There’s more than one buddy movie making its premiere this weekend on the 2026 movie calendar, but By Any Means — starring Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, set in 1966 Mississippi — sounds like it’s on the complete opposite spectrum from Ryan Reynolds’ Cold War-era buddy comedy Mayday. Violence seems to be the name of the game in By Any Means, not comedy, and the reviews have some interesting things to say about director Elegance Bratton’s second feature.By Any Means teams mob hitman Greg Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg) with FBI agent Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) to investigate the murder of a civil rights leader by the Ku Klux Klan. Their approaches to discovering the truth differ, which is to say Scarpa’s not afraid to crack a few kneecaps. Let’s take a look at what critics have to say.Angie Han of THR notes that while Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is “reliably magnetic,” the movie lacks overall depth. Still, Han says by framing violence as the only option for Strider, he is let off the hook for engaging in it — as is the audience for enjoying some admittedly gripping moments. The critic writes: It is, in its way, sickly gratifying. In a world where justice is still too hard to come by for victims of racist violence, there’s a dark but undeniable satisfaction in watching a sadistic cop unceremoniously gunned down in the street, or a Klansman who’d threatened to hang Strider from a bridge find himself begging Strider not to hang him off a bridge — and particularly when the various beatdowns, shootouts and car chases are shot so crisply, and backdropped so elegantly by Terence Blanchard’s smoky jazz score.Mark Kennedy of the AP agrees, rating By Any Means 3 out of 4 stars. Elegance Bratton and Sascha Penn artfully straddle various divides and historical animosities, the critic says, while delivering a propulsive, muscular and unvarnished action thriller. Kennedy continues:It’s the interaction between the hitman and the FBI agent that’s at the heart of the movie, along with the lingering question of whether violence can ever be a corrective. The Mafia guy’s methods — smashing skulls, breaking bones with a baseball bat, putting guns into mouths — stun his partner. And while the violence gets a bit excessive, it’s kind of thrilling to see gutless KKK members beaten to a bloody pulp over and over.Giovanni Lago of Next Best Picture gives it 5 out of 10, saying Yahya Abdul Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg's chemistry is strong enough to be entertaining, and audiences who show up to watch Wahlberg drive a bat through a racist hillbilly’s kneecaps will be satisfied. Those hoping for Elegance Bratton’s exploration of the dark road that violence leads to may be left wanting. Lago writes:This moral fight would have more to chew on for audiences if [Sascha] Penn’s screenplay didn’t make it far more one-sided. While Wayne goes on about what the right thing to do is, he ultimately succumbs to Gregory’s more virulent nature, which is why the FBI hires him in the first place. It’s a tough ask for audiences to dismiss Gregory’s violent methodology, since those watching already accept how horrid a human he is from his uber-gruesome introduction and can easily set it aside in the face of how immorally unredeemable these hate-fueled antagonists are. Meanwhile, Derek Smith of Slant Magazine rates the movie just 1.5 stars out of 4, saying that given the plot of By Any Means, you might expect the film to interrogate how state-sanctioned violence gets justified as a path to justice. However, this film is mostly content to just celebrate revenge, according to Smith, who writes:By Any Means essentially sees Scarpa as an ultraviolent white knight, with Strider driving him around in a black sedan so that he can bust some heads and break some bones when answers are hard to come by. Sound familiar? Given the setup of Bratton’s film, the comparisons to Green Book, Training Day, and Driving Miss Daisy make themselves. But the exchange of ideas between the two men is so lopsided that Scarpa may as well be talking to himself.Kristy Puchko of Mashable says By Any Means feels like Mississippi Burning meets Green Book. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II gives an earnest performance that’s earnest and intense, Puchko says, but Mark Wahlberg’s mischievous screen presence makes it unclear what the movie’s message is and who it’s for. The critic continues:To their credit, Abdul-Mateen, Beharie, and Esposito give stirring performances that demand to be taken seriously. But Wahlberg, with his violent comic relief, undercuts any seriousness. Through him, By Any Means misses the mark as a movie with a mission, instead seeming to pander to a white audience. Scarpa's domineering presence suggests a coddling approach meant to assure white audience members that, like the beguiling hit man, they may not be exemplary allies, but at least they're not the KKK members actively seeking the death of their Black neighbors. Frankly, that wasn't enough then, and it's not enough now.Opinions are widely varied when it comes to By Any Means and its message about violence, which is further demonstrated in its 58% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The performances, however, drew pretty consistent praise, especially those of Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Nicole Beharie. If this sounds like a movie you’d like to check out, By Any Means is in theaters now, as of Friday, September 4.