Wonderland
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: October 3, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
21
Negative:
10
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film ThreatRobert Goethals
When you watch Wonderland, going back twenty years plus, you think you're in for some paleontological expedition. Yet, thanks to James Cox's considered and adept direction, a cast and script that never cheats the experience or realism of Hollywood's enigmatic underbelly -- the drama of the 1981 Wonderland murders is de-petrified. Read full review
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
A film whose effects are as hard to wash away as blood. Read full review
80
EmpireNick Dawson
Another of the film's positive aspects is its narrative style, reminiscent of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Once you leave Wonderland, you may feel like you need a shower, but, while you're in the moment, it's a compelling journey into the depths of hell on earth. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Fast and frenetic and so unvarnished that it can make you feel unclean watching it. The film rubs your face in glamour and filth. But in the midst of the blood and hysteria, Kilmer plays Holmes with the dirty-angelic looks and wheedling charm of a seedy golden boy on the brink of doom. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong: there are second acts in American lives. But all too many of them are sad, sordid or both, as this fact-based story of sex, drugs and murder featuring adult-movie superstar John Holmes aptly demonstrates. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaul West
The film is so truncated, so obsessed with style and composed of so many self-contained episodes that it fails to say anything new. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Character gets sacrificed for just another true-crime drama. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Has absolutely nothing to say about its characters and their lamentable actions. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
When we finally do see what happened, it's a genuine shock, a nightmare vision of a hedonist who forged his own hell. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
The vaporous Wonderland never moves beyond its grungily romanticized view of the past. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The murder-mystery plot is told in rough-and-tumble style, full of sound and fury but signifying almost nothing in the end. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
Becomes a little more compelling as it progresses because Lisa Kudrow (as the straight-arrow first Mrs. Holmes, who halfway stood with him despite her disgust) ends up being surprisingly well cast. She engages in some very un-Friends-like fiery exchanges that also give Kilmer his best scenes. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldStaff (not credited)
Never gives us a single reason to care about any of these people. It's a druggy, sordid spectacle. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Cox and three others have produced a swift and economical script, but it's just porn with a different money shot--not graphic violence per se but the sort of blood-soaked crime scene that sells true-crime paperbacks. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
True crime procedurals can have a certain fascination, but not when they're jumbled glimpses of what might or might not have happened involving a lot of empty people whose main claim to fame is that they're dead. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
This film disappointingly feels like a sometimes brilliantly acted, often gorgeously filmed re-enactment of the television show "Unsolved Mysteries." Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Skips lightly along the sewers of human depravity as if the trip alone was worth the telling. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverJean Oppenheimer
As good as all the actors are, the scuzzy characters are so one-dimensional that the film falls flat. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The main interest here is the acting, which is, by turns, entertaining or just entertainingly bad, with lots of grungy seriousness and Method-trained twitching, but also some moments of real gusto. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
There seem to be some impressive performances here, though it's not always easy to tell because director James Cox is always feverishly cutting away to something or other. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
We are led through a murky and, it must be said, wholly uninvolving saga of substance abuse and related multiple murders. [6 October 2003, p. 138]
40
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Jonesing for headlines and gossip-buzz, Wonderland is too look-Ma for its own good -- the simple story of a doomed hop-hog over his head in bad shit could've hit the nerve if left to tell itself. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
This is the latest addition to a new type of drug movie -- one that exploits addiction for a lot of self-adoring showboating. Read full review
40
The New York TimesDana Stevens
With its flashbacks, split-screen montages, decade-jumping soundtrack, sped-up action and frequent shifts of light and color, Wonderland feels like "Law & Order" on crack. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Wonderland is to "Boogie Nights" what "Blow" was to "Goodfellas": an accomplished knockoff with all the tricks and none of the soul. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It's hard to care what really happened on Wonderland Ave. when the audience hates the neighborhood. Read full review
38
New York PostMegan Lehmann
The problem is that there's not a sympathetic character among the nasty, brutish males. And the women, except for a flashy cameo by a swimsuit-clad Paris Hilton, are given short shrift. Read full review
38
PremiereScott Warren
The filmmakers may have wanted to deconstruct any sense of a formal, cohesive narrative; instead, they have merely demolished it. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Wonderland marks a "biopic" first: Moviegoers will know less about the real-life subject going out than they did going in. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
It's theoretically possible to make a fascinating film about a thieving, self-indulgent, freebasing, treacherous scumbag who pimps his girlfriend to a gangster and contributes nothing to society. Wonderland isn't that film. Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
It's not much fun, and it's not particularly edifying. Even people who are curious about Holmes (he was better known by his screen name, Johnny Wadd; here, he's played by Val Kilmer) won't find out much about him. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Possibly one of the dullest takes on a real-life murder mystery, this gutter’s-eye-view of the waning days of Los Angeles porn king John "Johnny Wadd" Holmes is barely as interesting as one of the big man’s films, and a lot less revelatory. Read full review
25
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
While "Boogie Nights" was a dirge for the death of pleasure (which coincided with the death of the porn-film industry), Wonderland is death warmed over. Literally. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
Sordid, brutal and depressing. Read full review
20
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Overblown, overheated, overdirected, overacted, overlong. Read full review
More From This Movie

43 Critic Reviews

6.1 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL