Seven Psychopaths
CBS Films | Release Date: October 12, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
13
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
IndieWireEric KohnSep 9, 2012
A less controlled and slapdash character piece than "In Bruge," McDonagh's new movie benefits greatly from a plethora of one-liners that toy with crime movie clichés in the unlikely context of writerly obsessions. Read full review
90
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlOct 9, 2012
Remember the shitty crime comedies every Hollywood brat tried to make after "Pulp Fiction"? It took an Irish playwright to get it right. See it with an audience. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 11, 2012
Men in movies are often just overgrown boys, and Seven Psychopaths is out to prove it - in the most twisted, hilarious way possible. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 10, 2012
This is a delightfully goofy, self-aware movie that knows it is a movie. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanOct 11, 2012
Consistently surprising, Seven Psychopaths ultimately plays like a combination of Quentin Tarantino's self-aware, savvy ultraviolence and Charlie Kaufman's reflexive head trips. And that potentially awkward combo goes down like a chocolate-vanilla swirl cone, only with more guns. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumOct 3, 2012
An energetically demented psycho-killer comedy set in faux-noir L.A., Seven Psychopaths rollicks along to the unique narrative beat and language stylings of Anglo-Irish writer-director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges), channeling Quentin Tarantino. Read full review
80
EmpireKim NewmanDec 3, 2012
Enormously entertaining, endlessly quotable, perfectly cast and packed full of the richest acting you'll see from an ensemble cast all year, but the result is ever so slightly hollow. Read full review
80
MovielineAlison WillmoreOct 11, 2012
Set to a score by Carter Burwell that takes breaks for tunes like P.P. Arnold's "The First Cut Is The Deepest" and Linda Ronstadt's "Different Drum," existing in a start contrast from what's unfolding on screen, Seven Psychopaths is a ball. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 11, 2012
The film has moments of real brilliance and pathos; flawed as it is, Seven Psychopaths isn't like anything else you'll see this year, or any other. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 10, 2012
It's all brutal good fun, with laughs scattered generously throughout the bloodshed. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 12, 2012
While it's way behind the "Pulp Fiction" curve, Seven Psychopaths can be terrifically entertaining. Read full review
80
The GuardianCatherine ShoardSep 9, 2012
There are scenes of complete brilliance, Walken is better than he's been in years, cute plot loops and grace notes. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 10, 2012
It is an inspired, strange, and occasionally choke-on-your-popcorn funny ensemble piece that, frankly, blows just about every other current comedy out of the water. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenOct 11, 2012
In the end, cast and audience are having such fun that it seems almost mingy to complain when the church, lacking a foundation, collapses under the weight of its own cleverness. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 11, 2012
Blood splatters, heads explode, and McDonagh takes sassy, self-mocking shots at the very notion of being literary in Hollywood. It's crazy-killer fun. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 11, 2012
Absurdly entertaining even after it disappears up its own hindquarters in the last act, and it gives some of our weirder actors ample room to play. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 11, 2012
The result is a clever, violent daydream. But McDonagh's skill behind the camera has grown considerably since "In Bruges." And the way he writes, he's able to attract the ideal actors into his garden of psychopathology. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsOct 10, 2012
While Seven Psychopaths sometimes hits the philosophical shallows, its pleasures still run deep. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensOct 14, 2012
It's at once a gangster movie, a buddy comedy, and a meta-fictional exploration of the limits of both genres - and if that sounds impossible to pull off, well, McDonagh doesn't, quite. But the pure sick brio of Seven Psychopaths takes it a long way. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 11, 2012
Meta to the max, filled with clever jokes and observations that stick like barbs and deflated ones that land with a thud, Seven Psychopaths is a leisurely riff about movies, violence, storytelling and the art of the steal. Read full review
70
NPRStephanie ZacharekOct 11, 2012
There's something overtly mechanical about McDonagh's approach that keeps it all from being as outrageously fun as it's pretending to be. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissOct 11, 2012
Small in stature but consistently entertaining, Seven Psychopaths is a vacation from consequence for the Tony- and Oscar-winning author, and an unsupervised play date for his cast of screw-loose stars. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 8, 2012
Sam Rockwell kills as the hero's loony tunes best friend, deliciously abetted by Christopher Walken as an aging, sad-sack dognapper. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 10, 2012
Writer-director Martin McDonagh's followup to his more cohesive "In Bruges" is a middle finger to cliches "Pulp Fiction" wrought, while garishly reveling in the same hyper-ironic, pop referenced ultraviolence it lampoons. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 12, 2012
By the time the meta-movie and cute-dog subplots collide in the desert, this high-concept vehicle has run out of gas. Movies about the filmmaking process may never get old, but self-referential hit men smell like yesterday's fish story. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 12, 2012
On balance, one could argue that Seven Psychopaths warrants a better rating than a mediocre **1/2, but the aftertaste is so bitter that it diminishes the sweetness that started off the meal. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithOct 11, 2012
In the end (which continues into the credits), I was left thinking McDonagh can do better than this, and yet I was slightly more agog with admiration than peevish with frustration. Most of all, I wanted to see the film again. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 11, 2012
Meta and messy, Seven Psychopaths does not hang together like "In Bruges." Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJohn SemleyOct 10, 2012
If Seven Psychopaths smacks a bit showoff-y in places, it's only because Martin McDonagh has so much worth showing off. Read full review
60
Total FilmMatt GlasbyOct 19, 2012
Engagingly off-centre, like Charlie Kaufman taking down Quentin Tarantino, this sunbaked shaggy-dog story is a place-holder film for McDonagh, and often closer to chaos than it is to genius. Read full review
60
The New YorkerDavid DenbyOct 19, 2012
Seven Psychopaths is the kind of movie that can lift someone who's had a crappy day out of a funk. It's an unstable mess filled with lunatic invention and bizarre nonsense, and some of it is so spontaneous that it's elating. [22 Oct. 2012, p.88]
60
New York Daily NewsStaff (Not credited)Oct 11, 2012
Each cast member helps push it along, with standouts including Rockwell, Harrelson and Gabourey Sidibe in a brief but memorable scene. They help make Seven Psychopaths an astute, bloody and bloodshot-eyed addition to a genre it knows it's part of. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineDavid EhrlichOct 10, 2012
A cleverly daft meta-romp that will be best remembered for its quotes, Seven Psychopaths is a game and garishly shot production that's elegant in its own seedy way. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichOct 9, 2012
Walken is particularly alive in a way he's rarely been since "Catch Me if You Can," adding untold shades to Hans's mystery-shrouded past - wait until you see what's under his cravat - while still giving his singularly eccentric line readings. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 9, 2012
Compared to McDonagh's best work for stage ("The Lieutenant of Inishmore") and screen ("In Bruges"), Seven Psychopaths feels like either an older script knocking around the bottom of a drawer or a new one hastily tossed off between more ambitious projects. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 11, 2012
Compared with other movies, Seven Psychopaths is clever and inventive enough to be considered a weak success or a modest failure, the kind of effort that usually gets damned with the faint praise of "not bad." Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 11, 2012
Unlike "In Bruges," the outlandish parts of Seven Psychopaths, though often bleakly entertaining in their own right, remain a collection of weird riffs that not even engaging acting by Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken and Tom Waits can bring together. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 11, 2012
The film also begins to feel like a case of a director getting to revel in the very thing he's reviling. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 11, 2012
The violence wears you down. Like one of its nutso characters, Seven Psychopaths has a death wish. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 11, 2012
For a good hour, Seven Psychopaths is lively, bloody fun. Then the yawning starts. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 10, 2012
Somewhat spastic and overcooked, Seven Psychopaths might have a few too many. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 12, 2012
Some of those detours are fun ideas - like Marty's O. Henry-esque tale of the Amish psychopath. Mostly, though, they feel out of place, like so much filler that distracts from the half-developed main story. Call me crazy, but I need more from my movie. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedOct 9, 2012
The result is a twitching convulsion of vicious drivel passing itself off as a movie, which can be best appreciated by the kind of people who dig "Showgirls," the "Saw" franchise and Spike Jonze-Charlie Kaufman flicks. Read full review
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