Siegel's cutting is as ruthless as his characters, and it’s easy to see an autobiographical aspect to Charley Varrick’s no-nonsense pragmatism.

| Jan 15, 2024

Charley Varrick doesn't even look good; the color is blah and runny, the compositions are squat and no more than functional, and the director, Don Siegel, slogs along from scene to scene.

| Sep 19, 2023

...entertaining and thoroughly satisfying...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 4, 2023

Charley may have the look of a B-picture, but in this case that's a compliment; Siegel is a master of the whole tacky genre, and he also lends it an emotionalism which it usually lacks.

| Oct 8, 2021

Thanks to Siegel's impeccable direction and to the imaginative script Howard Rodman and Dean Riesner fashioned from John Reese's novel "The Looters," this... becomes a compelling struggle between brains and brawn.

| Jun 11, 2021

Siegel's expertise with crime melodrama brings a fine, gripping, suspenseful quality to the story, which is, alas, too defective to stand up to any scrutiny.

| Jun 11, 2021

As in all Siegel films, there is constant violence, but a sharp, clear focus and quick action prevents you from dwelling on plot inconsistencies.

| Jun 11, 2021

The action is fast, the chase scenes inventive, the acting superlative.

| Jun 11, 2021

A generally engrossing film, to which Don Siegel's direction and Matthau's and Joe Don Baker's performances contribute noticeably.

| Jun 11, 2021

Eschewing artiness subtlety and deep messages, Siegel packs a gut-level wallop in the name of entertainment, scoring almost every time.

| Jun 11, 2021

It is sadistically brutal, based on a fault of logic or a warped moral code or both, and, get this, it is rated PG.

| Jun 11, 2021

Unlike other crime thrillers of the period, this still seems fresh and invigorating.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 11, 2021

Retains one's interest principally because of the thoroughly sordid world in which its story takes place.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 11, 2021

The two truly indigenous forms of Hollywood film making are, of course, the western and the gangster movie. Both genres have undergone decades of refining, and Charley Varrick is one of the more accomplished specimens of the latter.

| Jul 23, 2020

The film, like Walter Matthau's lead performance, becomes more good-naturedly humorous as it proceeds, and marks something of a return for Siegel to the liberal softie he used to be.

| Mar 18, 2020

In movies like Charley Varrick, the laughter is cheap; it's accompanied only by snickers, and it leaves us degraded.

| Dec 31, 2019

Walter Matthau is excellent, and Joe Don Baker makes for a truly hissable villain.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 17, 2019

Don Siegel's excellent heist/escape movie makes an interesting juxtaposition to his Clint Eastwood films.

| Jul 24, 2009

Underrated Don Siegel heist drama

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 20, 2007

Marvellous, toughly eccentric thriller which confirmed that Siegel had more responses to '70s paranoia than a mere Magnum blast, and decisively removed Matthau from the wasteland of Neil Simon wit.

| Feb 9, 2006