The Corruptor

New Line Cinema | Release Date: March 12, 1999

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

56	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Lisa Alspector

There's tenderness, humor, a gratuitous body double, and splashy lighting in this ho-hum action drama, which takes itself at times too seriously and at other times not seriously enough. Read full review

EmpireDarren Bignell

Okay, it may not be Shakespeare, but it's a welcome bonus, for neither Chow or Wahlberg looks out of place in crossfire that would likely leave trained military personnel shell-shocked. Read full review

Diana Abu-Jaber

Foley is an actors' directors stuck here with a genre piece, and it shows: The action (save a killer car chase) is clumsily staged. Still, the story about corrupt police in New York's Chinatown has occasional moments of depth. [12 Mar 1999]

Peter Rainer

The trite story has plenty of distasteful moments, but Wahlberg and Yun-Fat justify their growing reputations as capable Hollywood actors. Read full review

Peter Travers

What you get in this cop drama is NYPD Blue lite. That's not bad. In fact, it's compulsively watchable. But there are no leaps, just fits and starts. Read full review

William Arnold

Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-Fat is so charismatic in his second Hollywood outing, The Corruptor, that he almost makes us forget that the movie itself is one of the more pretentious, muddled and incompetent action films to come along in some time. [12 Mar 1999]

Stephen Hunter

After a sensational beginning, the movie loses its way in the late going and somehow doesn't deliver. [12 Mar 1999]

Marc Savlov

Though Foley is adept at handling the action, the film is a grim washout peppered with too many earnest, good-cop/bad-cop conundrums and not enough solid police work. Read full review