| 90 |
Los Angeles Times
A drama of extraordinary power and insight with dazzling performances from not only Spacey but also Danny DeVito (who may well be at his best ever) and from newcomer Peter Facinelli.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Sharp-edged, perfectly timed, funny and thoughtful.
|
| 80 |
LA Weekly
It's a sweet chamber piece, beautifully played.
|
| 80 |
Newsweek
It is an intense study of the human condition, and man's relationship with God, aka the Big Kahuna.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The most totally appealing and seemingly heartfelt performance of (DeVito's) career.
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
Good acting and pungent dialogue.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
The dialogue is loaded with depth charges that take a while to explode beneath the surface.
|
| 70 |
Film.com
It's smart, funny and insightful and it's quite easy to see what attracted the stars to it.
|
| 63 |
New York Post
A flawed labor of love that's definitely worth a look.
|
| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
While it's done well enough here - written smartly, staged crisply and acted to the hilt - it doesn't last, except as a brief virtuoso piece for three players.
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Doesn't have the dramatic heft to warrant all its angst and anguish.
|
| 63 |
Miami Herald
Spacey, whose precise command of enunciation and diction, along with his wicked, reptilian charm, are strong enough to carry the show.
|
| 63 |
New York Daily News
The dialogue often sounds like arch Mamet, and John Swanbeck's direction is as spare as the hotel-room decor.
|
| 63 |
Boston Globe
It's no meal, but it'll tide you over.
|
| 60 |
TNT RoughCut
The Big Kahuna -- for its superb performances -- wants to be too much, but is about too little, working better as a series of fine monologues than as a cohesive story, the film's makers trapped somewhere between potential and reality, deal unclosed.
|
| 60 |
Washington Post
Never feels original, even though it's enjoyable to watch Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and newcomer Peter Facinelli going at it with snappy patter.
|
| 60 |
Dallas Observer
It doesn't have enough power in the first place to make a strong claim on our attentions.
|
| 58 |
Entertainment Weekly
That The Big Kahuna is hardly more than a sketch or curtain-raiser is not the fault of the play in itself -- it's short-film size, not feature-worthy.
|
| 58 |
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Peter Facinelli, as Bob, isn't up to verbal sparring with Kevin Spacey just yet.
|
| 50 |
Baltimore Sun
Forgive me for being underwhelmed.
|
| 50 |
TV Guide
Staff (Not credited)
It's a chamber piece that probably should have stayed where it started, in regional theater.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Reader
DeVito's low-key midlife crisis is consistently moving, but Spacey, saddled with the role of provocateur, is demonically boring.
|
| 50 |
Washington Post
The movie isn't about anything except acting, and although the acting it shows is brilliant, it makes exactly the point that is the opposite of the point it thought it was making: Acting isn't enough.
|
| 40 |
Film.com
Breaks no new ground and is tedious in the extreme.
|
| 40 |
The New York Times
If the movie looked any cheaper, you might think you were paying more to get into the theater than was spent on making the film.
|
| 33 |
Mr. Showbiz
A ponderous stage adaptation that expends only the mildest effort to overcome its staginess.
|
| 30 |
Austin Chronicle
Feels more like Barry Levinson's "Tin Men" on Prozac.
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