City of Ghosts 2002

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's an actor's film, all right -- peppered with rich supporting performances but unconvincing in the telling. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: While the film is not short on ideas or implications, none of them is fully developed, leaving us little but atmosphere and warm whiskey to drink in. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: City of Ghosts drips with mood and atmosphere, augmented by a beautiful score from Tyler Bates. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: The story is typical, but it's done intelligently and with evocative backgrounds in Cambodia. Read more

Lawrence Van Gelder, New York Times: Richly atmospheric and suspenseful. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Once in Phnom Penh, Jimmy meets up with the usual suspects -- some human wreckage in a soiled tropical suit, a mysterious beauty with a Modigliani neck -- but, more encouragingly, tumbles into a story that doesn't succumb to its more suspect cliches. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: There is so much to admire in Matt Dillon's City of Ghosts that the feeling left over after watching it is an unsettling sense of disappointment and unfairness. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A supple, intriguing, and beautifully staged movie. Read more

Gary Dowell, Dallas Morning News: While it won't be remembered as great cinema, it is actually a tight piece of film noir. Read more

John Powers, L.A. Weekly: Dillon doesn't yet possess the directorial chops to give his story the necessary snap; the action too often feels poky and muffled. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Eventually, the plot chokes and stumbles on its atmospheric effects. But Dillon has an encouraging affinity for landscape, tension and eccentricity. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Hard to say why City of Ghosts found the need to take us all the way to Cambodia for this small story -- and harder still to say exactly what we're taking with us when we leave. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: Turns disappointingly generic, a series of scams and double crosses among greedy men. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: A Southeast Asian thriller that positively reeks of atmosphere -- but is woefully lacking in narrative credibility or character development. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I didn't believe in James Caan's cons, but I believed him, and at times like that it's helpful to stop keeping score and live in the moment. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A hyper-real portrait of life -- a vision as experienced during an adrenaline rush. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: It's the usual murky affair, which has the unfortunate side-effect of pulling Dillon's direction down into the mire. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Trades more effectively in states of alienated atmospheric delirium than it does the specific mechanics of plot. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Dillon's film musters gobs of atmosphere and touristy menace without attending much to story or character. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: A triumph of place over sense. Read more