Vice
Annapurna Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 54 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
14
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJan 28, 2019
As a portrait of a real-world villain the movie is muddled and lacking any sort of compelling theory. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoDec 24, 2018
The words that keep ringing in my head regarding Adam McKay’s Vice are courtesy of the bard: “Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 20, 2018
This is a story that needs to be told, but McKay turns out to be precisely the wrong man to tell it. By comparison, Oliver Stone is a model of sober restraint. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzDec 17, 2018
Cheney remains an enigma throughout, less a character than another anonymous object for McKay to smash in his cinematic rage room. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 19, 2018
Structurally, Vice is a mess, zigging here and zagging there, never knowing quite when to end, and when it finally does, leaving few penetrating or genuinely illuminating ideas to ponder. Read full review
30
VoxAlissa WilkinsonDec 23, 2018
Vice smooshes a bunch of metaphors together, none of which are particularly illuminating. Read full review
30
TimeStephanie ZacharekDec 17, 2018
McKay’s style here is the equivalent of a knowing cackle; the whole enterprise, elaborate as it is, comes off as lacking in passion. The Big Short had an exhilarating kick, but it also left you feeling queasy over the destructive misdeeds you’d just witnessed. Vice just leaves you feeling sapped, advertising its cleverness without actually being clever. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 20, 2018
Dick Cheney deserves better than this — or worse. So does Lynn Cheney, played by Amy Adams, who strains in vain to give dimension to a script that paints Mrs. Cheney as little more than an amoral social climber. Read full review
25
The Film StageMichael SnydelDec 17, 2018
History has validated the view of these people as one of the major causes of modern ills, but Vice is so concerned with wallowing in the past that it has no idea how to say anything new. Read full review
20
Vanity FairRichard LawsonDec 17, 2018
All the arch gloss that McKay covers the film with isn’t earned, not when the movie’s foundation—intellectually, politically, artistically—is so rickety. Read full review
20
TheWrapCandice FrederickDec 17, 2018
Where is the joke here, aside from Bale acting as though he’s in a serious, dramatic movie in which he goes Method by adding on pounds and grunting his way through a half-baked performance? This is neither funny nor insightful. Read full review
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