Palmetto
Warner Home Video | Release Date: February 20, 1998 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
16
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Palmetto has a satisfyingly deceptive plot that ultimately takes one too many turns. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Harrelson hits just the right sardonic note in this self-mocking crime drama, but look out for grisly touches along the way. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen Holden
The film, adapted from a novel by James Hadley Chase, aspires to out-noir every other film noir that has been lumped under that popular term, including "The Big Sleep" (which it resembles), in plot trickery and steaminess. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie has elements of the genre and lacks only pacing and plausibility. You wait through scenes that unfold with maddening deliberation, hoping for a payoff--and when it comes, you feel cheated. Read full review
50
Film ThreatTom Meek
What begins as a lush, pulpy gothic laced with intrigue quickly spins into a convoluted web of over engineered and preposterous plot twists. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The result, as a colleague once so aptly put it, is less film noir than film beige. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
There's not a moment of originality in the entire motion picture. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
There's no buildup and little shape. Scenes are strong, but the movie as a whole flags. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
The script, based on British pulp writer James Hadley Chase's novel "Just Another Sucker," is a muddle, and no actors, no matter how compelling or talented, could make its silly dialogue work. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
Because so many female characters spend so much time trying to seduce Harrelson (usually successfully), the notion that multiplicity enhances intrigue is pretty worn out by the time any duplicity is revealed. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Director Volker Schlöndorff is ponderously out of his depth with comic pulp, and fatally heavy-handed with his actors. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Palmetto follows the rules of film noir so slavishly that it's tough not to like it just on its own dopey, headstrong merit. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Denby
Palmetto is an unconvincing, paint-by-numbers pass at American noir by the usually ambitious German director Volker Schlondorff (The Tin Drum). Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverPeter Rainer
It's been said that a thriller is only as good as its chief villain, and, in the same way, most noirs are only as good as their suckers. Palmetto has a good sucker but not much else. Read full review
40
EmpireAngie Errigo
There is nothing reprehensible about Palmetto; it simply falls short of conviction because you're too aware you've seen it all a hundred times before. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This neo-noir pastiche is so preposterously overwrought that you keep figuring it must be some kind of joke, except that it's not funny. Read full review
40
VarietyDennis Harvey
Surprises are reserved for the final half-hour, at which point the slow-paced Palmetto has long since fossilized as a routine exercise in ceiling-fan, sweaty-forehead noir-by-numbers. Read full review
40
Washington PostDesson Thomson
This adaptation of James Hadley Chase's "Just Another Sucker" isn't so bad you'd want to roast it over the coals, but it ain't much good either. Read full review
30
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Palmetto, directed by the German genius Schlondorff, who memorably brought "The Tin Drum" to the screen, somehow never quite finds the right line through the materials. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesJack Mathews
Revelations of betrayals, faked identities and double-crosses come in waves in the last half-hour of Palmetto, but by then, the film has raised the one question it can't answer: Who cares? Read full review
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