80
New Times (L.A.) by Gregory Weinkauf
While you think you're watching just another in a series of British gangster films, you may suddenly realize that you're watching what is, thus far, the year's best horror movie.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
63
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
The movie's key asset is young Bettany as a worthy successor to the "Clockwork Orange" tradition of McDowell. With Bettany, a star is born, even if his character is horrific.
80
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Taut, corrosive and compelling, Gangster No. 1 has the galvanic appeal of "Little Caesar" and "Scarface" in its full-sized portrait of a brilliant but twisted and savage criminal.
60
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
The movie's captivating details are all in the performances, from Foreman's barking-mad Taylor to Thewlis's smoothly sinister Freddie and Bettany/McDowell's hard-eyed gangster, an amoral bottom-feeder with an expedient streak of sadism.
38
New York Post by Megan Lehmann
See it only for Paul Bettany's performance.
30
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
The actors all function as best they can as glowering clichés, though the narrative's temporal jump presents difficulties.
75
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
A canny, derivative, wildly gruesome portrait of a London sociopath who's the scariest of sadists, in part because he's also a very courtly one.
75
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
This conclusion is too pat to be satisfying, but the film has a kind of hard, cold effect.
75
Portland Oregonian by Shawn Levy
There's a touch of second-rate playwriting about it that imparts a flattened feel to the end of an otherwise crackerjack picture.
70
Works on so many levels that it must be reckoned with. It certainly feels unique, and sets itself apart from most American gangster films in its stark refusal to paint the lead gangster as likable or indeed anything other than the vicious socio-psychopath he is.