Rotten
The rushed and often inchoate execution means there's little in the film that gets the benefit of more than a moment's reflection.
Tomas Hachard, NPR
Overview
Evan Lake, a veteran CIA agent, has been ordered to retire. But when his protégé uncovers evidence that Lake's nemesis, the terrorist Banir, has resurfaced, Lake goes rogue, embarking on a perilous, intercontinental mission to eliminate his sworn enemy.
Director and cast
- Paul Schrader Director
- Nicolas Cage as Evan Lake
- Anton Yelchin as Milton Schultz
- Alexander Karim as Muhammad Banir
- Irène Jacob as Michelle Zuberain
- Aymen Hamdouchi as Aasim
- Adetomiwa Edun as Mbui
- Tomiwa Edun as Mbui
- Claudius Peters as Ghedi
- Robert G. Slade as James Clifton
- Derek Ezenagu as Dr. Wangari
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
9%
Tomatometer
Rotten
A weirdly misshapen, fitfully intriguing depiction of one man's wayward quest for justice, plainly compromised in ways that only a director's cut could properly illuminate.
Justin Chang, Variety
Fresh
On a commercial level, "Dying of the Light" sometimes plays as just another high-concept vehicle for a comically overacting Mr. Cage. But Mr. Schrader's vision is strong enough to rage against the hackier calculations.
Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times
Rotten
Cage's loop-di-loop performance, the movie's surviving asset, at least hints at the themes of institutional illness and mortal decline that must have fascinated Schrader.
Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
Rotten
It plays out as a more or less conventional direct-to-video-style thriller, distinguished by a handful of subtexts and images that might have been developed in a different version, but here register as mere quirks.
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club
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