Reptile
Netflix | Release Date: September 22, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
16
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
ColliderNate RichardSep 9, 2023
Timberlake's acting aside, Reptile is the perfect kind of digestible, mid-budget crime thriller that we just don’t get enough of. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 29, 2023
[Del Toro] carries this sometimes convoluted and derivative thriller into three-star territory with an absolutely mesmerizing and authentic performance that conjures up memories of past anti-hero greats such as Bogart and Mitchum, Robert Ryan and Sterling Hayden. It’s authentic, grounded, stunning work. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSep 26, 2023
In his feature director debut, Grant Singer (previously a music video director who’s worked with artists from Sam Smith to Skrillex) adopts a measured pace that lends the movie a somber, mysterious aura. But he breaks that up with smart, psychologically insightful cutting. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezSep 15, 2023
The aspiration itself—what seems to be the clear desire to elevate a conventional murder drama to something greater—feels unmistakably tangible. And ambitious attempts are often intriguing even if they don’t always land. Read full review
70
Vanity FairRichard LawsonSep 28, 2023
Reptile has a sense of tone and texture, elevating its clichés into something of distinction. Read full review
70
Film ThreatAndy HowellSep 21, 2023
Every scene with Del Toro is magnetic — this is his best role in years. The film is worth watching for his performance alone. It is almost a modern noir, but in a fresh take, the detective has a happy relationship. Read full review
67
Original-CinKim HughesSep 21, 2023
It’s a good, fun film, the kind that likely scans differently with repeat viewings, and includes a savvy wink to the vegan word as per Silverstone’s noble and ongoing mission. But I had the killer — if not the labyrinthine impetus for the crime — pegged from the get-go. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 4, 2023
The bulky physical presence of Del Toro himself gives the film its momentum and force. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 30, 2023
Reptile comes on as “smart,” but the movie, for all its sinister-ominous-music atmosphere, is opportunistic enough — or maybe just enough of a consumer product — to swallow its own premise, if not its own tail. Read full review
60
The Daily BeastNick SchagerSep 26, 2023
Such tension ultimately unravels during a latter half that rushes through too many underwhelming revelations, but that’s not enough to completely offset the film’s beguiling air of despondency. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleOct 4, 2023
Reptile, a studiously atmospheric, layer-peeling mystery from director and co-writer Grant Singer, foregrounds Del Toro — playing a calloused detective investigating a young woman’s murder — in a way that makes you want more of him. But also, regrettably, less of movies like “Reptile,” which tries to match its star’s unpredictable magnetism with a forced eeriness, only growing more ponderous and unfocused, like a case getting colder. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 3, 2023
It’s perfectly watchable, but let it play on during the bathroom breaks and search for snacks. It’s so slow you probably won’t miss anything vital, not until the third act. Read full review
50
Screen RantRachel LaBonteSep 29, 2023
Reptile gets an extra edge thanks to its rock-solid cast and sufficiently gripping mystery, but it never coalesces into anything incredible. Read full review
50
TimeStephanie ZacharekSep 22, 2023
Reptile just feels wayward and listless. Read full review
50
The Film StageSoham GadreSep 11, 2023
Grant Singer’s best directorial decision in a film filled with clumsy ones is giving Del Toro as much real estate as possible, in many occasions having the entire screen filled by his visage––sad, squinted, glaring eyes look right at you through the dead-center of the frame. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 10, 2023
Del Toro always brings it, and this is actually one of his more intriguing performances in a long time, but one consistently wishes that it was in a movie that knew what to do with it. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeSep 9, 2023
There’s no doubt, from the way Reptile creeps in the first half, that Singer is a skilled director. But there’s something to be said for restraint, which the helmer, who wrote his screenplay with Benjamin Brewer and the film’s star Benicio Del Toro, doesn’t exercise enough of here. In an effort to prove its cleverness, Reptile clanks, rattles and stumbles in its second half. Read full review
42
IndieWireRobert DanielsSep 9, 2023
Singer’s Reptile, distributed by Netflix, wants to be a David Fincher procedural with Steven Soderbergh’s paranoia, but it’s a fangless homage without suspense, logic, or shame. Read full review
40
EmpireKambole CampbellOct 3, 2023
Benicio Del Toro’s solid screen charisma can’t rescue Reptile, a derivative and lethargic thriller that rarely thrills as it tries and fails to build a case for itself as a meaningful iteration on the detective thrillers that it admires. Read full review
40
IGNA.A. Dowd Sep 30, 2023
Benicio del Toro's understated performance as a soft-spoken detective is about the only interesting thing about this new Netflix thriller, which drowns a thin murder mystery in lots of ominous atmosphere. Read full review
40
Little White LiesCharles BramescoSep 28, 2023
Singer aims for the bleak, gritty texture standard to the genre, and winds up closer to the result of an anonymous recommendation generated by the algorithmic tags of “Bleak, Gritty.” Read full review
40
The New York TimesNatalia WinkelmanSep 28, 2023
The trouble with Reptile is that this impressive moment-to-moment control does not extend to the contours of the broader story, which the writers overstuff with clumsy twists and contrived devices. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 9, 2023
Grant Singer’s feature directorial debut suffers from an overinflated sense of grandeur and a frustratingly convoluted story, reaching for dramatic heights that it hasn’t earned. Read full review
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