Son of a Gun 2014

Sara Stewart, New York Post: Begins with an enticingly dark first act in jail, but descends steadily downward into a mass of cliches. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: A not-so-thrilling heist thriller that drones along mechanically between explosions and car crashes with Ewan McGregor, who is making entirely too many movies these days, none of them worth writing home about. Read more

Guy Lodge, Variety: At best, the pic serves as a showy grab-bag of thriller varieties for which the helmer demonstrates equal aptitude; at worst, it points to a narrative attention span that hasn't yet evolved from his award-winning short film work. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: A thoroughly generic action flick in which a gang of thieves without much honor attempt to pull off one last big heist. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Aussie writer-director Julius Avery's over-plotted feature debut is a gritty crime flick that crackles with menace and explores the age-old question of whether there's honor among thieves. Read more

Stephen Dalton, Hollywood Reporter: While Avery handles the kinetic action set-piece with impressive swagger for a first-timer, his self-penned screenplay is a major weak point. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: "Son of a Gun" is a derivative crime thriller that sputters when it should propel, skims when it should probe. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: First-time director Julius Avery plays the action by the book. None of the plot twists - from the central heist to a distracting romance - is particularly persuasive. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: "Son of a Gun" adds to the mystique that Australian crime films are meaner, nastier and more brutish than their American counterparts. But it changes style roughly every half-hour. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: It's all put together with a crisp confidence that suggests its writer-director will swiftly move on to bigger things. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: The film's trajectory is as predictable as a bullet's: There's crosses and double-crosses, clumsily inserted strip club scenes, and instant professions of eternal love Read more