Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
56
(24 sources)
56
(24 sources)
-
88
New York Post
If Martin Scorsese were 30 and a Los Angeleno, he'd be making movies much like this one. Read Full Review » -
83
Entertainment Weekly
Bale is mesmerizing and Rodriguez keeps up with him as the whole unsafe contraption zooms. Read Full Review » -
75
ReelViews
Harsh Times occasionally echoes "Taxi Driver," Ayer's own "Training Day," and even "First Blood" in the way it examines the psychological disintegration of a character and the seduction of amorality. Read Full Review » -
75
Miami Herald
Not since "To Live and Die in L.A" has there been such a raw, cynical vision of living and dying in L.A. Read Full Review » -
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Bale brings intense energy (and a convincing American accent) to the proceedings, and the film manages to make this borderline Travis Bickle into a sympathetic character - with a sweetheart, and a sweeter life, beckoning from south of the border. Strong stuff. Read Full Review » -
75
TV Guide
With his ersatz-gangsta swagger, the once-again buff Bale gives it his all -- he's got to be the most committed actor in Hollywood -- but the real surprise here is Rodriguez, who has all the talent and charisma of a major star. Read Full Review » -
75
San Francisco Chronicle
All along, you know something terrible is going to happen, and when it does, you leave the theater shaken and deeply moved. Read Full Review » -
70
Chicago Reader
Debuting as director, Ayer once again points his loose cannon directly into the body politic: the protagonist of this sour but haunting tale is a crazed army ranger just returned from overseas (Christian Bale) who's so full of war that even the LAPD won't hire him. Read Full Review » -
67
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Ayer gets lost in a maze of ironies, and has to bulldoze his way to an exit. For a while, Harsh Times is thrillingly hard to predict. By the end, it becomes all too easy. Read Full Review » -
67
-
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Harsh Times opens with a deadly nightmare and ends with a vast bloodbath -- in between, things get a little gruesome. Read Full Review » -
63
-
60
Variety
A psychotic seizure of a performance by Christian Bale dominates Harsh Times, the directorial debut of David Ayer that channels "Taxi Driver." Read Full Review » -
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Well-intentioned but not very well directed, it makes for a better psychological profile than a film. Read Full Review » -
58
Baltimore Sun
For most of its meandering running time Harsh Times is just a rough South Central L.A. buddy movie. Read Full Review » -
50
New York Daily News
The result is an angry, violent mess of a movie with a central character threatening to implode right on the screen. Read Full Review » -
50
-
50
The New York Times
Mr. Bales's spectacular technical performance of a toxic bad boy on the fast track to hell somehow lacks an inner core. Read Full Review » -
50
Los Angeles Times
Harsh Times goes down like the vinegar its protagonist chugs to try to beat a drug test. It's carefully crafted, exasperating and ugly, a festival of self-destructiveness, in all ways a reflection of its lead as brought to careening, erupting, implosive life by Christian Bale. Read Full Review » -
50
The Hollywood Reporter
The film's unrelenting bleakness and misanthropic tone is likely to be a turnoff to mainstream performances, but it provides its lead actor with another opportunity to display his riveting intensity. Read Full Review » -
40
Village Voice
Whatever political statement Ayer intended to make with his Gulf War veteran turned human time bomb is swamped by the movie's obnoxious badass envy, and Bale's gloating display of American-psycho fireworks, the kind of vein-popping show-boating that might as well be performed in a mirror. Read Full Review » -
40
Washington Post
The film amounts to a harsh and perpetual assault on viewers' sensibilities -- not only because of its violence but because of its overall bleakness. Read Full Review » -
38
Boston Globe
The real problem with Harsh Times is Jim himself. Bale goes at the part with his usual intensity, but the character still seems like a psycho without psychology or a soul. Read Full Review » -
38
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