68
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- French Connection II is not exactly a fun flick (there’s a harrowing sequence where the bad guys shoot Hackman full of heroin, for example), but in its own twisted way it’s something of an art film — perhaps the most profoundly absurdist and pessimistic detective film ever made.
- 80Time OutTime OutHackman takes the enlarged role by the scruff of the neck and delivers yet another fine performance of doubt and the dawning awareness of his own weakness. Frankenheimer directs in taut, pacy fashion to keep the suspense high.
- 75TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineSurprisingly good follow-up to the original tough crime drama.
- 70The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyThe concerns of French Connection II are not much different from those of old Saturday-afternoon movie serials that used to place their supermen in jeopardy and then figure ways of getting them out. The difference is in the quality of the supermen and in their predicaments.
- 63Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe plot, the pursuit, the quarry, are all forgotten during Hackman's one-man show, and it's a flaw the movie doesn't overcome.
- 60IGNIGNDirector Frankenheimer does his best to keep the film moving, and he succeeds admirably in the final act, but the 90 minutes of dreck that precede the finale are of little interest, perhaps even tainting one's enjoyment of the first film, which is something no sequel should ever do.
- 60NewsweekNewsweekIf the movie ultimately doesn't work, this can be said in Frankenheimer's defense: that, with every right and probably much pressure to do so, he refused to rip off The French Connection as so many films with other names already had. [26 May 1975, p.84]
- 50Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderA slick reprise of all the elements that clicked in the original with none of the seedy originality that made it work.