Metacritic Film

Get Bruce!

Starring Bruce Vilanch, Bette Midler, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, and Whoopi Goldberg

MPAA RATING: R for language and risque humor

Miramax Films
Documentary
82 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters September 17, 1999

This documentary goes behind the scenes with Bruce Vilanch, one of the most sought after comedy writers in Hollywood. (Miramax Films)

DIRECTED BY
Andrew J. Kuehn

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

61 / 100

Critic Reviews

100 San Francisco Chronicle
An extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the comedy game.
85 Mr. Showbiz
A hilarious and utterly faboo documentary...you'll be begging for more.
75 New York Post Rod Dreher
An irresistible documentary tribute that's as yummy and insubstantial as a sackful of Twinkies.
75 San Francisco Examiner
Spirited, madly educational docu-quickie.
75 New York Daily News
Offering often-hysterical testimony to Vilanch's talent.
75 Chicago Sun-Times
Exactly the kind of documentary we all want to have made about ourselves, in which it is revealed that we are funny, smart, beloved, the trusted confidant of famous people.
70 The New York Times
Endearing, very funny and utterly unpretentious.
70 Time
Fond, zippy new documentary about the Bruce who, on the Hollywood circuit, is the real Boss.
70 Los Angeles Times
An accurate sense of how today's Hollywood works.
70 Newsweek
It's worth the price of admission just to hear Vilanch bouncing ideas off of a revved-up Robin Williams.
70 Chicago Reader
The behind-the-scenes revelations are thoroughly convincing.
67 Austin Chronicle
Joyous ode to laughter as a way of life.
67 Entertainment Weekly
An affectionate puff profile.
63 Boston Globe
Captures just enough behind-the-scenes flavor to qualify as a light, bright divertissement.
60 Film.com
Because (Vilanch) is such a character, the movie ends up being a lot of fun.
50 Christian Science Monitor
Closer to an infomercial than a serious study, but it serves up plenty of rowdy humor.
50 Film.com
Mildly amusing, both charming and diverting, it plays like a La La Land home movie.
50 Chicago Tribune
This one's worth the ticket price only if you are a showbiz-aholic.
50 TV Guide
The aroma of hagiography is unavoidable.
20 Village Voice
I'd take the stakes driven right through my platform pumps over listening to Bruce Vilanch jokes, but that's me.

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