The Salton Sea
Release Date: April 26, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
9
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
New Times (L.A.)Luke Y. Thompson
As a gallery of the grotesque, however, the cinematic equivalent of a Joe Coleman painting or Adam Parfrey publication, The Salton Sea is a blast. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Strikes out toward freakishly original territory after all. Fans of the off-beat, your movie has arrived. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeSam Allis
A commercial Hollywood movie without pretensions. If there's no art here, it's still a good yarn - which is nothing to sneeze at these days. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleStaff (Not credited)
For all its faults, is a solid piece of dirty work. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Might be thought of as "Memento" for people who didn't get "Memento."
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Unlike in many thrillers, the movie doesn't sandbag us with one last, cheap twist at the end. The Salton Sea contains its share of surprises, but none of them feels forced or artificial. Read full review
70
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's Vincent D'Onofrio as Pooh-Bear, a drug lord who's snorted so much meth his nose had to be replaced by a plastic one, who kicks ass.
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A twisty, showy, atmosphere-saturated drama that revels (in a post-post-Tarantino-and-''Trainspotting'' way) in sadism and in-your-face seediness -- and attracts a cast of coolios primed to play extreme. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A slick, stylish hardboiled caper filtered through a druggy haze and borrowing a bit of a "Memento" revenge motif and "Pulp Fiction" playfulness. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It contains one element of startling originality: its bad guy, nicknamed Pooh-Bear and played by Vincent D'Onofrio in a great weird demented giggle of a performance; imagine a Batman villain cycled through the hallucinations of "Requiem for a Dream."
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