A barrage of gunfire and wah-wah guitars, plus a surprising amount of novelty and heart for a film that can feel as if it's a road trip through the directors' inspirations.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 9, 2021

A loose, episodic story held together by our hopes for Mike and Kelsey. It works better in the first half than the second, as the adventures get wilder and more lethal.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 8, 2021

There's sweetness ... but it gets lost in a sea of dead bodies and spent shell casings with a bloody climax that takes up too many of its already overlong 103 minutes.

| Jul 5, 2021

First Date feels like a throwback caper to something you'd find on cable, funny yet full of action with a generous helping of a timeless romance for good measure. It's the kind of movie you come across and have to see how it ends.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 2, 2021

The whole ill-fated affair spins like a choppy rollercoaster ride, with not much substance to offer beyond a few cheap thrills.

| Jul 1, 2021

"First Date" is a very ambitious independent film with a charming, casual attitude.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 30, 2021

The shadow of Risky Business looms large, and distractingly, over Manuel Crosby and Darren Knapp's film.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 28, 2021

Silly, empty, and entirely perplexing, First Date never really hits it off with its audience.

| Feb 23, 2021

First-time feature filmmakers Manuel Crosby and Darren Knapp take us on a hilarious joy ride with a jaunty comedy/thriller that is fondly inspired by the likes of Robert Rodriguez, John Hughes and Quentin Tarantino.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 2, 2021

Crosby and Knapp's First Date, an at-times hilarious California pleasure trip, dissolves under the weight of its self-evident ambition.

| Original Score: C- | Feb 1, 2021

This wild-ass comedy is a jolting thrill ride, packed with barbed jokes, hilarious characters, and threaded with a sweet and simple romance that pulls us through the wonkier bits.

| Feb 1, 2021

While this lively crime comedy doesn't exactly break new ground, it does, in the form of an appealingly naive central performance from Brown, have a disarming, sweet-natured charm at its heart.

| Feb 1, 2021

While the two young thesps acquit themselves nicely, much around them conspires to prevent their debut from being a memorable one.

| Feb 1, 2021