Wasabi
TriStar Pictures | Release Date: September 27, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein
This nearly perfect confection never takes its action more seriously than its comedy.
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Like a Hollywood buddy-cop movie gone through a multi-culti blender. It holds up a funhouse mirror to that familiar scenario in which a maverick cop breaks the rules. Read full review
75
New York PostMegan Lehmann
The spaniel-eyed Jean Reno ("Ronin") infuses Hubert with a mixture of deadpan cool, wry humor and just the measure of tenderness required to give this comic slugfest some heart. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Enjoyable action comedy from the Clint Eastwood mold, though the comic elements are more fun than the action. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Offers watchable light entertainment, even though the prospect of the most respected national cinema indulging clunky cop-movie stereotypes is, if not scandalous, then at least disappointing. Read full review
60
Village VoiceLaura Sinagra
The real charm of this trifle is the deadpan comic face of its star, Jean Reno, who resembles Sly Stallone in a hot sake half-sleep. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyPaul Malcolm
The film lapses too often into sugary sentiment and withholds delivery on the pell-mell pyrotechnics its punchy style promises. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Does its job colorfully and entertainingly, as long as you don't lean too hard on such niggling details as logic, legality and the laws of physics. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
At least Reno is around -- and he's the only spice in this stale, slick stew Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Driven by sheer enthusiam (much of it for the worst excesses of Hollywood filmmaking), which makes it fun to watch in spite of its fundamental ridiculousness. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleJonathan Curiel
A silly, cross-cultural shoot-'em-up -- the sort of movie that will work for those with some time to kill (no pun intended). Read full review
50
VarietyLisa Nesselson
An acceptably entertaining but borderline bland vehicle for Jean Reno. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Culinary purists have observed that much of what passes for the spicy Japanese condiment wasabi at American restaurants is an ersatz concoction of horseradish and green food coloring. The French-language action comedy Wasabi is just as artificial, pumped with horseradish to give it heat in lieu of actual spice. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
Wasabi dawdles and drags when it should pop; it doesn't even have the virtue of enough mindless violence to break up the tedium of all its generational bonding. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It is a thriller trapped inside a pop comedy set in Japan, and gives Reno a chirpy young co-star who bounces around him like a puppy on visiting day at the drunk tank. Read full review
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