Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Feig keeps throwing so much stuff at you - gross-out gags, chases, brutal violence, not to mention actors working their heads off - that he finally wears down your resistance.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Put the woman in any damn thing she pleases. She's that good.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
"Spy," plus popcorn, feels just right.

Name : Mark Olsen / Alias : Los Angeles Times
"Spy" may not be a great movie, but it is great fun. And at times it will have you wondering if there's that much of a difference.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
The fun of "Spy" comes in watching the right actors mess with their own images, blithely.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
Melissa McCarthy doesn't just adopt guises to fool the bad guys in "Spy." Part of what makes the action comedy such a loopy blast is the identity shifts she pulls on the audience.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
McCarthy is not a one-size-fits-all talent; she needs the right vehicle. Here, Feig has given her precisely the right vehicle, and she shines.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
McCarthy and Byrne's scenes together are cruelly hilarious, with the kind of no-holds-barred insult humor that makes you instinctively drop your jaw and cover your mouth.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
With the overlong, limp and lazy "Spy," Feig has lost his mojo.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
The characters are one-dimensional. The narrative is flat and obvious.

Name : Jake Coyle / Alias : Associated Press
It's a globe-trotting tour of McCarthy's talent, throughout which she's practically always kicking butt. Who was that double-O-what's-his-face, anyway?

Name : Dana Stevens / Alias : Slate
Spy lampoons sexism without abandoning sex-a tough tone for a comedy to strike but one that Feig and McCarthy manage to accomplish with both a sense of justice and a sense of humor.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
Finally, after the promise shown in "Bridesmaids" but sold short since by weak scripts in films like "Tammy" and "Identity Thief," Melissa McCarthy gets a movie vehicle worthy of her talents.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
McCarthy and director Paul Feig, are a dynamite team, with Feig's script a bonanza of zingers and femcentric subtext.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
[It] does have its moments, and it does have McCarthy. And while it's not worth much more than a rent, it does make us look forward to what she's going to do with "Ghostbusters."

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
Feig's movies aren't particularly stylish - the visuals in "Spy" are serviceable at best, and the makeup is particularly un-subtle - but they possess a silly, sweet streak that makes them irresistibly infectious.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
McCarthy has much more to discover about herself as an actor and an avatar and a cultural signifier, and I hope she doesn't get trapped by one role, one genre or one franchise. But her campaign of conquest is going well.

Name : John DeFore / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Melissa McCarthy comes into her own as a comic star in Spy, stepping out from recent supporting- and co-headlining roles to become the big screen A-lister she promised to be in 2011's Bridesmaids.

Name : David Ehrlich / Alias : Time Out
The tricksy plot allows McCarthy to explore the full range of her comic persona, and Feig is smart enough to get out of her way as the mild-mannered Susan starts wielding f-bombs as comfortably as Bond whips around a Walther PPK.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
If a Spy sequel isn't already in the works, they better get cracking. Nefarious terrorists and numskull guys await.

Name : Randy Myers / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
Feig draws out McCarthy's best, and she's up to the challenge, whether it's expressing tenderness and anger or slapsticking her way through the physical humor.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
The busy, silly script allows Ms. McCarthy to be her own best sidekick, in effect an entire sketch-comedy troupe unto herself.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Everyone involved seems to have had a good time with "Spy," and so will the audience.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
Rare is the broad mainstream comedy that can goof on its bigger-budget Hollywood siblings while providing a few moments of sincere uplift.

Name : Richard Brody / Alias : New Yorker
Melissa McCarthy shines in this clever action-comedy showcase provided by the writer and director Paul Feig, but the movie's tightly contrived plot and uniformly positive emotions constrain her comic genius.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
Hollywood is gradually figuring out what to do with Melissa McCarthy.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
Melissa McCarthy gets the funniest, most versatile and sustained comic showcase of her movie career in this deliriously entertaining action-comedy.

Name : Andrew Lapin / Alias : NPR
Spy is actually quite funny. It even proves itself to be in the same league with the first two films in Feig's loose comic trilogy, Bridesmaids and The Heat .

Name : Liam Lacey / Alias : Globe and Mail
Although this fish-out-of-water scenario might sound over-familiar, both the humour and action here are startling and visceral .

Name : Bob Mondello / Alias : NPR
Feig's cheerfully feminist script makes only as much sense as it absolutely must, while providing McCarthy with chances to crack wise, show vulnerability and class, and do some of the more elegant pratfalls you'll have seen in a while.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
If they do a sequel (teased in the final seconds), they should cut down on the endless, tedious chases and shootouts.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : L.A. Weekly
Spy is a call to arms for the cowed, and a riotous skewering of the workplace kings

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
The intel is in: Melissa McCarthy can carry a comedy. Specifically, "Spy."

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
It's as if writer/director Paul Feig studied an Ian Fleming list of everything you're not supposed to do in a spy yarn, then did it all - thereby producing an excellent adventure movie so funny you can barely catch your breath between scenes.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
In Spy, she's playing a caricature that is almost a complete character. The movie isn't out to humiliate her. It wants to prop up a version of heroism that makes sense for McCarthy.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A breezy, enjoyable comedy, and an ideal vehicle for the endearing McCarthy.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
One part parody, one part thriller, one part lethal satire of movie sexism.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
What does work, in every scene, is Melissa McCarthy's performance. She's as funny and as winning as anyone in the movies these days.

Name : Robert Abele / Alias : TheWrap
Feels old-fashioned in its action-thriller gratification and in-the-moment about everything else.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
From a purely narrative perspective, there's nothing new here but like a new arrangement of a familiar tune, the slight changes make it fresh and enjoyable.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
"Hell or High Water" is a story about men, but the movie is really about a mindset, a way of life, the strength and resolution required to make a living in a world that doesn't care about you.

Name : Matthew Lickona / Alias : San Diego Reader
Director David Mackenzie tells a sad story about desperate characters that is somehow as thrilling as it is heartbreaking.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
Let's make it easy: If you like sitting in a dark room looking at pictures that move, you should see "Hell or High Water." It's terrific.

Name : Glenn Whipp / Alias : Los Angeles Times
"Hell or High Water" is a gripping heist drama keenly attuned to the outsider politics of our times.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
The cast is uniformly magnificent, but it's Pine who steals the movie.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : MTV
We don't live in an era of white hats and black hats. Maybe we never did. Today, everyone is gray - or, in Mackenzie's color scheme, faded blue and sad beige

Name : Tom Huddleston / Alias : Time Out
You've seen it all before - but hell, it's worth seeing again.

Name : Katie Walsh / Alias : Tribune News Service
A dusty, blood-soaked myth of crime and punishment far from fantasy, a finger planted on the pulse - and the trigger.

Name : Mike D'Angelo / Alias : AV Club
Hell Or High Water plays out in unexpected ways, culminating in a tense final showdown that's somehow simultaneously an epilogue, the story having already concluded. (Neat trick, that.)

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
Scenic, well-paced and rich in dialogue and character, the film is Coen brothers for the squares, and maybe the best middle-of-the-seat drama of the summer.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
It's not every day that we see a movie that's fresh, exciting and dangerous, slapping you from explosive laughter to stunned attention. Mood and atmosphere and interesting character acting are rarely handled as well as this.

Name : Stephanie Zacharek / Alias : TIME Magazine
The plot is clever, and its intricacies are beautifully worked out.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
Hell or High Water isn't just a great time at the movies, it's one of the year's best pictures.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : Village Voice
Sheridan's script - filled with quotable zingers, telling character details, and topical anger - comes to vivid, exciting life with that cast, in particular Bridges, who seems to have finally found another gruff, down-home type worthy of his talents.

Name : Mara Reinstein / Alias : Us Weekly
The tension and anger in this neo-Western practically radiate off the screen.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Hot damn, this one's a goodie - a mesmerizing, modern-day western that moves with the coiled intensity of a rattlesnake ready to spring.

Name : Danny King / Alias : Village Voice
Hell or High Water's deliberate pacing gives it the feel of a heist story with its feet stuck in mud - and that's a good thing.

Name : Calvin Wilson / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Much more than a genre piece, "Hell or High Water" takes you places that you thought the big screen had forgotten.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
You might have to go back to 1967's Bonnie and Clyde to find a film about bank robbers that feels as of its time as David Mackenzie's Hell or High Water.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Hell or High Water is a rare humanist Western: Finality is the true villain.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : New York Daily News
It's got a dry dusty power, and a dark sense of humor. And when it finally saddles up and really rides, pardner, you'd best get out of its way.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
"Hell or High Water" overcomes its vapid political leanings with loads of West Texas atmosphere, smart dialogue and acutely observed relationships.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
You could freeze nearly any frame of Hell or High Water and you'd be looking at a work of art. It's stark and breathtaking and gorgeous to behold.

Name : Richard Brody / Alias : New Yorker
The action is as schematic and artificial as a chess game, and the characters have as much identity as its pieces.

Name : Christopher Orr / Alias : The Atlantic
Hell or High Water is a genre film that transcends genre, an iconic American tale that is nonetheless firmly grounded in both place and time. One of the best movies of the year.

Name : Jeannette Catsoulis / Alias : New York Times
If there's such a thing as an easygoing thriller, then "Hell or High Water" is it. The stakes may be steep, but the characters can seem more nonchalant than nervous.

Name : Chris Klimek / Alias : NPR
The 101 minutes that follow essentially comprise a feature-length Nebraska-era Bruce Springsteen song, their brilliance lying in the details.

Name : Liz Braun / Alias : Toronto Sun
Hell or High Water is set up like a cops and robbers drama, but it plays out like a complicated western - no black-hats-and-white-hats simplicity here. It's all moral shades of grey.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
In this bleak West Texas landscape where everyone seems to be struggling, you find yourself rooting, inexplicably, for all of them against a clear villain: the faceless, predatory bank.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
A film with the sort of sweeping grandeur that today's filmmakers rarely aspire to, let alone fulfill.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Hell or High Water is at once a tale of desperation in hard times, and a keenly observed character study - or studies.

Name : Walter V. Addiego / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Despite the weighty issues at play, there's much about the movie to simply enjoy - the camaraderie of the brothers and the lawmen, and the not infrequent elements of humor.

Name : Cary Darling / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
Texas is as much a riveting character in [this] fascinating crime drama as the brothers turned bank robbers at its heart or the laconic lawman who coolly follows them across the sun-hardened landscape like a hunter on the trail of his next kill.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
When the final showdown arrives, the men are redefined by their deeds and what began as a sharp genre piece deepens into a subtle character study.

Name : Peter Sobczynski / Alias : RogerEbert.com
It's frustrating that Hell or High Water contains so many good things that just don't coalesce into a fully satisfying moviegoing experience.

Name : A.A. Dowd / Alias : AV Club
Audiences have been down this dusty backroad before. The thrill of High Of High Water is in its skillful, offbeat execution.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
They don't make them like this anymore - but they still can, and here's the proof.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
"Hell or High Water" has one foot in pulp conventions, and the other in some stimulating, morally tricky contemporary answers to those conventions. What the movie has, above all, is a dramatic line, clean and straight.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
In a word, "Hell or High Water" is terrific.

Name : Owen Gleiberman / Alias : Variety
"Hell or High Water" is a thrillingly good movie - a crackerjack drama of crime, fear, and brotherly love set in a sun-roasted, deceptively sleepy West Texas that feels completely exotic for being so authentic.

Name : David Rooney / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
A soulful outlaw tale with a socioeconomic perspective and a rich sense of place.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
All of the performers in this film, right down to the bit players, are quite good, but Bridges demonstrates yet again that he is one of the finest actors in America.