DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Recent DVD/Video Releases
65
Adoration
42
Aliens in the Attic
56
American Violet
48
Angels & Demons
44
Answer Man, The
54
Bruno
55
Casi Divas
63
Cheri
83
Drag Me to Hell
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
76
Every Little Step
70
Fados
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
41
Four Christmases
60
Funny People
87
Gomorrah
74
Humpday
32
I Love You, Beth Cooper
50
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
81
Il Divo
54
Imagine That
54
Is Anybody There?
32
Land of the Lost
74
Lemon Tree
40
Limits of Control, The
43
Love 'N Dancing
63
Medicine for Melancholy
51
My Sister's Keeper
48
Not Forgotten
50
Nothing Like the Holidays
26
Objective, The
42
Orphan
78
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
48
Proposal, The
53
Shorts
39
Spread
83
Star Trek
55
Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
72
Thirst
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
66
Unmistaken Child
88
Up
45
Whatever Works
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Fantasticks, The
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by:
Tom Jones (also play)
Harvey Schmidt
Directed by: Michael Ritchie
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 22, 2000
DVD: February 27, 2001
Running Time: 86 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for some bawdy carnival humor
Starring Joel Grey, Barnard Hughes, Jean Louisa Kelly, Joseph McIntyre, and Brad Sullivan
The screen incarnation of America's longest-running theatrical production, The Fantasticks is a funny, mischievous and moving tale of lovers, carnivals, sword fights, magicians, comedians, romantic dreams, romantic delusions and the wisdom of letting true love follow its own course. (MGM)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
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...
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Manages to honor the theatricality of the source yet becomes a fully cinematic experience. A gem.
Austin Chronicle Robert Faires
It has that bygone style, in which impossibly innocent ingenues suddenly break into blissfully tuneful song.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Has slow patches and requires a generous suspension of disbelief. But it's also sweet and optimistic -- a welcome antidote to gloom.
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut Andy Klein
Scrappy, sappy, and appealing.
LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
This is the first Broadway-sourced movie musical in umpteen years, and you should see it, because the score is gorgeous.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
Fans starving for some song and dance celluloid may be satiated, but this movie version really shows the material's age.
New York Post Lou Lumenick
A brave but ultimately futile attempt at adapting a piece that is so quintessentially theatrical that it defies translation to another medium.
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Although dated, it's not a bad musical.
San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego
It seems like another misstep - the story just doesn't hold up to Ritchie's treatment.
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
The deliberate simplicity that works so well at the Sullivan Street Theater seems flat, anachronistic and almost spooky on the big screen.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Angel Cohn & Lauren Kane
While the cast and songs are top notch, the predictability of the madness makes it pretty clear that this musical shouldn't have left the stage
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Shot five years ago by director Michael Ritchie. No release until now. Uh-oh. Disaster? Pretty much.
Variety Scott Foundas
The resulting film is one of too much reverence and not enough satire.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
The movie version overflows with affection and good intention, but unwittingly turns a bauble of cheerful fakery into something that mostly feels phony.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Osha J. gave it a 10:
This movie rocks whether not anyone else likes it or not. Joey is wonderful in this movie and i love it.
