46
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70VarietyNick SchagerVarietyNick SchagerAided by Steven Price’s enthusiastic score, Mendoza’s vigorous direction keeps things speeding along, and Momoa is such a charismatic presence — whether sensitively interacting with Rachel (skillfully embodied by Merced) or inventively snapping an adversary’s neck — that the proceedings’ lack of realism works to its advantage.
- 63RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzRogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzSweet Girl is too long and disorganized, and often just too much, for its own good. It seems to want to be five, possibly six landmark 1990s and early aughts blockbusters at once.
- 50The A.V. ClubCraig D. LindseyThe A.V. ClubCraig D. LindseyAs hellaciously predictable and preposterous as Sweet Girl is, it could win over viewers nursing their own grudge against Big Pharma. Mainly, though, this is a vehicle for its star, that brawny softie Momoa.
- 50Los Angeles TimesRoxana HadadiLos Angeles TimesRoxana HadadiMomoa can believably howl in anguish and throw a devastating punch, but he can’t carry a script this muddled.
- 50The New York TimesTeo BugbeeThe New York TimesTeo BugbeeFor this action film, the director Brian Andrew Mendoza favors a utilitarian style. His color palette leans toward grays, blues and browns. His fight scenes are not flashy, or even particularly memorable, but they are clear, effectively conveying the necessary information about whose fist has connected with whose face.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisSan Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisTo be sure, Big Pharma execs make for natural movie villains these days, but this story could have used a tad more subtlety, something that was in short supply here.
- 40The GuardianBenjamin LeeThe GuardianBenjamin LeeThinly etched topicality only gets the film so far (the script is very “I read an article once”) and when the action mechanics kick into gear, it’s yet more of the same with very little to distinguish it from the pack.
- 40The Irish TimesTara BradyThe Irish TimesTara BradyToo often this feels like a project that insists on delivering poor facsimiles of iconic scenes.
- 38Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperChicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperWe’re not buying what the script is selling, not for a hot second.