. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverRoger Moore
It's a terrible muddle unless you take it as a satire on the Age of Ellis, the Jacqueline Susann for that Flock of Seagulls era. That way, the unintentional laughs seem almost ironic. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Another tale of Tinseltown drugs, sex and excess - has transferred itself to the screen with mind-boggling, laugh-inciting horribleness. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Here's what is bad: this movie. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeTy Burr
You come away with only the memory of Christie, the film's perfect California blonde, lying insensate on the beach in the final ravages of AIDS - a potent and frightening image the rest of The Informers can't live up to. Read full review
25
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Shocking is the fact that three highly regarded actors -- Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke and Billy Bob Thornton -- chose to star in this dreadful film. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
This one's a certifiable soul-sucker, dining out on its characters' venalities while wagging a finger at the horror, the horror. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Spoiler alert: It can leave you feeling kind of empty and sad! It's pretty, icky and boring all at once, and feels like nothing so much as an unusually depressing Ban du Soleil commercial. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
An awful film about an awful time. Read full review
25
TV Guide MagazinePerry Seibert
So, in essence, The Informers fails precisely because we never believe these lost souls were ever human enough to have had a soul to lose in the first place. Read full review
20
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
A tale of absolute self-absorption and unconscious revelation. Read full review
20
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Nearly every time Mr. Jordan, working from a script by Mr. Ellis and Nicholas Jarecki, tries for similar effects, he goes badly awry, so that you snicker when the movie is trying to be poignant and groan when it aims to make a joke. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Ellis' stamp is immediately apparent, from the absurdly vapid characters to the undercurrent of barely repressed anger. Read full review
10
Washington PostJohn Anderson
A nihilistic, narcissistic, knuckleheaded move about nihilistic, narcissistic knuckleheads, The Informers might have been an interesting exercise in satire, if it only had a sense of humor. Which it doesn't. You'll need one, though, after forking over 10 bucks to see it. Read full review
10
Los Angeles TimesRobert Abele
Conjures up plenty of debauched tableaux with its photogenic, jaded showbiz denizens and hangers-on, but nary a reason for existing. Read full review
0
Rolling StonePeter Travers
One of the worst movies of this or any year. Read full review
0
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The top-line talent, particularly Thornton and Rourke, do manage to hold our attention with idiosyncratic performances, but most of the others are a jumble of fair-haired, disaffected boys. Read full review
0
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Repulsive 80s flashback. Read full review
0
New York PostLou Lumenick
Tedious and tawdry. Read full review
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