The Professionals
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: November 2, 1966 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Wonderful but improbable tale about a group of mercenaries sent to Mexico to rescue their employer's wife from bad man Jack Palance. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Exciting, beautifully shot '60s political western. [10 Apr 1998, p.M]
80
The New YorkerPauline Kael
There's something to be said for this kind of professionalism: the moviemakers know how to provide excitement and they work us over.
80
Washington PostHal Hinson
Written and directed by Richard Brooks, the picture is more style than content, but what style.
75
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
This 1966 film was eclipsed in many people's minds by The Wild Bunch three years later, but it's a good, solid job, and with Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode, how could you miss? Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
A truly adventuresome, action-filled film that is played more for thrills than for conveying a story, The Professionals offers a field day for Lancaster, Ryan, Marvin, and Strode. Read full review
70
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
Exciting explosive sequences, good overall pacing and acting overcome a sometimes thin script. Read full review
60
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
Brooks could certainly write a line and direct action, but his taut and disillusioned yarn of American mercenaries intruding into the Mexican revolution to "rescue" Cardinale had only a couple of years in critical favour before it was comprehensively eclipsed by Peckinpah's ostensibly similar The Wild Bunch. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBosley Crowther
The scenery provided for this picture is clearly more profound than the script, and the sense of magnitude in the environment more engrossing than that in the plot. Read full review
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