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8.9 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 14 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14

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  1. YoonMinC.
    Oct 5, 2003
    6
    Too glib and good-natured, this limp satire of Hollywood industry is utterly toothless. Altman's satire has neither genuine curiosity, scandalous insight, nor the ruthlessness or the passion to go for the jugular. Rather, every shallow exec gets a pat on their back for their ability to squeeze out of tight corners and make deals, and every celebrity--who eagerly lined up to appear as cameo--gets to play both martyr to and collaborator with the system, thereby both patting themselves on the back AND pretending to be self-critical. This is a long, long way away from Nashville which was composed of genuinely tragic-comic elements. Fairly decent script, competently acted, though Tim Robbins is no Gordon Gekko. … Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. MikeC.
    Mar 5, 2004
    9
    A very clever movie with a classic twist at the end (the Willis/Roberts bit). But Robbins is too blank. He is miscast I think. The lead here calls for somebody you can like AND hate. Robbins is just too likeable. He should have played the Gallagher role, or the D'Onfrio role. D'Onofrio should have been the lead. Or someone else, maybe Hugh Grant, for instance.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. AndyB.
    Jan 29, 2002
    10
    An absolute must-see. In my mind, this is Altman's best work. The first shot is the coolest I've ever seen.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  4. GarettT.
    Aug 2, 2003
    10
    One of the best films ever made by Altman, and one of the best films ever made.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  5. ThisIsGilbertMulroneycakesCallingFromRockall
    Dec 29, 2003
    10
    Once again, Yoon Min Cho and I have been watching different films with the same title. The film I saw is easily the least good-natured film Altman has ever made. It has curiousity, insight, ruthlessness and passion in spades, and no-one but no-one gets a pat on the back - or when they do, it's a very hard one that wooshes all the air out of their lungs at once. Don't overthink the celebrity cameos either - the only ones that are designed to make any impact are Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts. Almost everyone else will pretty much pass you by. Besides, YMC's spoilt the film for himself by overthinking like that. Who cares if they're acting the martyr while faking self-criticism? Seems to me that the joke's on them if they are, because Hollywood doesn't come out of this film in a very good light. Whatever, at least he didn't say - as some chancer pretending to be a movie critic here in Britain once said - that it was "sloppily directed". If I ever find that one person - and the search goes on - I will, unfortunately, be forced to beat him with a truncheon, take him into a room, tie him up, and force him to watch one of the most incredible single shots in cinema history prior to the entirety of "Russian Ark" - the opening eight-minute crane tracking shot of the hugest area you can imagine, a shot which can only have been done by Robert Altman, possibly conceptualised with the assistance of some of his herbal cigarettes. It's a beautiful thing. If it was up to me, no movie with a shot like that could get anything less than a green Meta rating. And even though it's not up to me - which is just as well, because I'd only break the website in the first few minutes - that's what it's getting, because it's a nasty masterpiece. Anyone else made it, it'd be the jewel in his crown. But Altman keeps making those great movies, so this is more like a little emerald on the side. Still gets 10 though.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  6. wrangham
    Dec 22, 2011
    10
    This film is one of the best satires on Hollywood ever made. Only Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard beats it. Tim Robbin's is a movie executive who screenwriters come to get there scripts made into films. When he starts receiving death threats from a screenwriter he turned down in the past his life takes a dramatic turn for the worst. The thriller plot is great but conversations about films overheard in the background of the movie are partly what make this a very interesting film to watch again and again. The main character murders someone in cold blood. Only a truly great filmmaker could make us care for him and take his side throughout. This film is a marvellously devilish satire.… Expand
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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
86 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 20 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 20
  3. Negative: 1 out of 20
  1. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    100
    Michael Tolkin's script abounds in such cynical wisdom, but it never loses an appreciation for the grace with which these snakes consume their victims. [13 April 1992]
  2. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    40
    The surface activity keeps one occupied, but never adds up to much because none of the characters is developed beyond the cartoon level; and the snobby sense of knowingness that's over everything is uncomfortably close to what the movie is supposed to be dissecting.
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  3. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    100
    A rare commodity. It's brilliant and a guilty pleasure. A subtle damning of things Hollywood, Robert Altman's seriocomedy slices its target with a thousand, imperceptible razor cuts.
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