Good Kill
IFC Films | Release Date: May 15, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
14
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 22, 2015
Niccol's film won't likely achieve the high-flying box-office success of "Top Gun," but it is similar to that 1986 film in that it will likely get people talking after the closing credits roll. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 21, 2015
Niccol looks at the pilot's struggles and the toll this remote form of warfare takes on his life. It's certainly intriguing, but he tells his story in such broad, obvious strokes that the movie isn't as powerful as it could be. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 14, 2015
Compelling as the subject may be, its abstract nature would challenge the most skillful of dramatists, and Mr. Niccol’s script seldom rises above slogans, argumentation and standard-brand domestic tension. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 13, 2015
Because it's so rooted in real life, the drama Good Kill is even more terrifying than “The Purge,” Ethan Hawke’s horror film from two years ago. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonApr 7, 2015
Good Kill is a dour, claustrophobic film, offering an acute and stunningly photographed exploration of middle-American banality and moral ambivalence. Read full review
60
Total FilmMatt GlasbyApr 6, 2015
Required viewing as a critique of US foreign policy but forgettable as a drama, Good Kill is a timely warning, even if it lacks the power of the horrors it depicts. Read full review
60
The GuardianHenry BarnesSep 13, 2014
Niccol creates an atmosphere that is airless and dull, an unusual tone for a modern war film, but one that fits the subject matter perfectly. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 13, 2014
A searching, timely drama about the dehumanising effects of waging war at a distance. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisJun 10, 2015
Perhaps the film’s most telling moments, however, are wordless ones in which no actor appears. They’re the bird’s-eye views of American tableaux – suburban tract houses, elementary schools, interstate highways – that mimic similar sky-high perspectives just before a drone fires its missile. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisMay 21, 2015
There’s not enough of a story, and it’s a film that we end up admiring more than liking. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 21, 2015
We need to have a dialogue about the wages of war in the remote-control era. But it’s hard to spark a good dialogue with movies whose dialogue is so bad. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 14, 2015
The trouble begins when this gaunt, intelligent star is charged with embodying someone lacking in levity, someone burdened with excessive malaise. His deadly seriousness can be deadly dull. Read full review
50
The DissolveNoel MurrayMay 13, 2015
Good Kill’s hero is both unsympathetic and uninteresting. That’s partly intentional. Niccol means to show how the drone program can reduce a formerly good man to mush. But making that point comes at the expense of making a nuanced, vibrant motion picture. Read full review
40
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 13, 2014
When Good Kill takes aim at US foreign policy and the advances in military technology, it creates moments of chilling and powerful drama, but this is dissipated and compromised by its mirror-punching domestic drama and its bizarre need to bring about something like a happy ending. Read full review
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