Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
Gangster movies should not be mildly interesting.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Riveting from its first moments, "The Connection" is fascinating in its presentation of character, as well as for its glimpse into the workings of an international drug empire and into the ways an imaginative cop found to chip at its power.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
While the story lacks focus here and there, the film never feels overplayed. It's a work of bloody style and solid substance.

Name : John DeFore / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
A procedural epic whose complicated narrative is propelled by visceral action sequences and an unusually thrilling soundtrack.

Name : Robert Abele / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Despite the pedestrian screenplay (by Jimenez and Audrey Diwan), Dujardin and Lellouche are magnetic performers who slip easily into their antagonistic roles.

Name : Tom Huddleston / Alias : Time Out
Sports the most schnozz-tacular array of craggy-faced macho men this side of Easter Island.

Name : Cary Darling / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
There are no elaborate car chases or dizzyingly choreographed shootouts. Yet it's nonetheless a compelling portrait of two men in a specific time and place.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
A common problem in crime-centric movies: The bad guys are almost always more fascinating than the good guys. Dujardin's bull-necked, hard-charging performance makes Pierre a worthy adversary.

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
Jimenez adopts a vintage-kitsch sensibility, taking a disappointingly generic approach to his hard-to-follow narrative.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
It may prove too slow for some and the meandering can be a little maddening, but overall it's worth the effort.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
It's a stylish affair, very solidly made if not exactly breaking new ground in our understanding of events or in the way the movies depict them.

Name : Jeannette Catsoulis / Alias : New York Times
How can you dislike a film that signals a killing with "Bang Bang" and a villain with "The Snake"?

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
"The Connection" isn't all that different from a lot of police procedurals that have come before, but there's something about this particular gritty true-crime story that still fascinates all these years later.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Jimenez's sprawling cat-and-mouse thriller loses momentum and focus in the homestretch, but until then its '70s sun-and-sin-on-the-Cote d'Azur vibe is electric.

Name : Mike D'Angelo / Alias : AV Club
Jimenez, making his second feature, fails to provide the regular jolts of electricity this material needs.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
The film is engaging, propulsive, cut with rare brio, chockablock with consummate tough-guy business.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
It starts with gunshots - a Mercedes and its driver are riddled by motorcycle-riding assassins in broad daylight - and the pace of "The Connection" is bang-bang brisk most of the rest of the way.