Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
I'm as susceptible as any other deskbound, conflict-averse fantasist to the visceral appeal of a good gangster movie. But "Black Mass" isn't one.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Black Mass" is the sort of gangland film you would call run of the mill, if only it dashed faster.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
The movie's good enough that you should see it if you want to. But you don't have to, and, in these parts, that matters.

Name : Dave Calhoun / Alias : Time Out
Johnny Depp is more engaging than he's been in years, even if his performance can feel a little restricted and one-note.

Name : Stephanie Zacharek / Alias : Village Voice
Black Mass is a tightly wound piece of work, and Cooper keeps its many small parts moving with ease.

Name : Dana Stevens / Alias : Slate
Depp's performance as Bulger is as strong, and as energized, as anything he's done on screen for years.

Name : Anthony Lane / Alias : New Yorker
How much longer must we subscribe, as moviegoers, to the sentimental brotherhood of violence?

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
A crime drama that creeps and drips blood like a horror movie, and in many respects it is.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
With all the talent on board here, expectations go beyond creepiness; unfortunately creepiness is about as far as the movie ultimately goes.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
The acting here is much stronger and more soulful than I would have expected, and not only from Depp.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
Black Mass more or less limits itself to procedural status. Within those aims, it's a pretty good one, absorbing and well-made.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
In scene after scene, some fine actors go to town and dive into the material gratefully.

Name : Cary Darling / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
If there's a problem with Black Mass, it's that the general arc of the story is well known.its details reflect the plot points of many other gangster films. But it's the getting there that's the thrill.

Name : Jocelyn Noveck / Alias : Associated Press
It's absolutely chilling to watch Depp. With bad teeth and a head of dramatically receding hair, the actor somewhat resembles Jack Nicholson in The Departed but deftly avoids caricature as he grows more sinister with every murder.

Name : Christopher Orr / Alias : The Atlantic
The role is Depp's best in many years, and a welcome respite from the parade of prancing pseudo-villains-Mortdecai, the Wolf, Barnabas Collins, Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka-to which he has devoted far too much of his career.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
This is the sort of movie Sidney Lumet might have made in his prime - intelligently written, handsomely mounted, and loaded with top actors.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
For Black Mass, Johnny Depp has dusted off his A-game, which has lain dormant for far too long.

Name : Tony Hicks / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
"Black Mass" is a riveting character study and might land Depp an Oscar nomination, even if the film itself is not very ambitious.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Depp shines in a solid gangster biopic.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
It's a very good film about a very bad man. But as well-crafted and well-acted as it is, it never rises to greatness because we've been watching this story in one way or another going back to the time of Jimmy Cagney and Edward G. Robinson.

Name : Bruce Kirkland / Alias : Toronto Sun
Propelled by a raw and primal performance by Johnny Depp, Scott Cooper's Black Mass will have you barricading your doors and hiding under the bed after seeing this corrosive gangster film.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Black Mass, a down and dirty crime drama based on the exploits of Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger, is thrilling for a number of reasons.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
Johnny Depp does career-best work as notorious Boston gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger in Scott Cooper's taut, elegantly understated crime drama.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
[Depp] holds the screen as pure malevolence.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
The acting in "Black Mass" is tremendous.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
Depp's brutal antihero is the highlight of this compelling if somewhat familiar gangster movie.

Name : Kenneth Turan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
A bleak, claustrophobic based-on-fact film that draws us completely into a dark world of crime and complicity.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
This is a good, solid, well-executed crime story. Nothing more, nothing less.

Name : Peter Hartlaub / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
"Black Mass" is a solid piece of filmmaking, from subtle beginning to the excessive end.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
There are moments of icy violence, and some great lived-in faces among the characters. But this is no "Goodfellas." It's just another punk, talking tough.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
You forgive the zigs, zags, evasions and subplots for the hardcore power of Depp's performance and the film's portrait of moral rot on both sides of the law.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
Black Mass struggles to find something new to say about organized crime and the loyalty between men. But the only thing the film manages to do is remind us we've seen all this stuff done before, and done better.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
It's one of those movies that you don't exactly enjoy (so many guns, so many deaths), but you appreciate for its craft and tension, and for its cast's willingness to lose themselves in the darkness.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
It's as if the spirit of a psychopath like Bulger resists the camera. Or maybe the movie isn't imaginative enough to penetrate his shell.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
Welcome back to the real world, Mr. Depp.

Name : Barry Hertz / Alias : Globe and Mail
Whenever Depp is on screen, nothing else matters.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
"Black Mass" isn't pretty, but it certainly is strong.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
While there's nothing totally new here, Black Mass works the tropes extremely well and sets the scene early in the mean streets of 1970s South Boston.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
This is Depp bringing his skills to the table as a man with a propensity for being both terrifying and charming, often switching between the two on a dime.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
Black Mass isn't The Departed, and it's a bit too black and white. But movie mobster fans can relax, cause the movie doesn't need to have a hit taken out on it.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
What "Black Mass" gains in moral honesty, it loses in dramatic momentum. Even filmmakers and actors as fine as these haven't managed to solve one of cinema's most enduring challenges - making criminals interesting without exalting them.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
This is a startling late-summer surprise that's hysterically funny when it's not falling on its face.

Name : Neil Genzlinger / Alias : New York Times
Next to child-in-jeopardy thrillers, women-in-jeopardy thrillers are about as easy to construct as films get, and this one makes no effort to break any molds. Too bad.

Name : Scott Tobias / Alias : AV Club
Gloms together enough clever riffs and random funny business to overcome the inevitable lumpiness and dead ends.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
Forgets it's a comedy and starts burrowing into a convoluted but uninteresting financial scandal involving an evil capitalist played by Steve Coogan.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
I love Sanaa Lathan, except when she has to play dumb. And, boy, does The Perfect Guy need her to be dumb.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
Measured against this year's other police farce - remember Cop Out? - it looks absolutely heroic.

Name : Eddie Goldberger / Alias : New York Daily News
It's a lazy, by-the-numbers bore. It almost jumps through hoops to not be different in any way. In fact, you could sleep through the movie and still recite what happened.

Name : Joe Dziemianowicz / Alias : New York Daily News
It's overlong by about 15 minutes and goes in too many directions at once. But thanks to a groovy period vibe and the A-list stars, you're along for the ride.

Name : Nick Schager / Alias : Variety
David M. Rosenthal's Internet-age thriller falls head over heels for cheesy cliches.

Name : Amy Biancolli / Alias : Houston Chronicle
Through it all, Ferrell is as Ferrell does. He's a non sequitur with frizz.

Name : Nick Pinkerton / Alias : Village Voice
Somebody didn't pack enough comedy for this long trip - the punchlines in the movie's second half are often callbacks to jokes you may not fondly remember from the first, until every gag is united with its mate.

Name : James Rocchi / Alias : TheWrap
"The Perfect Guy" - which was, it must be pointed out, deliberately not screened for critics prior to release - is a perfect example of how lame, lazy material strands good actors, resulting in a movie that looks great and feels less so.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
A reasonably engaging thriller with some topical overtones.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Richard Roeper.com
Note to Kevin Smith: THIS is how you do a spoof of the buddy-cop genre.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
The movie is a throwback in many ways but also proves a dynamic duo can still be just as effective in modern cinema as a superhero ensemble cast. For The Nice Guys, it takes two to make it outta sight.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
That the film mostly falls flat has far more to do with the largely unconvincing material rather than with the co-stars, who are more than game .

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
For the most part, the jokes have punch lines, which is too rarely the case in big-budget comedies.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
What would have been very funny for 15 minutes, and pretty funny for 45, doesn't maintain the standard over the course of a feature-length film.

Name : Chris Vognar / Alias : Dallas Morning News
They may not be Jack Lemmon and Billy Wilder , but Will Ferrell and Adam McKay have a pretty good thing going.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
The Other Guys boasts perhaps three legitimately funny sequences in all its belabored 107 minutes.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are clearly enjoying the hell out of each other in this crime caper set in 1977 Los Angeles. So how can you resist?

Name : Randy Cordova / Alias : Arizona Republic
It's sneaky and smartly funny, offering an almost perfect balance of action and comedy.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
Scene after scene exists only to deliver facts for later: Carter's family background; the location of Leah's spare housekey; the presence of a mildly nosy neighbor and a clumsily introduced pet cat.

Name : Richard Corliss / Alias : TIME Magazine
Like some silly summer song that can't be shaken from the mind, this is a catchy enterprise, no better than it tries to be and no less funny.

Name : James Rocchi / Alias : MSN Movies
Highbrow, lowbrow and no-brow, inspired by improvisation yet connected to the structure of a plot and the traditions of a genre, "The Other Guys" is that rare modern comedy as smart as it is crazy, and as skillful as it is silly.

Name : Kyle Anderson / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
The Perfect Guy escalates quite nicely, leading to a satisfyingly white-knuckled finale.

Name : Frank Scheck / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
You've seen it a thousand times before.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Boston Globe
What seems like another desperate adventure in stunt casting turns out to be a combustible comic bounty.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Don't let anyone spoil the wildly hilarious surprises. Ferrell and Wahlberg will double your fun. Guaranteed.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
As with the war-film goof Tropic Thunder, you wonder if a smaller, scruffier-looking version of the same movie would have yielded bigger comic payoffs.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
The Other Guys is most authentically itself when it indulges in a free-form but nonetheless highly disciplined silliness that has the effect of dissolving, rather than piquing, whatever worldly anger or frustration you may be harboring.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : Associated Press
You should really meet and get to know these guys for yourself.

Name : Tom Huddleston / Alias : Time Out
There's a wealth of joyously berserk idiot humour, fusing slapstick and satire, surrealism and stream-of-consciousness improv into what could well prove the funniest movie of the year.

Name : Owen Gleiberman / Alias : Variety
The sort of cheerfully hostile buddy bash that's been a staple since the '80s, only this one is singularly clever about its own triviality, and it offers the scruffy pleasure of seeing two great actors dial down their gravitas with style.

Name : David Fear / Alias : Time Out
Gives Wahlberg and Ferrell beautiful opportunities to turn their anger-mismanagement-meets-milquetoast act into an absurdist version of Abbott and Costello.

Name : Michael O'Sullivan / Alias : Washington Post
The Other Guys takes stuff that, as a rule, isn't particularly funny, and tries to make you laugh. More often than not, it succeeds.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : MTV
Crowe and Gosling are a perfect mismatch. They skulk around Los Angeles like a bear and a weasel who just escaped from the circus.

Name : Roger Moore / Alias : Orlando Sentinel
The Other Guys is a Ponzi scheme of a comedy, a buddy action picture cluttered with funny characters and hilarious moments.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Nobody goes to these Fatal Attraction retreads anymore for serious drama. But this one is a movie torn - too grim and self-important to go truly nuts, but too silly and slipshod to work on a more somber level.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Basically, it's Inherent Vice without the highbrow aspirations, or The Big Lebowski with two Dudes.

Name : Elizabeth Weitzman / Alias : New York Daily News
There are as many hits as there are misses, thanks to the dedication of both leads.

Name : Connie Ogle / Alias : Miami Herald
The Other Guys is the sort of movie that generates some of its best jokes quietly in the background or as quick-hit throwaway lines, while other terrific gags are defiantly over the top.

Name : Owen Gleiberman / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
It's a comedy of manhood for the age of emasculation.

Name : Joshua Katzman / Alias : Chicago Reader
This is the fourth feature that Will Ferrell and writer-director Adam McKay have collaborated on, and once again they deliver laugh-out-loud if ultimately disposable comedy with mixed messages about arrested male development.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
A summer movie that honors summer-movie conventions with a vengeance.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
The Nice Guys, ultimately, might be a little too nice, but Black and his cast really want you to have a ball.

Name : Lisa Kennedy / Alias : Denver Post
At times, there's an "everything but the kitchen sink" quality to the joke grab. But it works.

Name : Michael Rechtshaffen / Alias : Los Angeles Times
A glossy, cliche-laden revenge thriller about the perils of meeting Mr. Too Good To Be True.

Name : Tomris Laffly / Alias : Time Out
The Nice Guys is the perfect, incredibly crafted yet laid-back procedural we've been starved for.

Name : Betsy Sharkey / Alias : Los Angeles Times
The plot doesn't always hold water and it has a tendency to ramble, but they don't seem to care. And honestly, neither should you.

Name : Liam Lacey / Alias : Globe and Mail
Deteriorates into something resembling Rush Hour 3.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
In terms of flat-out nonstop laughter, it's the best comedy of the summer.

Name : Josh Levin / Alias : Slate
There's just a bit too much formula and not quite enough insane-asylum lunacy.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : RogerEbert.com
Decent trash that could have been delicious trash with a little more daring.

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
The laughs ultimately take a backseat to a convoluted white-collar crime story.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : Boxoffice Magazine
As good and fleeting as a street corner popsicle

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Gosling and Crowe's breezy give-and-take goes a long way in elevating "The Nice Guys" above the moments where cynicism overwhelms the comedy.

Name : Tom Horgen / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
Do we really need another buddy-cop comedy? While stupefying, the answer is, surprisingly, "yes."

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
Dead horse, meet floggers.

Name : Michael Rechtshaffen / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Just when it seemed like the once-robust buddy-cop action-comedy was going to require a do-not-resuscitate order, along comes Will Ferrell and Adam McKay to show 'em how it's done.