38
Metascore
28 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Village VoiceMark HolcombVillage VoiceMark HolcombThere's something refreshing about a pulp drama that turns on the notion that redemption is a sucker's fantasy. That knowledge may not have saved Goines, but it informs Dickerson's adaptation and results in stellar neo-noir.
- 80L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasAn electrifying modern-dress noir, directed by Ernest Dickerson with a tough, terse, unapologetically brutal attitude that evokes the heyday of Sam Fuller and Robert Aldrich.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAlmost everything that frames the drug dealer's tale is facile and second-rate. Simply put, you don't believe it. What you do believe is DMX's cruel charisma.
- 60VarietyDavid RooneyVarietyDavid RooneyLargely overcomes key cast weaknesses to deliver a jazzy, darkly textured rendering of the ghetto pulp of late African-American ex-con author Donald Goines.
- 50Dallas ObserverLuke Y. ThompsonDallas ObserverLuke Y. ThompsonThe film has a gritty, grainy look that matches the book's raw texture, and keeps the violence and drug abuse from ever looking slick or appealing.
- 50Chicago TribuneChicago TribunePurports to be literate film noir but comes off more like the overwritten project of a film school kid who just memorized his textbook on the style.
- 50Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittThis throwback to the outmoded blaxploitation genre is skillfully filmed by Dickerson, but has little else to offer besides cheap, violent thrills.
- 38Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaPhiladelphia InquirerSteven ReaWhat Never Die Alone is is a hackneyed tale of vengeance set in the 'hood, teeming with stock characters, slo-mo gunplay, and rampant misogyny.
- 25Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanCharlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanDoes David Arquette have a career? If so, what's he doing in this unintentionally hilarious gangster movie?
- 20The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttAlas, this is just film ugly.