| 80 |
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Zigging and zagging serenely between the extremes of deadpan, postmodern comedy and the antic, Max Sennett-style japery of yore.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
This is, after all, the kind of movie in which traffic accidents not only mess up getaways but also liberate goats to wander through the airport. We need more of that stuff.
|
| 75 |
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
With a cast of characters so large that Robert Altman would feel at home, Big Trouble manages to do a lot of clever little things and generate quite a few big laughs without wearing out its welcome.
|
| 75 |
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
There are stretches of big fun in Big Trouble, and little pleasures too.
|
| 75 |
USA Today
Claudia Puig
The script is consistently humorous, even if a few punch lines are predictable and the wit is neither highbrow nor split-a-gut funny.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
A slick, smart-alecky rat-a-tat crime comedy.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
Timing is key in a comedy like this, and Sonnenfeld keeps everyone and everything clicking. The pacing is swift and the laughs are steady.
|
| 70 |
Film Threat
Gareth Von Kallenbach
Light-hearted and enjoyable film that will have you exiting the theater with a smile.
|
| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
Russell Smith
A gleefully overplotted crime yarn that channels in sanitized form the perverse subtropical-noir sensibilities of Carl Hiassen.
|
| 63 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
It's the kind of movie you can't quite recommend because it is all windup and not much of a pitch, yet you can't bring yourself to dislike it.
|
| 63 |
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
A comedy that doesn't work if you think about it too much. Cut it some slack, however, and you just might have a good time.
|
| 60 |
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
With all its misfires, though, and with a Strangelovian twist that's a dud, Big Trouble remains a reasonably pleasant way to spend an hour and a half and still get change.
|
| 50 |
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
There are some decent jokes along the way. And none of the performances is bad. But they are limited by the script, which allows each character only one comic note.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
It seems naive, almost delusional.
|
| 50 |
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
The cast manages to maintain its dignity while sweat and dirt go flying around.
|
| 50 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
A feature that suffers from the rarity of its wit yet benefits from the briskness of its pace.
|
| 50 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
The folks at Disney's Touchstone Pictures would have been wiser, however, just to have forgotten all about this hyperactive farce.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
Robert K. Elder
Sonnenfeld mishandles the broad part of the comedic formula, preferring repetition to thematic development.
|
| 50 |
Village Voice
Nick Rutigliano
Cute intentions and shaggy comedy only get you so far when the world is falling down around you.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
It's a letdown from the man who brought us "Men in Black" and "Addams Family Values."
|
| 50 |
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
Such a feebleminded, good-natured comedy that it actually makes you laugh with that timeless gag of somebody pretending to cough while calling someone else a bad name.
|
| 50 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
It's a tribute to the film's goofy, inconsequential charm that it's still possible to laugh as someone sneaks a bomb past airport security.
|
| 50 |
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
A pleasant diversion, a lightly amusing criminal comedy with a plot so complicated even the people in it can't quite believe what's happening.
|
| 42 |
Portland Oregonian
Kim Morgan
It's something we might mildly enjoy on an airplane (well, not anymore) or on a lazy Sunday TV day when nothing else is on, but in theaters, it's a clunker.
|
| 40 |
Variety
Joe Leydon
A genially amusing ensemble farce that doesn't quite achieve enough momentum for liftoff.
|
| 38 |
Boston Globe
Renee Graham
Juggles so many stories and characters, nothing ever develops into more than a rough sketch.
|
| 30 |
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
It's not the bomb on the plane that scuttles this film: It's the mugging, ham-fisted direction and total absence of comic timing.
|
| 25 |
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
A mediocre movie that will be wiped from its stars' résumés with head-spinning speed.
|
| 25 |
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
What remains discomforting is their sheer failure to be funny.
|
| 20 |
LA Weekly
Manohla Dargis
Lazy, infinitely silly cartoon.
|
| 20 |
New Times (L.A.)
Robert Wilonsky
Feels like an in-joke, a party where everyone on the screen's having a better time than anyone in the theater, and they all couldn't care less. And that's just no fun at all.
|
| 20 |
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
The big problem with Big Trouble, despite a fine cast and director (Sonnenfeld made "Get Shorty" and "Men in Black"), is that the damn thing isn't funny.
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