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Haiku Tunnel
Sony Pictures Classics


7.5

based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for language and some sexuality

Starring Josh Kornbluth, Warren Keith, Helen Shumaker, and Amy Resnick

A comedy about tempness versus permness, both in the workplace and in life. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	John Bellucci Jacob Kornbluth Josh Kornbluth
DIRECTED BY:	Jacob Kornbluth Josh Kornbluth
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 26, 2002 Video: February 26, 2002 Theatrical: September 14, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	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...

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Not all of the jokes hit, but enough of them do that anyone who's ever filed, collated, or played Mixmaster DJ with the transcribing machine will find cathartic giggles in this breakout debut.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A ragtag charmer. You will laugh.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A sly and captivating comedy of imaginative leaps and gently orchestrated pandemonium.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The result is a winning comedy.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Delivers deliciously low blows at corporate America, office politics and the lengths people will go to avoid work.

TV Guide Ken Fox

There are a few weak spots -- the ending could have used some fine tuning -- but otherwise its a solid sleeper: unassuming, unexpected and wholly entertaining.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The vision of office work that's offered up by Haiku Tunnel is as chilling as it is funny.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

It's unpretentiously low-tech and humorously offbeat. And against all odds, the filmmaker emerges as a star.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

The charm and the shoddiness of Haiku Tunnel stem from the same source. It's basically a San Francisco underground theater production that somehow escaped onto the movie screen without losing any of its eccentric, insular qualities.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

They try too hard to be funny. It's hardly a damning fault, but it has a tendency to drown out their satiric observations.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

However refreshing it is to see a movie about the secretary rather than the lawyer -- there is a long wait for the light at the end of the Haiku Tunnel.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

They're a far cry from the Coen brothers, or even the Polish brothers, but Josh and Jacob Kornbluth emerge intact from their first filmmaking venture and score more hits than misses in this comedy.

Variety David Rooney

While it plays more like stage or TV sketch-comedy shtick than film material, this modest, visually unimposing production remains entertaining thanks to its ironic observations and winning sense of folly.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Pleasant and light and builds nicely within its own self-circumscribed intent.

USA Today Mike Clark

Already too long. It makes you want to start moving globs of dirt to tunnel out of the theater as the movie ends with the famous theme to "The Great Escape."

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A funny movie, but like "Josh" himself, it's too self-absorbed, and maybe too nice, for its own good.

New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

After a few very funny early sequences, tricked up with grotesque, surreal editing and camerawork, the movie gets bogged down a bit during the first third.

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

The Kornbluths don't offer much visual style -- the film is as flat and sterile as its corporate environs -- but they build an excruciating tension from Kornbluth's confounding inability to lick a few stamps.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Some of the gags here are funny, but they aren't executed effectively enough to score.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

No doubt this effort will find its fans, as it should, but there's a lot of lost potential.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Can a feature-length movie be built on minutiae like jammed copying machines, unsent business letters and orientation programs for new employees? This innocuous wisp of a film, as weighty as a scrap of fax paper caught in an updraft, suggests that the answer is no.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Amazingly amateurish, the film lands wide of satirical targets that should be impossible to miss.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Let's not waste any time: This movie is just awful. Prime problem: Josh Kornbluth, the chubby, wild-haired, bug-eyed star.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Vickie R. gave it a10:
I am a big fan of the "loser" movie genre, plus orginally from the bay area, so I really loved it. I thought it had some dead on satire, and some great quotes. I have to admit tho that I recommended it to some friends and they now give me funny looks.

Randy W. gave it a10:
Very intelligent comedy - most will not get the humor and will not like the movie.

Thurston H. gave it a10:
Story about a stocky, audience perceived, less than average male schmuck, whose occupation as "just a secretary" shames him mentally. His true love is writing. Hilarious in many ways, as the adage: "Clever liars reveal details, the cleverest don't" comes back to bite the main character, "Josh" pay special attention to his relationships with women here. Thoroughly enjoyed this movie, must be seen when you are not too judgemental of a mood, & viewed without high expectations. If you gived this film a chance, you will laugh out loud. Has a certain dilbert corporate bashing... flare to it. Definetely worth a look. I vote it 2 electric pencil sharpeners up!!! Enjoy, & Cheers!

Ellen G. gave it a 10:
Stands right along side The Producers and Play It Again Sam in intelligent humor . I was delighted to welcome Josh Kornbluth to the ranks of Mel Brooks and Woody Allen in the best of American humor.

J. Woolf gave it a 10:
Terrific movie. Reviews don't do the film justice.

Alyosha K. gave it a 7:
I found the detatched surreality to be wonderfully uncontrolled, though the film seems comfortable with where it is at any given moment, it feels as though it could spin out of control instantly, hitting with precision the chord it aims for. A fine film to me.

Susan S. gave it an 8:
A must see for anyone who has ever worked in for a law firm !!

Haiku Tunnel Sony Pictures Classics

Haiku Tunnel
Sony Pictures Classics