Critic Reviews

• Leslie Felperin, Variety

  The ambition is laudable even if the execution isn't as smooth or detailed as it might have been.

• Trevor Johnston, Time Out

  Plodding, somewhat misbegotten, and never slick enough to sweep us along.

• Tara Brady, Irish Times

  There's a lovely frisson between Bean and Rampling that makes you think what James Bond and M could be.

• David Aldridge, Radio Times

  The film certainly has ambition and there are some memorable fight scenes, but it also lacks the extra oomph that could have done for Bean's action-movie career what Taken did for Liam Neeson's.

• Simon Reynolds, Digital Spy

  It's perhaps one credibility-straining twist too many for the film, which up until then does a solid job of aping slicker, bigger-budgeted Hollywood thrillers.

• Mark Adams, Daily Mirror [UK]

  A slick action drama with a strong cast, including Tuppence Middleton, Charlotte Rampling and Michelle Ryan, that delivers in terms of violence, gunplay and conspiracy thrills.

• Philip French, Observer [UK]

  It's a competent, conventional thriller, but there's something suspiciously unbalanced going on here.

• Graham Young, Birmingham Mail

  As a rather far-fetched work of faction, Cleanskin left me feeling rather grubby about the world that we live in - and not entertained.

• Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

  You couldn't ever accuse Hadi Hajaig's film of being one-sided: it has two, both of them stupid.

• Alex Zane, Sun Online

  As if we don't have enough gullible folk believing 7/7 and 9/11 conspiracy theories already, this poor thriller comes along to popularise the paranoia.

• Nigel Andrews, Financial Times

  Cleanskin has Charlotte Rampling dying, spiritually at least, on a bench. It can be contagious.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  It plays like a lad-mag fantasy of counterterrorist work, juxtaposing mediocre action sscenes with a lot of deadly serious Islamist rhetoric.

• Tom Seymour, Little White Lies

  With a better script editor, this could have been a character-piece comparable, maybe, to Showtime's Homeland.

• Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express

  Could have been a British 24 but is undone by terrible plotting, implausibility and lack of excitement.

• Tim Evans, Sky Movies

  At times, it's almost as funny as Four Lions. The trouble is, it's not meant to be comedy.

• Matthew Turner, ViewLondon

  Trashily enjoyable thriller that puts its low budget to impressive use and scrapes a pass thanks to strong performances and some bone-crunching action scenes...

• Kim Newman, Empire Magazine

  A brutal, unsparing thriller, if a little on the long side.

Read all 17 critic reviews