Escobar: Paradise Lost
RADiUS-TWC | Release Date: June 26, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 13, 2014
It’s an impressive debut, an ambitious project pulled off with confidence. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnSep 13, 2014
Di Stefano's memorable debut feature makes up for its lack of sophistication with constant forward motion. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesGlenn WhippJun 25, 2015
When the plot circles back to those opening moments, the movie finds a momentum that ends spectacularly. And again: Benicio Del Toro is playing Pablo Escobar. What more do you need? Read full review
70
TheWrapJames RocchiJun 22, 2015
Escobar: Paradise Lost plays more like Greek tragedy than the kind of drug-war tale we’d get in a broader, bigger film, and that is no small part of the many reasons it works. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJun 22, 2015
Meanwhile, everyone in the theatre is thinking: Given that I paid good money to learn about the world’s most frightening cocaine king, why am I watching a movie about the world’s most stupid Canadian? Read full review
70
VarietyScott FoundasSep 13, 2014
"Escobar” offers an odd mix of action movie, romantic melodrama and cautionary traveler’s tale, which works better than it should thanks to Del Toro’s fascinating performance and Di Stefano’s assured, muscular helming. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloJun 24, 2015
Escobar: Paradise Lost employs this structure in a way that divides the movie neatly in half: one hour of tedious expository flashback followed by one hour of solidly exciting present-tense thriller action. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleAug 27, 2015
An entertaining and suitably gruesome gangster thriller which nevertheless feels like a missed opportunity. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid EhrlichJun 25, 2015
Any insight into Escobar’s relationship with the people of his country is sacrificed in the trade-off — Nick sees him as a charismatic Robin Hood who showers the poor in blood money that’s still dripping wet, but the film forgets the complexity of Escobar’s politics as soon as Nick realizes that he needs to escape. If only Paradise Lost gave us a better sense of what he was leaving behind. Read full review
60
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJun 25, 2015
Nick might usurp most of the screen time, but it’s Mr. Del Toro, face flickering from benevolent to vicious and body heaving with literal and symbolic weight, who seizes the film. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelJun 25, 2015
After a predictable opening hour, Paradise Lost manages to deliver a surprise or two as it switches gears into a full-on thriller. But it never gets close to the epic heights to which it aspires. Read full review
58
The PlaylistChris WillmanSep 13, 2014
Whatever fascination the film holds belongs solely to Del Toro and his vanity-free impression of Escobar as a titan whose potbelly and gym shorts do not put the slightest dent in a charisma that hypnotizes a nation. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJun 26, 2015
The name is right there in the title. And every time that Benicio Del Toro shows up as Pablo Escobar, we’re reminded of the movie that this could have been, making it easier to criticize the movie it chose to be instead. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJun 26, 2015
Showing the allure and gradual corruption of power through the eyes of a third party — sort of a mixture of "The Great Gatsby" and "Scarface" — is a solid conceit. But Andrea Di Stefano’s underbaked film doesn’t quite know what to do with it. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithJun 24, 2015
Hutcherson isn’t particularly adept at playing moral anguish, but the film maintains an electrifying tension for its first half as we wonder just how far his character will go. In the second half, though, the film degenerates into a desultory action movie as everybody starts creeping around trying to shoot one another. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedJun 24, 2015
In a footnote to history that is still too close for comfort, he’s the real meaning of paradise lost. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJun 23, 2015
This is one of the greatest missed opportunities in recent cinema history: Del Toro looms more impressively on camera than he does in the marketing material, embodying a wicked man's perverse sense of family, honor, and self-interest. Read full review
50
The DissolveScott TobiasJun 23, 2015
Escobar: Paradise Lost takes such a limited view of this multi-faceted figure that it fails as portraiture, and the real center of the film is too much of a bland good guy to compensate. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJun 25, 2015
Director Andrea Di Stefano’s filmmaking debut has a spotty sense of urgency, but we get to know neither Nick nor Escobar, so both the innocence and the fiery threat lack impact. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChuck BowenNov 24, 2014
Benicio Del Toro's performance is showy, a great actor's parade of indulgences that occasionally sets the deranged camp tone that should have been the narrative's starting point. Read full review
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