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Thank You for Smoking
Metascore
71 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 36 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 36
  3. Negative: 0 out of 36
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  1. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    100
    A sly, smart and very funny caricature of corporate politics and image culture.
  2. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    88
    Both sides of the political fence will feel royally skewered. All that's lacking is a warning from the Surgeon General: This film will make you laugh till it hurts.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    Here is a satire both savage and elegant, a dagger instead of a shotgun.
  4. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    88
    The first film in a long time with a true gift of gab. A lot of the time people actually talk fast in it. Its wisecracks actually crack wise.
  5. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    88
    It's more fun than a turkey shoot. It's also one of the most entertaining riffs on American culture in years.
  6. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    88
    Funny stuff.
  7. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    88
    The razor-sharp satire Thank You for Smoking is the wittiest dark comedy of the year thus far. It has appeal to all sides of the political spectrum.
  8. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    88
    Fierce, fast and funny.
  9. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    83
    Cynical and cheerily merciless.
  10. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    83
    Much like his father Ivan (Ghostbusters), first-time director Jason Reitman has a broad, anything-goes comedic sensibility that allows silly gags and incidental humor to sneak in alongside the satirical barbs.
  11. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    80
    A very smart and funny movie directed by Jason Reitman, who also shrewdly adapted the screenplay from Christopher Buckley's savagely satiric novel.
  12. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    75
    Really a blistering satire about spin and the manipulation of the media.
  13. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    75
    The movie is strangely demure in its attempts to be wild.
  14. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    A glib satire with a slick surface, lots of snappy patter and nothing to sell but its own cleverness.
  15. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    75
    Eckhart is dazzling as a born phony.
  16. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    Like its protagonist, the movie is smart, soulless, glib, and utterly charming -- just the thing to warm up a movie season that's been late to bloom.
  17. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Glenn Kenny
    75
    This is the kind of comedy that gives you two meaty underhanded jokes for every big obvious guffaw. It doesn't add up to much more than that, but there's no earthly reason why it ought to.
  18. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    75
    Snarky and enjoyable, but it could have been a ferocious black comedy. No Thank You For Playing It Safe.
  19. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    75
    It's got a bust-out performance from Eckhart that's worth remembering.
  20. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    75
    In some ways, Thank You for Smoking does not bemoan smoking as much as it bemoans people's willingness to be duped by smooth-tongued orators.
  21. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    70
    The movie is amusing and clever but only skin deep. It lacks the acidity and rage of a satire such as "Network."
  22. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    70
    As sleek, clever and cocky as its anti-heroic protagonist, Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), a hard-driving lobbyist for the tobacco industry who can turn the most unpromising PR quagmire to his own advantage with a few well-turned lies posing as rational argument.
  23. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    70
    Glibly funny and eager to please.
  24. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    70
    Playing a Big Tobacco lobbyist, Aaron Eckhart puts his golden news-anchor good looks and smooth conviction to better use than in any pic since his breakthrough film, "In the Company of Men."
  25. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    70
    Of all the funny things in Thank You for Smoking, and there are many, the most striking is Robert Duvall's absolutely mirthless laugh.
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  26. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    70
    Thank You for Smoking is a nifty but slight movie. Some of the writing is obvious, and the dramatic structure is flimsy, if not downright arbitrary. But Eckhart, in a sure-handed performance, holds the picture together.
  27. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    70
    As the substantially faithful movie version demonstrates, the story of Thank You for Smoking resides in that libertarian netherworld where the far left and the far right march shoulder to shoulder.
  28. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    63
    Despite its many strengths, Thank You for Smoking hovers around mediocrity, and its lasting impression is like a puff of smoke that is dissipated by a strong gust of wind.
  29. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Simon Houpt
    63
    A slick and star-studded comedy trumpeting a glib libertarianism that talks a good game but is as woolly headed as the liberalism fixed in its sights.
  30. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Jeremy Mathews
    60
    The film isn't as funny as the highly publicized conflict over the sell of its distribution rights might have you believe, but does contain a series of energized and entertaining performances that stop it from being a complete failure.
  31. Empire
    Reviewed by: Dan Jolin
    60
    A laudably amoral and superbly caustic comedy for those who like their satire strong and unfiltered.
  32. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    60
    The chief problem with Thank You for Smoking, isn't that it's over the top; it's that it fits so neatly UNDER the top.
  33. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    60
    Instead of hitting the gas and allowing the scenario to rock 'n' roll with g-forces, Reitman keeps his movie small, unvaried, slack, and deliberately and oddly, completely smoke-free.
  34. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    60
    To work onscreen, Thank You for Smoking needed to be fast, scruffy, and offhand. But even the good lines here last a self-congratulatory beat too long. Aaron Eckhart is likable, but he's too hangdog and naturalistic for a part that could have used a brisk young Jack Lemmon type.
  35. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    60
    As a satire on Tobacco Inc.'s outrageous ability to market carbon monoxide as the elixir of life, this movie should be packing more nicotine.
  36. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    50
    For a film that's ostensibly about modern American society's love affair with addictive behavior sex, drugs, rock & roll its bark is much worse than its bite.
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.6 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 104 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 46 out of 51
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 51
  3. Negative: 1 out of 51
  1. Cables
    10
    Lewis obviously doesn't know what he's talking about. This is one of the funniest movies i've seen in ages.
  2. ZiggyStardust
    8
    Very smart movie, very well written, with great acting and superb humour (the type only a few can enjoy). Really sucks you into the whole world. Definitely worth a watch!… Full Review »
  3. Lopez17
    10
    From 1575 to the present, there have always been those who have opposed the use of tobacco from Mexico to the Ottoman Empire to Bavaria, Kursachsen, and certain parts of Austria in the late 1600s. Some form of Government in some part of the world has always tried to ban or outlaw the use of tobacco. In the 1500s the Catholic Pope Urban VII in particular threatened to excommunicate anyone who "took tobacco in the porchway of or inside a church, whether it be by chewing it, smoking it with a pipe or sniffing it in powdered form through the nose". The Ottoman sultan Murad IV prohibited smoking in his empire in 1633 smoking was also banned in Berlin in 1723, in Königsberg in 1742, and in Stettin in 1744. These bans were repealed in the revolutions of 1848. The first building in the world to have a smoke-free policy was the Old Government Building in Wellington, New Zealand in 1876 this was due to the fact that the building is the second largest wooden building ever constructed and it was out of concern that smoking may cause a fire. From then to now there are groups that fight to have cigarettes removed from gas stations, supermarkets etc. Then there are those who promote Big Tobacco and there products. They lobby s to speak on behalf of some of the worlds most powerful tobacco industries men like Nick Naylor(Aaron Eckhart) the protagonist of Jason Reitman's feature film debut "Thank you for Smoking" where as some people, in Eckhart's biting narration states, "Michael Jordan plays ball, Charles Manson kills people I talk" and indeed he does. "Thank you for not Smoking is not only a dark and searing satire on the anti-smoking issue it is also an intelligent and thought provoking film that asks you to ask yourself and ask others the ideas surrounding the big tobacco business and there so called merchants of death. However, ask yourself this, is it truly right to take away a persons right to smoke? Jason Reitman's feature film debut "Thank you for Smoking" is a cynical, searing, hilarious, and thought provoking look into the world of politics and the men and women who occupy the seats on both sides of the table, so to speak. Reitman(Son of veteran director Ivan Reitman) adapted screenplay from Christopher Buckley's 1994 satirical novel of the same name is a film that is as intelligent as it is biting this film is a deeply funny look at how one man(Aaron Eckhart) seeks to promote cigarettes. Reitman shows he has a real true talent for writing and directing, something his father Ivan lacks. Reitman is an intelligent director and an even more intelligent writer he knows how to flesh out each and every character at there duly appointed time he knows how to write smart, engaging, thought provoking dialogue and cheerfully offensive dialogue that makes you laugh as well as think. Satire is a tricky territory and Reitman is a genius when it comes to this tricky territory he knows how to play out the ideals on the anti-smoking issue to its full extent while still maintaining a strong sense of humor and political reason all the while the audiences is sitting there thinking and laughing . As it should be "Thank you for Smoking" targets two specific audiences the political opinionated and everyone else those who have strong political opinions(much like me) will either love this film, hate this film, or just downright despises it(I know some politicians who would really dislike this film). For those who are not politically opinionated will love this film in its entirety with its Delightfully unscrupulous characters, witty and intelligent dialogue and abundance of laughs this is the right ticket for anyone who likes to see people make fun of other people make fun of the people who run the country. I love this film, I love everything about this film I love the characters, the cynical sense of humor and the gloriously unscrupulous cynicism that this film unleashes on the anti- smoking issue. "Thank you for Smoking" is one of the best political satires I have seen since Stanley Kubrickâsâ Dr. Strangelove or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb"(1964) or read since Joseph Heller's "Catch 22". "Thank you for smoking" is a political satire for our times just like "Dr. Strange love or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb"(1964) was for its time. "Thank you for Smoking" is a film for the times a film for the moment, a film for the ideals of the 21 century and quite frankly one of the best films of the last decade. This is the kind of film you have to see with an open mind and strong ideals and expect not shallow, vulgar, and raunchy humor but smart, politically perceptive humor that accentuates the films already high intelligence. Reitman and his all-star cast not only help make this film one of the funniest satires in years but one of the best films of the last decade.… Full Review »
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