The Two Jakes

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: August 10, 1990

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

56	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Roger Ebert

It's an exquisite short story about a mood, and a time, and a couple of guys who are blind-sided by love. Read full review

Gene Siskel

Jack Nicholson's impressive, convoluted and moody sequel to Chinatown. [10 Aug 1990]

Jonathan Rosenbaum

This is a worthy successor to Chinatown - full of ecological and geological insights into Los Angeles history that recall Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald and give a view of southern California that could have been conceived only by a native. Read full review

EmpireMat Snow

The Two Jakes is well-acted and looks fabulous, cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond paints it eerily bright and shiny. Read full review

Sheila Benson

A lovingly assembled cast in a brilliantly detailed production, with special notice to Vilmos Zsigmond's haunting cinematography, which seems somehow to have captured the light as it was, pre-smog. [10 Aug 1990]

Owen Gleiberman

The Two Jakes is competent and watchable. Read full review

Mike Clark

The Two Jakes turns out to be a surprisingly rich movie - if you're willing to spend 138 minutes on what is essentially a psychological study. [10 Aug 1990]

Peter Rainer

Robert Towne's screenplay is less opportunistic than many of his efforts in recent years, although it still contains moments designed merely to shock or titillate. Read full review

Peter Travers

Towne doesn't weave all the elements as deftly as before, and his political observations seem secondhand. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

What it lacks are the dramatic underpinnings and emotional core that made the original film an engrossing mystery as well as a cinema classic. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

This oft-delayed sequel proves a jumbled, obtuse yet not entirely unsatisfying follow-up to Chinatown, rightly considered one of the best films of the 1970s. Read full review

Judy Stone

The Two Jakes is an interesting movie and audiences are predisposed to warm up to Nicholson the actor, but they may not be so charitable to Nicholson the director. [10 Aug 1990]

Jay Scott

The Two Jakes itself is less tragic than petulant, mired in a self-pitying remembrance of things past. [10 Aug 1990]

Ted Mahar

The film as a whole is simply an interesting and amusing mess. [10 Aug 1990]

Desson Howe

At best, the movie comes across as a competently assembled job, a wistful tribute to its former self. At worst, it's wordy, confusing and - here's an ugly word - boring. Read full review

Julie Salamon

It's ended up a weak imitation of the original. [09 Aug 1990]

Hal Hinson

What The Two Jakes makes us long for most is the earlier film. Read full review