Lawless Reviews
Birmingham Post
The film is taglined 'When the law became corrupt, outlaws became heroes', but as a welcomely unheroic picture it rarely threatens to truly take off.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Film Threat
There's a reason nobody's made a motion picture about the Bondurant Boys before now. As ruthless, gun-toting gangs go, they're kind of on the snoozy side.
Shadows on the Wall
The plot's layers keep us gripped to a tale in which the police are snarling villains and the criminals are likeable and loyal
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
Contactmusic.com
The detail in the characters makes each of these people utterly riveting
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
East Bay Express
The mood is like the cinematography: gloomy shades of brown.
Combustible Celluloid
It's like bad moonshine. It has some appeal and gets the job done, but it could have been better.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Hollywood & Fine
Exciting and gut-punch powerful...this is a lean, entertaining tale that far surpasses something like Public Enemies in making the style serve the story.
Top CriticThe center of narrative gravity is hard to locate; for whom are we rooting, and does anything really ripple outward from this nasty local fight?
Scotsman
This is a high-proof product, and some of its performances are intoxicating. But the plotting is also rougher than a jar of sourmash.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Total Film
Stylish and savage, but nothing you haven't seen before.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Empire Magazine
An uneven mix of impressively executed, violent clichés about good ol' boys defending the American right to flout the law.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
HeyUGuys
The various performances are all of an incredibly high standard, with some perhaps more inspired pieces of casting but others representing actors rising up to a reach a high bar.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
jackiekcooper.com
With the great cast and interesting subject matter, you expect more than this lackluster movie
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/10
Long Island Press
This tangy tall tale moonshine noir uncorks on screen as a rare glimpse into the backwoods bootlegging flourishing back then. And an oddly comedic violent yarn, as narratively soaked in its own inebriated juices as the taboo product on tap in question.
Entertainment Spectrum
This gripping crime drama holds your interest. You need to be prepared for horrific scenes of bloody violence, profane language, nudity & sexuality. La Beouf gives his finest performance to date. Pearce is the perfect foil as the villain. Hardy continues
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
TheDivaReview.com
Weird, gory and über-violent, Lawless is strangely pleasing in pulpy, thoroughly B-movie way, held to the earth by the thinnest thread of gravity provided by its cast's game and exuberant performances.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
SSG Syndicate
Uneven yet vividly stylish, filled with brutal bloodshed.
Full Review
| Original Score: 6/10
amNewYork
A western-gangster movie hybrid set in 1930s Appalachia that's a welcome return to two old-fashioned, distinctly American modes of filmmaking.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
7M Pictures
manages to be woefully formulaic and completely off-base at the same time
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
