Young Treasury Agent Elliot Ness arrives in Chicago and is determined to take down Al Capone, but it's not going to be easy because Capone has the police in his pocket. Ness meets Jimmy Malone, a veteran patrolman and probably the most honorable one on the force. He asks Malone to help him get Capone, but Malone warns him that if he goes after Capone, he is going to war.
It goes to that place that all films aspiring to greatness must attain: the country of myth, where all the figures must be larger and more vivid than life.
– Richard Schickel,
TIME Magazine,
25 Jun 2013
rotten:
It's an action film without much personality or drive and without enough imaginative detail to make the action gripping or meaningful.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Tribune,
25 Jun 2013
rotten:
Where, under his stainless-steel incorruptibility, was Ness' gnawing flaw? To Mamet and De Palma, goodness and dullness seem inseparable.
– Sheila Benson,
Los Angeles Times,
25 Jun 2013
fresh:
The Untouchables could be the breakthrough movie for Kevin Costner, a folksy, Gary Cooperish actor who holds center stage as Eliot Ness.
– Jay Boyar,
Orlando Sentinel,
25 Jun 2013
fresh:
A deeply satisfying and entertaining Prohibition gang-buster directed with a Tommy gun's rat-tat-tat.