Critic Reviews
86
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
positive
18(95%)
mixed
1(5%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 19 Critic Reviews
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Metascore
Metascore
100
It is one of the great film noirs, a black-and-white symphony that exactly reproduces Chandler's ability, on the page, to find a tone of voice that keeps its distance, and yet is wry and humorous and cares.
100
Bogart as Marlowe is compelling in this classic thriller that is complex but triumph of atmospheric cool.
100
This is arguably the high-water mark of Hollywood’s love affair with the infinitely slippery possibilities of the English language.
100
THE BIG SLEEP comes magically alive through Hawks's careful direction and Bogart's persona, which is twin to his character of Philip Marlowe.
100
One of the all-time classic noirs. [06 Nov 1998]
100
Bogart’s portrayal of the detective as wisecracking moralist now seems to be what makes The Big Sleep the best of the eight Philip Marlowe pictures made to date.
100
The Big Sleep is the best scripted, best directed, best acted, and least comprehensible film noir ever made. [27 Aug 2004]
90
Director Howard Hawks’s movie is a film noir touchstone, and features one of Bogart’s best good-man-in-a-tough-spot performances, alongside the irresistible Lauren Bacall.
90
Bogart and Bacall's exchanges are wittily playful, and the only femme fatale is a minor though crucial figure who destroys that perennial noir fall-guy, Elisha Cook Jr. But it's unmissable, irresistible.
88
The Big Sleep remains one of Hollywood's most intriguing and enduring examples of film noir. It's a movie that every film student should study and every movie lover should watch at least once.
