Mr. Untouchable: Critic Reviews

MovieWeb: 0 reviews

73%

RottenTomatoes: 23 reviews

Stephen Hunter Washington Post (Top Critic)

It's fast and furious, and it proves that crime doesn't pay, unless you know how to do it right.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Michelle Orange Village Voice (Top Critic)

A fascinating first-person account of drug kingpin and ruthless gangster Nicky Barnes, whose outrageous story of rise, rule, rage, and revenge requires no such stylistic filler.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Elizabeth Weitzman New York Daily News (Top Critic)

75

It's not a pretty picture, but it sure is a compelling one.
Full Review » 5 years ago
New York Magazine (Top Critic)

Sometimes persuasive and sometimes sadly comical, but always fascinating.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Jeff Johnson Chicago Sun-Times (Top Critic)

75

[Director] Levin skillfully mixes the Barnes interviews with news clippings, 1970s street scenes and the recollections of Mr. Untouchable's former associates.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune (Top Critic)

75

Nonjudgmental without being morally dense, the film makes human sense out of an inhuman example of addiction capitalism, '70s style.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Steven Rea Philadelphia Inquirer (Top Critic)

75

Mr. Untouchable is never dull.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Robert Koehler Variety (Top Critic)

One seriously confused documentary.
Full Review » 5 years ago
V.A. Musetto New York Post (Top Critic)

75

What emerges is a portrait of a complex man.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times (Top Critic)

60

Less a dispassionate examination than a celebratory infomercial on its central character.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Simon Foster sbs.com.au

If it casts a slightly too favourable eye over the subject and his social impact, you can't begrudge the director his understanding of and affection for the period and its people.
Full Review » 2 years ago
Bill Gibron Filmcritic.com

60

Like much of the story of Harlem in the '70s, the truth is the least important part.
Full Review » 4 years ago
Cynthia Fuchs PopMatters

The principle at issue may not be plain to everyone, but "to those people inside the system of values, that's totally acceptable."
Full Review » 5 years ago
John Monaghan Detroit Free Press

75

Does the movie glorify Barnes and his nefarious profession? Probably, but show me a movie about the drug trade that doesn't hook us first with guts and glamour before the moralizing fall.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Tony Medley Tolucan Times

50

A lackluster documentary that lionizes this creep while ignoring the damage that his distribution of drugs did to society and the many brutal murders he ordered.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Brian Orndorf eFilmCritic.com

67

On its own, Mr. Untouchable is a solid education on a specific period of time reigned over by a demon who willingly spread sickness to line his pockets.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Maitland McDonagh TV Guide's Movie Guide

63

Levin was clearly captivated by the sheer spectacle of Barnes' career.
Full Review » 5 years ago
John Anderson Newsday

50

Marc Levin, whose last documentary, Protocols of Zion, was a gutsy examination of post-9/11 anti-Semitism, has an even tougher job on his hands with Leroy 'Nicky' Barnes: making the man interesting.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Nathan Rabin AV Club

67

Legendary '70s heroin kingpin Leroy "Nicky" Barnes is filmed like a deposed king in exile in Mr. Untouchable, Marc Levin's slick look at one of New York's most notorious criminal masterminds.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Tim Cogshell Boxoffice Magazine

What is most intriguing in the film are the words, indeed the presence, of Barnes himself.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Matt Pais Metromix.com

50

Isn't an inside look at the men who ruled a city but just an excuse to collect 'Superfly,' 'Sexual Healing' and 'Let's Stay Together' on a soundtrack.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Nick Schager Slant Magazine

50

Marc Levin may avoid outright idol-worship, but any restraint exhibited by his film is disingenuous.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Frank Lovece Film Journal International

It gives the self-aggrandizing Barnes just enough celluloid to hang himself.
Full Review » 5 years ago