Domino
Saban Films | Release Date: May 31, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
8
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiMay 29, 2019
While the end result is certainly no masterpiece, it is still better than the average action potboiler and contains a couple of exhilarating set pieces that offer further proof—not that any is needed at this point—that De Palma remains one of the unquestioned masters of creating and executing moments of pure cinema. Read full review
75
The Film StageNick NewmanMay 28, 2019
Make no mistake, it’s mostly staged for campiness. More often than not that De Palma touch is zooming in on the specter of terrorism until it can find something ridiculous, heightened, thrilling in their possibilities. The rub is that Domino comes into a world with too many scarring reflections of itself to sit right. How amusing that a director so fascinated with the voyeurism-violence dichotomy would make a terrorist thriller about insurgents using the power of propaganda. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 7, 2019
Most of all, De Palma proves that greatest suspense (and horror) come from helplessness, a sense of impotence. Read full review
60
The New York TimesGlenn KennyMay 30, 2019
De Palma can’t realize all the elaborate effects he clearly wanted (the film’s climax occurs at a bullfight that’s conspicuously not crowded). But his direction often compensates with B-movie energy, particularly when he’s able to concentrate on his perverse vision. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 3, 2019
Domino is a lackluster, hard-to-swallow police procedural with soap opera-ish subplots and flat characters. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayMay 30, 2019
There’s just not enough of that good De Palma stuff here. The lush Pino Donaggio score and some well-choreographed chase sequences only hint at the movie Domino could’ve been, if a great artist had been granted access to his full palette. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneDavid FearMay 29, 2019
Just when you want to outright dismiss it, a pinprick of sound and vision peeks through the straight-to-DVD dross. And just when you start to think someone’s starting to gin up that old black magic, the whole thing simply topples over with a loud thud. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineNiles SchwartzMay 27, 2019
The film goes through its motions too quickly for its imagery to convey the irrepressible force of provocation. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 30, 2019
The most damning thing about Domino is that it reaffirms what all but the filmmaker’s most deluded fetishists have long since concluded: The world has caught up with Brian De Palma — his fascination with voyeurism and violence have been sublimated into the stuff of everyday life — and the guy is basically just circling the drain. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJun 3, 2019
When De Palma started taking himself too seriously—circa Casualties of War—is when he lost the thread. His genius was always in voluptuous nonsense. He needs to drop the politics and get back to baby carriages. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMay 27, 2019
He (De Palma) has rarely been guilty of dullness, as he is with Domino, a counterterrorism thriller offering just slightly more excitement than the average TV police procedural. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJun 4, 2019
There is the overwhelming sense that Domino was not directed by any one person at all, but rather spliced and diced by committee into something barely watchable. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 18, 2019
Domino is a drab, implausible and melodramatic terrorism thriller showing his ongoing interest in the post 9-11 world of “Redacted" (2007). Drab, that is, until he gets to one of those famous set-pieces. Read full review
35
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiMay 30, 2019
Domino offers a sloppy screenplay with underdeveloped characters and a half-written plot, pumped full of racist, fear-mongering, one-dimensional villainy. Only the most diehard De Palma fans will find anything to intrigue them, and they’re going to have to sift through a lot of boring junk to find it. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMay 28, 2019
Domino is, for large stretches, just ludicrous—and atypically boring. It’s a sad sight to see from a filmmaker who, once upon a time, excelled at drawing a viewer into the thrill of seeing a sequence come together, with all the pieces falling into place. In Domino, one finds only the pieces. Read full review
30
VarietyOwen GleibermanJun 2, 2019
To hear the unmistakable sounds of yet another lavishly orchestrated Donaggio swoonfest laid over the flat, static expository scenes of the choppy benumbed “international” police thriller Domino is to watch De Palma trying to create cinematic fire out of burnt-out match sticks. Read full review
30
Screen DailyStephen Whitty May 28, 2019
Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but Domino dishes it up as a sloppy mess of warmed-over clichés. Instead of his old high style and kinky violence, director Brian De Palma delivers only crude thrills and ugly stereotypes, a soggy bag of junk-food snacks. Read full review
25
New York PostSara StewartJun 1, 2019
Domino, though, is the dregs: This thriller may be randomly set one year in the future, yet it’s hopelessly regressive — a parade of lame stereotypes that feels directed by an out-of-touch Old Hollywood old guy (De Palma is 78). Read full review
25
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthMay 27, 2019
The film’s half-hearted politics — which do make a statement, regardless of intent — are perhaps less egregious than a movie that’s simply going through the motions for the bulk of its running time. Read full review
20
The GuardianBenjamin LeeMay 31, 2019
Even die-hard De Palma completists would be better served by forgetting this one exists – a tedious, ugly thriller devoid of anything to say that will serve as a regrettable footnote for a distinguished film-maker who is capable of so much more. Read full review
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