Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

Lounguine tells the story with more discipline than you'll find in his earlier films, painting a crowded portrait of a society moving toward a future it can neither confidently predict nor look forward to with anything but nervous anticipation.

New York Daily News by Jack Mathews

With more than a passing nod to the Hollywood mob movie, Pavel Lounguine ("Luna Park") crafts this superb post-Soviet "Godfather" movie loosely based on the exploits of bad boy billionaire Boris Berezovsky.

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

The flashback structure drains the story of momentum, but Mashkov and Uchaineshvili portray the reptilian glamour of cultured thugs with frightening intensity.

Variety by Deborah Young

A savvy, fast-paced political thriller dealing with the meteoric rise and fall of a new Russian businessman.

The New York Times by Stephen Holden

For all its energy and fine acting, Tycoon has a frustrating lack of narrative coherence.

The A.V. Club by Noel Murray

While the players are circling and silently sizing each other up, the audience may find itself straining to look around them, to see the history they're blocking.

The New Republic by Stanley Kauffmann

We become so distracted by the jigsaw effect that soon we are more concerned with the assemblage itself than with what it is about.

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

Wait for the video, then fast-forward through every scene except the ones featuring Maria Mironova as a cheating wife.

Washington Post by Desson Thomson

The movie covers too much ground with too little detail. It manages to be convoluted, complicated, incomprehensible and maddeningly thin all at the same time.

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

Though a relatively sober essay on criminal organization, Tycoon is also thoroughly pulpy -- that is, crass, unimaginative, corner-cutting, and simplistic, with the visual vocabulary of daytime soap.