Benicio Del Toro's New Murder Movie Has Netflix In A Choke Hold
Another week, another Netflix Top 10 list. This time, the streamer's charts have been dominated by "Reptile," the new movie starring Benicio del Toro, Justin Timberlake, and Alicia Silverstone which seems to have struck a chord with viewers worldwide — especially in Europe, for some reason (more on that later).
The latest offering from Netflix takes the form of a crime drama co-written and directed by Grant Singer in his feature film debut. The prolific music video and commercial director has turned his attention to movies and enlisted del Toro to not only star, but to co-write the screenplay alongside Benjamin Brewer. After debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2023, "Reptile" was sent into the wild with a modest theatrical release on September 22, 2023. Unfortunately, the critical response wasn't great, but that hasn't stopped audiences streaming the movie now that it's finally hit Netflix.
The general consensus on "Reptile" is that it never quite manages to pull all its threads together, with /Film's own Josh Spiegel lamenting in his review that del Toro's strong lead performance as Detective Tim Nichols couldn't save a muddled mystery. In "Reptile," Nichols hunts the killer of a young real estate agent, only to uncover a criminal conspiracy that, as you might expect from this kind of thing by now, threatens to drag Nichols himself into the sinister goings-on. And while critics were less than impressed (the film sits at 44% on Rotten Tomatoes), Singer can at least claim to have dominated Netflix with his first feature film.
Europeans can't get enough of Reptile
At the time of writing, "Reptile" is number one on the U.S. Netflix homepage. We don't yet have the streamer's official top 10 figures for the week of September 25 to October 1, 2023, but a quick glance at viewing data aggregation site FlixPatrol reveals the extent of the film's popularity. And popular it is, having hit Netflix on September 29, 2023 and almost immediately nabbing the top spot in the U.S.
But it wasn't just stateside that the detective drama garnered attention. It debuted at number one in 15 other countries, including Canada, the U.K., and even in such unlikely places as Bulgaria, Croatia, and Estonia. In fact, Europe seems to be particularly enamored with Netflix's latest crime thriller, with a large majority of the countries in which the film hit number residing on the continent.
Considering del Toro's Puerto Rican heritage, you might expect "Reptile" to do well in South America. But while it managed to hit the top 10 in multiple South American countries, it failed to debut in the number one spot upon release in any of them (although it's now sitting at number two in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and others). Meanwhile, "Reptile" has been number one every day since its launch in Serbia.
The film shows no signs of giving up the top spot as of Oct 2, 2023. However, this week is stacked with new streaming options, with Thursday alone seeing the return of "Lupin," "Our Flag Means Death," and of course the long-awaited "Loki" season 2. Such an array will surely entice some viewers away from del Toro's latest but it will be interesting to see when the official figures arrive for this week.
Netflix helped Reptile shed its skin after bad reviews
If you saw the "Reptile" trailer, you might well have been intrigued by the film, which promised to deliver Benicio del Toro in full-on jaded cop mode. What could go wrong? Well, a lot if you ask the critics. While del Toro delivers in a role that seems tailor-made for him, the rest of the movie doesn't quite live up to that performance — Alicia Silverstone's valiant efforts notwithstanding. Which would be a bit of a shame, but with the Netflix crowd lapping up Grant Singer's first movie, we can't feel too bad about it.
Interestingly enough, a 2011 drama starring Justin Timberlake — who plays Will Grady in "Reptile" — has also been enjoying some time in the Netflix top 10 over the past couple of weeks. Itself a critically derided effort, "In Time" has experienced somewhat of a renaissance on Netflix, with FlixPatrol's data showing the film maintaining a spot in the top 10 in multiple countries over the last couple of weeks. Whether that contributed to the success of "Reptile" is of course unclear, but it's interesting to see how these films that don't necessarily get the best critical reception upon release can find success on streaming services later on. Or perhaps it's just a reminder that we'll watch anything on Netflix if it crops up in the "recently added" category.