Hunter Killer
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: October 26, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
17
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 25, 2018
Won’t win any awards for acting or writing but generates suspense when it needs to and tells an engrossing Tall Tale. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenOct 25, 2018
Hunter Killer grabs the audience by the throat and speeds ahead while disbelief wallows helplessly in its bubbly wake. Read full review
70
Film Journal InternationalMichael SauterOct 30, 2018
Much of the film’s success is due to the work of a better-than-average ensemble. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleOct 24, 2018
A surprisingly fun throwback to Cold War thrillers. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 25, 2018
Hunter Killer won’t win any awards for originality, but it may win a couple for the brazenness with which it stacks clichés upon clichés. Basically, it’s "Crimson Tide" meets "Lone Survivor" meets "Under Siege" meets a Russian variation on "Olympus Has Fallen," with a bit of "Geostorm" thrown in. At least three of those movies are pretty good, so the overall math works in the film’s favor. Read full review
60
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergOct 25, 2018
However nutty its geopolitics, Hunter Killer does its job as popcorn thriller with brisk efficiency. Read full review
60
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)Oct 22, 2018
A better-than-expected entry in the all-too-often neglected sub sub-genre, with Butler showing impressive restraint. Read full review
60
IGNLucy O'BrienOct 17, 2018
Despite the good stuff, though, Hunter Killer doesn’t ever really justify its existence. Conceived in 2011, viewing it through any other lens than today’s political climate is impossible. Read full review
50
Original-CinLiam LaceyNov 1, 2018
The premise feels so quaint it might as well be framed by Cinderella-like animated bluebirds. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 1, 2018
From start to finish, Hunter Killer is all wet. Read full review
50
The Associated PressLindsey BahrOct 31, 2018
This is the first Hollywood film from South African director Donovan Marsh, and he does cook up some captivating action set pieces...which may have you laughing, rolling your eyes or even cheering (as a fair amount of people were in my screening), but it’s never boring. Read full review
50
The Film StageJohn FinkOct 30, 2018
Despite overstaying its welcome through one absurd action sequence after another, it knows exactly what it is: an action movie your uncle would have liked after receiving on VHS from Columbia House. It’s just skillful enough to keep one engaged as we witness otherwise dull archetypes escape one tense situation after another. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloOct 26, 2018
It’s also an odd time to release a movie that embraces collaborating with the Russians and painting bad and good guys with such broad strokes. This puts Hunter Killer in murky geopolitical waters I don’t think it knows how to navigate. Neither the movie or Butler is nearly entertaining enough to distract us. Read full review
50
TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanOct 25, 2018
A militaristic B-movie heavy on action but light on faux-patriotic bombast? It seems fair to call that its own kind of treasure. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyOct 25, 2018
The problem with this sort of Hungry-Man dinner theater is that it needs a true believer or at least a testosterone junkie behind the camera to rise above the lowest-common-denominator appeal of watching men yell at and rescue each other. Donovan Marsh is neither; his direction is perfunctory, unable to evoke even something as basic as the claustrophobia of a submarine’s interior. Perhaps he’s just following orders. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 24, 2018
Hunter Killer seems old-fashioned. It belongs to a genre that was pretty much exhausted before the Cold War was over. And it threatens us with a world that, from the standpoint of 2018, doesn’t look all that bad. The movie is overlong, at times confusing, and it’s self-important, with a soundtrack that keeps telling us we feel things that we don’t. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshOct 24, 2018
Hunter Killer needs its radar calibrated, because while it bounces between serious and silly, it never quite finds a suitable place to land. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 26, 2018
Even this kind of WWIII escapism—it’s based on a 2012 novel by Don Keith and George Wallace called Firing Point—requires a sturdier hero than Gerard Butler, who finds himself in a time machine that delivers actors to rejected Tom Cruise projects. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckOct 25, 2018
It runs a little longer than two hours, but feels more like two tours of duty. And it has enough plot elements to fuel an armful of Tom Clancy novels but somehow manages to make none of them interesting. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonOct 24, 2018
Hunter Killer conjures up whiffs of entertainment value from its shameless but spirited derivativeness. Read full review
40
The GuardianMike McCahillOct 19, 2018
Toning down his usual act in a manner that suggests he’s finally read his reviews, Butler gives it handfuls of dramatic ballast, but this vessel has been badly compromised: any interest seeps out by the frame. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 29, 2018
It’s entirely too dramatically thin and lacking in real suspense to stand among the great or even middling submarine movies. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzOct 25, 2018
The action, when it does arrive, is quiet enough to send the most insomnia-plagued of audiences to sleep. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineDerek SmithOct 24, 2018
The film is a second-rate airport thriller that makes The Hunt for Red October seem like nonfiction by comparison. Read full review
33
ConsequenceRandall ColburnOct 25, 2018
Hunter Killer has thrills, but they’re of the cheapest variety. Read full review
33
IndieWireDavid EhrlichOct 18, 2018
Even among Gerard Butler vehicles, this one sinks right to the bottom. Read full review
30
VarietyOwen GleibermanOct 24, 2018
Hunter Killer has good enough actors, but it never figures out what to do with them. They’re stuck in an underwater vacuum, a submarine movie that submerges anything of interest. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 23, 2018
The pacing seems intentionally designed to break your spirits, with a climactic set-piece that rages on forever, despite being comprised of nothing but shouting and torpedos. It makes Crimson Tide looks like a masterclass in international relations. Read full review
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