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Original Kings of Comedy, The

EMAILPRINTParamount Pictures

Original Kings of Comedy, The reviews
76
8.6 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 3 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary

Written by:

Directed by: Spike Lee

Release Date:
Theatrical: August 18, 2000
DVD: February 27, 2001

Running Time: 115 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for language and sex related humor

Starring Cedric the Entertainer, Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, and Bernie Mac

Concert film that captures segments of "Kings of Comedy," a tour running from 1997-1999.

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...

100

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Not only exhilarating and cathartic. It's too funny to be ignored.

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90

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Their comedy gives audiences that have never seen anything like it a hilarious window on a new world.

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90

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Lee performs magic. He's preserved and expanded the experience of an adrenaline-pumping, uproarious night of racism-, classism-, and sexism-subverting humor.

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90

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Turns a hysterical night of African-American humor into the hottest little picture of the summer.

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90

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

A dynamite concert film.

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90

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A tornado of laughs based on the black experience as lived by these four insightful jokers, instead of as filtered through the Hollywood formula.

88

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

It's not so much good material as divinely inspired delivery.

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88

USA Today Mike Clark

Both the material and the way it's delivered by the movie's comic quartet are so funny.

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80

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

A fresh, intimate, gloriously unpolished performance film that measures up to the classics of the genre.

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80

Film.com Ernest Hardy

It's a very funny film, one of the most enjoyable of the summer.

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80

Variety Scott Foundas

Consistently hilarious.

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80

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

Both funny and furious -- on why black people are different from white people.

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80

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

A decidedly grown-up affair.

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78

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The most articulate and entertaining commentary on racial differences to have come down the pike in quite a while.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

Can make a person sick in two ways at once -- through its lowdown raunch and through the spasms of laughter that use stomach muscles one might not have known existed.

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75

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Crassly funny passages.

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75

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Side-splitting concert film.

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75

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Exuberant, often hilarious.

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75

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

These guys are funny.

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75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Doesn't have the theatrical subtext or, let it be said, the genius of Richard Pryor.

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75

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

This picture won't attract white audiences. I doubt that blacks would flock to a Jerry Seinfeld concert film. But we'd all get along better if we realized we had the right to laugh at each other's foibles

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75

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Racy, obscene, spirited and infectious.

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70

Film.com Gemma Files

A two-hour slice --of comedy pie.

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70

Village Voice Gary Dauphin

Simultaneously hilarious and reprehensible.

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67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The routines are charged, even between jokes, with anticipatory hilarity.

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65

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Gets to the funny bone, but it could've cut deeper.

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63

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Unashamedly vulgar and exuberantly politically incorrect.

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63

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

One funny movie - for at least half the time.

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55

TNT RoughCut Susannah Breslin

Solidly entertaining if not remarkably innovative.

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50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Sometimes they're truly hilarious; sometimes they're lazy enough to milk laughs from scattershot vulgarity.

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30

TV Guide Steve Simels

The relentlessly self-congratulatory tone is oppressive.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pat C. gave it a 6:
Unintelligible at times. So. It is possible to present generally clean black comedy in the post-Cosby era.

Bobby N gave it a 10:
Funny as hell...they take a look at themsleves and everyone else and make you laugh about everything! Very cool.

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