61
Metascore
31 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Film ThreatFilm ThreatWillard doesn’t try to be great art (although if you really think about it, there are plenty of themes borrowed from “Hamlet,” “The Birds” and “Frankenstein” to name a few). Willard just is.
- 75Boston GlobeWesley MorrisBoston GlobeWesley MorrisWonderfully deranged.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleJonathan CurielSan Francisco ChronicleJonathan CurielA silly, snarling romp -- a fun (if you're in the mood for it), sometimes scary look at the life of a socially awkward man whose best friend is a white rodent he names Socrates.
- 63Baltimore SunChris KaltenbachBaltimore SunChris KaltenbachSimply twiddling with the fine-tuning on the central character is not enough to warrant remaking a film. Both Glover and Willard deserve better.
- 63Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThere is real wit in Glover's performance. And wit, too, in R. Lee Ermey's performance as the boss, which draws heavily on Ermey's real-life experience as a drill sergeant.
- 63New York Daily NewsJack MathewsNew York Daily NewsJack MathewsGlover, wearing his close-cropped hair in a pompadour and striking beady-eyed, furrow-browed poses that scare the hair off a tarantula, makes it as much fun as a rat revenge movie can be.
- 50Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesThe chills are functional at best and the attempts at pathos negligible.
- 40TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghProduction-designed within an inch of its life, this remake's best conceit is the casting of Crispin Glover as its socially maladroit rat fancier.
- 30VarietyScott FoundasVarietyScott FoundasStrictly for the birds.
- 20Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternEverything that was modest, soundly grounded and therefore horrifying about the 1971 rodentarama that starred Bruce Davison is now insistent, Grand-Guignol-intense and therefore shrug-offable when it isn't downright awful.