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Cecil B. DeMented
Artisan Entertainment
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Bob Graham
It's an audacious little comedy with bursts of hilarity and a certain giddy energy.
70
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
This is a sweet-spirited movie about a nice bunch of kids having good clean fun.
70
Film.com
Robert Horton
A small, scruffy, but agreeably energized comedy.
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.
70
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Funnier than "Pecker" but a far cry from the best of Waters's Divine movies.
70
Dallas Observer
David Ehrenstein
Waters offers a worldview that's uniquely his own.
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.
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.
60
TV Guide
Steve Simels
Has a giddy silliness that's thoroughly endearing.
58
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Has a few viciously funny moments.
50
Variety
David Rooney
Diverting but uneven.
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.
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.
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.
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.
8
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.
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