The film appeared on several top ten lists of the Best Films of 2007. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and describes the film's climactic fight scene as a benchmark that sets the same standard for fights as The French Connection did for car chases. The film retains an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

• "Ultraviolent, gruesome and riveting, David Cronenberg's transgressive crime drama, "Eastern Promises," may be one of the director's best recent films." — The Hollywood Reporter

• "A superbly wrought yarn set in the milieu of first-generation Russian mobsters in London that is simultaneously tough-minded and compassionate about the human condition, "Eastern Promises" instantly takes its place among David Cronenberg's very best films." — Variety

• "You walk out of Eastern Promises feeling spooked and sullied, as if waking from a noisome dream. "London is to blame," one of the characters declares, but I don't buy it. I blame David Cronenberg." — The New Yorker