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The Man
Metascore
33 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 27 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 27
  3. Negative: 14 out of 27
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  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    70
    Who knew Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy would make such a dynamic comic duo?
  2. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    67
    An action buddy comedy is such an offbeat and inspired notion that it's impossible not to think of it without smiling.
  3. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    63
    Levy and Jackson save the day, and the film. The Man isn't great entertainment, but it contains enough laughter-provoking material to make it worth a look.
  4. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Robert K. Elder
    50
    Both Jackson and Levy are better than director Les Mayfield's ("Blue Streak") meandering comedy.
  5. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    50
    Laugh? Well, once.
  6. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    50
    Les Mayfield doesn't know how to stage showdowns and chases so they're exciting or funny.
  7. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    50
    While nothing in the movie - least of all the two main performances - is especially fresh or original, it does have a few decent gags and amusing moments.
  8. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    50
    Passable--just.
  9. Variety
    Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    50
    Functional if thoroughly uninspired movie. Because it clings to the comedy-action template of "48 Hrs.," pic feels like it could have been made 15 years ago.
  10. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    40
    If it weren't for the running flatulence gag, the whole silly business might be mistaken for slight, clean, fast-moving fun.
  11. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: John Patterson
    40
    Jackson and Levy strike only damp sparks off each other, and they seem to have been introduced to each other --without benefit of rehearsal -- mere moments before the director cried "Action!"
  12. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    40
    It's the kind of featherweight slot-filler people turn off after 15 minutes on a plane or have on in the background on cable while they vacuum the floor.
  13. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    40
    The only characters in this formulaic crime comedy that I halfway liked were a couple of barely glimpsed wives, but the two leads keep it going through sheer determination.
  14. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    38
    Nobody needed to make it, nobody needs to see it, Jackson and Levy are too successful to waste time with it. It plays less like a film than like a deal.
  15. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    38
    The screenplay has no idea how to modulate the banter between the movie's talented stars so that it approximates affectionate and playful sparring.
  16. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    38
    Yet another screwed-up mess that will give audiences another excuse to shun the multiplexes this weekend.
  17. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    38
    In Roy Orbison terms, enduring this movie is like working for The Man.
  18. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    38
    Dreadful.
  19. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    33
    Most of The Man is as awful as last year's debacle, "Taxi," yet Levy, stuck in a no-brainer variation on Billy Crystal's predicament in "Analyze This," shows just enough noodgy passive-aggression to suggest what the movie might have been were it not shackled to buddy-action clichés.
  20. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marrit Ingman
    30
    Less a movie than a longform, live-action Celebrity Death Match between its leads, this wheezing comedy may herald the death knell of the interracial buddy-cop farce.
  21. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Crust
    30
    In some ways, The Man plays like a sequel to some terrible movie that was mercifully destroyed before it was ever released.
  22. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    30
    Unfortunately, The Man makes the mistake of assuming casting is all it takes to make a good comedy.
  23. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    25
    Arrives in theaters today with a sheet over its head and a tag on its toe. So to speak. What we have here is a complete systemic failure, a comedy that's not funny, with action that's not thrilling.
  24. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    10
    I haven't seen such meaningful insight into the nature of human cooperation since this morning's "Sesame Street."
  25. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ben Kenigsberg
    10
    Fuu . . . cryin' out loud, this movie's dumb.
  26. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    10
    Indeed, this is the very kind of lame-brained folly Levy and his SCTV cohorts used to mock on their old show; now it's how he makes rent.
  27. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    0
    It's just awful. Pointless, lazy, derivative and paralyzingly dull.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.7 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 12 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 7
  3. Negative: 3 out of 7
  1. MalcomM.
    3
    It's no wonder the critics bombed this film. The producers got the wrong man as The Man. Coz I'm the man. Yeah, that's right, me. I am The Man. I would have made a much better Man. Ya dig?… Full Review »
  2. JerashJ.
    9
    I liked it. Sure doesn't deserve all those pro reviewers who slammed it.
  3. JonD.
    9
    This movie was HILARIOUS. I can't understand the bad reviews. I think part of it is understanding Eugene Levy's sense of humor. The humor is in his expressions & hand gestures (It's very much a Jewish sense of humor.) He is a perfect foil for Samuel Jackon's kick-ass no-nonsense. So if you don't get, you lose!… Full Review »
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