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
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJan 26, 2019
It’s an ambitious piece of writing, certainly, springy with ideas and information. But whereas the screenplay for The Big Short, which McKay co-wrote with Charles Randolph, deftly negotiated the dense, often very dry material, here there is a slightly frantic top note to McKay’s trademark wryly satirical tone. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 17, 2018
Vice offers more than Yuletide rage-bait for liberal moviegoers, who already have plenty to be mad about. Revulsion and admiration lie as close together as the red and white stripes on the American flag, and if this is in some respects a real-life monster movie, it’s one that takes a lively and at times surprisingly sympathetic interest in its chosen demon. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanDec 17, 2018
The movie, though it pretends to reveal how power works, is ultimately content to remain on the outside, sticking its finger in the eye of power. Read full review
58
The AtlanticChristopher OrrJan 29, 2019
With The Big Short, McKay threaded a needle by managing to be jokey while still serious, and angry while still entertaining. With Vice, he fails in both directions. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 10, 2019
When, at the end, we hear Cheney intone “I was the bad guy so you didn’t have to be,” the self-serving gravity of that pronouncement rings hollow because the movie is hollow, too. Read full review
52
Paste MagazineWill LeitchDec 17, 2018
Where The Big Short was bold and enlightening, this is just well-trodden ground, trod over once again in a fashion that feels decreasingly novel. Read full review
50
Film ThreatHunter LanierDec 25, 2018
Vice, written and directed by Adam McKay, plays straight to the cable-news generation of political enthusiasts. It’s depthless, has the attention span of a gopher, and is more concerned with appearances than getting to the root of anything. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 24, 2018
Exhilarating but ultimately off-putting. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 20, 2018
What Vice says, and how it says it, will have half its audience nodding in angry, contemptuous agreement, and the other half calling it a liberal smear. In other words it’s like everything else in the culture right now. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyDec 17, 2018
Apart from one initially funny (but ultimately over-extended) gag involving a fake credits sequence, the material is mostly glib and second-rate—and, when it comes down to it, about as dry, oversimplified, and under-dramatized as a class presentation. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensDec 17, 2018
I spent much of Vice trying to work out why the same narrative strategies that worked so well in the raucously entertaining "The Big Short" suddenly felt smug and even propagandistic. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonDec 17, 2018
There’s anger but no insight in Vice, a glib portrait of Dick Cheney that preaches to the choir but becomes less persuasive as it goes along. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenDec 17, 2018
Vice is as noisy as the media landscape that writer-director Adam McKay holds in contempt. Read full review
40
SlateFred KaplanDec 17, 2018
So how did this happen? Who is Cheney? How did he amass such power? What were his motives and goals? Any work about him—a book, film, play, or whatever—needs to deal with these questions. Vice does so shallowly and evasively. Read full review
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