Fifty Dead Men Walking
Phase 4 Films | Release Date: August 21, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
5
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Hollywood ReporterDoris Toumarkine
The decibels, energy and overall quality are high in writer-director Kari Skogland's Fifty Dead Men Walking, her supremely well-made, highly stylized, graphic tale of Northern Ireland's "Troubles" in the late 1980s. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Setting entirely aside the accuracy of the film, the IRA still has him marked for death, and indeed there was an attempt on his life in Canada 10 years after he fled. He’s still out there somewhere. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)James Adams
It's a pretty fine film, thanks largely to the performances (and look) of its crackerjack cast, as well as Jonathan Freeman's restless, gritty cinematography and a lickety-split script. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Sharp, well-acted film. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
What makes Fifty Dead Men work is the story’s sheer moral complexity, which dares viewers to sympathize with anyone onscreen for more than a few minutes at a time. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) makes a believable cocky lad who signs on for the con; an oddly bewigged Ben Kingsley is fussier and too actorly as his handler. Read full review
70
VarietyJohn Anderson
A classic about the Irish "troubles." Despite the unavoidably convoluted facts of the real-life story, pic boasts plausibly written, solidly acted characters and a conflict that pushes the viewer's righteous-indignation buttons. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
A streamlined, adrenalized thriller that is not as deep as it would like to appear, treads a retrospective political tightrope. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesGary Goldstein
Terrific performances and an array of kinetic action scenes help distinguish Fifty Dead Men Walking from the seemingly endless stream of films about Northern Ireland's infamous era of sectarian violence known as the Troubles. Read full review
60
EmpireDan Jolin
Think Donnie Brasco, with the IRA instead of the Mafia. Jim Sturgess dominates with a star-making turn, although some stylistic slip-ups let him down a little. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Sturgess is solid and Kingsley predictably sneaky, but the atmosphere -- scurries through the Catholic/Protestant border, tense stand-offs, spontaneous riots -- is what's genuinely gripping. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
A richer movie might speculate on McGartland’s life now. How does a local hero survive in an anonymous void? Read full review
40
Village VoiceAaron Hillis
The unfitting flashiness and clunky segues between thriller and melodrama kill any real sense of tension, making this a poor man's "Donnie Brasco"--that is, if its self-congratulation and failure to contextualize the values on both sides of the ethno-political struggle didn't already make it the poor man's "Hunger." Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Finally, at the risk of seeming provincial, why is it OK that some Canadian has made a movie set in Ireland with no Irish people among the principal cast? Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
A muddled, talky affair, part soap opera, part undercover police procedural. Read full review
20
Time OutDavid Fear
Kari Skogland’s flashy yet dead-on-arrival drama turns Belfast’s backstreet battlefields into music-video backgrounds. Read full review
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