---
title: "Vice: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/vice/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/vice"
critics_score: 66
critics_reviews: 25
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Vice (2018): what the critics said

Critics' score 66 from 25 reviews: 15 positive, 5 mixed, 5 negative.

Most critics come down in favour, and on one point they are nearly unanimous: Christian Bale’s performance as Dick Cheney. Reviews describe it as transformative, uncannily convincing and the film’s dramatic centre; even the hostile notices concede it. Amy Adams draws steady praise in support, and those who enjoy the film enjoy Adam McKay’s formal games too: the freeze frames, the cutaways, the fourth-wall breaks, the narrator trick. To its admirers it is angry, funny and timely.

The reservations cluster on McKay himself. A sizeable minority find the gimmicks glib and the satire smug, preaching to people who already agree and offering anger where insight is wanted. The AV Club calls Bale the film’s sole virtue. Little White Lies thinks it turns Cheney into a Bond villain and flattens complicated politics into conspiracy. The Wrap argues the comic approach is the wrong one for so grim a subject. The spread is wide, running from raves to flat dismissals.

## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 21 December 2018. 

Brainy, audacious, and fun, the savage satire is a tonic for troubled times that delights in throwing everything on screen and playing games with structure while delivering a dark warning about ignoring facts. It succeeds through committed acting, especially Bale’s transformative portrayal of Cheney and Adams as his driving force.

[Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-vice-review-20181221-story.html)

## The Hollywood Reporter — Todd McCarthy

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 17 December 2018. 

McKay delivers a scorchingly audacious dark tragicomedy about Cheney's rise that illuminates history with buoyant humor and depth. Bale's transformative performance as the shape-shifting Cheney is singled out for particular praise.

[Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/vice-review-1166477/)

## Empire — Andrew Lowry

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 20 January 2019. 

It is smart filmmaking from a director who improves with every film and features a near career-best from Bale. The film mixes formal games and strong performances to deliver an angry lesson in American civics.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/vice-review/)

## Radio Times — Terry Staunton

Rating ★★★★. 22 January 2019. 

McKay's savage satire chronicles Cheney's career as a sinister true-life drama of Shakespearean proportions, with standout performances especially Bale's uncannily convincing portrayal. The gimmicks and showboating make it divisive, but the calibre of the acting is inarguable.

[Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/vice-review-a-sinister-true-life-drama-of-shakespearean-proportions/)

## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 17 December 2018. 

The critic finds the film entertaining and nihilistic, with a standout central performance from Christian Bale as the blandly magnificent Dick Cheney. McKay's meta gags and structural tricks are effective, making it stronger than his previous effort The Big Short.

[Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/dec/17/vice-review-christian-bale-dick-cheney-biopic)

## Time Out — Joshua Rothkopf

Rating 4/5. 18 December 2018. 

McKay delivers a daringly impressionistic biopic anchored by Bale's astounding, vicious performance as Cheney, with radical editing and audiovisual flair that feels timely. Some metaphors and bookends strain, but the jazzy momentum and pop-cultural details carry it.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/vice)

## Total Film

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 21 January 2019. 

Vice is political satire at its keenest, less a conventional biopic than a howl of frustration. Christian Bale delivers a massive, transformative performance that outstrips his previous work.

[Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/vice-review/)

## The Independent

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 24 January 2019. 

The film is bravura storytelling that offers a fast, witty tour through recent US politics. Bale's performance makes Cheney both buffoonish and sinister.

[Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/vice-review-christian-bale-dick-cheney-steve-carell-adam-mckay-a8744336.html)

## The New York Times — A.O. Scott

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 17 December 2018. 

The film presents a negative great man theory of history, showing how Dick Cheney bent reality to his will through discipline, guile, and luck. It mixes psychohistory, domestic drama, and sketch-comedy satire, grounded in Christian Bale’s canny performance, and serves as a cure for amnesia about recent events.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/movies/vice-review.html)

## The Times — Kevin Maher

Rating ★★★★☆. 18 December 2018. 

The film is an effervescent pop biography that eviscerates its subject while showcasing Bale's physical transformation and McKay's formal inventiveness through freeze frames, cutaways, and a surprise narrator twist.

[Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/vice-review-7m5tcmgtn)

## Vulture

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 17 December 2018. 

Bale's spot-on Cheney impersonation anchors the rollicking comic anti-hagiography despite gimmicks. The film's structural problems and reliance on journalistic sketches rather than dramatic heft are noted as drawbacks.

[Read the review](https://www.vulture.com/2018/12/vice-is-gimmicky-but-christian-bales-cheney-is-spot-on.html)

## Little White Lies — Hannah Strong

Rating 4/3/2. 22 January 2019. 

McKay's satirical portrait of Dick Cheney turns the character into a Bond-villain parody, blaming him for far too much while oversimplifying complex politics into a smug conspiracy. Bale's performance is praised as infinitely watchable and terrifyingly unknowable.

[Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/vice)

## The AV Club — Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

Rating C. 17 December 2018. 

Bale's impression of Cheney is the film's sole virtue amid glib and superficial material. The spaghetti-at-the-wall approach and fourth-wall breaks are singled out as mostly second-rate and under-dramatized.

[Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/christian-bale-s-dick-cheney-impression-is-the-only-vir-1830971498)

## Film Comment — Jonathan Romney

Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 21 December 2018. 

The film mixes effective anger and strong performances with an uneven, sometimes overly comedic tone that undercuts its seriousness. Bale's physical and vocal transformation into Cheney stands out as the dramatic core.

[Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/film-of-the-week-vice/)

## Slant Magazine — Chuck Bowen

Rating 2/4. 17 December 2018. 

McKay's noisy, self-conscious biopic preaches to the choir with isolated bits of lunacy but lacks momentum and curiosity about its subject. Bale's performance offers some grace notes, but the director's revulsion overrides empathy.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/vice-2018/)

## Screen Daily

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 17 December 2018. 

There is anger but no insight in this glib, unfocused satire that preaches to the choir and becomes less persuasive as it goes; McKay squanders Bale's convincing performance on a self-satisfied portrait that fails to deliver a compelling Cheney.

[Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/vice-review/5134628.article)

## Evening Standard — Matthew Norman

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 25 January 2019. 

The portrait is too crude to shed meaningful light on its subject despite strong performances. McKay's narrative gimmicks and lack of psychological depth undermine the biopic.

[Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/vice-review-this-crude-portrait-fails-to-shed-light-on-a-heartless-veep-a4048616.html)

## IndieWire — Eric Kohn

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 17 December 2018. 

Bale gives a perfect impersonation of Cheney, but the satire feels overly ambitious and messy in its execution. The film is praised for ambition yet critiqued for trying too hard with its stylistic flourishes.

[Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/vice-review-christian-bale-dick-cheney-1202027625/)

## Collider — Matt Goldberg

Rating A-. 17 December 2018. 

The film delivers an entertaining but damning portrait of unfettered power operating in secret. It prioritizes showing the broader political landscape and Cheney’s role in it over deep character insight, with strong performances grounding the absurd elements.

[Read the review](https://collider.com/vice-review/)

## /Film — Chris Evangelista

Rating 9/10. 17 December 2018. 

The critic finds it a funny, infuriating, scathing portrait of Cheney as the architect of modern political woes, praising Bale's transformative performance while noting the unsubtle approach.

[Read the review](https://www.slashfilm.com/562767/vice-review/)

## Deadline — Pete Hammond

Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 20 December 2018. 

The critic praises McKay as one of the best cinematic satirists for this unconventional biopic of Dick Cheney. Bale delivers a pitch-perfect, wickedly funny impersonation, with strong support from Adams and others; the film is smart, sharp, relevant and funny.

[Read the review](https://deadline.com/video/vice-review-christian-bale-amy-adams-dick-cheney-adam-mckay-political-satire/)

## The Playlist — Rodrigo Perez

Rating B+. 17 December 2018. 

The critic praises the blisteringly angry and funny condemnation of Cheney, highlighting the satirical style, strong performances especially Bale and Adams, and the film's bold approach to exposing power abuses.

[Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/vice-adam-mckay-review-2-20181217/)

## Den of Geek — Don Kaye

Rating 3/5. 17 December 2018. 

Bale delivers an astonishing performance as the calculating Cheney, supported by strong turns from Adams and Rockwell, but the film’s satirical approach feels mismatched to its grim subject matter and results in an uneven, standard biopic structure.

[Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/vice-review/)

## The Ringer — Adam Nayman

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 21 December 2018. 

The film attempts an ambitious satirical condemnation of Cheney and Republican power plays over decades but feels overly strained and self-conscious. It lacks the humor and lightness of McKay’s earlier work, resulting in a flawed effort despite some strong performances and a solid thesis.

[Read the review](https://www.theringer.com/2018/12/21/movies/adam-mckay-vice-dick-cheney-review)

## The Wrap — Candice Frederick

Fi1m's normalised score 35/100 (inferred from the text). 20 December 2018. 

The critic finds the film mediocre overall, arguing McKay's wacky comedic approach is the wrong tack for the subject and fails to be insightful or confrontational. It highlights how white mediocrity rises in politics but pokes fun without accountability.

[Read the review](https://www.thewrap.com/vice-film-review-dick-cheney-christian-bale-amy-adams/)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/vice.md