Metascore
84 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 16
  3. Negative: 1 out of 16
  1. 100
    Broadcast News has a lot of interesting things to say about television. But the thing it does best is look into a certain kind of personality and a certain kind of relationship.
  2. Reviewed by: Michael Blowen
    100
    Broadcast News grows in your memory. It recalls an era when movies were made by, for and with three-dimensional characters you cared about. Let's hope it doesn't take James L. Brooks another four years to make another one. We can't wait that long. [25 Dec 1987, p.53]
  3. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    100
    In a film tracing the endless battles between style and substance, Brooks delivers both in abundance.
  4. Broadcast News is so diabolically clever that you rather expect it to be heartless, in the way that so much surface cleverness can be. No such thing. Heartless is the wrong word for this movie: It's insightful and understanding and marvelous fun, while giving up none of its thoughtfulness. [16 Dec 1987, p.1]
  5. Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    90
    In this judicious, irresistible romantic comedy, all the performers are tops. [14 Dec 1987, p.82]
  6. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    90
    Enormously entertaining, Broadcast News is an inside look at the personal and professional lives of three TV journlists.
  7. The dialogue in "Broadcast News" is so quick and clever I wanted to see the movie again the minute it ended because I knew I couldn't have possibly caught it all. I caught most of it though, and certainly enough to know that this is one terrific movie. [15 Dec 1987, p.1]
  8. 88
    Broadcast News is the crispest, classiest entertainment; it has what Hollywood has been missing. [16 Dec 1987, p.8]
  9. Reviewed by: Gerald Nachman
    88
    Love has become a tired movie theme, but rarely is it relegated to a subplot as it is in Broadcast News. That's just one of the reasons that makes James Brooks' ingenious film a different sort of movie. Another is how it subtly reveals the complex mingling of work lives and love lives, showing how they feed each other and, indeed, feed off each other, careers devouring entire relationships in hungry 30-second sound bites. [10 Jan 1988, p.17]
  10. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    88
    A film whose "TV movie" feel is at once incredibly appropriate and a notable drawback, Broadcast News is nevertheless worthy adult entertainment.
  11. Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    88
    News is right, completely right, until it slips just a bit at the end.By that time it hardly matters because you've seen the best of the holiday films, as well as the most all-around entertaining movie of 1987 - a bittersweet media comedy-drama that surpasses its potential. [16 Dec 1987, p.1D]
User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. 8
    Great movie and lots of fun. Albert Brooks is hilarious as are the others. I have watched it many times unlike most movies I see.... says something to me right there. Full Review »
  2. William Hurt,Albert Brooks,and Holly Hunter are what makes Broadcast News the masterpiece it is.William Hurt, Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter are hilarious. It's a great movie. Don't miss it. Full Review »