Sexy Beast
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: June 13, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
1
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It smarts, and shocks, and just for a moment blows your mind. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Kingsley gives the movie a jolt and blows the rest of it to pieces.
75
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Slightly misshapen and unbalanced, with a few loose ends, a few extraneous dream sequences. But there's something going on all the time.
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Drove violence to the point of redundancy. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
These are hard men. They could have the "Sopranos" for dinner, throw up and have them again. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
A noir masterpiece with Oscar-caliber performances, Sexy Beast slowly turns up the heat until we squirm. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Carries so much impacted menace and visual narrative gamesmanship that it brought back some of the excitement I felt nearly a decade ago watching Quentin Tarantino's ''Reservoir Dogs.'' Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Glazer shoots with the dreamy impressionism much favored in his principal line of work, all floaty slo-mos and in-your-face close-ups punctuated by a hard-driving rock score. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Though it can overreach for emotional effect and overplay its hand at times -- Sexy Beast brings considerable virtues to telling this tale, including a great eye for faces and director Glazer's palpable excitement at working in the feature medium. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldCurtis Morgan
It is a riveting and memorable performance and Kingsley finds subtlety in Logan where there doesn't seem to be any. Read full review
80
Mr. ShowbizMichael Atkinson
Confident, mature, deeply conceived, and convincingly inhabited, it's a surprisingly humane film -- despite the close-range shotgun spray.
90
New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein
One of the compulsively watchable films this year, second only to "Memento." It's a must-see, except for those with a sensitivity to on-screen mayhem. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Noir has never been this bright. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
A flashy, nasty triumph Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
A smart, funny, stylish and very violent British gangster movie. Read full review
90
NewsweekDavid Ansen
A demonstration of bravura acting.
88
Philadelphia InquirerDesmond Ryan
Glazer has a daring sense of story structure that ratchets up the suspense, and his sense for sardonic black comedy is unerring.
91
Portland OregonianStaff (Not credited)
It's all jolly bad fun, but the primo aspect of the exercise is the phenomenally intense performance by Kingsley as a careening sociopath who is every bit as dangerous to his friends as to his foes. Read full review
90
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Kingsley creates an unforgettable monster. Acting rarely gets this hypnotically explosive. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
An extraordinary and original creation. It belongs alongside "Amores Perros" and "Memento" on a shortlist of 2001's most exciting revelations. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleWesley Morris
A vicious horror flick with an actual beast and someone who just acts like one. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Plays in spots something like a stage play smartly brought to screen. Read full review
90
SlateDavid Edelstein
The movie is riotously entertaining, and with a big heart, too. Read full review
90
The New York TimesDana Stevens
He's (Kingsley) pure violence, a sociopath who radiates menace even while sitting perfectly still mouthing pleasantries. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The main event is the Mamet-esque battle of foul words between vintage hard-case Ray Winstone and the seething sociopath played by Ben Kingsley. Read full review
70
VarietyDerek Elley
Often enjoyable, massively uneven Brit ganglander with an almost surreal approach to the genre. Read full review
90
Village VoiceAmy Taubin
There are long stretches in Sexy Beast that are so exhilarating it feels churlish to dwell on its flaws. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Appeal lies on the bright, shiny surface of its ostensibly simple plot, and in its rat-a-tat-tat language, which often sounds like Mamet-visits-Spyne.
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A Molotov cocktail of a movie, an engaging conflagration of British B-flick, cockney wit and gallows humor. There's even a delicate little love story in there. Read full review
10
Washington PostStephen Hunter
In the end, I'm wondering what's so special about a film that has but one guilty pleasure and that's Ben Kingsley spraying saliva-lubricated variants of the F-word into the atmosphere like anti-aircraft fire for 10 solid minutes. Read full review
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