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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Cecil B. DeMented
Artisan Entertainment


9.0

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 9 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for strong crude sexual content, violence, language and drug use

Starring Melanie Griffith, Stephen Dorff, Alicia Witt, Adrian Grenier, Larry Gilliard Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Ricki Lake

A famous Hollywood actress is kidnapped and forced to star in an underground film by a lunatic director and his teenage group of film makers.

GENRE(S):	Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	John Waters
DIRECTED BY:	John Waters
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 23, 2001 Video: January 23, 2001 Theatrical: August 11, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	87 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France / USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

The shenanigans have been pared into 84 minutes of transgressive, potty-minded farce, that is often Waters at his most cheerful and most thematically focused.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

A fast, furious and funny fusillade of a movie.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

DeMented is Waters the way we like him--spiked with laughs and served with a twist.

Time Richard Corliss

Cecil B. proves how a dose of smart bad taste can be jolly good fun.

TNT RoughCut Susannah Breslin

Not to be missed, one of the year's best, a whole lotta laughs, and 4-stars all rolled into one.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

If this movie does anything to rally crowds against cinema's mass distribution of mediocrity then it has served a noble purse.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

For good and ill, there is only one John Waters.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

For movie fans who despair of the state of American cinema, the in-jokes are hilarious.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's Waters' way of saying: It's only a movie.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The comedy is frantic and tasteless in the usual Waters mode, but it takes telling potshots at the Hollywood establishment, which isn't nearly so open about the tackiness of its products.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

It's an audacious little comedy with bursts of hilarity and a certain giddy energy.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

This is a sweet-spirited movie about a nice bunch of kids having good clean fun.

Film.com Robert Horton

A small, scruffy, but agreeably energized comedy.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Neither Waters' funniest film nor, by a long chalk, his most radical. But it is, as promised, a passing of the torch and an article of suitably perverse faith in the next generation of nutso cinéastes.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Funnier than "Pecker" but a far cry from the best of Waters's Divine movies.

Dallas Observer David Ehrenstein

Waters offers a worldview that's uniquely his own.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

It's the cinematic equivalent of one of those prop guns where you pull the trigger and a little flag comes out of the barrel, waving gaily.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Has the grace to send the audience out with a piece of Waters-written rap.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Consistently amusing and smart in its choice of targets, but it lacks the manic edge of some of Waters' earlier movies.

TV Guide Steve Simels

Has a giddy silliness that's thoroughly endearing.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Has a few viciously funny moments.

Variety David Rooney

Diverting but uneven.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Weighed down by the presence of Griffith. She plays her satiric part without much gusto or conviction - as if she were afraid we might believe she really is Honey.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

Hamstrung by a script that is too often smug, obvious and self-important.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Disappointing and surprisingly crude.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

Where once Waters was brilliantly polluted, now he comes off diluted.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Not so much a movie as a self-contained world for like-minded people who wear their outsider status on their sleeves.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Even with Cecil B. Demented, which fails on just about every level, you've got to hand it to him (Waters): The idea for the film is kind of inspired.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Maybe Waters set out to prove Karl Marx's observation that all great events happen twice, first as tragedy and the second time as farce.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Shrill and sloppy film.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

An insufferable, self-important, sloppily made bore.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

Appears to have been written and directed by a grade-school dropout snorting airplane glue.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Danica gave it a 9:
Excellent characters and storyline. John Waters does it again. Hilarous satire, with just enough movie terrorism to go around. Down with mainstream. Damn right.

Eran gave it a 10:
I thought it was a great movie. Really. The actors were great and dementia was achieved. Well done.

Crazy Dave gave it a 10:
Excellent! Even "mainstream" Waters works!

Ann C. gave it a 10:
10...But only on a John Waters scale! It is deliciously tacky and decadent, and as a Baltimore insider I revel in the local sights being revealed in a non-traditional manner!

[Anonymous] gave it a 5:
I didn't really understand it, yet it was very interesting. Something I wouldn't watch everyday. :)

Kevin D. gave it a 10:
I thought this film was very funny and the characters were great. I'll admit, this film (like most John Waters films) isn't for everyone, but I will very likely see it again. It is kind of a parody on the whole Patty Hearst/terrorism thing except in this case it deals with the film industry, the great thing is Patty has a cameo in the film as Fidget's mother.

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Cecil B. DeMented Artisan Entertainment

Cecil B. DeMented
Artisan Entertainment