Mitchum just is. The one-time hero of 1940s film noirs knows he’s working with shades of gray here and that there are no heroes and not really any tough guys, only the successful and the dead.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 24, 2022

Thanks to Mitchum's finest job of acting in a long while, a strong story and polished direction, "Eddie Coyle" is a surprisingly interesting character study.

| Aug 24, 2021

Yates has fashioned one of the year's tautest dramas without having to rely on gimmicks like the premier high-speed auto chase that trademarked his earlier "Bullitt."

| Aug 24, 2021

Under Peter Yates' direction, Robert Mitchum -- who in talented hands has always been one of the screen's top actors -- and Peter Boyle are touching, chilling, and excellent.

| Aug 24, 2021

The Friends Of Eddie Coyle has moments of tenderness and fascination in the subtle way it depicts the horror that lurks behind the faces of ordinary people.

| Aug 24, 2021

A beautifully constructed, finely acted drama that is starkly realistic at all turns.

| Aug 24, 2021

It's as if director Peter Yates regretted all the excitement he whipped up in "Bullitt" and wanted to make an understatement. He has succeeded too well.

| Aug 24, 2021

t's all too easy to get lost... Even so, the implication and the pathos of the plight of Coyle, who is played with tragic insight and immense wounded dignity by Mitchum, rises above the surrounding confusion.

| Aug 24, 2021

For a gritty crime thriller without any gloss, this is it.

| Aug 24, 2021

Eddie Coyle works as Yates's earlier films do not. It works because Yates's habitually uncommitted point-of-view is appropriate to the seasoned, didactic monotone of George V. Higgins's novel.

| Aug 24, 2021

Mitchum is, per usual, incredible in the role, his trademark coolness and occasional otherworldliness lost in the miasma of the grimy reality of poorly lit cafeteria lamps and the cold landscape.

| Aug 24, 2021

While not uplifting, The Friends of Eddie Coyle provides warnings and lessons that we all - criminals or not - might heed.

| Aug 24, 2021

Even the most casual conversations in Eddie Coyle support the movie's theme.

| Original Score: A- | Aug 24, 2021

I hope it will prejudice no one against this good film if I say that the sole lift it gave me was the relief of not being one of its characters.

| Aug 24, 2021

...a top-tier 1970s crime flick that boasts one of Mitchum's very best performances...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 21, 2020

Robert Mitchum is brilliant as the hapless Coyle.

| Dec 31, 2019

Director Peter Yates' backdrops of the working-class outskirts of Boston during the shabbiest part of the 1970s are unparalleled.

| Jan 2, 2018

A bit gruesome, but potent viewing nonetheless.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 14, 2017

Chilling gangster melodrama.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 14, 2017

In a quality cast, Peter Boyle stands out as the hitman and so-called "friend" who's given the job of eliminating Mitchum.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 14, 2017