The movie never really gets below that surface. It sticks to the mean streets of Los Angeles without much introspection or analysis. But those surfaces are slick and beguiling.

Kirk Honeycutt

The Hollywood Reporter

Mann vividly captures the nocturnal pulse of East L.A. in this taut, confined game of cat and mouse. In the homestretch the thrills get too generic and farfetched for their own good. But the first two thirds are a knockout.

David Ansen

Newsweek

Shot by shot, scene by scene, Mann, whose recent work includes #147;Heat#148; and The Insider, may be the best director in Hollywood. Methodical and precise, he analyzes a scene into minute components.