63
Metascore
23 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75The PlaylistDrew TaylorThe PlaylistDrew TaylorUnlike most movies that use the current economic crisis as a dramatic backdrop, Healy's character is vibrant enough that the audience can make an easy connection and go through the journey with him.
- 75RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoRogerEbert.comBrian TallericoThis is a solid thrill ride all around, especially for those who like their Faustian parables with a bit of the bloody red stuff.
- 70The DissolveScott TobiasThe DissolveScott TobiasThe film advances some harsh truths about the spoils of money-grubbing savagery. But Cheap Thrills doesn’t take a scolding tone: These lessons come in the form of a rowdy, midnight-movie entertainment that keeps its considerable ambition under wraps.
- 70Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinLos Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinHealy and Embry commit to their enervating roles with a heady mix of desperation and gusto, while Koechner is cleverly modulated as the evening's madman emcee. But Paxton, as the complicit yet impassive Violet, remains mostly a shiny accessory.
- 67Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovErich von Stroheim might have made the definitive film about human swinishness way back in 1924 – sorry, Gordon Gekko – but Cheap Thrills cuts deeper, darker, and straight to the bone.
- 63McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMcClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreA nasty, elemental thriller, basically a four-character play with blood and guts and sex and drugs and dares
- 60Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlKatz stages the contests with infectious energy... Too bad the last half hour feels like Katz is rubbing our face in the several turds he shows us, reminding us that people are awful. Of course they are. What else do you have to tell us?
- 50Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneSlant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneThe film's clearest winner is Pat Healy, whose depiction of a man willing to corrode his entire life to provide for his wife and kid feels true despite the script's silliest moments.
- 40Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichCheap Thrills is little more than low-budget torture porn for the doobie-addled dudebro contingent.