 Academic Jeffrey Middents wrote that "Crime Zone" was better received in the United States than in its native Peru, whose critics rejected it as a Peruvian film.Middents states that the film was not rejected for being a genre film but instead because it did not have any uniquely Peruvian aspects, especially with its cast of American actors.Michael Wilmington of the "Los Angeles Times" criticized the film as humorless and grim, but he wrote that it rises above its low budget roots to become a competent "Blade Runner" clone.