Critic Reviews

• Rex Reed, New York Observer

  The cast works hard to make you believe they believe what the screenwriter tells them to believe. But in the end, it all seems contrived and silly.

• Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

  This strained, empty effort doesn't work as homage or update, and in its darkly violent sensibility has neither the glamour of Brian De Palma's referential nightmares or even the narrative fuel of the serial-killer-obsessed procedurals that dominate tv.

• Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

  Filled with second-rate Brian DePalma twists, noirishly blurred lights and usually solid actors mouthing potboiler brine, The Lodger resembles bottom-shelf '80s dreck.

• Lou Lumenick, New York Post

  A good cast can't save The Lodger, the utterly wrongheaded fourth movie version of a 1910 novel inspired by Jack the Ripper that was most famously filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1926.

• John Anderson, Variety

  What needed to be a taut, structurally sound psychothriller instead malfunctions from the start.

• Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

  The Lodger is a spooky story ruined by lumpen dialogue, cloddish performances and a director and writer (David Ondaatje) oblivious to both.

• Gregory Weinkauf, ÜberCiné

  A smart and creepy thriller transposing a classic London tale to in-your-face modern Los Angeles. Helmer David Ondaatje's deft handling of actors and subtle twists demand a second viewing.

• David Cornelius, DVDTalk.com

  What might have played out as a passable whodunit becomes instead a frustrating drag.

• Brian Webster, Apollo Guide

  The disc includes two special features: a set of deleted and alternate scenes, and a nice featurette on the making of the film.

• Brian Webster, Apollo Guide

  Burdened by a cliche-ridden burnt-out-cop movie screenplay and over-the-top performances that don't mesh, this is a thriller that doesn't thrill as much as it irritates.

• Scott Weinberg, FEARnet

  Ready-made for 3am HBO viewing, The Lodger is an unnecessary remake of a story that's already been covered more than enough times, thanks.

• Staci Layne Wilson, Horror.com

  There's a big cast of characters and the suspense is nicely drawn out, punctuated with just enough bloodlust to keep horror hounds happy.

• Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze

  The director playfully taunts with the copycat notion of a little of Jack The Ripper in any man, in this flashy when not murky copycat thriller, and those particular unhealthy fixations manifested in varying degrees on both sides of the law.

• Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

  Stylish cinematography along with a pulsating musical score make for a somewhat chilling experience, but had writer/director Ondaatje kept the story focused on the serial killings investigation without going off on poorly developed tangents, the film woul

• Kurt Loder, MTV

  A virtual tsunami of directorial incoherence %u2014 arbitrary visual cliches of the clouds-speeding-across-the-sky variety, and some of the most inappropriate use of classical music in the history of movies.

• Eric Monder, Film Journal International

  ...The Lodger ends up just another modern-day policier, on the order of an extended "Law & Order" episode.

• Nick Schager, Cinematical

  Deviates not an inch from its rickety template.

• Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com

  This faux Hitchcock mystery whodunit will only have you guessing why they bothered to remake it in the first place.

• Jay Antani, Slant Magazine

  Ondaatje's lack of certainty seeps from the dialogue and characterizations to his choice of an overwrought aria-heavy score and a shoddy sense of style that recalls episodic television and myriad Silence of the Lambs rip-offs.

• Paul Brenner, Filmcritic.com

  Stark, raving nuts

Read all 20 critic reviews