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Malibu's Most Wanted
Warner Bros.

Malibu's Most Wanted reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 43 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
5.6 out of 10
based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 13 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sexual humor, language and violence

Starring Jamie Kennedy, Taye Diggs, Anthony Anderson, Blair Underwood, Regina Hall, Damien Wayans, Ryan O'Neal, and Snoop Dogg

Malibu's most wanted rapper, Brad "B-Rad" Gluckman, maintains a hip-hop lifestyle that is seriously hindering his father's bid for governor. When his dad's campaign manager tries to neutralize the "problem" and teach him a lesson about what gangsta life is really like, B-Rad proves to the player-haters that he's for real and wins the affection of a business-savvy South Central hottie. (Warner Bros.)


GENRE(S): Comedy  
WRITTEN BY: Fax Bahr
Adam Small
Jamie Kennedy
Nick Swardson
 
DIRECTED BY: John Whitesell  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: September 9, 2003 
Video: September 9, 2003 
Theatrical: April 18, 2003 
RUNNING TIME: 86 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The comedy is often crass and crude, but it makes telling points about how much of "race" is more about the words and gestures we use than the actual colors of our skins.
Read Full Review
75
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Kennedy doesn't take the character any deeper than a caricature of rich, nonblack fans of hip-hop culture. But as a caricature, he's fantastic.
Read Full Review
75
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Malibu's Most Wanted mines a well-worn comedic vein, but does so with a consistent good humor and surprisingly deft touch.
Read Full Review
70
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The racial satire is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but there's something exhilarating about so blunt a weapon being swung with such wild abandon.
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63
USA Today Mike Clark
Think of a B-grade "Bulworth" with lesser talents than A-listers Warren Beatty and Halle Berry.
Read Full Review
63
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Flashes of inspiration illuminate stretches of routine sitcom material; it's the kind of movie where the audience laughs loudly and then falls silent for the next five minutes.
Read Full Review
50
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
An unerring sign of the awfulness of Malibu's Most Wanted is a series of the least funny outtakes ever appended to a movie's closing credits.
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50
Variety Robert Koehler
Ultimately implodes, letting down the 'hood, hip-hoppers and Jamie Kennedy fans looking forward to his first major starring role.
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50
Village Voice Mark Holcomb
Most Wanted isn't aiming for social commentary, but it isn't too difficult to enjoy its good-natured humor.
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50
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
After an hour, or two-thirds of the film, they run out of gas. This is the kind of material that's easier to set up than it is to bring together in a satisfying fashion.
Read Full Review
50
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Think Jerry Lewis doing Eminem, or maybe it's Eminem doing Jerry Lewis (or maybe it's Pauly Shore doing Vanilla Ice), and you've got B-Rad.
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50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Too bad the film, which Kennedy spun from a stand-up skit, remains as blissfully unaware of its possibilities as B-Rad is of his absurdity.
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50
Chicago Tribune Loren King
Doesn't aim for more than padding a plot around Kennedy so he can do his Brad "B-Rad" Gluckman character full-force. And the joke soon wears thin.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle C.W. Nevius
A small triumph for lowered expectations.
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50
Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
Kennedy is funny, but too cartoonish to ever identify with -- Diggs and Anderson are the real stars of the show, and need more screen time.
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50
TV Guide Steve Simels
The film delivers some genuine laughs — Diggs and Anderson are a hoot throughout — and real rapper Snoop Dogg all but steals the picture with his brief voice turn as Ronnie Rizzat.
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50
Washington Post Jen Chaney
Wanted isn't quite the real Slim Shady of hip-hop comedies. But you might lose yourself in a few of its amusing moments.
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50
The New York Times Stephen Holden
Any movie that lumps Mr. O'Neal, Ms. Derek and Snoop Dogg (as the voice of a gangsta-rap answer to Stuart Little) under the same title can't be all bad.
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50
New York Post Megan Lehmann
Has laugh-out-loud moments of inspired idiocy. The problem is that this one-joke skit (done first and better by Britain's Ali G) has been given the Hamburger Helper treatment and stretched to feature length.
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42
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
A send-up of rap personality in which no one actually has a personality. The joke, alas, is on the movie.
Read Full Review
40
LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
Amiable but not especially funny film.
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40
Salon.com Charles Taylor
If only Malibu's Most Wanted had been a little more daring, it might have managed to satirize the playacting ludicrousness of gangsta style.
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30
The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Malibu's screenplay inexplicably required the creative efforts of four screenwriters (including Kennedy), which works out to about half a funny gag apiece.
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25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Victor Dwyer
So far as I can remember, no such film has ever asked its audience to experience the level of excruciating discomfort an actual fish must feel when it is gored by a sharp hook, yanked into the air, and left to flail in desperation before succumbing to an agonizing death... Until now.
Read Full Review
0
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
The film feels like a truly awful "Saturday Night Live" sketch padded out to such unholy lengths as to make "It's Pat" seems like a comic masterstroke.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 5.6 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jay H. gave it a5:
Sometimes it's funny and sometimes it's not so funny. The clever premise isn't utilized as well as it could have been. But it's enjoyable enough to sit through the whole movie.

Danielle D gave it a 9:
Awesome comedy.. Shrink Shrink Blinkity Blink, Try to make me think lol.

Sergei D. gave it a 9:
Blissfully ridiculous, but with characters you care about. The pace never sags and the comedy keeps popping. Kennedy is a fresh and original talent. His B-Rad character is an inspired comic creation. I just love this movie.

Jimmy D. gave it an 8:
It was good. Not a ten but there is a message there so it gets higher than a five. I thought it was funny. GO JAMIE KENNEDY!!!!!

Josh K. gave it a 10:
This movie is dope.

Brian D. gave it an 8:
Screw the critics, just becuase they dont know whats funny and not, B-rad is kennedy's funniest character on the JK experimint, i guess this is only funny to teenagers tho since most the critics are prolly big ol farts who dont know what rap is.

Mr. Idiot gave it a 10:
Not crap.

Read more user comments...

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