Nobel Son
Freestyle Releasing | Release Date: December 5, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
28
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
4
Negative:
12
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A mercilessly convoluted version of a Twister, that genre in which the plot whacks us as if it's taking batting practice. I will not hint at anything that happens. I will simply observe that it's all entertaining. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A smart aleck-y kidnapping caper that whooshes around to a thumping electronic beat. Read full review
60
VarietyRonnie Scheib
Uneven but enjoyably titillating black comedy should elate Rickman fans while pleasing aficionados of extra-flakey caper flicks. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Nobel Son is not good. Nor is it bad. It exists, instead, somewhere in the middle ground of interesting enough to hold one's attention without actually providing any fresh, sensible or nonderivative developments. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Guy Ritchie made a name for himself with scuzz, but even his shtick has exceeded its sell-by date. Nobel Son goes further, crossing the contortions of "The Usual Suspects" with the shallowness of certain intellectual family melodramas. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesRobert Abele
Shows strains of stylistic overkill with egregious flash-edit tricks and sped-up camera moves, while the signal-flare plotting indicates that perhaps a bit more time could have been taken on the screenplay. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
I enjoyed Eliza Dushku's mad poetess, probably for the wrong reasons, but with a project this meager, you take your artful sneers and scenic diversions where you can get them. Read full review
30
Washington PostPhilip Kennicott
It's all wildly implausible and occasionally fun, but it could be so much better if director Randall Miller (who co-wrote the screenplay) had thrown in a little more character development and excised a half-dozen crazy plot twists. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The plot twists are mostly predicated on the characters' improbably shifting loyalties, the sort of thing you can get away with only when the people in your movie are drained of all compassion. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Randall Miller (Bottle Shock), appears to be trying to cross a bad Elmore Leonard thriller with a bad indie-festival family-angst comedy. He gives us the worst of both worlds. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
What finally sinks the film is that the more it tries to dazzle us, the more uninterested we become. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle Smith
Rickman has fun playing a lecherous old bastard of a professor in Nobel Son, a pulpy would-be comic thriller, but the movie doesn't deserve him. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
A dreary little thriller that irritates more than it thrills. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The movie is so relentlessly self-congratulatory, you can't help becoming thoroughly sick of it. Read full review
20
Village VoiceTim Grierson
Director and co-writer Randall Miller is so ill at ease with the basic building blocks of the genre that Nobel Son quickly announces itself as one of those misbegotten clunkers where almost every creative decision isn't just wrong but tone-deaf. Read full review
20
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
An aggressively noisy exercise in style over substance about nasty people doing nasty things to one another in (sigh) Southern California. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleTheresa Everline
Even the dependable Rickman can't find his footing here. As he lamely hams it up, you can see him trying to rally himself and then deciding it's not worth the effort. Read full review
16
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Nobel Son sadistically resurrects the Tarantino knockoff--an unloved, foul-mouthed little bastard of a subgenre that should now go away forever. Read full review
More From This Movie

28 Critic Reviews

7.3 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL