Name : Mary F. Pols / Alias : TIME Magazine
The interplay between dry Arthur and crazy, caustic Steve is what makes the movie fun.

Name : Mark Jenkins / Alias : NPR
Betrayal, sympathy and regret are central to the story, but there's hardly any room for such feelings amid the clockwork carnage.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
To the extent it makes sense, it's a collection of time-honored cliches, and to the extent that it's original, "The Mechanic" is insane, bordering on gloriously insane.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
The new stunts are explosive, over-the-top and a sign of the times - action fans aren't happy these days, it seems, unless at least one scene involves a jackknifing 18-wheeler and a fireball.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
Statham is, in his understated way, a satisfying action star, stoically going about his business. Foster is just a flat-out good actor, as anyone who saw his work in "The Messenger" or "3:10 to Yuma" can attest.

Name : Manohla Dargis / Alias : New York Times
A sputtering remake in need of a more powerful recharge.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
The Mechanic is adequate light entertainment for those who enjoy thrillers, but it is uneven and the underwhelming ending will disappoint those who enjoyed the delicious irony served up by its predecessor.

Name : Roger Ebert / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
"The Mechanic" tells a story as old as "Hamlet" in a style as new as unbaked bread. What's the point?

Name : Scott Bowles / Alias : USA Today
The first legitimate action film of 2011.

Name : Bruce Diones / Alias : New Yorker
Statham is a model of control; he's steely and graceful in his action scenes, and his interplay with the wiry Foster delivers the goods.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : Associated Press
Statham, the British star of the Transporter and Crank films and an old favorite of Guy Ritchie, has a quietly fierce physicality, a stylish masculinity that makes him appealing to both men and women.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
Haven't we already had enough movies about solitary, enigmatic hit men? Is there anything possibly left to do with the genre that's new?

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Even by the sloppy, soulless standards of hit man movies, "The Mechanic" is a mess.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
The result is just good enough to pass as an action flick you watch with the forgiving gaze that comes from too many beers and too little sleep.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
Considerably more fun than the rather lethargic original.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
It's about gunplay and pricey sports cars bursting into flames while three or four cameras capture the moment. In slo-mo. Cue the cool music.

Name : Josh Modell / Alias : AV Club
Statham and Foster play off each other nicely, and director Simon West strikes a playful balance between carnage and conviviality, gore and gregariousness.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
Mr. Statham, the specialist in English tough guys who was so affecting in "The Bank Job," has more to offer than "The Mechanic" has the grace to receive.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
Jason Statham needs to get a tune-up, switch gears and hit the gas.

Name : John Hartl / Alias : Seattle Times
West's slick, fairly faithful new remake gives partial screenplay credit to Lewis John Carlino, who wrote the original "Mechanic." But the picture isn't likely to do for Jason Statham what the 1972 film did for Bronson.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
While that pop mythology was still relatively fresh back in Bronson's day, it's so played out at this point that not even the enjoyably no-nonsense Statham can pump any life into it.

Name : Glenn Kenny / Alias : MSN Movies
The Mechanic is my kind of action movie: nasty, brutish, brisk and ass-kicking.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Frantic, numbing redo of the Charles Bronson original for hardcore Statham and action fans only.

Name : Brian Lowry / Alias : Variety
It proves middling, and occasionally muddled, on almost every level.

Name : Leah Rozen / Alias : TheWrap
Statham, he of the chiseled physique and sexily receding hairline, holds his own here, doing what he has to in scenes and no more - which is perfect for a movie like this.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
Clinging to false heroism and terrified of anything too dark, The Mechanic is a tough-guy movie for wimps.

Name : Greg Quill / Alias : Toronto Star
Standard Statham stuff.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
Let's not denigrate the term "action film" by applying it to the remake signed by director Simon West. This is a violence film, not an action film.

Name : Derek Adams / Alias : Time Out
With its unrelenting violence and obligatory bonking sessions, this is one for avid 'Stath' fans only.

Name : Owen Gleiberman / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
The Mechanic is ham-fisted pulp, like Robert Rodriguez's Machete taking itself seriously.

Name : Brian Miller / Alias : L.A. Weekly
The Company Men with guns, but no families or pensions. All they have is their job, and retirement literally equals death.

Name : John Anderson / Alias : Washington Post
"The Mechanic," 2011 edition, is a striking-looking work, combining an arty inkiness with a retro-graininess that more or less screams 1970s, albeit without the cliches and flatness. If only you liked the people in the picture.

Name : Una LaMarche / Alias : New York Observer
The Mechanic is like a Beretta loaded with blanks - quick and brutal but ultimately empty.

Name : Liam Lacey / Alias : Globe and Mail
There just isn't enough consistent energy to light up the glum, generic plot or enliven the one-dimensional performances.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
An intermittently arresting, mostly standard action entry that deals death noisily more than cleverly - a lot like the original.

Name : Keith Uhlich / Alias : Time Out
Depth of character is traded for bloody broad strokes.

Name : Dana Stevens / Alias : Slate
The Arthur/Steve relationship at the movie's heart is what lifts The Mechanic above the common run of kablammo! action thrillers.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
Villeneuve, cinematographer Roger Deakins and composer Johann Johannsson combine to make the action scenes gorgeous, scary and exciting, while the script by Taylor Sheridan is mordant and smart, with not a wasted word.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
There are no rules, and no reason, in this world of death and revenge, and we see it through Kate's eyes: fascinated, repelled, ultimately haunted.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
A well-deserved showcase for Emily Blunt.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : L.A. Weekly
Villeneuve's proven he's got a strong punch. The trouble is, he barely aims.

Name : Mike D'Angelo / Alias : AV Club
One can easily ignore the film's ambitious subtext and enjoy it strictly on the basis of its terrific performances and nonstop intensity.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
Combining relentless action with the story of a woman confronting a corrupted system, it hits with the staggering energy of a visceral kick in the guts - causing a sensory recoil in every scene.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
An unforgettable motion picture that should be on the must-see list for anyone who appreciates films that deal in grays rather than blacks and whites.

Name : Dana Stevens / Alias : Slate
Sicario opens on a power chord of fear, nausea, and dread that resonates throughout the whole movie.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
The first hour of this latest film from French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve is sleek, terrific pulp.

Name : Guy Lodge / Alias : Time Out
Denis Villeneuve takes on the Mexican drug trade in this stern, robust, abandon-hope-all-ye-who-enter thriller.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
With a taut and timely screenplay by Taylor Sheridan, Sicario is a brilliant action thriller with the smarts of a message movie.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
This is suspenseful stuff, but hanging over the action is the pungent smell of social failure, as the drug war turns both sides into monsters.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Succeeds in evoking the anarchic violence of the drug wars raging on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
A gripping and tension-packed spin through America's covert War on Drugs. Prepare to be haunted for a good long time.

Name : Barry Hertz / Alias : Globe and Mail
We can thank Villeneuve and rookie screenwriter Taylor Sheridan's tight script, but also Blunt, Brolin and Del Toro, each of whom has never been better.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
This dramatic thriller finds a spot somewhere between your brain and your stomach, and drills in.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
Villeneuve handles action scenes with impressive flair, but also understands that the key to effective action is to build up to it slowly and inexorably.

Name : Cary Darling / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
[Villeneuve] hasn't forgotten that he's making a thriller, and he's made one that's both nerve-shatteringly suspenseful and, thanks to noted cinematographer Roger Deakins, gorgeous to watch.

Name : Liz Braun / Alias : Toronto Sun
Director Denis Villeneuve, aided and abetted by cinematographer Roger Deakins, fills Sicario with dread and a violence that happens to be stunning to look at.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Mixes arthouse and grindhouse into a most satisfying cocktail.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Denis Villeneuve's film turns out to be a stupendously unnerving descent into moral chaos, our presumed action hero Alice in Cartel-land.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
This is not the first movie about the war being waged across the U.S.-Mexico border over the drug trade, but it's the first film in which the aura of constant menace and threat lingers and follows you home.

Name : Calvin Wilson / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Far from being just another crime story, "Sicario" is cinema at its most ambitious.

Name : Tony Hicks / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
Director Denis Villeneuve delivers screenwriter Taylor Sheridan's story layer by layer, never overwhelming the audience while still challenging it to pay attention.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
By the end, it packs a death stare so potent it will make you want to turn a blind eye to the shadowy brutality of its real-world horrors.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
'Prisoners' director Denis Villeneuve returns with a blisteringly suspenseful, ever surprising cartel thriller.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
Villeneuve's movies occupy a spectrum between thought-provoking and mind-bending, and it's clear that he wants to guide Taylor Sheridan's script into similar territory.

Name : Sandy Cohen / Alias : Associated Press
Villeneuve has crafted a compelling, unflinching look at the deadly and complicated war on drugs, one that will challenge the attitudes of even the most straight-edged and law-abiding viewers.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
Within this dark epic of American failure lives an effective but decidedly minor vigilante flick.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
The violence of the inter-American drug trade has served as the backdrop for any number of films for more than three decades, but few have been as powerful and superbly made as Sicario.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
It has a screenplay of freshness and audacity that's brought to life by a director who understands its every psychological undercurrent. We might hope this kind of thing would happen all the time, but it's rare.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
This is one of the best movies of the year.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
Villeneuve and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan aren't selling more than a tautological action movie with the dread and body count of a horror film.

Name : Anthony Lane / Alias : New Yorker
If "Sicario" does not collapse under its own grimness, that is because of the pulse: the care with which Villeneuve keeps the story beating, like a drum, as he steadies himself for the next set piece.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
After a while these sounds and images start to feel like expressions of technique, and they become at once numbing and sensational, and instead of a movie about violence we're watching another violent movie, after all.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
If the film is a little too macho and far too Anglo to tell the full, ugly story of all the villains and victims, it is, like all of Villeneuve's films, a bravura piece of filmmaking.

Name : Mark Olsen / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Directed by Denis Villeneuve from a script by Taylor Sheridan, the film manages to somehow be sleek and sprawling, focused and cagey at the same time, often in the same scene.

Name : Christopher Orr / Alias : The Atlantic
Sicario is a remarkable, thrilling, intermittently brilliant film-and yet nonetheless a mild disappointment.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
Sicario paints the bleakest of portraits of a realistic situation, drawn from headlines about Mexican cartels that stack bodies with savage efficiency.