Buried
Lionsgate | Release Date: September 24, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
5
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
In theory, we go to movies for enjoyment. Director Rodrigo Cortés inverts that notion with Buried, a terrific, claustrophobic, fist-clenching film in which he tortures his audience in exquisite fashion. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Those drawn to unusual, unflinching feats of filmmaking and rare acting turns as well as sustained suspense will be captivated by Buried. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The use of 2:35 wide screen paradoxically increases the effect of claustrophobia. I would not like to be buried alive. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
This exercise in racked nerves makes most of the year's thrillers look like flailing maniacs by comparison. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The movie works not because of twists and switchbacks in the narrative, but because of the skill with which Cortés has conceived this singularly disturbing nightmare. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Balanced precariously between a horror film and a war movie, but it's so sly and assured that you can't dismiss the allegorical, even satirical undertones that Cortés teases out of Sparling's conceit. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
The movie's real asset is Reynolds himself, utilizing his comedy chops for unexpected levity. Read full review
80
EmpireNick de Semlyen
A brutally intense indie that commits to its bleak premise and doesn't back down. Tarantino will cackle as he watches. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Just when it seems he's left himself with no way out, he comes up with a finish guaranteed to leave you breathless. Read full review
80
NPRJeannette Catsoulis
It's brilliantly silly entertainment whose flaws are glaring only in hindsight; in the moment, you'll have much more fun if you stop looking for holes in the script and join Paul in looking for a way out. Read full review
80
VarietyRob Nelson
In purely cinematic terms, Buried, set in late 2006, is an ingenious exercise in sustained tension that would make Alfred Hitchcock turn over in his grave. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
You've got to hand it to Reynolds, director Cortés, and screenwriter Chris Sparling; they milk every single frisson of nail-ripping anxiety from a stunningly simple – yet universally recognized and dreaded – conceit and then cap it with a payoff of molar-pulverizing intensity. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Buried is as much about dropped calls, getting sent to voicemail, and being openly lied to by our institutions as it about being buried alive by terrorists. Read full review
75
ObserverRex Reed
The effect is genuinely creepy, but do not even think of seeing Buried if you suffer from claustrophobia. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Unfortunately, as the phone battery wears down, the plot's theatrics heat up to pot-boiling degrees of incredulity – a senile mother, a vicious personnel director, even a coiled serpent, all vie to raise the ante. Talk about your bad day. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
This is a movie best seen cold. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Biancolli
Inky-black humor does strike on occasion, and when it does, it's surprising. So is the movie's star, who sweats and shrieks with game intensity and a capacity for discomfort that would impress a Byzantine saint. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
You have to remind yourself to breathe. Read full review
70
Boxoffice MagazineAmy Nicholson
The best parts of Sparling's script play like an absurdist snuff film. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The political angle is gratuitous, even foolish, and certainly a distraction from the movie's visual strengths. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle Smith
On a technical level Buried is impressive, at times blisteringly suspenseful. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
A well-made, excruciating exercise in containment and sustained suspense. It's a breakout moment for Reynolds. Is it a fun hour and a half? No. But it succeeds within its own straitened contours. It's an intriguing squirm. Now, please get me outta here. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
As a cautionary tale about the perils of nation building, this is both creepy and provocative, but director Rodrigo Cortés blows it in the last few minutes with a rushed ending that feels like a cheat after all the escalating tension. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Buried works better as an evocation of "Twilight Zone'' eeriness. Even then, it's silly and gimmicky. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Ninety minutes of being buried alive with Ryan Reynolds: Didn't we all suffer that in "The Proposal"? Read full review
50
TimeMary Pols
Director Rodrigo Cortes intends us to feel trapped, twitchy and unhappy and at the same time, wildly grateful we're not actually in the box like Paul. I could do without that kind of guilt trip from a film. Read full review
45
MovielineStephanie Zacharek
Your enjoyment - if that's the right word - of Buried will hinge on two things: Your ability to tolerate situations in which characters are confined to very tight spaces, and your willingness to be emotionally manipulated in the cheapest way imaginable. Read full review
30
The New York TimesStephen Holden
In the movie's cheapest, most exploitative gesture - just as it is about to run out of tricks - a snake slithers into the pine box in which Paul awakens bound and gagged, not knowing where he is. With that gimmick, the movie sacrifices its last shred of integrity. Read full review
30
Village VoiceKarina Longworth
Rodrigo Cortes keeps the action bound to the box, limiting his lighting to naturalistic approximations, so that much of Reynolds's performance consists of him grunting and heaving in the dark. Read full review
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