Metacritic reviews

Reprisal is not a very good movie, but it leaves you with tantalizing hints that some people involved with it are capable of doing something much better.

There’s virtually nothing to distinguish Reprisal from a thousand other cop-vs-robber B pictures, except for the violence.

Grillo uncharacteristically displays no charisma, although considering the material he's working with, it's not surprising that he looks like he simply gave up. Speaking of giving up, Willis, who provides a few sparks to the otherwise lamentable Death Wish remake, here reverts to his by now usual phoning it in.

All in all, just another boring genre exercise.

Even those inclined to sympathize with that premise politically may feel insulted by the plot hole-a-palooza offered here to support it.

It’s downright sad watching Willis go all half-assed in another movie. I guess we’re gonna have to wait for Glass to come out next year to see if Willis can do a movie in whole-assed form again.

The bottom line is that Reprisal is an extremely silly movie doing its damnedest to look tough and gritty and clever, none of which it is. In fact, it’s both tediously formulaic and weirdly puzzling.

Reprisal is at pains to profess its faith in the symbols of law and order, but it cannot fully repress its almost erotic longing for the unfettered violence of the terrorist.

A blandly gritty piece of late-August mayhem that’s as forgettable as its generic title.