Are Netflix movies critic-proof? New movie The Old Guard 2, starring Charlize Theron and Uma Thurman, was the No. 1 most-watched movie on Netflix during the week of June 30 – July 6 in the United States and the #1 movie in 74 countries despite a critics’ score of just 22% and an audience score of 36% on Rotten Tomatoes. The third most-watched movie on the global English list is 2021’s Infinite — a Mark Wahlberg starrer with a 17% rating from critics and 34% on the review aggregator’s Popcornmeter — while the 2013 Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups 2 is ranked third overall in the US and ninth globally despite an 8% on the Tomatometer and a 53% from fans.
Netflix has yet to report the Top 10 movies for the week of July 7—14, but independent streaming ratings tracker FlixPatrol lists July 10 release Brick at No. 1 as the most popular Netflix movie globally as of July 13. The German-language Netflix Original ranked third on the Top 10 Movies list in the US, behind new release Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Destination Wedding (July 11) and animated movie KPop Demon Hunters (June 20), which has spent three weeks in the Top 10.
The sci-fi mystery-thriller landed in the Top 10 in over 90 countries, including No. 1 in Germany, France, and Mexico, and the Top 5 in Australia, Canada, and the UK. That’s despite a 31% rotten from critics (based on 16 tallied reviews) and a 29% from Netflix users (based on more than 50 verified ratings).
The logline: “When a mysterious brick wall encloses their apartment building overnight, Tim and Olivia must unite with their wary neighbors to get out alive.” Brick stars Matthias Schweighöfer (Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, Army of Thieves), Ruby O. Fee, Frederick Lau, Murathan Muslu, Alexander Beyer, Sira-Anna Faal, Axel Werner, Salber Lee Williams, and Josef Berousek.
Lisa Kennedy writes for The New York Times, “Brick is built almost entirely of hints and twists. Even so, it feels spoiler-free to share that Liv, an architect who is trapped in an apartment building in Hamburg, Germany, concludes that the material composing the barricades is neither carbon fiber nor liquid granite,” adding: “Make sure to watch this thriller in its original German. Dubbed into English, it goes from mildly diverting to landing like a ton of, well…”
Decider‘s John Serba calls Brick “a portrayal of flaccid gamesmanship among paper-thin characters,” criticizing the film’s high concept as “a mysteriously impenetrable brick wall, and it stands between us and the characters.”
Terry Staunton for RadioTimes was more positive, writing, “The suspense and plot twists are handled confidently, teasing viewers with sundry red herrings along the way, but the characters aren’t developed nearly enough (some are paper-thin), making it hard to root for their survival. Nevertheless, it’s a perfectly watchable light fright-fest with sparse but effective camera trickery.”
RogerEbert.com critic Clint Worthington gave Brick a thumbs down, noting of Netflix’s German-language techno-thriller, “It’s hard not to be frustrated by the arch characters, the flat Netflix presentation of it all, the script that lumbers in translation to English (the German language performances are well and good, but Heaven help you if you attempt the English dub; in either case, the dialogue is clunky and utilitarian). What’s more, for its promise of B-movie thrills (and even one or two sci-fi vivisections), the violence feels relatively bloodless, going for TV-ready suspense rather than the nastiness a premise like this needs. It wants to be Ben Wheatley’s High Rise so bad, but it settles for a bit of Home Alone.” Worthington adds that in Brick, “High-concept potential, some decent production design, and a couple of game leads fall victim to a mystery that unfolds with thudding obviousness.”
Brick (2025) is now streaming on Netflix globally.
