41
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80EmpireKim NewmanEmpireKim NewmanA little slow and vastly outdated now, but nonetheless very watchable.
- 63The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottTo his credit, writer-director Richard Stanley, a South African native now living in England, brings his own bloody specialties to the banquet, and Hardware, although neither original nor especially thought-provoking, does serve its intended purpose by sending the hungry horror film fan away from the table satiated and nauseated. Compliments to the chefs. [12 Oct 1990]
- 50Boston GlobeJay CarrBoston GlobeJay CarrThe chief trouble with Hardware is that it doesn't seem to contribute anything uniquely its own to the genre, although it works hard dismembering bodies and otherwise crushing and tearing them apart with its circular saw and drill-bit arms after homing in on them with its ruby laser eyes. [14 Sep 1990, p.40p]
- 50Chicago TribuneJohanna SteinmetzChicago TribuneJohanna SteinmetzThough it does know how to hammer home a point, Hardware doesn't always have matching nuts and bolts. It has an anarchic quality, a jolting, disorienting rhythm that makes us unsure of time frame in certain stretches and of motivation in others. [14 Sep 1990, p.I]
- 50Miami HeraldBill CosfordMiami HeraldBill CosfordIt's one of those movies made by hard-core techies, meticulous about the "period" details and utterly neglectful of pretty much everything else, including such nuances as plain old plot. [15 Sep 1990, p.E6]
- 37Washington PostRichard HarringtonWashington PostRichard HarringtonWhile it's obvious that Stanley has seen a lot of genre films, he's not yet learned how to make one, though his shortcomings are less visual than dramatic and narrative; things look fast, but happen s-l-o-w. This Hardware needs a grease job.
- 33Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanHad the killer droid been conceived as a charismatic demon, Hardware might have delivered some B-movie kicks. As it is, there’s nothing particularly scary or awesome about this low-tech walking junk pile. It’s as if someone had remade Alien with the monster played by a rusty erector set.
- 30Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonLos Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonHardware isn’t long on ideas, emotions or character; it degenerates into a mindless slaughterhouse crescendo.
- 20The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyHardware is a sci-fi-horror film of such dopiness that it seems certain to become a cult classic somewhere. Movies that are so insistently silly often have the effect of seeming to expand the mind after midnight, which may have something to do with metabolism if not with controlled substances.