30
Played with a satirical edge, this update on the pulpy 1956 thriller about a murderous social climber might have been good for a chill and a hoot, but played straight it's a real clunker.
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What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
60
What's missing here though is the novel's trick of being a wonderfully contrived mystery on the surface while underneath lurks an angry and upsetting analysis of class injustice in the USA.
16
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
With its waxy color scheme and nonexistent pace, the movie is like an homage to Hitchcock’s worst period.
30
Los Angeles Times by Peter Rainer
For those of us who don’t fancy ourselves connoisseurs of badness, A Kiss Before Dying is less than delectable. It’s a real botch-a-thon, and it gets worse as it goes along.
40
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
Dillon is a potent combination of looks, charm and menace, as he proved in Drugstore Cowboy, but Dearden’s script fails to provide the raw material that would let him go beyond the stereotype.
75
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
This is Matt Dillon's first film since Drugstore Cowboy, and demonstrates again that he is one of the best actors working in movies. He possesses the secret of not giving too much, of not trying so hard that we're distracted by his performance.
30
Austin Chronicle by Steve Davis
Director-screenwriter Dearden, who wrote the script for Fatal Attraction, does a terrible job of making the pieces of the who's-he-going-to-kill-next narrative stick; jumping around with an unnerving frequency, this film self-destructs before your very eyes.
70
The New York Times by Vincent Canby
A Kiss Before Dying is not Crime and Punishment. It is pop movie making to be enjoyed without guilt.