The Boys from Brazil
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: October 6, 1978 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 7 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
5
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
TV Guide MagazineStaff [Not Credited]
The film is compelling, albeit pretty silly in its elaborate "what if?" plot. Read full review
60
EmpireIan Nathan
For much of its slowburn build there is a classy, intelligent thriller at work, something closer in tone to The Odessa File. Still, you must remain guarded to how over the top and quasi-horror events will finally turn. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEd Gonzalez
Jerry Goldmsith’s ominous score is reminiscent of his Oscar-winning work for The Omen but The Boys From Brazil is pure pomp and circumstance. Read full review
50
VarietyStaff [Not Credited]
With two excellent antagonists in Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier, The Boys from Brazil presents a gripping, suspenseful drama for nearly all of its two hours - then lets go at the end and falls into a heap. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonStaff [Not Credited]
The film is sunk by a series of preposterous performances. There are more phony German accents than in a prep school version of Colditz, and Levin's expert plotting is buried beneath an avalanche of lines like 'Vat are we goink to do?'. Read full review
40
TimeRichard Schickel
Yet in the end the self-conscious importance of the film produces a rather queasy feeling, for really this story is no more than a crude exploitation — decked out with our latest scientific finery — of what amounts to a penny dreadful fantasy. If you stop and think about it, even if there were a nest of Nazis hiding out in South America, most of them would be pushing 80 by now, and quite incapable of the exertions required by this farflung, not to mention farfetched plot. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
Franklin J. Shaffner's deadpan adaptation of Ira Levin's silly story about Hitler clones. The plot is less suspenseful than the overacting contest between the two leads, Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck, who spend most of their screen time one-upping each other in affectations. Read full review
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