90
New Times (L.A.) by David Ehrenstein
One of the most genuinely shocking films you'll ever see.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
75
San Francisco Chronicle by Edward Guthmann
A marvelous film.
70
Village Voice by Jessica Winter
The performances can be stiff, but a kinetic mix of anxiety, dread, and numbed resignation is always palpable.
70
Rough, breathless adaptation of Fernando Vallejo's ferociously sardonic novel.
90
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
As the film, with its haunting score and inspired use of popular music, builds flawlessly to its resounding conclusion, it is accompanied by a pitch-dark humor that grows out of the sheer absurdity of the city's daily body count.
50
Baltimore Sun by Michael Sragow
The blend of chic histrionics and ultra-bright daylight imagery make much of the movie resemble a network soap opera with an on-location interlude. It looks as cheap as life is held in Medellin.
50
The movie itself IS dull, however. The characters never engage our interest, and the relentless violence grows monotonous.
90
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
Setting it against the backdrop of a wanton city under siege, Schroeder crafts a film of whiplash urgency.
90
Washington Post by Stephen Hunter
It's sad, funny, shocking and completely unlike any movie in a dozen years.
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold
An utterly nihilistic, harrowingly upsetting vision of hell on earth.