The Way of the Gun
Artisan Entertainment | Release Date: September 8, 2000 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
9
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Film.comPeter Brunette
If you're interested in heavy-lidded moodiness and lots of attitude, Phillippe and Del Toro can't be beat. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It's good fun for bad boys. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
May feel redundant, but it is stylish and intelligent. Read full review
80
Film.comGemma Files
A tiny slice of bleak, black near-perfection. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
All the players deliver performances that kill. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Plays like an unusually ritzy festival circuit audition film, though McQuarrie, it must be said, aces the audition. Read full review
75
USA TodayAndy Seiler
Gives new meaning to the phrase "not for the squeamish." Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Way of the Gun is a self-consciously American odyssey. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
A confused, empty, only occasionally funny mess of a movie. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Falters seriously is its too-leisurely pacing. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
What pulls us along through the inky shoals of The Way of the Gun? Sheer style, plus the movie's refusal to play nice. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
So many characters to keep track of, so little time! Read full review
63
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Sometimes trips over its own contrivance, especially at the ammo-ridden end. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Sporadically engrossing in a pulpy kind of way. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There's a good story buried somewhere in this melee. Read full review
60
VarietyEmanuel Levy
Each of the talented thesps has some good moments, but, ultimately, none can rise above the limitations of the material and filmmaking. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
A movie that drags. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Edgy, hard-boiled crime drama that is very much in this Tarantino-esque tradition. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerWalter Addiego
A misfire. Read full review
42
Mr. ShowbizMichael Atkinson
An empty, affected exercise, executed with just enough style to make you wish McQuarrie had a motive beyond his own career. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineFrank Lovece
In the end the film has absolutely nothing to say. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklySteve Mikulan
Isn't a bad film, but as we watch it we're constantly rewriting it in our minds to make it a better one. Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
This film is no "Usual Suspects," because there is no twist, no gotcha. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesJohn Anderson
An implement of destruction loaded with more borrowed film riffs than could be compiled by 47 clones of Robert Rodriguez.. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunAnn Hornaday
As ugly, excessive and vulgar as "The Usual Suspects" was stylish, subtle and suave. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
Rotten, pretentious movie full of minimalist dialogue and self-consciously arty cinematography. Read full review
20
TimeRichard Corliss
What aims at being terrifying is just loud and goofy. Read full review
20
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Doesn't deliver an ounce of charm.
10
SalonMary Elizabeth Williams
The directorial debut of the writer of "The Usual Suspects" keeps tossing the genre hand grenades one might expect, but they all wind up duds. Read full review
10
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
A lot of uninteresting and unpleasant people torture, abuse, and fire guns at a lot of other uninteresting and unpleasant people, in a repulsive, interminable would-be crime thriller. Read full review
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