A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: September 3, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
12
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 17, 2010
Almost feels as if it is two different films. One is the opening 20 minutes or so, in which most of the screwball comedy takes place. The other comes when Yimou gets on with the real story. That's where the payoff comes in. Read full review
88
New York PostV.A. Musetto
A twisty, spectacular farce. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Though it's a stylistic change from what Zhang's been up to lately, this isn't entirely new territory for him. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicRichard Nilsen
As the film comes to an end, more and more of "Blood Simple" is translated directly to China, even to the last drop. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Alternately comic and terrifying, "Woman/Gun/Noodle" is a dazzling act of transliteration that may not require knowledge of the original film. Read full review
80
Time OutKeith Uhlich
Taken on its own fun-over-philosophy terms, this is an exercise in tone-shifting virtuosity. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
A twisty, darkly comic story of greed, betrayal and murderous misunderstandings. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
It's a minor work in the Yimou canon, but a major visual treat. Read full review
70
MovielineMichelle Orange
In its most tiresome moments, Noodle Shop overestimates the wit of its formal exertions, and feels less like a film than an exercise that will leave fans of the original comparatively cold. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
The result of Zhang's experimental theater will be a rich brew for some, weak tea for others - a divide that will largely depend on your taste for a blend that is lighter on the subtext and heavier on the slapstick. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The director Zhang Yimou honors the unlikely affinity between himself and Joel and Ethan Coen with a remake of their movie "Blood Simple." Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
It's more like a cartoon with a body count. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
A bizarre buffet of buffoonery, brutality and beautiful landscapes. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineWade Major
It may be the most glaringly, if unintentionally, personal film that Zhang has made since 1994's "To Live." Read full review
60
NPRMark Jenkins
As "Blood Simple" fans should expect, Noodle Shop is a comedy of presumed deaths and unexpected revivals, with some victims flat out refusing to stay in their shallow graves. Read full review
60
VarietyDerek Elley
Western audiences familiar with "Blood Simple" will get a kick out of the reinventions. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
You never really get the sense Zhang is taking the movie seriously, so you can't either. A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop proves that American filmmakers aren't the only ones who can bungle remakes of foreign movies. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I will say that the attempt to reinterpret the memorable closing shot of "Blood Simple" is so gauche and graceless that I involuntarily moaned in disgust. I docked the film another half-star just for that. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Replete with boisterously unfunny black slapstick. Read full review
50
Village VoiceNick Pinkerton
Those with a higher tolerance for bumptious jestering-from a yipping and mincing Xiao, or Cheng Ye as a bucktoothed jelly-belly-may, however, cry Masterpiece. They are instructed to seek out the longer Chinese cut, which apparently packs in more such interminable shtick, broad as the Yangtze. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Some may enjoy the slapstick, which plays like "Harold & Kumar Go to Old Peking," but this bloodless Coen crib job is simply not my cup of noodles. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen Johnson
A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop has to be the loopiest, most unexpected remake ever. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Has little of the wit, surprise, or memorable characterizations of the original. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The result is an uneasy mix of Coen-style laughs (particularly evident in the big comic close-ups) and Zhang's majestic imagery (in one shot the couple's divorce papers shatter into a burst of confetti). Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMaggie Lee
Zhang Yimou's remake of the Coen brothers' "Blood Simple" as a Chinese period thriller-farce in a desert setting. A high-rolling but garish production with untranslatable regional ribald humor, it is aimed squarely at the China market. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The exhausting slapstick violence is the film's chief variation, and it's no fun at all. Read full review
25
Washington PostStephanie Merry
The Chinese film offers this important take-away: Don't attempt to remake a Coen brothers movie, especially if you plan to turn the thing into a bizarre concoction of melodrama and slapstick comedy. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
I wish I could say that the film is half as intriguing as it sounds, but A Woman, a Gun... lacks the Coen brothers' precision, their diabolical game-board cleverness. It's a remake in shaggy outline only. Read full review
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