“Escobar: Paradise Lost” has many well-written, acted, and directed scenes. Unfortunately, it’s all they are: a disconnected and randomized compilation of brilliant scenes, the sum of whose parts don’t form a satisfying whole.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 9, 2024

An entertaining and suitably gruesome gangster thriller which nevertheless feels like a missed opportunity. Benicio del Toro is suitably weighty and fascinating in the lead role.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 6, 2019

Here Del Toro imposes his presence every time he enters the frame. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jan 20, 2018

... it illustrates the power that Escobar had, who could even dispose of the forces of order for his purposes. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 13, 2017

If only we had a more believable hero, and weren't feeling so disappointed at how little of the villain we get.

| Oct 11, 2017

While this may be Hutcherson's movie and he does a decent job, he stands no chance against Del Toro, the charismatic powerhouse. The latter may always be typecast as a kingpin, but he never fails to make his characters riveting.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 20, 2017

It's a shame that Escobar: Paradise Lost devotes so much screentime to its invented hero, because the portions with del Toro can be very fine indeed.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 31, 2016

There are few actors that commit to their roles as much as Benecio Del Toro... as he demonstrates quite spectacularly at times as one of the most infamous drug-lords of the past century in Escobar: Paradise Lost.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 5, 2016

The fact that the filmmakers felt the need to manufacture a Canadian surfer character to be the 'mainstream' moviegoer's likable, trustworthy guide through Escobar-land is a revealing and presumptuous demonstration of racial/cultural myopia.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 4, 2015

Menacingly entertaining.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 20, 2015

The movie contains a subtly crazed performance from Benicio del Toro as Escobar: one moment fooling around with his children in the hacienda swimming pool, fondling his gold taps, the next executing his enemies.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 20, 2015

Surprisingly forgettable considering its mesmering villain, although Del Toro sparks the movie into life with what screentime he does get.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 20, 2015

Every time del Toro's onscreen, you're so blown away that you end up angry at what might have been.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 20, 2015

Hutcherson - blandly conflicted, woodenly agonised - is just too blank for the screen time he sucks up.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 20, 2015

... manages some tense moments before it loses focus in the second half amid some contrived action-hero nonsense.

| Jul 10, 2015

Disturbing, yet unfocused, multi-lingual melodrama...

| Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 5, 2015

If there is any reason to watch this movie, it is to see the excellent Benicio Del Toro in all his menacing glory.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 2, 2015

In the role of Pablo Escobar, Benicio Del Toro exudes menace .

| Jun 28, 2015

Del Toro's Escobar lingers on the edges of the story, the cold menace of his business dealings overlapping with his own self-image as a devoted family man and philanthropist for the Colombian poor.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 26, 2015

Escobar: Paradise Lost, as promising as it often is, feels like two barely connected half-movies.

| Jun 26, 2015