Civil Brand - Reviews

Reviews

The film received generally negative evaluations by critics despite the positivity it received at film festivals and in audience reviews. Rotten Tomatoes tallied a total of 16 out of 19 critic reviews not in favor of the film and a total of 3.8 starts out of 10, for an overall score of 16% on the tomatometer to be positive. Critics on Yahoo!Movies gave the film an overall grade of C- as opposed to users who gave the film an overall B- grade. The film was also given an overall score of 29 out of 100 based on the reviews from 13 critics ranging from the Chicago Reader to the Los Angeles Times.

Amongst the negative comments given, critics targeted Da Brat’s narration, the cast’s acting skills, and the indirect focus on the main issue of exploitation. They point out that this film is too similar to other films done in the past and that the filmmakers do a bad job of focusing the audience’s attention the main issue of prison exploitation by instead pursuing the inmates’ revenge against Clifton Powell’s character, Dease. While some cast members have positive performances, critics point out that they are masked by the overacting by other characters. Critics were also bothered by the narration of Da Brat’s character Sabrina, which they felt was unnatural and “gives the film a comedic tone, but Civil Brand doesn't want to be a comedy; it wants to be a thought-provoking message movie.”