Blade RunnerMovie Reviews

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Must Go!
Avg. Critic Score: 88 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
15 Iffy for 15+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    This movie is great in any version...I don't miss what has been cut from the new version. The overall effect is so beautifully wrought, a few details aren't going to bring things crashing down. Read full review

  • 100
    Washington Post | Rita Kempley

    Grand enough in scale to carry its many Biblical and mythological references, Blade Runner never feels heavy or pretentious -- only more and more engrossing with each viewing. It helps, too, that it works as pure entertainment. Read full review

  • 100
    Chicago Reader | Jonathan Rosenbaum

    The grafting of 40s hard-boiled detective story with SF thriller creates some dysfunctional overlaps, and the movie loses some force whenever violence takes over, yet this remains a truly extraordinary, densely imagined version of both the future and the present, with a look and taste all its own. Read full review

  • 100
    Chicago Tribune |

    Most important, several elements -- the film's tough, new ending; a sly, fleeting dissolve of a unicorn, not in the original; and a brilliant, trompe d'oeil flicker of life in a shot of a still photograph -- bring Deckard's existential dilemma into focus. [11 Sept 1992] Read full review

  • 100
    Los Angeles Times |

    May be the best "new" American movie released this year. [11 Sept 1992] Read full review

  • 91
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    This is perhaps the only science-fiction film that can be called transcendental. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Susan Wloszczyna

    What remains is a great Vangelis score, astonishing production design, Hauer's career role -- and a movie that deserves its cult reputation despite an unloving heart. [11 Sept 1992] Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Edward Guthmann

    Today, Blade Runner works better than ever: Scott's version not only has more dramatic integrity, but its visual aesthetic and futuristic vision are more in sync with today's movie-goers. [11 Sept 1992] Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    It looks fabulous, it uses special effects to create a new world of its own, but it is thin in its human story. Read full review

  • 38
    Christian Science Monitor | David Sterritt

    As before, the movie is more impressive for its finely detailed vision of Los Angeles as a futuristic slum than for its story, acting, or message. It's all downhill after the first few eye-dazzling minutes. [2 Oct 1992] Read full review


Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 15+ A dark, philosophical sci-fi drama. Older teens +.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that BLADE RUNNER is at times a very violent film with graphic and slow-motion depictions of people being shot in the head and chest multiple times. The last 20 minutes of the film are particularly violent. There are two instances where sex is implied. The main character witnesses (implied) bestiality in a strip club. There is brief nudity when one of the strippers showers. Drug and alcohol use is at a minimum; however, there is some drinking and smoking by the principal characters.
  • Families can talk about the ethics of replicating humans. Replicants look and behave exactly like humans, but should they be treated as such? What standards are used to justify the treatment of people or things that are perceived as inhuman, whether they are created by us (as in clones or artificial intelligence) or not?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Not an issue
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Shootings, fights. The last 20 minutes of the film are particularly explicitly violent.
  • sex false3 Sex: Implied sex. Brief female nudity.
  • language false3 Language: Not an issue
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: A few billboards in the cityscape, most notably for the recording media company TDK.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Some drinking and smoking. Deckard (the main character) gets drunk.

Blade Runner Movie Ratings + Reviews

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