Never Die Alone 2004

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Never Die Alone is urban exploitation so badly written it sacrifices any claim to authenticity, with performances so uniformly awful it could be a meeting of Bad Actors Anonymous. Read more

Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune: Purports to be literate film noir but comes off more like the overwritten project of a film school kid who just memorized his textbook on the style. Read more

Ted Fry, Seattle Times: If not for the excessive melodrama, lousy dialogue, clumsy acting and generally nasty vibe, "Never Die Alone" could have had the kind of distinctive edge that made urban street dramas like Juice, Menace II Society... Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Thumbs down for me. Read more

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: Never Die Alone is soft and squishy, lacking tension and suspense, not to mention logic. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A flashy but ultimately routine saga of gangsta criminality and payback. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: If you cut the expletives from Never Die Alone, it's unlikely that this updated blaxploitation flick would run more than 15 minutes. Read more

Houston Chronicle: Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: It's hard to imagine a more disturbingly woman-hating movie than Never Die Alone. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Working from a 1974 novel by Donald Goines, the director, Ernest Dickerson, proves he's the rare filmmaker who can show the attraction -- and degradation -- of the criminal life without exploiting it. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: The only good thing about Never Die Alone is its rap-retro soundtrack. Read more

Gary Dowell, Dallas Morning News: A nasty piece of work that doesn't seem to have met a cliche it didn't like. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: An electrifying modern-dress noir. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: You'll need all the body armor you can muster for Ernest Dickerson's bruising film noir, which works up more momentum and urgency in any one of its 82 minutes than most crime dramas do in their entirety. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Never Die Alone is the first of Goines' ultragritty novels has made it to the big screen. If this is the best his words can inspire, it should also be the last. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: DMX is the perfect actor for this stylized and often satisfying film adaptation of Donald Goines's novel. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Has a story so silly, so pretentious, that only a narcissistic rapper with a hardcore thug pose would have the chutzpah to star in and narrate such garbage. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Never Die Alone is [Dickerson's] best work to date, with the complexity of serious fiction and the nerve to start dark and stay dark, to follow the logic of its story right down to its inevitable end. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: DMX has all the charisma you'd expect of a music star, and he uses it to portray King David as larger than life. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Arquette does what he can with his pitiful character. But the longer Paul drifts, the longer we find it hard to believe that he's still alive. In fact, we're kind of sorry he's still alive. The movie would be much better without him. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The various stories are strong enough to compensate for any acting deficiencies. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: DMX isn't up to the acting needed to play an epic anti-hero, but then director/ex-cinematographer Ernest Dickerson never makes Never very epic on any level. Read more

David Rooney, Variety: This gritty genre piece about four men whose paths intertwine largely overcomes key cast weaknesses to deliver a jazzy, darkly textured rendering of the ghetto pulp of late African-American ex-con author Donald Goines. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Village Voice: There's something refreshing about a pulp drama that turns on the notion that redemption is a sucker's fantasy. Read more