Kerry Washington and Ben Affleck in “Animals.”
Netflix/Warrick Page
Actor-director Ben Affleck’s Netflix original movie Animals, also starring Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun and Gillian Anderson, is getting hit with negative reviews from Rotten Tomatoes critics.
Also co-written by Affleck, Animals opens in select theaters and begins streaming exclusively on Netflix on Friday. The crime thriller stars Affleck as Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate who, along with his wife, Abigail (Washington), gets a shocking call to learn their son has been kidnapped. As Mark and Abigail attempt to get the ransom payment together to rescue their son, they encounter a sinister threat that could expose their secrets and tear their lives apart.
Rated R, Animals also stars Ray Fisher, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Adriana Paz and Jacob Estrada.
The review embargo for Animals lifted on Thursday evening, and currently the film has earned a 38% “rotten” critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer based on 16 reviews. RT’s Critics Consensus, Audience Summary and Popcornmeter score based on verified user ratings are still pending.
Should the 38% “rotten” critics’ score hold, Animals will rank among Affleck’s worst-scored movies as a director on RT.
Prior to Animals, the film with the lowest critics’ score for a film helmed by Affleck was for 2017’s Live by Night, which earned a 34% “rotten” score. Otherwise, Affleck has earned a batch of stellar “fresh” critics’ scores on RT for directing 2007’s Gone Baby Gone (94%), 2010’s The Town (92%), 2012’s Best Picture Oscar winner Argo (96%) and 2023’s Air (93%)
Note: The RT critics’ score for “Animals” will be updated as more reviews are posted on the site.
What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘Animals’?
Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times is among the top critics on RT who give Animals a “rotten” score, writing, “Like an inedible gruel made with top-shelf ingredients, Ben Affleck’s Animals whisks its high-value cast into an overwrought script to produce an extraordinarily flat political thriller.”
Nick Schager of The Daily Beast isn’t impressed with Animals, either, writing that the film is “an unoriginal and suspense-free tale of the haves and the have-nots, told with minimal flair, even less vigor, and almost no interest in its central complications.”
AV Club’s Jacob Oller also gives the film a “rotten” score, writing on RT, “Let’s take the filmmakers’ word for it and assume, rather than being both a bad movie and a cheap knock-off, Animals is just the former.”
In his “rotten” review summary of the film on RT, Jake Coyle of The Associated Press writes, “Affleck is a savvy and thoughtful filmmaker who can deftly weave human stories, genre mechanics and social issues together. But Animals feels narratively underpowered and melodramatically forced.”
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter is among RT’s top critics who give Animals a “fresh” score, writing, “These are highly watchable actors, and as a movie to have on in the background while making dinner, Animals — so named for the lawless beast inside all of us, not that there’s much traction in that theme — will play just fine on Netflix.”
Danny Leigh of the Financial Times also gives Animals a “fresh” review score on RT, writing, “Deft supporting players include Kerry Washington and a splendidly glacial Gillian Anderson, all contributing to a cluster bomb of secrets and hidden agendas. For Affleck, as with all animals, it seems you survive by adapting to circumstances.”
Animals begins streaming on Netflix on Friday and will also play in select theaters nationwide.
Leave a comment