Other critics were less favorable, such as Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian", who gave the film two stars out of five. Some critics compared the film unfavorably to Wim Wenders' 1977 adaptation, "The American Friend". Nathan Rabin of "The Onion"s "A.V. Club" remarked, ""Ripley's Game" fatally lacks the squirmy, desperate humanity that made Wenders' take on the same material so hauntingly tragic. Like Malkovich's suavely generic international criminal, it's all craft and no soul, with complexity and depth functioning as collateral damage for its slick thriller mechanics." "Neil Young's Film Lounge", giving "Ripley's Game" a score of 6 out of 10, called the film a "largely uninspired" adaptation by a "pedestrian" director, calling "The American Friend" "brilliant" by comparison, feeling that "any viewer who is a fan of Highsmith and/or "The American Friend" will have major problems with this version."