Justin Timberlake's Netflix movie Reptile lands low Rotten Tomatoes score
Netflix's new crime thriller Reptile hasn't lit the world on fire, judging by its current Rotten Tomatoes rating.
Sitting at 45% from 42 critics' reviews at time of writing, the movie features Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro as the hardened Detective Tom Nichols, who's investigating the gruesome murder of a young real estate agent.
Justin Timberlake plays the victim's boyfriend Will Grady, with Alicia Silverstone as Tom's wife Judy Nichols, and they're joined by a supporting cast including Michael Pitt (Boardwalk Empire), Karl Glusman (The Bikeriders) and Sky Ferreira.
Related: First look at Justin Timberlake's new Netflix movie Reptile
With Reptile slithering its way into the streaming library just in time for the weekend, check out what the critics had to say below:
"The lack of a clear, satisfyingly dramatic reveal smudges the ending; it's as if [Grant] Singer and his co-writers had lost interest in the gothic-horror aspect of the murder as a rational conspiracy emerges. Maybe successive script rewrites had buried the idea; but the bulky physical presence of Del Toro himself gives the film its momentum and force."
"Reptile winds slowly and deliberately to its not particularly surprising conclusion. The big finale is set to Bob Dylan's 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door,' written for Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and used so effectively in that film that it should be off-limits to everyone else, forever.
"Though there's not a snake to be seen in Reptile, there are many, many red herrings. But then, truth in advertising is perhaps overrated. No one would ever watch a cop thriller called Small Smoked Fish."
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"There's no doubt, from the way Reptile creeps in the first half, that Singer is a skilled director. But there's something to be said for restraint, which the helmer, who wrote his screenplay with Benjamin Brewer and the film's star Benicio Del Toro, doesn't exercise enough of here.
"In an effort to prove its cleverness, Reptile clanks, rattles and stumbles in its second half. The tricks that initially impressed eventually become hard to endure."
"Reptile comes on as 'smart,' but the movie, for all its sinister-ominous-music atmosphere, is opportunistic enough – or maybe just enough of a consumer product – to swallow its own premise, if not its own tail."
"Timberlake tries his best impression of Ben Affleck in Gone Girl, but with none of the psychological intrigue or earnest spirit. Silverstone's innate coyness, typically a strong tool in her repertoire, is ill-fitting in a puzzling narrative compelled by tiny signs, small hints, and ambiguous motives. She often takes us off the film's trail in a fashion that plays as unintentional.
"The deep supporting cast doesn't distinguish itself with a collection of broad cliches: the heavy, the heel, the misbegotten friend. Del Toro escapes barely unscathed, if only because he thrives playing oddballs and enigmas."
Reptile is now streaming on Netflix.
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