Normal
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: April 17, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The PlaylistAnkit JhunjhunwalaSep 9, 2025
If you can imagine a firearm kill, an explosion, or a knife-fight, chances are that Wheathely has packed into Normal— so bountiful are the action confrontations with various configurations of characters. Read full review
80
Time OutSimon CrookApr 17, 2026
Admittedly, the dialogue could be sharper – a few too many zingers zonk out – but Normal goes about its carnage with such sincerity, it’s impossible to resist. Read full review
80
ColliderTania HussainSep 14, 2025
Sure, there is a subplot or two that feels a bit uncooked, but it’s easy to forgive because the movie is brisk and wickedly fun. Like its affable hero, Normal is impossible to ignore and proof that when Odenkirk takes on an action role, things are anything but normal. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 9, 2025
Because it’s Wheatley directing, the already funny script gets an extra dose of dark humor from its over-the-top kills. Read full review
75
Film ThreatBradley GibsonApr 24, 2026
Normal is action-centric brain candy, with some pokes at timely social/political topics. It’s not that heavy, however, this film won’t change your life. It will allow you to relax into catharsis and put a smile on your face. Read full review
75
The Travers TakePeter TraversApr 17, 2026
For all the mirth and mayhem, Bob Odenkirk and his merry pranksters are exposing how violence is wired into the American character. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyApr 17, 2026
The violence is pretty graphic, and some of it is played for laughs, which would be distasteful if the laughs didn’t actually land. Oh well. Sometimes you enjoy a movie, and you don’t feel good about it in the morning. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonApr 15, 2026
Like “Nobody” and “Nobody 2”, “Normal” is a satisfyingly amusing, get-in and get-out (all three films are about 90 minutes) piece of violent mayhem. Read full review
75
TheWrapChase HutchinsonSep 9, 2025
As long as Odenkirk’s grumpy sheriff has his coffee and mustache intact, he is the key to finding the perfect balance. No matter how many blows the film and he take, the joy in seeing him swing freely makes it all good, family fun. Read full review
75
The Film StageJared MobarakSep 9, 2025
While Normal doesn’t deliver anything you haven’t seen before rife with convenience (a ton of kills occur by gruesomely funny happenstance despite an intent for murder setting these “accidents” in motion), it’s still a memorable ride for those who have already been lapping up Kolstad’s antics. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekApr 20, 2026
Normal may not be groundbreaking, but it does come equipped with a wicked spirit and some great B-movie energy. Read full review
70
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaMar 24, 2026
Bob Odenkirk’s presence helps create a sense of gravitas even when the film is straightforward, adding soulful dimensions to a fairly simple character in whose hands guns and explosives are as much tools of violence as they are instruments of a righteousness long lost to moral compromise. Read full review
70
Screen RantGregory NussenMar 18, 2026
Wheatley is such a strong technician that the film easily rises above its, well, normalcy, to become something much more distinct. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenSep 19, 2025
Handling it all with a detached, shrugging sense of doom, Odenkirk proves the right man for the job at hand in both of the film’s two tonally separate halves, and he’s supported by a colorful cast. Read full review
67
IndieWireKatie RifeSep 9, 2025
Like a firecracker with a long fuse, Normal builds up, burns fast, makes a big noise, and then it’s gone. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 21, 2026
There’s witty banter about bank robberies in a “just tap your card” society — “Nobody uses cash any more.” And director Ben Wheatley (Free Fire and Sightseers were his) knows his way around a shoot-out, punch-out, snowplow chase or what have you. One film fan’s “predictable” can be a lot of filmgoers’ comfort food. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyApr 16, 2026
Normal, as you’ve no doubt gathered by now, is pretty abnormal, and the extended reveal of the abnormality wastes much of what was good about the first half of the movie. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleApr 15, 2026
Many of its twists aren’t hard to see coming, and the movie sometimes lacks the scale needed for a sprawling battle. But a mustachioed Odenkirk with a shotgun is, by most metrics, more than enough firepower for any movie. Read full review
60
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisApr 16, 2026
Normal — which heralds, according to the press notes, the birth of yet another franchise — navigates its cartoonish excesses with expected competence. As for Odenkirk, he’s golden; as mythology nerds will recall, Ulysses was also known as the Master of Cunning. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 13, 2026
When it comes to dumb fun, generally speaking you want a pretty good balance between the two elements. “Normal” ignores this notion, gleefully so. Read full review
60
Next Best PictureAlex PapaioannouSep 19, 2025
As Normal barrels toward its conclusion, it’s easy to look past the way it glosses over in-depth characterization. Read full review
50
The RevealKeith PhippsApr 17, 2026
Without spoiling Normal’s central twist, suffice it to say that it leads to a lot of gunplay that allows Wheatley to off one character after another in violent, sometimes explosive fashion. It’s more wearying than shocking, but not fatally so thanks to a brisk pace, a willingness to shift gears with little warning, and, again, Odenkirk’s humane performance. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriApr 17, 2026
I was never bored by Normal, but I’d also be lying if I said I was ever excited by it. Maybe it’ll help you forget your troubles for an hour or two, but there’s also a good chance you’ll forget the movie itself in even less time. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesKatie WalshApr 17, 2026
The irony and meaninglessness of the violence rankles, especially when Ulysses is presented as such a nice guy who is prone to de-escalation and community care in his day-to-day work. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubJacob OllerMar 18, 2026
If you’re not immediately tickled by Normal‘s premise, which cements into the traditions of narrative conflict—man versus nature, man versus man, man versus self—the very literal concept of “man versus entire town,” this is the least of the Odenkickass movies. And if that idea makes you smile, Normal might be even more disappointing for how mechanically it goes through motions that used to be novel. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 11, 2025
Wheatley’s hyperbolic set pieces feel perfunctory rather than euphoric or hilariously bombastic. Read full review
More From This Movie

62 Critic Reviews

tbd 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