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Cecil B. DeMented
Artisan Entertainment

Cecil B. DeMented reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 57 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.0 out of 10
based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 9 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

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 

What The Critics Said

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...

88
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.
80
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A fast, furious and funny fusillade of a movie.
Read Full Review
80
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
DeMented is Waters the way we like him--spiked with laughs and served with a twist.
80
Time Richard Corliss
Cecil B. proves how a dose of smart bad taste can be jolly good fun.
80
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.
78
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.
Read Full Review
75
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
For good and ill, there is only one John Waters.
75
Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday
For movie fans who despair of the state of American cinema, the in-jokes are hilarious.
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It's Waters' way of saying: It's only a movie.
Read Full Review
75
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.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
It's an audacious little comedy with bursts of hilarity and a certain giddy energy.
Read Full Review
70
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
This is a sweet-spirited movie about a nice bunch of kids having good clean fun.
Read Full Review
70
Film.com Robert Horton
A small, scruffy, but agreeably energized comedy.
Read Full Review
70
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.
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70
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Funnier than "Pecker" but a far cry from the best of Waters's Divine movies.
Read Full Review
70
Dallas Observer David Ehrenstein
Waters offers a worldview that's uniquely his own.
Read Full Review
63
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.
60
Village Voice J. Hoberman
Has the grace to send the audience out with a piece of Waters-written rap.
Read Full Review
60
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.
Read Full Review
60
TV Guide Steve Simels
Has a giddy silliness that's thoroughly endearing.
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58
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Has a few viciously funny moments.
Read Full Review
50
Variety David Rooney
Diverting but uneven.
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50
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.
50
Film.com Ernest Hardy
Hamstrung by a script that is too often smug, obvious and self-important.
Read Full Review
50
New York Post Jonathan Foreman
Disappointing and surprisingly crude.
50
USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
Where once Waters was brilliantly polluted, now he comes off diluted.
50
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.
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38
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.
Read Full Review
38
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.
25
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Shrill and sloppy film.
20
Washington Post Rita Kempley
An insufferable, self-important, sloppily made bore.
Read Full Review
8
Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
Appears to have been written and directed by a grade-school dropout snorting airplane glue.

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!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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