83
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleySlant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyIt’s a weird experience that Kitano is offering to movie audiences: We thrill to the violent, heroic exploits that leave many a pierced eyeball, many a severed limb, many a bullet-riddled corpse, but we find uplift in his celebration of community, music, dance, light, color, and companionship.
- 100The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasKitano infects the lyrical, meditative beauty of classical Japanese cinema with the jarring, low-down savagery of Western genre pictures. What emerges is more than the sum of its parts, an original and profound statement on mortality, how rich human life can be, and how quickly it can be taken away.
- 100Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonFireworks is a great new film that takes the traditions and makes them burn and explode, in violence and beauty, flame and flower. It's a film that lights up the night, opens your eyes. [20 Mar 1998, p.C]
- 89Austin ChronicleRussell SmithAustin ChronicleRussell SmithEfforts to pin down its odd seductive power are as futile as, say, describing the specific sense of disorientation you feel at the instant when a darting cloud suddenly obscures the sun, throwing all your perceptions into a new light before you realize what's happened. Disquieting, but subtly consciousness-expanding. Just see the movie.
- 80The GuardianThe GuardianIt's another extraordinary film with a quality of stillness about it, but combined, as usual, with brief bursts of explosive violence and Kitano's lovely deadpan humour.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe new Japanese film Fireworks is like a Charles Bronson "Death Wish" movie so drained of story, cliche, convention and plot that nothing is left, except pure form and impulse. Not a frame, not a word, is excess.
- 75Boston GlobeJay CarrBoston GlobeJay CarrFireworks is anything but the usual cop thriller. It's a piercing meditation on mortality, with a heartbroken tough guy at its center. [20 Mar 1998, p.C8]
- 75Christian Science MonitorChristian Science MonitorAlthough it doesn't always live up to its ambitions, the film provides an offbeat portrait of universally relevant human issues. [27 Mar 1998, p.B2]
- 63Baltimore SunAnn HornadayBaltimore SunAnn HornadayHelped immensely by a lush and poignant musical score by Joe Hisaishi, Fireworks makes a quietly powerful impact. [22 May 1998]
- 50San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleIt's a film with impressive elements, though taken as a whole it's pop entertainment that doesn't fully deliver on the entertainment end.