66
Metascore
21 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- The movie culminates in a tense, protracted standoff that keeps the audience on edge for way longer than is comfortable. I mean that as a compliment.
- Despite the real, bloody stakes, Cop Car keeps a boyish sense of action and adventure through to a twist ending. You have a right to remain thrilled.
- 70VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeWatts demonstrates masterful control, pushing right up against the limits of what we can take (even non-parents will be rattled watching the boys mishandling loaded weapons), and yet, at every turn, the screenplay falls short of the picture’s full potential, missing opportunities that could have made this a classic.
- 63Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenThe narrative derives much of its tension from the unsentimental ambivalence Jon Watts displays toward the story's two pre-teen boys.
- 60Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlThe film soars early as a fantasy steeped in life and crashes into a drag of a crime drama, one ripped from the movies rather than anyone's idea of small-town Colorado.
- 58HitfixGregory EllwoodHitfixGregory EllwoodWatts co-wrote the screenplay with Christopher D. Ford (“Robot & Frank”) and, frankly, it’s not as clever or compelling as it wants to be.... The filmmaker does deserve credit, however, for conjuring up some nicely tense cinematic moments.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyA potentially fun premise soon turns into no fun at all in Cop Car, a seriously imagination-challenged low-end action thriller.
- Watts’ film is comprised of terrible coincidences, bad mustaches and a pervasive sense of desperation. It’s also wholly unable to live up to its obvious promise.
- 38New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithCop Car is an instance of what happens when an airy indie filmmaker tries to “do genre” and winds up being as convincing as John Kerry putting down his demitasse and dressing up in hunting gear.