68
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 92TheWrapAlonso DuraldeTheWrapAlonso DuraldeLike so many memorable yet hard-to-describe movies, Why Don't You Play in Hell? takes a ridiculous concept and commits to it fully. You might laugh with surprise or shriek in horror — both, most likely — but you certainly won't dismiss it.
- 89Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovWhy Don’t You Play in Hell? isn’t for everyone, but neither was Stravinsky’s "The Rite of Spring." Genius is genius, no matter how many audience members may riot.
- 83The PlaylistOliver LytteltonThe PlaylistOliver LytteltonMostly, the film's very funny, Sono displaying a sense of how to frame and time a visual gag that feels positively Zucker-ish. But there are real stakes, and bursts of real feeling too.
- 75Slant MagazineJesse CataldoSlant MagazineJesse CataldoRefusing to mourn anything, displaying a Futurist-style disdain for the past, Sion Sono imagines a world in which static adherence to old ideas leads directly to doom.
- 75The A.V. ClubNick SchagerThe A.V. ClubNick SchagerEven when it’s trying one’s patience with throwaway gags or bits of over-the-top brutality, Why Don’t You Play In Hell? is a rather canny celebration of the very type of no-holds-barred cinema that it’s peddling.
- 75RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsRogerEbert.comSimon AbramsIt is also the post-punk writer/director Sion Sono's most accessible film: a middle-aged filmmaker's tribute to the kind of epic-sized gangster-romance he used to fantasize about making.
- 70Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonThe film's blast of self-mocking overkill can be charming.
- 60The DissolveScott TobiasThe DissolveScott TobiasAlternately exhilarating and tedious, Why Don’t You Play In Hell? is Sono’s tribute to moviemaking—specifically an elegy to 35mm film, though the tone could hardly be called mournful.
- 50New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithA Quentin Tarantino knockoff from Japan, Why Don’t You Play in Hell? has some of the master’s nutty energy but little of his cleverness.
- 50The New York TimesNicolas RapoldThe New York TimesNicolas RapoldGoofball antics and a terrific, raucous finale can’t make up for the essential slackness of its repetitive comedy and punk chest thumping.