Critic Reviews

• Derek Elley, Variety

  Three good actors get hijacked by a talky, pointless script.

• Trevor Johnston, Time Out

  Although the writing's exploration of common humanity across the social divide offers occasional worthwhile moral provocation, its evident theatricality also works against any sense of urban authenticity.

• Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

  Strains so hard to establish some sort of rough street cred that it ends up feeling artificial.

• Derek Malcolm, This is London

  The film, in the end, looks very much like an adaptation of one of those preachy plays that tries too hard to tell it like it is among the underclass.

• Stuart McGurk, thelondonpaper

  Directed by Gary Love, early shots promise much but it never delivers. Essentially a Play For Today, with more crack and a syrupy ending you can see coming.

• Anthony Quinn, Independent

  In Gary Love's determinedly gritty Brit-crim movie, three good actors chase around a script that keeps promising more than it delivers.

• Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

  What justified filming Dominic Leyton's play Collision is hard to see, but the decisions taken in opening it out are what truly wreck Gary Love's misbegotten attempt to do so.

• Nigel Andrews, Financial Times

  Dominic Leyton's script from his play starts as a flicker of fancy words and ends as a verbose fireball consuming all reality.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  Mackintosh's character is a bit sketchy, and his occasional, dramatic interventions were not really believable.

• , Sun Online

  The script invokes sympathy for the characters only at the end - and by then the audience will probably have ceased to care.

• David Edwards, Daily Mirror [UK]

  Less a movie and more a sustained panic attack, Sugarhouse is so unrelentingly violent, it's like being beaten with a housebrick for 90 minutes.

• Jamie Russell, Film4

  A low-budget Brit-flick that bucks against the usual "urban cinema" conventions while showcasing its talented cast. Although it runs out of steam, its opening energy and verve are impressive.

• Tom Hawker, Total Film

  Feeling like a short that's been stretched out and mugged of its unpredictable tensions, it's a static slice of ghetto hell.

• Aaron Davies, Little White Lies

  A grimy, rage-filled film. Shame about the middle bit.

• Kat Brown, Empire Magazine

  Despite thin caricatures and dodgy dialogue, this still stands out on the street.

• Matthew Turner, ViewLondon

  Watchable, energetically directed thriller that doesn't quite come together, despite decent performances from Mackintosh and Walters.

• Stella Papamichael, BBC

  In the bristling and brutal crime thriller Sugarhouse, Andy Serkis delivers a performance that makes his turn as King Kong look like Johnny Vegas's knitted monkey sidekick.

Read all 17 critic reviews