The Canyon (2009)

Critic Reviews

• Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

  If well-meaning people didn't make stupid choices -- and if cellphones worked everywhere -- way fewer vacation-from-hell thrillers would probably be made.

• Cary Darling, Dallas Morning News

  The Canyon is undermined by the expectation of a big payoff that never comes.

• Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

  The best thing about this would-be nature thriller is Will Patton's zesty performance as a cackling, crazed muleskinner, a wily old hand who exits far too soon. There's nothing much to replace him, so we're in for a long 102 minutes.

• Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

  Hint to newlyweds: Don't honeymoon in a primeval wilderness populated by diamondback rattlesnakes, aggressive wolves and alcoholic wilderness guides.

• Ty Burr, Boston Globe

  The Canyon is so singularly inept it gives you a whole new appreciation for the ept.

• Rob Nelson, Variety

  The Canyon could be named for the gaping expanse between its preposterously silly dialogue and sturdy, at times urgent direction.

• Staci Layne Wilson, Horror.com

  Watch this... or a giant hole in the ground. Same difference.

• Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press

  Take Open Water, subtract the Caribbean, substitute the Grand Canyon, and you have The Canyon.

• Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

  A taut, unpredictable and intense thriller. You'll never look at the Grand Canyon the same way again.

• Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix

  The Canyon attests to how a first-rate character actor can elevate a poor film to the ranks of the mediocre.

• Kelly Vance, East Bay Express

  For a story so bald on narrative incident, The Canyon is sweaty-palms scary.

• Christian Toto, What Would Toto Watch?

  We've seen much of The Canyon before, but the crisp execution transforms the film into more than just a boilerplate thriller.

• Wade Major, Boxoffice Magazine

  Competent execution and respectable performances still can't save this threadbare attempt at a minimalistic Deliverance.

• Andrew Schenker, L.A. Weekly

  Another one for the bad-stuff-happens-to-stupid-people file, The Canyon might at least offer the satisfaction of a few squirmy thrills, if it weren't so insistent on treating its central couple's plight as the stuff of high tragedy.

Read all 14 critic reviews