The reviews lean towards a mixed response to Tequila Sunrise, with praise clustering around the performances and polished style rather than the crime story. Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfeiffer are repeatedly credited with giving the film appeal, even by critics who find the plotting unconvincing. The romantic atmosphere also wins support: The New Yorker finds the film more persuasive as a glamorous romantic fantasy than as a crime melodrama.
Reservations centre on an insubstantial, sometimes muddled story, with drug dealings and police operations competing for attention with the characters. The spread is fairly wide: Radio Times finds an entertaining thriller about former schoolfriends on opposite sides of the law, despite some excessive wordiness. The Los Angeles Times is much less persuaded, admiring the performances and Conrad Hall’s cinematography but finding that the complicated plot overwhelms the people in it.