Escobar: Paradise Lost 2014

Kyle Smith, New York Post: In the second half ... the film degenerates into a desultory action movie as everybody starts creeping around trying to shoot one another. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: While the film captures some of the turbulence and tension during Escobar's reign of terror, it leaves most of the coherence up to the always fascinating Mr. Del Toro. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: Escobar offers an odd mix of action movie, romantic melodrama and cautionary traveler's tale, which works better than it should thanks to Del Toro's fascinating performance and Di Stefano's assured, muscular helming. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: One hour of tedious expository flashback followed by one hour of solidly exciting present-tense thriller action. Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: Taken on its own terms, this isn't a bad little movie. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: A fresh dramatic perspective breathes some welcome new life into the modern drug trade genre in Escobar: Paradise Lost. Read more

Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times: When you have the fortune of landing an actor like Del Toro, it's almost criminal to spend so much time watching the scales fall from an innocent's eyes when we could be watching a master actor convey quiet, sleepy-eyed, mumbling menace. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Everyone in the theatre is thinking: Given that I paid good money to learn about the world's most frightening cocaine king, why am I watching a movie about the world's most stupid Canadian? Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: Hutcherson, who's best known for being overshadowed by Jennifer Lawrence in the Hunger Games series, is equally dominated here. But that suits the unequal relationship of guileless Nick and calculating Pablo. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Benicio del Toro is a looming, larger-than life presence in this smaller-than-it-deserves, 1980s drama. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: Nick might usurp most of the screen time, but it's Mr. Del Toro, face flickering from benevolent to vicious and body heaving with literal and symbolic weight, who seizes the film. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A genre film that gets a lift above mediocrity thanks to an overripe performance by Benicio del Toro as a slovenly, charismatic king of blow. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: A suspenseful and labyrinthine tale that, while fictional, is both suspenseful and insightful. Read more

James Rocchi, TheWrap: "Escobar: Paradise Lost" plays more like Greek tragedy than the kind of drug-war tale we'd get in a broader, bigger film, and that is no small part of the many reasons it works. Read more

David Ehrlich, Time Out: When you've got Benicio Del Toro playing Pablo Escobar, the rest is just icing on the cake. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: A picture whose emphasis feels off from the start. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: Escobar: Paradise Lost, as promising as it often is, feels like two barely connected half-movies. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The suspense that Di Stefano generates in the film's final hour is genuine, and the action gripping. Read more