Maverick

Warner Bros. | Release Date: May 20, 1994

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

62	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Watch Now

Buy on

Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

EmpireKim Newman

The plot is one the original writers would have been proud of and with Garner, himself, appearing it gives the film a seal of approval. A rare performance from Foster who is surprisingly funny and Molina giving a good supporting performance, it's an enjoyable family film. Read full review

Peter Rainer

Crammed with such big-name crowd-pleasers as Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner, Maverick reaches for that Feel Good feeling. It settles for Feel OK. Read full review

Jay Boyar

Movies like this one - with its spoofy jokes, vacant characters and indefensible plotting - do nothing to keep the western form alive. Deal me out of this con game. Read full review

A financially successful exercise in target-marketing, but not much of a movie. Read full review

Rita Kempley

Alternately a celebration and sendup of cowboy conventions, the movie lingers over a stunning Western landscape only to be spurred on by the principals' inexhaustible supply of escapades. The burr under the saddle: There's just too much of everything. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

By the halfway mark, even the most devoted Gibson and Foster fans will start wondering when the movie will do something beyond superficially showing off its stars. It's not until the end that you realize that's all Maverick has to offer -- and it's not enough. [20 May 1994, p.G4]

Joe Pollack

Like so many great stories, Maverick should belong in memory, because taking it to the big screen again is a major disappointment. [20 May 1994, p.3E]

Mike Clark

Despite Mel Gibson wearing dude duds, Jodie Foster picking their inside pockets, and even James Garner for incalculable good will, the poker hand in the all-new Maverick is almost an empty house. [20 May 1994, p.1D]

Rick Groen

For all its cinematic assets, Maverick seems a less charming vessel than the show I watched at my daddy's knee.

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Cynical and bloated, Maverick is a comic western whose high-powered cast does very little but looks damned fine doing it. Even fans of the vintage TV show may find it trying. Read full review

Jeff Shannon

By the time Donner crowds his climactic poker game with a bevy of veteran Western character actors, decades of movie tradition have been reduced to window dressing, and Maverick leaves you hungry for the real thing. Read full review