Reptile

A pretty effective murder mystery... [Benicio Del Toro] has aged very nicely into this sort of role.

Del Toro’s solid screen charisma can’t rescue Reptile, a derivative and lethargic thriller that rarely thrills as it tries and fails to build a case for itself as a meaningful iteration on the detective thrillers that it admires.

The fallout from all this purposeful gloom isn't merely that nothing surprises us; even Del Toro's committed portrayal of a careful man's gathering disillusionment gets jammed up.

Del Toro carries this sometimes convoluted and derivative thriller into three-star territory with an absolutely mesmerizing and authentic performance that conjures up memories of past anti-hero greats such as Bogart and Mitchum, Ryan and Hayden.

Benicio del Toro's understated performance as a soft-spoken detective is about the only interesting thing about this new Netflix thriller, which drowns a thin murder mystery in lots of ominous atmosphere.

Del Toro and Silverstone make a meal out of what tends to be a pro forma side to these kinds of thrillers

Benicio Del Toro’s solid lead performance can’t prevent Reptile from being a boring, forgettable procedural.

Hat tip to Del Toro and company. I like scripts that present a familiar formula in a mystery, and then proceed to have fun with the whodunit.

The script suffers from having an excess of twists executed at a slow pace... [but] the cast never makes it boring. [Full review in Spanish]

Reptile lets all the drama happen off screen with a third act deus ex machina. What could have been a knotty, suburban, coastal noir boils down to a detective story we’ve all seen before.