49
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliTwo and one- half hours of gripping entertainment.
- 88Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversSleepers, for all the doubts it raises, is the work of a man who speaks for absent friends and "for the children we were." It's his secret heart.
- 80TimeRichard SchickelTimeRichard SchickelAt some low, what's-next level, Sleepers works like, well, gangbusters. [28 October 1996, p. 113]
- 75USA TodayMike ClarkUSA TodayMike ClarkEngrosses if it doesn't fully convince. [18 October 1996, p.1D]
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAs entertainment, the movie functions successfully. But I don't believe the story is true--not true to the facts, and not true to the morality it pretends to be about.
- 75San Francisco ChroniclePeter StackSan Francisco ChroniclePeter StackA visual masterpiece that powerfully explores male cruelty, too.
- 75San Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserSan Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserSometimes the movie lacks a quietness, an omission most egregiously felt at the end.
- Muddy, confused, and worst of all boring, Sleepers grinds to the preordained halt shared by any over-budgeted epic that lacks the simple necessity of good story.
- 30TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThe dullest movie ever made about child abuse, conspiracy and murder.
- 10NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenRent the devastating "The Boys of St. Vincent" to see how slick and hollow Sleepers is, how little it reveals about the real nature and effect of child abuse. [28 October 1996, p. 74]