The Newton Boys Critic Reviews
Metascore®:
Based upon 9 Critic ReviewsHighest Rated
- |
- Publications (A-Z)
- |
- Critics (A-Z)
- |
- Favorite Critics
A fast-paced, entertaining motion picture that replaces gritty tension with a lightly-dramatic character interaction that occasionally borders on straight comedy. Read the full review
The Newton Boys is Linklater's most conventional film and, despite its numerous flaws, it's not bad.Read the full review
If Mr. Linklater is not entirely at ease with action sequences (or with the obligatory having-fun montage once the brothers become successful), he still makes this (after ''Before Sunrise'' and ''Suburbia'') another admirable directorial stretch.Read the full review
An extremely handsome production that meticulously evokes the 1920s, and a likable male-dominated cast, headed by Matthew McConaughey in his best screen performance to date, only partially compensate for a story that's too diffuse and lacks a discernible point of view that would make it dramatically engaging.Read the full review
There are no dramatic peaks and valleys in this story line, just a uniform, dramatic flatness.Read the full review
Director Richard Linklater ("Dazed and Confused") should have taken a cue from the music -- the film needs a lot more snap.Read the full review
The film chronicles their criminal career in a low-key, meandering way; we're hanging out with them more than we're being told a story.Read the full review
It trickles and moseys about on its old good time, punctuated by guffaws and thigh-slapping and the occasional eyeball-blasting jolt from the white lightning, but never really manages to achieve the formal status of "story." Read the full review
Scored to a disarmingly quaint array of fiddle-and-banjo tunes, The Newton Boys has so little in the way of blood or rancor that before long, you begin to notice that there's no real drama in it, either.Read the full review
