Critic Reviews

• Trevor Johnston, Time Out

  Channels the world-weary '70s paranoia of 'Taxi Driver' and 'The Conversation' through the imposingly clinical formal approach of process-fixated auteurs like Robert Bresson or Michael Haneke.

• Joseph Proimakis, Movies for the Masses

  full review at Movies for the Masses

• Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express

  The storytelling lacks some polish but the picture builds to a powerful, high body-count climax.

• Matt Glasby, Total Film

  A state-of-the-nation conspiracy thriller split three ways, The Veteran overstretches itself by fighting on too many fronts at once.

• Sophie Ivan, Film4

  A thriller which strains for contemporary relevance but lacks the spark to incite or entertain.

• Alistair Harkness, Scotsman

  Boasts some enjoyably brutal close-quarter fight sequences, not to mention a ludicrously over-the-top finale in which Toby Kebbel goes all Rambo on gangs of tower block-dwelling neds.

• Philip French, Guardian [UK]

  [An] efficient, familiar urban thriller...

• Allan Hunter, Daily Express

  Never pulls all the elements into a convincing whole, despite solid performances from the eternally watchable Cox and rising star Kebbell.

• David Edwards, Daily Mirror [UK]

  Kebbell gives an intense, upfor-it turn, but it's a shame he wasn't given more to work with - and his character remains inscrutable throughout.

• Phelim O'Neill, Guardian [UK]

  It's a thinly populated drama, full of sketchy, unconvincing characters...

• Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

  A guns-blazing showdown at the end jolts you back to attention, but the fumbled ironies of the plot leave a dour and portentous aftertaste.

• Lisa Giles-Keddie, Real.com

  Kebbell in an unfamiliar, deadpan stance, but with that distant glint of madness in the eye that we were first exposed to in RocknRolla.

• Andrew Lowry, Little White Lies

  Clichéd, incoherent and queasily Daily Mail-pleasing, its conspiracy theorising third act is a disaster.

• Derek Malcolm, This is London

  Tries too hard to be an offshoot of the Bourne series.

• Tim Evans, Sky Movies

  Hope's strongest suit is Kebbell, who first impressed in Dead Man's Shoes opposide Paddy Considine and imbues Miller with a jittery menace reined in by a brooding sense of justice.

• Matthew Turner, ViewLondon

  Gritty and effective, this is an impressively directed British thriller that cleverly mixes several different elements and ultimately succeeds thanks to a mesmerising central performance from rising star Toby Kebbell.

Read all 16 critic reviews