The Frozen Ground
Lionsgate | Release Date: August 23, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
37
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
7
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
New York PostLou LumenickAug 22, 2013
Cusack and Cage — who don’t have any scenes together until halfway through — do their best work in years, while erstwhile “High School Musical’’ star Hudgens shows off acting chops missing in “Spring Breakers.’’ Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreAug 19, 2013
Cage, without having to play a ghostly motorcyclist or hot rod driver from Hell or sorcerer or sci-fi hero or kinky cop, reminds us that he used to know subtlety. So even if Frozen Ground breaks little new ground in the serial killer thriller genre, there’s hope Cage will leave the ham behind before Alaska freezes over. Read full review
60
Total FilmJosh WinningAug 1, 2013
It’s handsomely lensed, and when Cage and Cusack finally go nose-to-nose, the fur does fly. Read full review
60
EmpireKim NewmanAug 1, 2013
With Cage as a harried cop, Cusack as a serial killer and 50 Cent as a pimp, we're assuming the casting department kicked off early on this one. Still, there's plenty in this taut thriller for you to stick around for, not least the reuniting of the Con Air duo. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonAug 1, 2013
This is an unambitious, old-school thriller, nothing more and nothing less. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 1, 2013
Nicolas Cage, Vanessa Hudgens and John Cusack give solid performances in this Prime Suspect-like thriller. Read full review
50
The PlaylistGabe ToroAug 21, 2013
Ultimately, the cumulative effect is deadening, just another chapter in an endless battle between overtasked and underpaid good guys, and cowardly baddies; the only real humanity in the film comes from Hudgens’ Cindy, who seems like a wild card of sorts, her character’s dimensions suggesting a world outside of the lurid details of this case. Refreshingly, she’s the only one in the film who refuses to be defined by the death and tragedy surrounding her. Read full review
50
VarietyDennis HarveyAug 1, 2013
[A] solid if unmemorable true-crime drama. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeAug 26, 2013
Unfortunately, writer-director Scott Walker's film is a muddled and strangely inert one, generating little of the suspense or anguish its subject requires; despite its high-profile cast. Read full review
30
The New York TimesStephen HoldenAug 22, 2013
The movie’s only fresh element is the wintry setting, which shrouds everything in a mood of weary fatalism. Otherwise, it’s the same old, same old, efficiently discharged and utterly disposable. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinAug 22, 2013
Although writer-director Scott Walker seems committed to not overly exploiting his lurid subject matter, the movie is just too dreary, disjointed and generically creepy to be persuasive. Read full review
30
Village VoiceRob StaegerAug 20, 2013
The climactic interrogation wraps up neatly and just in time, much more like a story "based on actual events" than the events themselves. Read full review
25
ObserverMatthew KasselAug 20, 2013
A vague and forgettable crime thriller that would have benefited from more character development or at least a grounding of the narrative in one central protagonist. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChuck BowenAug 15, 2013
Taste and good intentions are only going to get one so far with a script this tone deaf and direction this ugly and monotonous. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 23, 2013
What’s more depressing: that John Cusack chose the junky, un-exciting serial killer drama The Frozen Ground as his latest step away from John Cusack-y roles, or that Nicolas Cage chose to, at long last, be as un-Cage-like as possible? Read full review
20
The TelegraphTim RobeyJul 18, 2013
Fans of Cage and Cusack, previously paired as unlikely allies in Con Air (1997), may be looking forward to a bit of deranged actorly combat once Hansen is cornered in the interrogation room, but it’s here that this hopeless flick comes up especially short. Read full review
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