Name : Christian Holub / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Like the most enjoyable horror movies, Lights Out is almost a physical experience, carrying viewers from stress and terror to even some tension-breaking hilarity.

Name : Jeannette Catsoulis / Alias : New York Times
Spackling over any copycat cracks with strong acting and fleet editing, "Lights Out" delivers minimalist frights in old-school ways.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
Awfully inept .

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
Palmer and Bello really do seem like world-weary, spook-addled daughter and mother, and they play the stakes just so, favoring neither blase understatement nor yellow-highlighter melodrama.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Predictable stuff, energized by some spiffy scare effects and actors who perform well beyond the call of fright-house duty.

Name : Andrew Barker / Alias : Variety
Never strays too far from its source, essentially repeating the same jump scare, over and over again, for most of its muscular 80 minute running time. What's most shocking is how well it still works.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Los Angeles Times
The tale of a restless evil spirit who suffers from an extreme aversion to light, this nifty little chiller may be the first movie of its kind to unite the pleasure of a good haunting with the horror of an unpaid electricity bill.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg makes an impressive feature debut with this spooky, less-is-more expansion of his short that landed him this first Hollywood gig.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A nifty fright flick with glimmers of depth. Short and effective.

Name : Robert Abele / Alias : TheWrap
Occasionally succumbs to certain rudimentary hallmarks of industrial studio horror, but for the most part it's agreeably suspenseful, date-night arm-squeezing genre fare.

Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out
Once the film runs out of unusual lighting schemes to exploit (violet-hued goth black lighting, random blasts of car headlights, etc.), it loses power faster than a millennial with a long-overdue electric bill. But that one shadow lady is enough.

Name : Justin Lowe / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
A surprisingly maternal horror movie that relies as much on fraying emotional bonds as supernatural suspense to create tension.

Name : April Wolfe / Alias : Village Voice
Lights Out needs to be seen in a darkened theater next to someone who won't judge you for jumping out of your seat.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
A small, pitch-black treat, "Lights Out" takes a common childhood terror and uses it to spin a horror story with a new kind of ghost and some familiar, but still effective shocks.

Name : Peter Sobczynski / Alias : RogerEbert.com
For the most part, though, the film is just a tired tread through the usual elements.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Even the most cynical, jaded, seen-it-all-before critic cannot deny certain visceral reactions to a film. Lights Out gave me the chills.

Name : Alison Willmore / Alias : BuzzFeed News
At 81 minutes, unfolding in a handful of key locations, and opting for practical effects and clever framing over computer-generated imagery, Lights Out is still lean and concentrated, and it benefits from that spareness.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
"Lights Out" is an effective, tidy little chiller; basically the same sneak-up-in-the-dark scare over and over. But hey, as we've learned through decades of horror movies, that stuff works.

Name : A.A. Dowd / Alias : AV Club
The film is blatantly, unmistakably about mental illness, and that makes it hard to ignore or forgive what it ends up saying (hopefully by accident) on the subject.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
In the end, it's just a little horror movie, but the director knows that and doesn't overplay his hand.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
Unfortunately, the film stumbles, offering too few legitimate scares and displaying an overreliance on traditional horror movie cliches.

Name : Katie Walsh / Alias : Tribune News Service
Built on a clever premise, the film is executed seamlessly. It's the best expression of a low-budget horror flick: resourceful and smart, where the most charismatic character is the ghoul itself.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Bello is an excellent actress and makes Sophie's anguish credible, although she can't rise above the material.

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
There are a few inconsistencies with the scary bits, but the script is rich, and having Teresa Palmer as a badass adult daughter with commitment issues - typically a male role - is refreshing.

Name : Michael O'Sullivan / Alias : Washington Post
"Lights Out" deserves to be considered in the company of such recent horror standouts as "It Follows," "The Babadook," "Goodnight Mommy" and "The Witch."

Name : Leah Pickett / Alias : Chicago Reader
A brisk, studio-glossy feature that's predictable and heavily reliant on jump scares but spooky good fun nonetheless.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
In some ways the film is like an amusement park ride. You see the curves and twists coming, but if you're going fast enough, they're scary anyway.

Name : Jim Slotek / Alias : Toronto Sun
A terrifically effective little scarefest.

Name : Tirdad Derakhshani / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Sandberg . spares us from the indignity of jump scares. When he sets out to frighten you, he means it.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
The scares are cheap, but they're frequently effective, the same way that if you're hungry junk food might fill you up. It doesn't mean you'll feel good about it later.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
The fun wears out fast and so does the "gotcha" factor.

Name : Edward Douglas / Alias : New York Daily News
Unsettling enough to make you think twice about what might be in the room with you when the lights go out.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A toothless and nearly laughless buddy comedy.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
Reese Witherspoon delivers a few minutes of superb physical humor in this otherwise worthless action comedy.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Isn't this the sort of nitwit comedy Reese Witherspoon wasn't going to have to make anymore after becoming a producer on the likes of Wild and Gone Girl?

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
It's a chase film, it's a buddy film, it's a ridiculous, loud and often offensive romp. Witherspoon's character is cornball and annoyingly adrenalized - what was she thinking?

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
Clearly, the idea here was to follow in the flatfootsteps of "The Heat": Funny ladies do funny cop-movie business. But with all the overacting and downright YELLING, comedy crumbles under the sonic assault.

Name : Tony Hicks / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
"Hot Pursuit" isn't something you should pursue. Ever.

Name : Stephanie Zacharek / Alias : Village Voice
[Witherspoon] seems unafraid to cut loose, and she and Vergara make a terrific team.

Name : John Anderson / Alias : Wall Street Journal
While she can make static cinema as well as anybody in the boys club - Hot Pursuit is solid evidence of that - Ms. Fletcher also monkeys with the conventions enough to make one wonder what kind of mischief she could ultimately commit.

Name : Katie Rife / Alias : AV Club
Witherspoon and Vergara are both experienced comedic actors with charisma to spare, and watching them pal around is a perfectly pleasant way to pass some time. But with material this uninspired, 87 minutes of riding shotgun is long enough.

Name : Inkoo Kang / Alias : TheWrap
If you've ever wondered what an Adam Sandler film starring Reese Witherspoon would look like, "Hot Pursuit" is it.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
If there's any sexist cliche or sitcom groaner missed by the guilty parties behind this cop-and-robber coupling, it's not for want of trying.

Name : Kevin C. Johnson / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The trailers for the Reese Witherspoon-Sofia Vergara comedy "Hot Pursuit" hint at a movie that's unfunny, insufferable and obvious. You can't say you weren't warned.

Name : Gary Thompson / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Short on laughs, even at 87 minutes.

Name : Andrew Barker / Alias : Variety
Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara can't save this lazy, unfunny action-comedy.

Name : David Ehrlich / Alias : Time Out
One of them is short and the other one is Colombian - that's pretty much all there is to this milquetoast buddy comedy that ought to have premiered directly on seat-back airplane televisions.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
The blame lies with a dopey script, director Anne Fletcher and a lazy Hollywood assumption that female buddy flicks should be as half-assed as their male counterparts.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
There's hardly an area in which Hot Pursuit is not found lacking.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
Wastes the talents of Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara as egregiously as one could possibly imagine, resorting to lame jokes, cliches and incompetent storytelling to pass the time.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
In a pairing of Witherspoon and Vergara, you might expect Vergara to be the funny one. But the script has Witherspoon playing for laughs, and Vergara acting as straight man. The balance is off.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
The dueling accents are meant to be part of some mounting joke, in which each woman sounds like an idiot to the other. It's not funny. Neither is most of the movie, which throws these two at a wall of gags and hopes they stick.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
There isn't one joke, sight gag or piece of slapstick tomfoolery that lands with any success or originality .

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
I am tempted to say it's another sorry example of what women have to do to keep an acting career going today, when all the juicy roles go to men. Unfortunately they have only themselves to blame. They are both listed in the credits as executive producers.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
The only thing hot about "Hot Pursuit" is its scant 87-minute running time. And it still feels like four hours.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
In the pro forma end-credit outtakes, we see the stars muff their lines, mug for the camera, and generally have a good time. It's nice that someone does.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : ChristyLemire.com
It's actually, actively worse than you think it's going to be.

Name : Betsy Sharkey / Alias : Los Angeles Times
So bad you'd think it was directed by the worst sort of male chauvinist director.

Name : Jake Coyle / Alias : Associated Press
"Hot Pursuit" feels like a comedy that forgot its comedian.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
A laugh could die of loneliness in this shrill, slapstick buddy farce. The proven comic gifts of Witherspoon and Vergara have gone MIA.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
"Hot Pursuit" features one of the worst and most forced performances of Reese Witherspoon's career, an irritating performance by Sofia Vergara(whom I love on 'Modern Family') and a seemingly endless parade of lazy and arbitrary plot twists and turns.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
I'm a sucker for outtakes during end credits, even - maybe especially - when they're attached to subpar comedies like this one. Everyone was having such a hilarious time! I wish I could say the same!

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
You could easily imagine these two in a sharper, edgier comedy. Maybe, if Hot Pursuit is a hit, the filmmakers can take a mulligan and reunite them for a faster, funnier sequel.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
It's ill-conceived, not funny, overbearing and not in any way worth watching.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
For someone with a background in choreography, Fletcher has no idea of how to sell physical comedy. Characters stumble around and drop things but there's no grace to their clumsiness, no punchline at the end of their embarrassment.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
We are in the midst of a comedy boom, and within it an explosion of feminist and woman-driven humor, but the news has apparently not reached Warner Bros. headquarters.